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SOR V: Cabinet Election June 2016 Special Edition
#1

[Image: 0rOcOMv8s9tFQsv_jDjBSiu3al9DMA9IPuyzjiYR...kWCDxYAy0U]
State of the Region V
June 2016 Cabinet Election Special Edition
Part I


The time has come.  All the candidates have been nominated.  They have given us their campaign manifestos.  The voting period for the cabinet election, due to commence on the 11th, is nigh upon us.

But who should we choose?  That is, of course, the question that falls upon every legislator in the region.  Given that it will affect how the region is run for the next few months, it can be a difficult decision.  How does one decide who is the right candidate?

As an independent news source, SPN can’t make that decision for you, but we can help by providing summaries of and insights into the campaign promises that have been laid before us all.

Firstly, let us take a look at the candidates for the role of Prime Minister, Farengeto and Drugged Monkeys.

Farengeto’s campaign focusses on the ideas of communication and preparation, backed up by his wealth of experience in a wide range of government roles in the region.  He knows what he wants the various ministries to excel at and isn’t afraid to give them broad objectives from the get-go.  At the same time, he wants to see the small cabinet expanded by the inclusion of deputies from each ministry to increase the range of opinions on offer, even to go as far as to suggest the possibility of a deputy Prime Minister role in the future.

Drugged Monkey’s campaign is less concerned with detail than it is with ensuring the voice of the people is heard within the cabinet, backed up by his experience in helping to keep TSP free and democratic.  He sees the role of Prime Minister as a facilitator who ensures cooperation between the ministries, rather than as a manager.

The newness of the PM role and its relatively light duties as defined by the charter mean that neither campaign is full of certain detail, although Farengeto makes it clear that he has specific plans he hopes to gear the ministries toward.  Both campaigns suggest the further definition of the role in the future, although DM is by far the more flexible in terms of what he promises.  The decision then is between a PM who has laid out what to expect in advance, or one prepared to shape the role as the new charter unfolds in practice over the next few months, between a kind of certainty and a kind of adaptability.

Next, we’ll look at the close contest between the candidates for the Minister of Regional Affairs, Zak6858, Roavin and Sam111.

Zak’s campaign, backed up by his heavy activity both game and forumside and his experience working within the Ministry, focuses on keeping things running with general improvements to the Fellowship Program in terms of accessibility and output, more Festivals and off-site events, including a revival of the steam group and some (unspecified) tweaks to the journalism side of the ministry.  He also puts an emphasis on involving more gameside players with a gameside offshoot of the fellowship program.

Roavin’s campaign, self-described as TL;DR, is an in depth look at procedural and organisational changes within the ministry, focussed on improving accessibility, both for outsiders and fellows, output and success of projects and ease of collaboration with other ministries by ensuring that databases are kept of important information.  He was also keen to stress the importance of managing talent, both in terms of understanding various ‘artists’ temperaments and requirements and keeping a roster of talent that everyone can access and request help from.  His campaign is light on specific events but focusses on ensuring the infrastructure is there to support them and allowing those within the ministry the creative freedom to put forward their own ideas.

Sam’s campaign is best summed up in one word: fun!  He focusses on the output of the ministry more than the procedures, with an ambitious list of projects he would like to see get off the ground.  Like Zak he also has a keen interest in seeing more involvement gameside and he shares the idea of a companion program with Roavin, to support new NS players who want to get involved in the region.

Despite obvious differences in approach, there are a lot of similarities to be found in the three campaigns.  All three suggest strong amounts of continuity and look to a more active future for the ministry.  Their differences come in how they think this should be brought about and in what they see as the key role of the MoRA within the ministry.  Zak and Sam both focus on populist projects first, with Sam going into more specific detail than Zak, and with a desire to see more involvement gameside given high priority.  Their MoRA’s are inspirational  instigators.  Roavin’s approach is much more detailed and administrative, less exciting on the surface, but with the very real likelihood of providing a much firmer foundation and launching platform for Zak and Sam-style projects, possibly increasing the probability of their success, providing such changes can be made successfully.

It is the opinion of this writer that whoever is voted in as MoRA, they should include the other two as deputies or close advisors at the very least as the ideas across the three campaigns make for a very compelling whole.  The issue for the voter then is this, which style of leadership do you want to see in Regional Affairs?

Finally for this first part of our Cabinet Election Special Edition, we’ll take a look at the lighter side of the election season, the candidates for Craziest Person in The South Pacific.

Our wacky trio consists of Qvait, Resentine, and Gordon Freeman (known as the Derpy Democratic Republic of Herp in his native RMB).

Qvait’s campaign is simple: Make crazy great again and he plans to do so by building a wall around TSP and forcing us to watch Youtube videos.  He hopes for a serious vote, which might undermine his campaign.

Resentine’s campaign is, understandably, all about the memes.  Lots of memes.  More memes than we have seen before, perhaps.

Gordon Freeman’s campaign can be summed up in two words: silly costumes.

Despite those brief campaign summaries, this is proving to be one of the more interesting parts of the election, mainly because of GF’s lack of access to the election forums.  Instead, his campaign has been blasted (or sprayed, like silly string) across the RMB (despite the fact that only legislators will get to vote) and Qvait and Resentine have taken up the challenge to a greater or lesser degree.  Consequently, the RMB is much more clued in on this part of the election than any other and it’s interesting to gauge people’s reactions to this phenomenon.

Personally, this writer thinks they are either trying too hard, or not trying hard enough, but he’s not yet convinced of the craziness of any of them.  Hopefully, the final few days of campaigning will spur them on to more invigorating acts of madness.

Well, that’s all for the first part of this State of the Region Special Edition.  Check back here tomorrow night for summaries on and insights into the campaigns for Chair of the Assembly, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the one horse race that is the Minister of Military Affairs.

