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by The Shadowy Empress of Farengeto. . 55 reads.

Farengeto for Prime Minister: A Vote for Change

Hello TSP, here we are again.

Much of my platform is not a new one. Many of my major points are from my previous campaigns, yet despite everything that has happened since they remain painfully relevant today. This is not a platform assembled to pander to ongoing political crises for my own benefit. My campaign is built on issues I have raised and campaigned on since our first Prime Minister election, which two years later continue to be unresolved.

EXPERIENCE
It's been two years since I last held political office in TSP, and I am eager to get involved again. However I am no newcomer in TSP politics having served in Cabinet in three different positions, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Regional Affairs, and Chair of the Assembly. I have also served multiple terms as Justice, am a member of the Legislator Committee, and am a long-time member of the Council on Regional Security. I have gained experience in nearly all areas of TSP, which has given me valuable knowledge and skills for Prime Minister.

COMMUNICATION
The core pillar of my platform is Communication. We've seen time and time again how this can lead to problems, and it continues to be the primary issue I intend to address as Prime Minister. These issues come in a variety of forms: from the problems between ministers, to communication with the region, and everything in between.

First I aim to address the divided organization of Cabinet, and resolve the issue of independent ministers that has caused problems for several terms. We've had a lack of Cabinet cohesion for a while now, bringing with it disorganization at best and open conflict between ministers at worst. The first of these plans is setting up regular cabinet meetings throughout the term during which we will establish agendas, get updates, and ensure the entire Cabinet is aware of what the others are doing. The first of these meetings would ideally be done within the first week of the term, depending on availability.

I also hope to improve Cabinet communications with the region as a whole. Even when I was working with the Cabinet in recent terms, what it was doing seemed to be largely a mystery. I intend to establish proper question periods for Cabinet. It is important that these periods are easily accessible to all TSPers, regardless of timing and chat usage, and are properly archived for future access. We will probably have to explore several different options during the term to see what works, so I'll avoid too many specifics for now.

Additionally, through better organization and regional communication I also hope to provide better advance notice of upcoming regional happenings. More often than not regional or foreign developments would be announced out of nowhere, something that these plans should minimize.

LEADERSHIP
While I may have experience in most fields, I am by no means an expert on the ministries. For normal policy matters I will be deferring to the expertise of the respective ministers. However it is important that the Prime Minister remains actively involved, acting as a leader that ensures a positive image of our region and our democracy.

In recent terms some members of our government have shown concerning behaviour in NS. They have engaged in hostile and undiplomatic behaviour in public venues such as NSGP that reflect poorly on our region. While it may give short term satisfaction to those posting, it negatively impacts our region's image to everyone and must stop.

Additionally I intend to take a stand against regional toxicity. For years it has been a serious issue, and for years little has been done about it. Disagreement is not a bad thing nor is it inherently toxic, but far too often our region takes things too far with hostile and personal attacks. Often we deny the problem even exists, which only leads to later problems. Even when it is acknowledged we often try to hide it from public view rather that fix it, something which feeds further conflicts rather than preventing them. It is not a simple change to prevent this, as often these are cultural problems, but I hope to start properly address this old problem of TSP as Prime Minister.

A POLICY FOR TSP
While I will largely leave specific policies to the relevant ministers, I feel it is important to have an agenda for Cabinet. As part of this I have several overarching goals for the term.

For foreign policy, I believe in a non-aligned policy that serves the interests of TSP. Too often diplomacy in NS has been defined by the narrow ideological axis of R/D. These ideologies and the conflicts they bring do not serve the interests of TSP, and often only serve to bring strife to our region. Our policy should be based not on ideology but on the needs and values of TSP, free from any rigid alignment. The interests of TSP should be dictated by our values, not the opinions of those in NSGP.

