Greetings!
I recently noticed some comments on the floor of the Assembly of The South Pacific, made by Chief Justice Belschaft, concerning the Osiris Fraternal Order. Of course it is the Chief Justice's right to say whatever he wants in the Assembly -- including blatantly false statements -- but given that they did concern Osiris I felt compelled to respond and clear up any misunderstandings.
Quote:All one has to do is look at Osiris and Lazarus - once diverse, open regions tolerant to people with different ideas. One's a defender dictatorship that has purged everyone who isn't one, and the other is a raider dictatorship who has purged everyone who isn't one. That's what happens when people try to force R/D on GCR's.
It may surprise the Chief Justice to learn, or at least it may have before I informed him by telegram, that six members of the Deshret of Osiris, our legislature, are not raiders in any narrow or excessively broad sense of the word. That is, 26% of our legislature. Several more are imperialists, rather than raiders, though I suspect the Chief Justice was lumping imperialists and raiders together in his statement, which is regrettable. This is not even to mention a number of citizens who have opted not to join the Deshret.
It may also surprise the Chief Justice to learn, though I was sure he was aware of it by now, that the Osiris Fraternal Order has a constitution that mandates election of our Delegate, a directly democratic assembly open to any citizen who applies and is approved by the assembly (similar to TEP's system), election of our legislative speaker, an independent judiciary, confirmation of cabinet and other officials by our assembly, and comprehensive protection of citizen rights. The Osiris Fraternal Order is not, in any sense of the word, a dictatorship.
It may further surprise the Chief Justice to learn that the Osiris Fraternal Order has diplomatic relations with a significant number of non-raider and, indeed, non-imperialist regions. In fact, of our 25 embassies, only two are with actual raider regions whereas we have three defender embassies. Nine are with imperialist regions. The rest, eleven embassies, are with neutral or independent regions. Our treaty allies do not include a single raider region, but rather several imperialist regions -- Balder, The Land of Kings and Emperors, The New Inquisition, and Albion -- along with independent Europeia, neutral The East Pacific, and a non-aggression pact with The Rejected Realms. It may surprise the Chief Justice to learn that The Rejected Realms is in fact a defender region!
I hope this has clarified for the Chief Justice that we are in no sense of the phrase "a raider dictatorship," nor incapable of tolerating those of non-imperialist or non-raider persuasions.
