Kalistan

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Her Imperial Majesty Addresses National Assembly
Government shakeup in the offing; proposes political and educational reform
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
February 20, 5696


Her Imperial Majesty announces new fiat for the next Administration

Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Carolina II Ananto went before a Joint Session of the National Assembly as the Chamber of Deputies were joined by members of the Chamber of Peers to make her long-anticipated first major address to the Legislature.

Her first order of business was to announce that she has required the Chancellor of the Empire to form a new Government. "It is our decision to retain the Chancellor of the Empire, and our Ministers at Foreign Affairs, Infrastructure and Education. We have asked the Chancellor to provide us a list of potential candidates for our other ministries that we may put the people in office who most closely represent our vision for the future of this nation." The announcement will likely lead to a nationalist dominated cabinet going forward, as it is hardly likely that Lady Donahue will propose more moderates for the various ministries, however, the maintaining of moderate-to-left ministers named during the Regency at Foreign Affairs, Infrastructure and Education ensures that moderates will retain a voice in Government and can signal a desire on the part of the Empress for a fresh start and a move away the more staunchly arch nationalist position held since the end of the reigns of Fredrick IV and Jennifer I.

It also puts to rest the debate around what course the Empress would take. Most nationalists spent the final years of the regency blasting the Regent for undermining what they viewed as the potential preferences of Her Imperial Majesty. But the Empress' expression of confidence in both Sir Thomas Harney at State and the socialist Mr. Johnson at Infrastructure, as well as the centrist Dr. Caballero in Education and Culture shows that the Empress herself is more sympathetic to the center and the left than was previously suspected.

"Her Imperial Majesty is still an Ananto, so you are not going to see her down in the streets marching to overthrow the monarchy," said political commentator Jack Lucas, of KRTVN's TV-1. "But there were a number of commentators who were assuming that the new Empress would be completely closed minded to any possibility of change in this nation, and it looks like she's at least willing to dip her toes into the water of modest reform and more political plurality, and that the appointments and decisions made by the Regent that so angered so many nationalists and conservatives in this nation, especially toward the end of the Regency, were being done under the direction of the Empress."

Other major changes the Empress expressed as her will in the National Assembly was that, while not open to accepting a multiparty system in Kalistan, she may be somewhat interested in permitting caucuses once again in the Institutional Party. "We have seen enough demand for the opportunity to represent different points of view within the Party of late, and it is our desire to obtain advice and ideas from as many varied sources as possible. Institutional Orthodoxy is comforting, but it also leads to stagnation, and we would like our Empire to become a vibrant and multi-facetted place for our people to dwell in." She squashed the idea that factions would have independent policy powers within the National Assembly, but said if the Chamber of Deputies were to represent the ideas and the cries of her People, it should represent all of them, and not just those who fall in line with the Institutional Party's political agenda.

"We will leave it to our Chancellor to propose new rules under which the Institutional Party may entertain and accommodate heterodoxy within its ranks and within its legislative representation," said the Empress. "But it is our desire that they should begin doing so as soon as is practical, to better serve this Empire and to better represent our people to us. Our Chancellor has already discussed some preliminary ideas with us, and we will take it all into consideration before we approve a plan of her design."

The Empress also expressed her desire that philosophy become part of the cannon of education starting in grade 7, but did so in a way that would shock many reformers. "As soon as our children may be exposed to different ideas about eternal concepts like ethics, beauty, politics, logic and rhetoric and understanding of our place in the world and in the universe, we shall begin to introduce them to these valuable and socially reinforcing ideas. It is our desire to expose our children to systematic ways of not only thinking about things, but questioning things that are in place, as they are. Not everything needs to be deconstructed and analyzed--We are not advocating for the sort of moral nihilism or totalitarian ethical subjectivism you find in most postmodern liberal societies, where they argue over the definitions of words in an attempt to win debates and assert dominance--but we would like to have our students and young people have access to the tools to do that for the systems of thought and action that no longer serve our nation or our people."

After what seemed like a statement in support of the modern notion of efficiency and liberal education if not liberal ideology, in the very next breath the Empress immediately undermined the dreams of thousands of liberals in Kalistan with a restatement of her own ultraconservative world view. "And to demonstrate our commitment to this project, we would even welcome an analysis of our own Imperial regime, and believe that, if measured by objective, rather than foreign, often liberal titled, criteria, we can certainly stand up our system against anything devised by liberals anywhere in the world and come out favorably in comparison. But we can not do that well, as a people, unless we have the tools already inculcated from a young age, to resist liberal propaganda and judge things on an even, morally neutral, and ethically objective ground. Our goal is to provide the method of philosophic inquiry to steel our people against the perniciousness of liberalism and its attempts to encroach upon our national identity with its corrosive ideology aimed at undermining traditional social, economic and political organization."

While some sections of Her Imperial Majesty's 45 minute address to the National Assembly were warmly greeted by reformers and caused palpitations among Orthodox Intstitutionalists, other parts were gratefully welcomed by conservatives, who breathed a sigh of relief to learn that if a hint of liberalization was inevitable, at the very least it would be more than offset by strict and formal conservative education for at least the next generation, so that, though people may have the option to select centrist and leftist Deputies to represent them, they will be less likely to select that option over the conservative option. Some deputies praised the balance struck by the Empress. "She is a mere 22 years old," said conservative deputy Veronica Jennings, from Python, "yet she talks like Empresses of old. It is really very comforting, and I will certainly sleep better tonight." Meanwhile, Deputy Wallace Holmes, who is part of the Socialist Club movement in Kaliburg and who was elected in last year's general election from Ananto stated, "There's a glimmer of hope here that socialists can actually openly caucus together and really influence the agenda. It's small but its not insignificant and we thank the Empress for the grace and poise, and I will add, wisdom, that she presented from the Rostrum today. Her program is certainly one we can get behind."

Her Imperial Majesty's address was also widely praised in the Press, who all said she spoke clearly, eruditely, and eloquently. One open skeptic, Shauna Fernandez of Radio Kaliburg, even has some qualified praise for the Empress. "Look, I am no fan of the Empire. You all know that. I think the sooner it goes out, the better off we will all be. And of course, she's going to speak well. I mean, that's like the basic. She's from the best family, she has more money than most developing nations, she goes to the best schools and she speaks a half a dozen languages. I would be surprised, frankly if she went out there and used less multi-syllabic words and spoke to people on a 3rd grade level, the way our newscasters do. But--and this is a qualification-- she did give some people something to cheer for. She has a positive vision which she communicated well, something to get our country moving again, and for that, I have to give her two... no... three snaps, in a circle."

The Chancellor is expected to formalize her cabinet proposal by the end of this month and present it to the Empress.

@TheRepublic