Chanku for PM - April 2020 General Election Campaign Thread

[Chanku]

Chanku For Prime Minister​

It is election time once again, and I firmly believe that I am not only qualified to be the Prime Minister, but to campaign with my fullest efforts. Therefore everyone must be wondering what I intend to do as Prime Minister, and what my goals are. Here is a quick overview:

• I will aim to ensure that the Prime Minister represents the region -- and as such the will of the Assembly.
• I will reform our Ministries to ensure that they function well and no one is sitting around unnecessarily.
• I intend to stringently maintain the Independence of the Guard from the Cabinet, so long as it legally is, to the highest degree possible.
• I will work to ensure the Prime Ministership does not exceed or go beyond their legal authority to the best of my ability.

Furthermore, some might be wondering as to my qualifications to be Prime Minister of Lazarus, I believe I am one of the most qualified candidates in the running as: I have been Deputy Director of Public Relations since the start of the current term, I have always pushed for what I believe is the best for Lazarus, and I have been here since before the establishment of Mandate 12.

Now, as to how I intend to accomplish my goals, I have broken it into sections below:

Spoiler: Representing the Region/Will of the Assembly

it is my view that I do not serve just for a specific term, but instead that I serve at the behest of the Assembly. As such, I generally view part of the responsibility of being the Prime Minister as ensuring that the citizenry and Assembly knows what I am doing and has a say in plans that might be radical or large. I intend to do it through two ways: The Establishment of an Open Forum of sorts for members of the Assembly to inquire about the on-goings of the cabinet (provided it isn't sensitive) and to be able to hold myself and my ministers account for failures or for issues that might pop up that we react poorly too. The Second is simple -- I intend to consult the Assembly on changes that are massive in nature.

For the Open Forum, I intend to simply work with the Speaker -- and the Assembly itself -- to ensure that this is done within the Laws and Rules of the Assembly and that order is able to be maintained. While this may be done now, I intend to use the Open Forum to make it both easier and perhaps less intimidating to question the Prime Minister and their Cabinet. After all, if we have elected officials we need to ensure we hold them accountable for their actions.

As for the Consultation, it is my intent to present any massive plans to the Assembly for discussion and debate and to request that the Assembly and to request the Assembly vote on a non-binding proposal such that I may have a record of what the Assembly's position is on these matters. While these votes would be non-binding I intend to treat them as such, and will not be doing something despite the Assembly's vote (barring exceptional circumstances). Furthermore, this provides a way to ensure that I don't do something with outcomes that I had not thought of before that may or may not be desirable.

Spoiler: Ministry Reform

This is an area that I'm campaigning on because I firmly believe that our Ministries are not working as well as they could be. During my tenure these past four months as Deputy Director of Public Relations, it has become apparent that things need a bit of fixing. I have not done that much with my position, I have had issues contacting my Director and getting feedback and responses from them, and at many times I was unsure of what I should be doing -- or even what I CAN do. If elected I intend to fix this issue -- at least to some extent.

Now, to do this I will be overhauling the Ministries we have now almost entirely. Each Ministry we have will get a Mandate -- a written document outlining the goals and purpose of the Ministry, the authorities of each Minister and Deputy Minister, and the division of tasks and responsibilities among the members of each Ministry. Furthermore each of these Mandates would be drafted along with each Minister to ensure they are best suited for the Ministry and that they may be more flexible than they otherwise would be. However I don't expect merely a change such as issuing a written Mandate to each Ministry to be enough, I intend to entirely reorganize each Ministry so that they are better separated. My intention is to roughly have these as the Ministries:

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Department of Public Relations) - Same as the current Department of Public Relations but without the World Assembly aspect.
• Ministry of Internal Affairs (Department of Internal Affairs) - They would be responsible for things such as Integration/Immigration and the World Assembly among other things.
• Ministry of Culture (Department of Company Culture) - They would be responsible for organizing events and other cultural activities within the Region -- along with aiding inter-regional activities.

Further each Ministry would -- ideally -- be subdivided further in order to make sure that no singular person -- or people -- has too much on their plate at once. The exact divisions would be up to the Ministers, although I do have rough ideas for such subdivisions. I will admit that who exactly would be in my Cabinet is still being worked on as I have several candidates I am deciding between. Mandates would be reviewed regularly and will expire if they are not, so that the Ministries are not bound by old measures.