Quote:I am currently gone so Seraph has taken over hosting duties. If you are interested in becoming SPN staff message me (Omega) or Seraph. - Ed.
#2

[Image: 0rOcOMv8s9tFQsv_jDjBSiu3al9DMA9IPuyzjiYR...kWCDxYAy0U]
State of the Region V
June 2016 Cabinet Election Special Edition
Part II

Good evening, and welcome to the second part of this special cabinet election edition of State of the Region. We hope to provide a helpful summary of the election campaigns so far and, where possible, provide insight into what each candidate is offering. In this part, we’ll take a closer look at the campaigns for Chair of the Assembly, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Military Affairs and see what insights we can glean.

So, without further ado, let’s look at the candidates for the Chair of the Assembly, Belschaft and Awe.

Belschaft’s campaign focus is clearly on the newly separate status of the Chair with respect to the Cabinet and the Delegate.  He wants to ensure that this status is used to maximise the power and influence of the Assembly, making sure that the legislature is an active part of government and not merely ‘a rubber stamp’ for the Cabinet’s decisions.  As part of this, he wants to ensure there is transparency in the government and a chance for all residents to have their say, including those who do not register on the forums.  He also sees the need for reform of procedures and records, as well as our judicial and electoral systems and intends to set up commissions to look into these latter and ensure the most democratic system is made available to us.

Democracy is Belschaft’s keyword and he sees the role of the Assembly, the people themselves, so to speak, and the Chair they elect as being to make sure that the Cabinet is held to account and given the most democratic direction possible.

Awe’s campaign is focussed on the procedures of the Assembly and on ensuring that everything runs as smoothly and is as accessible as possible.  Like Belschaft he wants transparency and he is also keen on engaging the wider community with dispatches, but Awe sees the change of procedures and records as being of greater importance and permanence than more politically-minded reforms, which might alter with each election.

Awe’s vision is of an administrative chair who ensures the connection between Cabinet and Assembly is a well-oiled machine with maximum engagement achieved through ease of access and use.

There is, as has often been the case in this election, a lot that the two candidates share in common, thus it is the primary focus of their attentions which we must use to separate them.  Belschaft wants to use the Assembly to maximise the power of the people in government, whereas Awe wants to build an Assembly which is future-proofed, regardless of the politics of the time.  Your vote, in the end, must go towards the view that most closely matches your own.

The candidates for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sandaoguo and Punchwood, also have some points in common, but, of all the campaigns so far, theirs has broken out into direct debate, so let’s have a closer look at their positions.

Sandaoguo’s campaign is understandably weighted towards the World Assembly.  He wants to see a Ministry of Foreign Affairs which opens up this area for the South Pacific which has been, hitherto, under-explored.  He sees the Ministry building more relationships with other WA-focussed regions and holding conferences to encourage residents to write, debate and improve resolutions.  As part of this he would also like to define a clear set of interests for TSP in the WA that residents might work towards with their resolutions.  Rather than involve people from the Fellowship Program in diplomatic duties, and take them away from the MoRA, he see the World Assembly as the ideal untapped spring for engagement with the ministry.

Punchwood’s campaign, on the other hand, sees the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a sort of inter-regional  promotional wing of the MoRA, creating events in other regions to showcase the South Pacific’s culture.  Like with Sandaoguo, all the usual duties of the ministry would continue, including strengthening relations with allies and coordinating with the Ministry of Military Affairs to run joint raids, but Punchwood sees the opportunity for the Fellowship Program to be involved in his more culture-centric approach to foreign relations.  Punchwood’s view is that this is the way to increase engagement with the ministry and build our name amongst other nations.

Both candidates want to strengthen relations with our allies and see a need for a Deputy Minister for the World assembly.  They also agree that the diplomatic corp has not proven to be fit for purpose and leads to diplomats being left with little to do, but whereas Sandaoguo would create a one-man ministry engaging the community at large with the World Assembly, Punchwood wants a ministry actively engaging the Fellowship Program to spread TSP culture into other regions.

It is on this issue of wider engagement that they differ most strongly, with Punchwood arguing that the FP must be involved in the ministry somehow and Sandaoguo convinced that the MoRA is a more engaging ministry for them.  For the voter the issue is, perhaps, more simple.  Which vision is the more inspiring, are they even mutually exclusive, who will make the better job of running the ministry in either case?  The choice is, of course, all yours.

Finally, we must take a look at the candidates for Minister of Military Affairs, Imki and....

Okay, so there may only be one horse in this final race, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth our time to consider what Imki’s campaign offers.

Imki admits her own lack of experience and that she might be a controversial figure to some, but she also demonstrates a strong enthusiasm for reviving the ailing SPSF and engaging more players in our military.  She claims to have already reached out to others in other regions, as well as our current Minister of the Army, Resentine, to get advice and gauge interest in her ideas and it’s clear that she has many, from getting TSP involved in more joint military actions, exercises like ‘capture the region’ and steam gaming as a way of ‘fighting’ other regions outside of traditional gameplay.

She hopes these strands, along with awards and rewards will make the SPSF an enticing prospect for players outside the forums and thus the SPSF will grow and so will our inter-regional reputation.  It is a campaign full of Imki’s enthusiasm and vigour and perhaps that is just what the new MoMA needs.

And that brings us to the end of this special edition of State of the Region.  We hope that you’ve found it helpful and informative.  The voting for all of the positions listed above will commence on Saturday 11th June at 8PM EDT.  Please take the time to consider the options carefully and don’t forget to vote!

Quote:I am currently gone so Seraph has taken over hosting duties. If you are interested in becoming SPN staff message me (Omega) or Seraph. - Ed.




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