Just some thoughts on Belschaft's (fine) post.

I believe that a general policy of amnesty, although done in good spirit, would not set a good precedent for the use of political pardons; the Cabinet may have had good intentions, but they still committed actions that violated some of the most cardinal of rules in TSP's society – they, and, future people in similar positions need to know that how this has proceeded is unconscionable and that committing to an act of treason against the Coalition will hold consequences. In another case, several leading members of Osiris couped Osiris on New Years Eve; the Pharaoh, under the impression that Osiris would be split apart with drama if the members were not pardoned, pardoned those involved – but the truth is that the pardon only deferred the drama and muddied the rule of law in Osiris. A few months later, Osiris was caught in the Osiris Imperium War during the dog days of summer, then came the dramatic hollowing out of the state – two more unsuccessful coup d'etats during the interregnum – and a final coup by the Osiris Fraternal Order (OFO) by the end of the year. The point being is that general clemency did not generate goodwill, nor did it strengthen Osiris – at least not in the long term.

I would suggest a different process of reconciliation:

1. All of those who left the Cabinet prior to Hileville's resignation should be granted a pardon. The reasoning for this is simple: we want to encourage people in the future to leave rogue administrations and the easiest way to do that is to show them that they will be forgiven.

2. Those who did not leave the Cabinet prior to Hileville's resignation should not be removed from the region immediately, barring the Hileville account, but they should face trial – a number of charges apply here, including Treason, Miscarriage of Justice and Corruption – but do bear in mind that while at one time, a Treason sentence was an indefinite ban from the region, we now have a Parole Board – and Cabinet members, if found guilty, could return to the region within the year on good behavior.

3. The relationship between the Forum Administration and the regional community needs to change. There shouldn't be “non technical” aspects to being a forum administrator – I've been decrying the way in which we idealize administrators as community leaders for some time now; by turning to forum administrators as moral authorities, we put unneeded stress on these officials, we de-democractize the region, and we make these positions extremely attractive to those who, while not interested in doing the technical workload as an administrator, want the “respect” that is bestowed to forum administrators. 

• The Assembly should completely overhaul the citizenship process to ensure that the forum administration has as little role as possible in the process. Currently, we have a system where it's impossible for them to not be heavily involved in the process.
  
• An Election Commission should be re-established with all of the privileges necessary to run the South Pacific's elections.
  
• All members of the CSS should have similar access to the forums as forum administrators – their role as protectors of the region's internal security should be broadened to include citizenship and internal proceedings. When, say, the Court needs information from behind-closed-doors, the intervener should not be forum administrators but the CSS, the body tasked with internal security of the Coalition.
  
  

4.  Some serious changes need to be made to the State of Emergency procedure; the law needs to anticipate circumstances where the Vice Delegate has also gone rogue. Moreover, treaties and the Charter should be amended to clarify that only the CSS may authorize the movement of troops, both foreign and the SPSF, in the South Pacific. This way both our foreign allies and the SPSF can confidently act independent of a rogue delegate.

5. The Charter proscribes that a Great Council should only take place every six months – and the community would be well advised to put “the saucer under the hot cup of tea” and follow those proscriptions. A Great Council to overhaul the region's constitution should be called for April and the time in between now and then should be used for brainstorming and avid discussions regarding what a future Charter should look like.

6. The bridge between the “forum community” and the “game community” is widening – the Local Council's recent calls to elect the delegate via regional polls should not be ignored. This divide between the region's forum and game community contributed to the security issues that the South Pacific faced – when the forum move was made, the attitude of many on the Regional Message Board (RMB) was that the coup was “not my problem” because it only affected forum-goers. The Coalition encompasses everyone in the South Pacific and bridging the gap between these two communities would ensure that in the future there aren't “threats to the in-game community” or “threats to the forum community”, but simply threats to the Coalition overall. For this to be achieved, some form of bicameralism (not simply in-game elections) needs to be devised. The Cabinet's decision to usurp the powers of the Assembly would have seemed far more nascent to residents if the Assembly had included residents themselves. I would suggest a system where the Assembly, split between two houses, one off-site and one in-game, have jurisdiction over some matters and shared jurisdiction over others depending on the relevance of those matters to citizens and residents. 

Quote:

How the jurisdictions could work...

Exclusive Jurisdiction: Citizens
Citizenship
Legislative procedure (off-site)
Chair of the Assembly
Prohibited Regions and Organizations


Exclusive Jurisdiction: Residents
Legislative procedure (in-game)
Local Council
Regional Officers
Regulation of the RMB (Spam)


Shared Jurisdiction
Residency (Citizens are residents after all)
Rights and Freedoms
Crime and Justice
The Executive
Regional Security
Elections, besides the CoA & the LC.
SPSF
Alliances
War
Culture (e.g.,Holidays)

7. Not to be Johnny Raincloud here, but while some of TSP's allies contributed admirably to the South Pacific's defense, there were two allies who noticeably did not support the Coalition in its time of need - and given those alliances have had a questionable history as regional partners as it is, there's a need for a parliamentary review in the near future of those treaties. Yes, I'm talking about Balder and Europeia.

8. Special Elections for the Cabinet should begin soon; the March elections should be canceled and this special Cabinet should serve until the July General Election. That puts TSP's election cycles back on schedule and the special cabinet could then oversee the Great Council throughout April-June.