Further, this proposal (with more information) will be presented to the Assembly for feedback and review if I am elected

Spoiler: Independence of the Guard

I intend to ensure that the Head of the Regional Guard remains separate from myself and my cabinet, as it is in law. Therefore I do not intend to propose or recommend an individual to the Delegate for the Guard or to interfere with any matter within the Guard unless I am explicitly asked. It is my belief that the Regional Guard should remain neutral in R/D matters and should be kept independent from the Cabinet so as to not permit politics to exert undue influence the Guard.

Spoiler: Remain within Constitutional Limits

I fully intend and desire to remain within my Constitutional Limits for this term and, where it is unclear, to seek clarification from the Judiciary -- or to ask the Assembly to modify the law to be clearer if it is a matter that the Judiciary may not be able to rule upon. It is my belief that any form of Governance must remain firmly within the Constitutional Boundaries and a Prime Minister must be explicitly willing to remain within the law.

Spoiler: Foreign Policy

For Foreign Policy the first month of my term will be towards fixing the Foreign Affairs Ministry as it is currently broken and ineffective. With the changes within the Ministries, I will work with the Minister of Foreign Affairs to create a stable framework to use for the future so that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can be fixed. What I intend to do is to establish a Mandate to outline the operations of the Ministry and to allow the Ministry to operate cleanly. I intend to create at least two Deputy Ministers: Minister of Diplomats and Minister of Foreign Press. The Minister of Diplomats would be tasked with setting up, maintaining, and running our ambassador program and keeping track of our Diplomatic Missions (Embassies/Consulates). The Minister of Foreign Press would largely be tasked with working with the Gazette to ensure that releases are timely, and to provide advice on articles that may be sensitive (To prevent a UM Situation). This would also coincide with the expanding of the Ministry.

For our Ambassador Program, I intend to push for it to be more active and to expand. Ambassadors should be dedicated to the job and be representative of Lazarene Culture and Ideals. To that end Ambassadors will be expected to interact with their assigned regions and will be rewarded -- through a point and reward system and ranks. While the final form of this will be left up to the Ministry at some level, I do have ideas for its organization.

Spoiler: Regional Policy

With Regional Policy I believe we should work to make sure that the RMB remains distinctly Lazarene and that the RMB does not become too disconnected from the rest of the region. We also should be looking at participating in the World Assembly as a matter of Regional Policy. To this end the Regional Affairs Ministry would largely be tasked with these responsiblities.

Spoiler: Cultural Policy

Cultural Policy will be a priority under my administration. While the overall structure would likely be left to the Minister I do believe having certain responsibilities segmented would work well here. To this end I will be working to encourage and maintain systems for Structured Roleplaying to occur, in addition to working to create events that would occur at regular intervals -- whether it be every week or a few times a month. I would work to try and setup some form of dedicated non-Nation RP (namely PnP RPG) if there is enough interest to give Lazarus more to do culturally. I firmly believe that we must grow Lazarene Culture and share it with the world.

It is with this that I hope you all elect me to be the next Prime Minister of Lazarus.

Spoiler: Disclosure of Affiliations

• Citizenship - Wintreath
• Minor Advisor on Foreign Affairs - Wintreath
• Chancellor - Warzone Europe
• Citizen/Resident - Warzone Sandbox
• Matriarch of the Kaizer Family (Wintreath Based)

 

[Debussy]

Will you get a profile picture if elected?

 

[Chanku]

Will you get a profile picture if elected?

Sure, if I manage to be elected with a very high majority then I will

 

[New Rogernomics]

I'll be asking all the candidates questions.

You can take your time to answer these, so no rush.

Q1:Q2: As a follow on question, there has been plenty of discussion of a move to establish a more flexible guard with R/D, though this never reached enough of a quorum to go through. How would you approach the argument that we should increase the powers of the guard to carry out operations. Obviously there is the risk that could we end up with either faction operations wise.

Q3: You describe each ministry getting their own mandate, do you plan to establish this in the form of a list of directives to ministries, or to establish these more formally into a ministries act of the assembly?

Q4: By consult the assembly, you suggest putting up discussions or non-binding votes on major decisions?What sorts of decisions do you think would fall in this category?

