Kalistan

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Editorial: Chancellor Needs to Press Empress on Gaduridos, Athosia
"Kalistan was robbed" say a majority of Nationalists
Lucid City, Duchy of Suldanor
October 12, 5718


Chancellor of the Empire Melanie Alvarez-McLinn should stand up for Kalistani Interests in Athosia and Gaduridos

Editorial
Chancellor needs to Press Empress on Gaduridos and Athosia

Recently a poll was taken by Kalistan's Paper of Record, The Kalistani Republic which showed that 36% of Kalistanis believe that Her Imperial Majesty should seek to re-establish control over a resurgent Gaduridos, who recently finally got around to holding elections after 55 years of caretaker government that allowed the nation to turn from one of the most rapidly developing nations in Northern Seleya into a financial blackhole that became an albatross around the neck of Her Imperial Majesty. The Gaduris returned the PSSG to power, but it is hard to see the elections as anything other than a slap in the face to the beneficent Imperial Government in Kaliburg, who put hundreds of billions of Pesos worth of investment into the nation over more than a century and a half, only to squander it away by a half century of nonfeasance.

The departure of Kalistani imperial authority and investment from Gaduridos was a response by the Gaduris' unwillingness to allow Kaliburg to have any say in Gaduri affairs, whether it came to helping them develop their economy along national and regional lines, or even doing the barest minimum to help their government continue to operate in any sort of meaningful way. Kalistan finally washed its hands of the disaster that Gaduridos had become rather than letting the nation drag Kalistan into the depths 9 years ago, and it seems that they are finally, just now, figuring out that Kalistan won't be there to bail them out anymore.

But Nationalists in particular have not forgotten the bitterness over the Divorce. Of the 36% who say Kalistan needs to go back to Gaduridos and reclaim what it was forced to relinquish now that they appear to be functioning once again, more than 85% of those who are nationalists support that position. Among them is ostensibly the arch Nationalist Countess of Lucid and Chancellor of the Empire, Lady Melanie Alvarez-McLinn. As recently as 5716, she was publicly declaring a rock solid commitment to the Bentasur exclave at the southern tip of Duchy Manzamal, and called for a more general recommitment to Gaduridos as a whole. "That country and Kalistani rightly should be united, and it was a mistake for our Predecessor to force through the Divorce at that time, knowing what damage it would do to our Empire and to the lives of those we left behind in Gaduridos," she said to the Lucid Nationalist Club.

Despite her outspoken support for both reintegration of Gaduridos into the Empire, and her very strident (and current) support for annexation of Athosia, by force if necessary, Lady Alvarez-McLinn has been for the most part a disappointment on both issues so far. Nationalists report that they thought that they had a fighter in Lady Alvarez-McLinn. "Well, when she was appointed in 5711, we thought we would be in Athosia by early 5712," said nationalist Deputy Nina Cerventes who represents Yoshimi in the National Assembly. "And yet here we are, seven years later, no closer to taking back what belongs to us, either in Baltusia or in Gaduridos, and the Chancellor still continues to talk with no action. The people, her supporters are getting impatient."

That sentiment is expressed faction-wide across Kalistan. When Lady Alvarez-McLinn was appointed, she had the support of more than 90 percent of those who identified as Nationalist in Kalistan. It was widely believed, including by this Journal, that she would press the Empress on matters of vital national interest, including restoring the proper and correct relationship between the Imperial Seat and the Kingdom of Gaduridos which has existed long before anyone alive today was ever born. Her failure to move national orientation toward a more reintegrationist policy is citied as her largest failures so far as Chancellor. And as a result, her support among Nationalists has seriously eroded, to just 46%, her first time being underwater with her own faction.

"Nationalists are mad," said Martin Caballo-Blanco, of the Sulari Nationalist Club. "Kalistan was robbed of Gaduridos, not because of anything we did, but because Gaduridos just sat on their hands until we started bleeding capital just to keep them afloat. It was a really pernicious policy of obstinate non-compliance that secured their Independence, and it should never have happened. But we trusted the Chancellor to go in there and rectify it, and she hasn't once contradicted Imperial Policy on the question one time. I get it- She prefers her job as Chancellor to just staying in Lucid as Countess. But we wanted her to be a fighter for the Nationalist Cause and really, she just hasn't done much at all for it. And its a real disappointment."