Domestically, we must recognize and reunite the many parts of TSP. TSP is made up of many components: the in-game region, the forums, Discord. However lately our regional off-site government has increasingly become almost entirely focused on Discord alone, to the detriment of other parts. Our region is big and diverse, and we must respect the differences and play to the strengths of each component to improve the whole. Perhaps the largest of this is with gameside. Coordination and events between gameside and the off-site government has become rather limited lately, with the two governing almost entirely independently. Under my leadership I would push to close this gap, better coordinating with the Local Council and also pushing for greater gameside elements to our regional affairs.

A VOTE FOR CHANGE
The problems we face today are not new ones. They are old problems that continue to be unresolved. For years I have campaigned on fixing these issues. If I elected I promise to promote real change for TSP. So please vote Farengeto for Prime Minister, and I will show you how Far we can get.


From Beepee:
Ok Potential PM. (Sorry it's late and I'm no longer lucid)

1.How are you better than your opponent?
2. Given apparent lack of LC interaction in the past how will you push this forward?
3. Can you explain how now established elements in discord can be brought back to gameside?

Compared to Glen I'd say I offer a much more well-rounded experience in all areas of TSP, while Glen's background is largely FA. I also bring less "political baggage" to the position. Glen's history and defenderist stance have given him a bit of a reputation in many circles, which has lead to problems in the past, while I have a more neutral reputation and non-aligned agenda.

As for gameside, a lot of the matter there is less about moving institutions, and more about just getting it involved with the government again. A lot of this doesn't have to be anything formal or large scale. A big part of bringing them together just simple things like keeping the Caninet in contact with the Local Council, tying into my campaign of greater communication. This is especially important for MoRA, to aid in the planning and organizational of events and activities. I also want to see a return of some of the large gameside events from years past, we had some big events like the Ejection Contest and a large Mafia game that I would love to see tried again.


From Awesomiasa:
What is your opinion on your opponent proposing to serve as both PM and Associate Justice?

It's a complicated matter that I'm not sure I can take a firm stance either way on without thinking it over a bit more. The CoI problems are of course very obvious, and for a position as political as the Prime Minister is there's bit of a CoI to some extent on every case.

On the other hand though, I can speak firsthand to the troubles of appointing new Judicial members and the rather limited pool of qualified options available. I spent a whole term trying to make changes to the pool with no success, and from my knowledge it hasn't been much better since.

I'm not without my own potential CoIs though, given my position on the Legislator Committee. If elected I intend to follow the precedent of Roavin and resign from the LegComm. I would say that in general it is better to err on the side of caution on matters of possible CoIs, regardless of what they may be or their technical legality.


From Roavin:
What is your view on the IJCC? What do you think TSP should do or not do in response?

What would you do if a Minister in your Cabinet is not cooperative?

The Prime Minister must be someone capable of understanding the issues in RA, MA, and FA. Can you briefly explain why you have the requisite background and/or knowledge to understand any issues in each of these ministries?

What is toxicity? What kind of things in the day-to-day of TSP would you consider toxic? How is it something that the Prime Minister can address?

I do not believe we need to concern ourselves too much with the IJCC. The regions involved are those who were already hostile to TSP, and some major figures involved have shown nothing but hostility to us since at least the Hileville coup. Diplomacy with those involved would prove futile despite any efforts as some, especially the leadership of Balder, would love nothing more than to see violent regime change in our region. Despite this, I do not believe they pose any sort of military or political threat to TSP. Despite our instabilities we remain a strong region which has put aside the ideological conflict tore us apart in years past, and after struggling for years the SPSF continues to be a powerful force for our region. We stand strong and no longer divided by ideological conflict, while this organization has yet to prove it won't just fall into activity like many before have.

Ideally, the first step will be resolving these matters will be attempting an internal cabinet resolution to these problems. Should any attempt at resolving this respectfully fail, I believe it will be necessary to involve the greater region, even just as simply as raising it privately in the assembly rather than something as drastic as a recall.. The idea of always presenting Cabinet unity is somewhat overrated, especially with our system of electing individual ministers. Hiding these conflicts only feeds the resentment that fuels later conflicts, and just hides the dysfunction rather than taking steps to address it. 

