It pains me to bring this to the assembly, but after letting it fester for too long, I cannot in good conscience let it go on anymore. To put it simply, the Cabinet just isn’t working. I will try my best to explain the reasons, and I hope my fellow Cabinet members don’t take this as personal attacks on their character.

First, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tim, has become less and less attentive of his responsibilities. He has made promise after promise to take care of things, but then doesn’t deliver. Others have had to pick up the slack, or things just never get done at all. This has occurred even when he wasn’t on a leave of absence.

For example, the Foreign Affairs team was supposed to issue an update to our embassies a month ago; this still hasn’t happened. For another example, the Cabinet, together with Senior Adviser Tsunamy, agreed to create common talking points for important issues to avoid chaos and miscommunication in the NS Gameplay forums. We started this well over a month ago. Tim insisted on writing these himself in his purview as Foreign Affairs Minister, but still has not delivered, despite repeated broken promises and reminders.

Not fulfilling his obligations wouldn’t be as big of an issue as it is on its own (no Minister, myself included, is immune from this failure on occasion), but that’s not nearly where it ends. Cabinet directives are outright ignored if they aren’t in Tim’s interests. For example, I had issued a temporary moratorium on posting on the NS Gameplay forum for any Cabinet Ministers until we figured out those talking points mentioned above. After a mere day, Tim continued to post there as if nothing happened.

Disagreements with Cabinet decisions have also been a serious problem There have been several instances where Tim disagrees with something and then threatens to take the most nuclear action possible to get his way. For example, the Lazarus liberation project was a very delicate operation that involved working with people our region hasn’t gotten along with. Cormac had some involvement leading up to the liberation. I had misgivings due his treason conviction here, but the liberation was more important than that, and Cormac participating didn’t threaten our own security. That liberation got a lot of people together who aren’t usually seen on the same side of an issue, like us and Osiris, or TRR and the NPO.

However, because of an unrelated personal spat with Cormac, Tim used his position as Minister of Foreign Affairs to unilaterally decide that TSP would not be involved in any way in the liberation effort, if Cormac was involved at all. I had to resolve this conflict, but not without incredible difficulty and backroom deals. The liberation was, from TSP-side, primarily my project. Tim only got involved after the Delegacy was seized, and then used his official position to nearly derail TSP’s important presence because of his problems with Cormac.

The issues with this Cabinet extend beyond the Minister of Foreign Affairs, too. Unfortunately, Escade has also been problematic in her role as Minister of Regional Affairs. While she has done fantastic work and delivers on her promises, there have been numerous issues with her interactions in the NS Gameplay forums and with other regions. Her posts caused diplomatic incidents several times over the past term. When I tried to tell her that ranting on the NS Gameplay forums hurts not only her own image, but the foreign affairs of TSP, things did not really change (or usually only briefly). Over the past three terms, I have had to clean up messes from the NS Gameplay forum too many times to count.

Escade has also had a poor relationship with Somyrion, verging on open disrespect. Despite repeatedly reminding others about how we need to “be on the same team”, this hasn’t translated to how she works with Somyrion. For whatever reason, she has accused Somyrion of being best friends with The Black Hawks, even when the SPSF continued with the policy of not running missions with TBH and that Somyrion has argued quite fervently within the Cabinet in favor of policies that disadvantage TBH.

In general, Escade has a pervasive attitude of vindictiveness and pettiness. If she doesn’t like somebody, she stops at nothing to make disparaging remarks about other people’s work, bending the fabric of reality without reservation. Anything such an individual says is absurdly interpreted as malice; anything such an individual has done is relativized to meaningless. Arguing with logic is useless, as realities will just continue to be bent at will to suit the narrative at that moment.

All of this has caused in-fighting in the Cabinet, which stalls all of our work and creates a bad atmosphere.

The stress of this past term has caught up with me. I’ve failed to keep my campaign promise of keeping the region updated on everything. For that, I apologize. But more importantly, as Prime Minister, I haven’t been able to keep the Cabinet functional and operative. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Regional Affairs, I believe, don’t hold respect for me or my position as Prime Minister. So my efforts to keep everything operating smoothly haven’t worked.

When a Cabinet is plagued with infighting, disrespect, spite, and egotistic tendencies, our region isn’t being served the way it should. Accountability is something I’ve been very concerned with, and unfortunately I don’t see any other way to hold the Cabinet accountable for things that the Assembly can’t see. I believe we have done our jobs less effectively because of these problems, and these same problems will further hinder us from doing our jobs in the future.

I hereby submit a Motion of No Confidence in the Cabinet, as per Article XI Section 2 of the Charter.

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For the record, this caught me completely unaware. It’s really unfortunate that this term and my first term in the cabinet has ended so poorly. We may have been successful individually, but our ability to work together has been nonexistent in the past couple weeks. I regret that it’s come to this, but I am on board with this motion.

~ Aumeltopia ~

Raccoons are bandits! First they steal your food . . . and then your heart/identity!

