Esteemed delegates,

Addressing this Assembly as its Speaker, I must welcome the initiative to establish clearer procedures for debate and voting. While this is a void I have sought to rectify with official policies issued by my office, this was never intended as anything other than a temporary solution, and it is positive to see member states seek to establish more permanent policies through more democratic processes.

If this Assembly wishes to pass standard format rules for resolutions, my office will be prepared to assist. Although its current utilization and contents are limited, my office maintains a public archive of World Forum design resources. In the event that standards are passed, I would not imagine resolution templates to be difficult to produce.

As for the contents of these proposals, I will not offer comment in my capacity as Speaker. To address all of you as the Esfalsan representative, however, I must raise a few concerns about the assignment of standard powers to the Assembly.

In particular, such powerful standard measures may lead to the over-politicization of votes on accession to membership, especially with only a simple majority needed to enact actions directly targeting individual states. Such political considerations should not be a barrier to membership, as to do so would only distract from the World Forum's power as a truly international forum that brings nations from all across Pacifica into cooperative dialogue.

Furthermore, there is no clear mechanism to implement these powers. Simply assigning them to the Assembly leaves open the question of how they will be carried out, especially because these powers do not follow the process of the proposed binding resolutions. The Assembly itself does not control any resources or forces to directly impose a fine, sanction, blockade, and so forth.

To speak more generally, binding resolutions may have a similar effect of providing an incentive against membership. The World Forum should not merely be a forum of countries with homogenous policies; it should allow dialogue between all countries, especially those with differing viewpoints, without the fear that a supermajority of other countries with similar policies to each other may simply overrule their national policies with a binding resolution.

Thank you all for your time and attention. Irrespective of these Esfalsan concerns, it is clear that changes are needed to our existing World Forum legislation. I look forward to a productive debate.

Robert Sontheimer