Q5: Q6: You have been around quite a few regions, but most notably Wintreath, is there anything of your experiences there that give you pause for thought on how we could improve in Lazarus? By this, I mean in terms of activities, how the government functions, or in how the government engages citizens.

 

[Chanku]

Q1:
I'm unsure as to your question, by independent I mean independent from the Cabinet and the Prime Minister.


Q2: As a follow on question, there has been plenty of discussion of a move to establish a more flexible guard with R/D, though this never reached enough of a quorum to go through. How would you approach the argument that we should increase the powers of the guard to carry out operations. Obviously there is the risk that could we end up with either faction operations wise.
I can speak personally on that, in that I do not -- in any way -- support such a move and believe the guard should remain as it is. It is the only way to ensure that the Guard -- and Lazarus by extension -- does not end up being used by R/D. However, if such a thing did come to pass, then it would ultimately be up to the Head of the Regional Guard to decide. If it ended up under the Prime Minister-ship then I would likely ensure that operations are evenly distributed and that the Guard has roughly the same amount of people showing up to either kind of operation.

Q3: You describe each ministry getting their own mandate, do you plan to establish this in the form of a list of directives to ministries, or to establish these more formally into a ministries act of the assembly?
I would plan to implement them as Directives, unless the Assembly desires to codify them into law.

Q4: By consult the assembly, you suggest putting up discussions or non-binding votes on major decisions?What sorts of decisions do you think would fall in this category?
For major decisions and actions, it would be discussions and eventually a non-binding vote on the matter. For decisions it would be things like a reorganization of our Ministry system, Warzones Inc would also probably have fallen into this category as well.

Q5:
The Prime Minister should ensure that the region is running smoothly -- that the Ministries are doing their work and that the Assembly and Lazarus is being accurately represented in all facets. I firmly believe in devolution and allowing Ministries room to operate.

Q6: You have been around quite a few regions, but most notably Wintreath, is there anything of your experiences there that give you pause for thought on how we could improve in Lazarus? By this, I mean in terms of activities, how the government functions, or in how the government engages citizens.
Yes, actually. I've already made many such suggestions. For example I proposed working on the Gazette on the forums so that it is easier to contribute to it. I have also repeatedly pointed to Wintreath as an example for how we should look to run our Cabinet and as an example to base our Foreign Affairs Ministry on as I was able to help make it the more active and continually staffed Ministry where before it had been inactive and rarely staffed.

Furthermore the Region itself had a lot of regional events that are commonly announced -- even if I don't participate in them.

 

[New Rogernomics]

Q1:
I'm unsure as to your question, by independent I mean independent from the Cabinet and the Prime Minister.

The question is more referring to remaining neutral in R/D matters, and how you would approach keeping the guard independent when there is always going to be pressure on the PM to politically position the guard in the R/D sphere. In having the guard under the control of the Delegate, it can be argued that there is a political separation, though this is not absolute, as the Prime Minister effectively appoints the Minister charged with Foreign Policy, and motivating folks to join the guard in terms of activity could be a goal of an administration. There would be reason to hold that folks will not always be happy with the status quo of the guard, and push for a vote on the issue in the future.

 

[Chanku]

The question is more referring to remaining neutral in R/D matters, and how you would approach keeping the guard independent when there is always going to be pressure on the PM to politically position the guard in the R/D sphere. In having the guard under the control of the Delegate, it can be argued that there is a political separation, though this is not absolute, as the Prime Minister effectively appoints the Minister charged with Foreign Policy, and motivating folks to join the guard in terms of activity could be a goal of an administration. There would be reason to hold that folks will not always be happy with the status quo of the guard, and push for a vote on the issue in the future.

Ah, alright then. I simply would refuse to do it, and I would hope the Delegate and Head of the Guard would be willing to do the same with regards to placing them politically. Lazarus's Military is our own, and I would consider any attempt at manipulating the Guard to be an infringement on our independence as a region.

However, I personally have no intention of making any appointment recommendations for the Head of the Guard unless I am asked (I do have people in mind, however). I have no intention of directing or otherwise effecting the Regional Guard in any official capacity as Prime Minister, I don't believe we should tolerate the continuation of such a thing. If folks are not happy with the status quo of the Guard, then I implore them to find things to do within the activities it can do. I will note that I personally wish to remove the Guard entirely, but I recognize that is likely not realistic and have no intention to push for it.