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Yeah, no. I refuse to support this motion. Cabinet in fighting is a part of democracy. We won’t all get along and there is always going to be discord and heated debate. Not only that but every issue you have brought up here was resolved in some way. While the actions taken here I cannot condone, I also cannot condone running away from responsibility. Elections r literally on their way. Cabinet positions r going to cycle soon. Not only that but so what? Escade is allowed to have misgivings even if they r not totally based in reality. Emotions can muddle what one perceived and given Escades history with tBH it is perfectly reasonable for her to have that fear. Furthermore Tim has done nothing that qualifies a recall. You said yourself that all cabinet members have been guilty of missing deadlines. Not only that but Tim is known as a staunch defender and is driven by his gp relationships. We knew this about him when we voted him in. As long as he does not operate outside of the bounds of his office there is no neeed for recall. Also I find it hard to believe that this is not a move to personally remove those you have trouble working with in the cabinet. For you have single out only 2 of the member’s of said cabinet in this motion for full recall. I implore my fellow legislators to not motion this into vote. Because honestly, it is nonsensical drama that should have never seen the light of the assembly.

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While I'm not sure an actual recall is necessary since we are so close to elections, I agree that a cabinet that is apparently so dysfunctional should not remain the cabinet. Even if every member is pulling their weight (which some apparently weren't), having such an amount of fighting and disagreement is not healthy for our region and leads to necessary things not being done. Would it be correct to say that the dysfunctionality is why it took so long for Associate Judges and the third Legcomm member to be appointed?

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While I'm not sure an actual recall is necessary since we are so close to elections, I agree that a cabinet that is apparently so dysfunctional should not remain the cabinet. Even if every member is pulling their weight (which some apparently weren't), having such an amount of fighting and disagreement is not healthy for our region and leads to necessary things not being done. Would it be correct to say that the dysfunctionality is why it took so long for Associate Judges and the third Legcomm member to be appointed?

On motioning so close to an election— I agree, and should rephrase that I agree with the purpose of this motion. Doing it so close to the actual election might just make things harder.

On the appointments— my sense is that those were a bit less of the internal cabinet drama and more general sluggishness and drama with the other people involved, while there were many things within the cabinet alone that were fully based on the problems Roavin pointed out. The dysfunctionality definitely played a role though.

~ Aumeltopia ~

Raccoons are bandits! First they steal your food . . . and then your heart/identity!

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While I'm not sure an actual recall is necessary since we are so close to elections, I agree that a cabinet that is apparently so dysfunctional should not remain the cabinet. Even if every member is pulling their weight (which some apparently weren't), having such an amount of fighting and disagreement is not healthy for our region and leads to necessary things not being done. Would it be correct to say that the dysfunctionality is why it took so long for Associate Judges and the third Legcomm member to be appointed?

Regarding the AJ and LegComm appointments, I don't think either of them were affected by this in any noticeable way. The AJ appointments stalled due to disagreements, but I think the debates that caused that were pretty valid to have, and were split across various different lines and reasonings. Regarding the 3rd LegComm, I think that was simply because we were unable to find another appointee. Personally, I had been advocating for appointing Roavin from the start, but Roavin wasn't interested in going that direction until the emergency appointment recently.

I'll comment on the whole opening post as a whole when I get off work, but I don't think Roavin is painting anywhere close to a complete picture in this situation.

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Formerly Banned For Still Unspecified "OOC Toxicity"

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Since elections are coming up, I'd probably suggest using the election as a referendum itself.

I disagree with this depiction as it I think degrades all the wonderful things the players in question have done in the cabinet this term; whether a solid new treaty, festival with new and old allies, and excellent activity records on our Discord that will improve our stats as well as general image as a great region.  

All of us play this game to support the South Pacific and its tragic that we couldn't have better communication in the cabinet.

Escade

~ Positions Held in TSP ~
Delegate | Vice Delegate 
Minister of Regional Affairs, | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Minister of Military Affairs
~ The Sparkly One ~

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Keep in mind a motion of no confidence is not a referendum on whether the cabinet accomplished things during the term, but a referendum on whether the assembly thinks that that cabinet can continue to function. It is fully possible for a cabinet to have been very successful early on while deteriorating later on (e.g. MoFA)— and what we’re voting on is whether we think it will be better or if it has gotten too bad already.

~ Aumeltopia ~

Raccoons are bandits! First they steal your food . . . and then your heart/identity!

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Keep in mind a motion of no confidence is not a referendum on whether the cabinet accomplished things during the term, but a referendum on whether the assembly thinks that that cabinet can continue to function. It is fully possible for a cabinet to have been very successful early on while deteriorating later on (e.g. MoFA)— and what we’re voting on is whether we think it will be better or if it has gotten too bad already.

It is my clear belief that the cabinet can continue to function and has functioned decently this term (perhaps not ideally but decently) and that the upcoming election would be our best source of bringing about change. The fact that the cabinet is still active in terms of recent projects or discussions (whether in the cabinet or other channel) speaks to a healthy source of debate among other things.

Then we've had cabinets with Belschaft and Glenn and also with Unibot so to call this one dysfunctional would be a misnomer of the highest level.

Escade

~ Positions Held in TSP ~
Delegate | Vice Delegate 
Minister of Regional Affairs, | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Minister of Military Affairs
~ The Sparkly One ~

My Pinterest

 

(This post was last modified: 05-27-2018, 05:03 PM by Escade.)

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I am disappointed that this motion is being filed so close to the election. While no one outside Cabinet can say with certainty whether it is merited, the timing of it suggest great political damage to all those involved and that is rather saddening.

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