Safalra
07-01-2007, 21:47
Web page: http://www.safalra.com/other/nationstates/england-delegacy-resignation/
Nations of England, I am saddened to announce that I will be stepping down as your United Nations Delegate. I cannot in good conscience continue to be delegate of a region where true power lies with an unelected and anonymous cabal acting without democratic oversight or respect for the rule of law. Once a new delegate has been elected I will leave the region and move to Canada.
I believe in government that is open, accountable, and close to the people. When I joined England many years ago it was none of these things - an appointed Cabinet engaged in secret discussions while, as Stargatopia discovered, forum administrators Britains Empire and Resine were polite in public while poking fun at us in their own hidden subforum. For a long time this discouraged me from becoming involved in regional politics, but a little while after the introduction of an elected Cabinet I became more active. As UN Ambassador I hosted public discussions of proposed United Nations resolutions, although the results were non-binding on the Delegate. In later Cabinet roles I proposed the creation of the Recruitment Centre and News Centre, in an attempt to take certain duties out of the hands of government and to foster community participation.
Then the situation started to worsen. Cabinet elections coincided with a drop in regional activity, and His Majesty chose to appoint a Cabinet from the active forum members. While I was a little uncomfortable being part of an appointed Cabinet, I reminded myself this was only a temporary measure until regional activity started to increase again. Then, on May 2nd I became delegate. This came as a surprise to everyone, including me - His Majesty's endorsement count had fallen and I had become delegate without being aware that it was about to happen. The situation was quickly rectified and His Majesty became delegate again the next day.
Two days later His Majesty proposed the scrapping of the regional consitution, with the intention of replacing it with a more flexible system "so that future leaders and cabinet members can pretty much decide and do what they want to do without complication". The anonymous vote carried out through a forum poll was in favour of His Majesty's proposal. Less than a week later another anonymous forum poll led to it becoming illegal to swap endorsements when within ten endorsements of the delegate. No method for determining whether a nation was endorsement swapping was suggested. A few days later another vote was held to outlaw being within fifteen endorsements of the delegate. The initial panic in the cabinet that followed the temporary change of delegacy had subsided, and votes for and against were equal, but His Majesty declared the law to have passed.
After these events I telegrammed several of the more democratic Cabinet members stating my concerns: "So we now have an unelected regional government making paranoid emergency legislation behind closed doors without announcing the results to the region. HM may eject nations without warning them and without them even knowing they've broken our new laws. This sounds like a dictatorship to me. I see two options for the way forward: either I resign from the government, and possibly move to a more hospitable region such as Canada (an outpost of true democracy), or I reluctantly do formally challenge for the delegateship and risk causing deep rifts between the members of our region."
At the same time, I posted in Canada's forum, keeping our old friends up-to-date on the situation, but this caused an unexpected crisis - Canada announced that England may no longer meet their standards for diplomatic relations. While Canada decided to continue relations, the crisis made the need to re-establish democracy in the region apparent. In this context I proposed introducing a project of codifying our laws. The Cabinet voted in favour of this proposal, and shortly afterwards passed The Forum Act (2006) as a test of the process. Discussion then began on the content of an act specifying the electorate.
While this was still ongoing a major crisis occured. An invasion briefly led to His Majesty losing the delegacy, but poor handling of the situation led to many nations withdrawing their endorsements of His Majesty and me becoming delegate again - all while I was absent from NationStates for several days. When I returned and told nations to endorse His Majesty rather than me the problem was rapidly solved. Soon after The Electorate Act (2006) was passed. A little over a week later His Majesty surprised us all by annoucing his resignation. After a contest with Rayers II and Adamsgrad I became delegate.
My delegacy started well, with a number of old Cabinet threads being declassified. There were some shocks among the declassified threads for the newer members of the region - the early Cabinet had planned to stage a fake invasion of England in order to increase support for a regional military, with a Cabinet vote six to one in favour of the proposal. Not all was well however; when Sea Dolphin Lovers suggested that as delegate I should be made a forum admin, His Majesty refused - an issue that seemed minor at the time but was soon to be reflected on a larger scale.
In November the regional founder Tyrr became active again, and started behaving very strangely, attempting to sign treaties on behalf of the region, and then announcing his intentions to move to Gatesville. Resine telegrammed me accusing me of being in control of Tyrr, and when I denied this he told me that His Majesty had told him I was in control of Tyrr. After it became clear I did not control Tyrr, His Majesty took the issue to the NationStates moderators, saying that Tyrr had been 'hacked'. The moderators weren't very sympathetic, saying that the password was easy to guess, and in the ensuing row it became clear that both His Majesty and former delegate Mencken had once controlled Tyrr. The next day His Majesty announced that control of Tyrr had been returned.
His Majesty explained that every long-serving delegate except me knows the secret of Tyrr, but told us not to ask any more questions. His Majesty announced that he had identified three nations behind the 'hacking' of Tyrr, one of whom was residing in England. I explained that I wasn't comfortable ejecting a nation on the strength of the word of another nation. The nation was later ejected by Tyrr, without Cabinet input and still without evidence being presented. I asked His Majesty several times about the control of Tyrr, and how we could be confident that the region was in safe hands, but His Majesty refused to answer my concerns. So, faced with the prospect of a region where true power lies with an unelected and anonymous cabal acting without democratic oversight or respect for the rule of law, after several weeks of consideration I have decided to resign.
- The Fleeting Daydream Of Safalra, United Nations Delegate Of England
Some of my comments a few weeks ago in the thread about founders might make more sense now.