I have a bit of experience in all three ministries, though I make no claims at being an expert at any of them. I served briefly as MoRA a few years ago, however most of my real work with the ministry came later. I'd worked as part of the ministry for a while, and engaged in a variety of RA projects over my time there. I would consider MoRA to be my strongest ministry, with my firsthand experience and involvement with many elements of it. I'd also served as MoFA in the aftermath of the Hileville coup and helped hold things together during the transition period, in addition to doing a couple minor ambassador roles in the past. While I don't consider myself a particularly good MoFA, it gave me a lot of firsthand insights to the way the ministry works and what it demands. As for MA I did serve as part of the military back a few years ago and was a fairly active updater as a member for a few terms, even being nominated as an early general. Unfortunately, my military career came to an end when I chose to join the Committee for State Security (as the CRS was called back then) and I have been unable to participate since. This was at a time far from the currently glory of the SPSF, but the months that I was active there taught me a lot about NS militaries.

I'm not sure we can make an overarching definition of toxicity. There's a lot of behaviours that can be considered toxicity that happen within TSP; Shutting down of criticism, personal attacks, there's a variety of these behaviours that occur that just make TSP a less enjoyable place to be in. This can go as far as chasing users away from TSP (which has happened before) to just discouraging people from playing (something which I've had happen multiple times), and when it gets to the scale of the community the toxicity affects even those not involved. As a region these have been called part of TSP before, but that is wrong and part of the problem. The first step of addressing the toxicity issue is a self-awareness of the problem, which is why I have run on a campaign that emphasizes the fact that this is an issue. As Prime Minister I will also be more able to work with all the branches of TSP to work on crafting a regional solution, even if I'm only able to begin the first steps of addressing the problem during my term.
 


From The Solar System Scope:
HI FARENGETO! WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS RELATING TO THE JOINT GOOD OF GAME-SIDE, FORUM AND DISCORD COMMUNITIES?

I outlined a few of my major focuses in my response to Beepee's question. I don't feel I can appropriately answer your question without asking you be a bit more specific.
 


From Southern Bellz:
1) How do you feel about regional involvement in the election so far?
2) Do you believe the Cabinet should go back to using formal statements as the primary means we communicate in the NSGP forums?
3) If a minister disagreed got elected on a platform different than the agenda you are proposing the prime minister set (or simply disagrees) for the agenda you set out.  If it came down to it, who's view should have supremacy?

I feel engagement has been lower than I would have liked, only a small handful of users have asked any questions and I've been hoping to see more posts overall in the campaigns. It's not the first time this has been an issue, and for a long time we had problems even having competitive races for all Cabinet positions.

I don't believe we need to make everything we say formal statements, but we do need to fix how we are responding. Some recent ministers make posts on NSGP that are entirely inappropriate. When we do make a proper public statement I believe it should be formal, as it reflects better both on the Cabinet and the region as a whole. But I think in general the important subject is just using appropriate language for a diplomatic setting.

I don't believe one or the other should have supremacy in that matter, as that is a matter that fuels anger and resentment within the Cabinet. The appropriate response is discussion and creating a compromise that works for both. Absolute supremacy will end up benefiting no one in the long run.


From Erinor:
If you could highlight one aspect of your campaign to convince me to vote for you, what would it be?

I would have to say either my agenda on communication or toxicity.

The communications element has been a core element of this campaign, and my previous PM campaigns. It's a subject which I have a long and consistent record on, as I have been running on addressing since before we elected the first Prime Minister. Yet despite the time that has passed it remains a constant issue.

On the other hand, the problems of toxicity have been around for longer than I have, and have likewise been a constant problem. Despite this, it's constantly ignored or dismissed. I am the only current whose campaign even acknowledges it as an issue. It's not a simple problem, nor one I expect to fix in a single term, but it's something that negatively affects the stability and health of our community.

The Shadowy Empress of Farengeto

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