Lady Alvarez-McLinn has generally avoided comment on the disappointment of the Nationalists. Recently however, she has been more vocal, though remaining fairly oblique. "They're upset, hmmm? Well, what is the National Interest? Is it something that a Nationalist Club, even my own, tells me it is, or is it whatever the Empress says it is? I tend to think that loyalty to the Empress comes first, last and always. By extension then, my loyalty is to my nation. I may want her to go about things a different way sometimes, but if I did what some of these people want, and 'stood up' to Her Imperial Majesty, that would be sedition. So, to these people out in the population who are complaining that I am not doing enough of this or that, I say that I am doing exactly what I am expected to do by the only person whose opinion on the matter even counts."

But, the question is not black and white, either full annexation as some of the more ardent Nationalists want, or doing nothing and just letting Gaduridos drift off to center-left lala land. Lady Alvarez-McLinn possesses enough legislative power to determine how Her Imperial Majesty's fiat is implemented. Unless the Empress says explicitly "Don't intervene in Gaduridos," The Chancellor has the ability to promote re-engagement at least with that nation. We aren't suggesting that she adopt Kalistan's traditionally paternalistic attitude toward Gaduridos--unfortunately for Nationalists in Kalistan, that ship has probably sailed. But we can still try to find a way to continue to have a role in Gaduridos that respects our long established friendship and Kalistan's long history as a main player in Gaduri affairs and economics. To not even try simply surrenders that country to foreign influences, who sought, before the Empire, to make Gaduridos part of their hateful and threatening foreign spheres of influence, and who continued in that effort even after Gaduridos had joined the Empire.

If we are not allowed to annex or directly government Athosia or Gaduridos, it should be the primary mission of Her Imperial Majesty's Government to make it impossible for those outside of Seleya to do that either. We would obviously prefer that Gaduridos return to its status as a Constituent Nation in a reformed Anantonese Empire. But outside of that, its Seleya for Selayans ONLY. Not Kerisians, not Dovanians, not Majatrans and definitely not Artanians. If Gaduridos is going to be independent, then let them be independent. If they are going to reject our suzerainty as it absolutely appears they will, let them accept it from nobody. Put in rational choice language, an independent and self reliant Gaduridos is not the optimal outcome, but it is an efficient outcome for Kalistan, and if we cannot control the nation outright, the Chancellor needs to press the Empress to adopt a much more active role in guaranteeing the independence and neutrality of that state. Anything less than that, especially letting outside interests set up shop in Gaduridos, would pose a threat to Kalistan.

Our Chancellor may dismiss the concerns of her erstwhile supporters. She can--She has the Empress' confidence and continues to govern so long as she pleases the Empress. Who knows, maybe the Red Empress supports the election of the Social Democrats in Gaduridos. That's entirely possible. But our Chancellor should not forget her principles. These are principles that all correct thinking Kalistanis hold: That Athosia is ours, that the Divorce was a mistake, and that Kalistani National Interests are far more important than anyone else's national interests unless those interests happen to coincide with our own. These are the bedrock foundational tenets of Kalistani Nationalism, and ones we, including the Chancellor of the Empire, must be reminded of from time to time.

If the Chancellor is not going to act independently, she needs to press the Empress on both Athosia and Gaduridos. The Chancellor is very persuasive (as her personal life and her insatiable consumption of both male and female companions demonstrates, though we will leave the lurid tabloid details out of this journal), and it is certain that she can work out an angle that will allow Her Imperial Majesty to remain committed to her own centrist, philosophy based approach to administration, while still working toward these goals which are paramount to our National Interests. And now is the time, before the Gaduri government has time to consolidate as a Kalistani hating administration, but now with an active legislature that seems to be committed to moving away from Kalistan rather than toward it.

The Chancellor is not beyond redemption on this item, and we know she reads this magazine. And the Empress is not unreasonable or stubborn. She responds to reason and can be persuaded by good argument to do things that turn out to be good for our Nation, though they may appear to us at the time to be mistakes or misjudgments. Unlike most other nations, Kalistan is blessed with good government and a very conservative temperament. We are certain that now is the time to make this push, even if it must come with a velvet glove, to get Her Imperial Majesty to remember that she is an Empress, and a Dread Empress at that. All law springs from her breath, and all justice springs from her conceptualization. The Chancellor is her primary advisor, and on her own, in the absence of an explicit prohibition or command, is given latitude to do what is right for the Empire and for Her Imperial Majesty's people.

We can only hope she uses that prerogative to achieve justice for Kalistan.

@TheNational