Nations of England, I am saddened to announce that I will be stepping down as your United Nations Delegate. I cannot in good conscience continue to be delegate of a region where true power lies with an unelected and anonymous cabal acting without democratic oversight or respect for the rule of law. Once a new delegate has been elected I will leave the region and move to Canada.
I believe in government that is open, accountable, and close to the people. When I joined England many years ago it was none of these things - an appointed Cabinet engaged in secret discussions while, as Stargatopia discovered, forum administrators Britains Empire and Resine were polite in public while poking fun at us in their own hidden subforum. For a long time this discouraged me from becoming involved in regional politics, but a little while after the introduction of an elected Cabinet I became more active. As UN Ambassador I hosted public discussions of proposed United Nations resolutions, although the results were non-binding on the Delegate. In later Cabinet roles I proposed the creation of the Recruitment Centre and News Centre, in an attempt to take certain duties out of the hands of government and to foster community participation.
Then the situation started to worsen. Cabinet elections coincided with a drop in regional activity, and His Majesty chose to appoint a Cabinet from the active forum members. While I was a little uncomfortable being part of an appointed Cabinet, I reminded myself this was only a temporary measure until regional activity started to increase again. Then, on May 2nd I became delegate. This came as a surprise to everyone, including me - His Majesty's endorsement count had fallen and I had become delegate without being aware that it was about to happen. The situation was quickly rectified and His Majesty became delegate again the next day.
Two days later His Majesty proposed the scrapping of the regional consitution, with the intention of replacing it with a more flexible system "so that future leaders and cabinet members can pretty much decide and do what they want to do without complication". The anonymous vote carried out through a forum poll was in favour of His Majesty's proposal. Less than a week later another anonymous forum poll led to it becoming illegal to swap endorsements when within ten endorsements of the delegate. No method for determining whether a nation was endorsement swapping was suggested. A few days later another vote was held to outlaw being within fifteen endorsements of the delegate. The initial panic in the cabinet that followed the temporary change of delegacy had subsided, and votes for and against were equal, but His Majesty declared the law to have passed.
After these events I telegrammed several of the more democratic Cabinet members stating my concerns: "So we now have an unelected regional government making paranoid emergency legislation behind closed doors without announcing the results to the region. HM may eject nations without warning them and without them even knowing they've broken our new laws. This sounds like a dictatorship to me. I see two options for the way forward: either I resign from the government, and possibly move to a more hospitable region such as Canada (an outpost of true democracy), or I reluctantly do formally challenge for the delegateship and risk causing deep rifts between the members of our region."
At the same time, I posted in Canada's forum, keeping our old friends up-to-date on the situation, but this caused an unexpected crisis - Canada announced that England may no longer meet their standards for diplomatic relations. While Canada decided to continue relations, the crisis made the need to re-establish democracy in the region apparent. In this context I proposed introducing a project of codifying our laws. The Cabinet voted in favour of this proposal, and shortly afterwards passed The Forum Act (2006) as a test of the process. Discussion then began on the content of an act specifying the electorate.
While this was still ongoing a major crisis occured. An invasion briefly led to His Majesty losing the delegacy, but poor handling of the situation led to many nations withdrawing their endorsements of His Majesty and me becoming delegate again - all while I was absent from NationStates for several days. When I returned and told nations to endorse His Majesty rather than me the problem was rapidly solved. Soon after The Electorate Act (2006) was passed. A little over a week later His Majesty surprised us all by annoucing his resignation. After a contest with Rayers II and Adamsgrad I became delegate.
My delegacy started well, with a number of old Cabinet threads being declassified. There were some shocks among the declassified threads for the newer members of the region - the early Cabinet had planned to stage a fake invasion of England in order to increase support for a regional military, with a Cabinet vote six to one in favour of the proposal. Not all was well however; when Sea Dolphin Lovers suggested that as delegate I should be made a forum admin, His Majesty refused - an issue that seemed minor at the time but was soon to be reflected on a larger scale.
In November the regional founder Tyrr became active again, and started behaving very strangely, attempting to sign treaties on behalf of the region, and then announcing his intentions to move to Gatesville. Resine telegrammed me accusing me of being in control of Tyrr, and when I denied this he told me that His Majesty had told him I was in control of Tyrr. After it became clear I did not control Tyrr, His Majesty took the issue to the NationStates moderators, saying that Tyrr had been 'hacked'. The moderators weren't very sympathetic, saying that the password was easy to guess, and in the ensuing row it became clear that both His Majesty and former delegate Mencken had once controlled Tyrr. The next day His Majesty announced that control of Tyrr had been returned.
His Majesty explained that every long-serving delegate except me knows the secret of Tyrr, but told us not to ask any more questions. His Majesty announced that he had identified three nations behind the 'hacking' of Tyrr, one of whom was residing in England. I explained that I wasn't comfortable ejecting a nation on the strength of the word of another nation. The nation was later ejected by Tyrr, without Cabinet input and still without evidence being presented. I asked His Majesty several times about the control of Tyrr, and how we could be confident that the region was in safe hands, but His Majesty refused to answer my concerns. So, faced with the prospect of a region where true power lies with an unelected and anonymous cabal acting without democratic oversight or respect for the rule of law, after several weeks of consideration I have decided to resign.
- The Fleeting Daydream Of Safalra, United Nations Delegate Of England
Some of my comments a few weeks ago in the thread about founders might make more sense now.