THE TERRAN INDEPENDENT
Terraâs Daily Print and Online Source for Trustworthy Planetary News
1 JUNIUS 2019 E.Y. 2050 S.Y. | VOLUME XLIV, ISSUE 1 | WING CITY, TERRA
SPECIAL ISSUE:
WHERE IS THE TERRAN REPUBLIC NOW?
Irina Belenkaya & Esmeralda Bautista Acevedo, with special reporting from Subbulakshmi Bhaktavatsalam of the Van Leugen Bureau
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE IN S.Y. 2050
The old guard parties of Terraâs past no longer dominate Parliamentary politics. Todayâs parties fight for new ideals, new agendas, and new issues, as the days of the Tripartite Occupation are now little more than ancient history to all but a few of the statesmen and political operatives in the national capital today.
The Democratic Republican Party has newly formed following a split in the ranks of the former Center-Rightist and Centrist Parties, the remaining members of which have in turn announced the formation of the Selvaggi-Day Party, so-named for AracelĂ Selvaggi and Sengupta Day.
Selvaggi and Day were both Terran soldiers, heroes of war, who upon return to the homeworld, suffered immense injuries from war that Terran medical facilities and available coins in the national purse could not adequately treat, resulting in permanent disability. The two subsequently ran for local office in Losenji and Therrier-Paix respectively, pushing a twin agenda of strong public welfare and strong national defense as two vital elements in a successful and prosperous society.
Both died about 20 years past in a terrorist attack carried out by fanatical adherents to The Way (itself formerly known as Hataf).
Today's Selvaggi-Day Party carries on their hawkish, populist legacy. The current Selvaggi-Day Party chair is Tsigereda Mengesha of Ebouma.
The Democratic Republican Party instead pushes for some elements of public welfare, including education and public assistance for heroes of war, but adamantly opposes nationalized infrastructure, healthcare, or other forms of public assistance other than that for veterans. They otherwise share the Selvaggi-Day Party's commitment to bolstering the national defense and planetary national security. The current Party Chair is GĂŒenther M. Schimelpfenig-SkoÄpol of Arteghia.
In contrast to the controlling Blue Mountain Party, Prime Minister Khayyam's own, both the Democratic Republican Party and the Selvaggi-Day Party strongly oppose offworld expansion, instead advocating for focus on home territory. The Blue Mountain Party is responsible for the first, second, and fourth TNG surveying and colonization missions to Luna. The current party chair for the Blue Mountain Party is Akinola Alegbeyele of Issunar, though Khayyam is widely considered the party leader as Prime Minister.
The Libertarian-Conservative Party leadership voted last year to rebrand as the United Libertarian Party, pushing for small government, decreased military spending, increased isolationism, and reductions in public welfare spending. Its party chair is now Äpirana Wahawaha of Shintenchi.
The Democratic Socialist Party has suffered its own split, into the Terran Socialist Party, the Democratic Socialists of Terra, and the Communist Party of Terra. The differences in party platforms here derive mainly from ideological differences between the Marxist-Leninists (CPT), the social democrats (DST), and the Trotskyists (TSP). The Communist Party of Terra is currently led by Z. I. Autumnsong Davis of Aslund. The Democratic Socialists of Terra are currently led by Kenna P. Sawchuk of Gonthar. The Terran Socialist Party is currently led by Xinlan Liu of Quelaya.
The Terran Alliance for Collectivist Anarchism does not participate in electoral politics. It does not adhere to a conventional hierarchical leadership but Garai Marangwanda, Yasna Huanchicay, Wushour Mutellip, and Lormong Hawj are widely considered the informal leaders.
The Green Radical Party, however, does participate in electoral politics, but largely remains on the fringes, with fraying relationships even with the Communist Party of Terra, its former coalition partner. Their platform demands immediate cessation of all environmentally unsustainable activities, which does not seem so alienating until one remembers that the Green Terra Front was responsible for a series of bombings nearly as devastating as those carried out by The Way. The current Green Radical party leader is Susan F. Ashenfarb-Elowsky of Llohap, who refuses to publicly disavow any of the Green Terra Four, all serving life sentences at Blackrock. (In contrast, Green Radical Party founder Atousa Shahnam Mirshafiei has publicly condemned the Green Terra Four.)
In Case You Missed It: Who Are the Green Terra Four?
The Green Terra Four were convicted on an array of domestic terrorism charges for their role in executing eight bombings throughout Wing City ten years ago. The worst of the attacks came in the early dawn hours, with industrial-grade explosives detonating in workersâ quarters for mineral giant Bennington Industries, a multiplanetary mining and refinement firm, where twenty-seven perished and another few hundred suffered grievous injury.
The four major conspirators, Kenyatta Amani Whittaker, Winston Cornelius Forbes VII, Michael James Brueggermann, and Alex J. Espinoza de la Sierra, were members of, and maintain continued loyalty to, the Green Radical Party. Today, all four are serving life sentences at Blackrock in supermax security. Whittaker was last heard from two years ago, in a rarely permitted interview with left-leaning journalist Imani Kaitani, whose cousin and fellow journalist Alice Kaitani first published gruesome details of shocking allegations of involvement in war crimes against Terran Intelligence Director DruloviÄ years past.
HONORING TERRAâS PAST AND PRESENT: OUR NATIONâS LEADERS
Our Founding Era: Eos Paradigm, Thaelis Pandore, Lelantus Haima, and Prachai Ranida
Eos Paradigm, born Monika Davis-Sheffield, founded and led the movement for Terraâs independence from the brutal colonial era of the Tripartite Occupation â marked by ethnic cleansings, political repression, and deprivation of political and civil liberties for Terraâs peoples, largely under control of the then Aschen Confederation.
This movement, forged in fire, was known as the Terran Liberation Front.
Alongside Eos Paradigm came Thaelis Pandore, Lelantus Haima, and Prachai Ranida, all titans of that early age of heroes fighting boldly and bravely for a free Terra â a sovereign Terra.
Lelantus Haima would in turn take up Paradigmâs mantle when she disappeared from contact, feared dead by many. As an ad hoc military commander, leading by necessity, Haima excelled in the use of guerrilla warfare tactics to weaken and destabilize occupation forces. Upon the signing of the first truce, and rescission of the occupation, Haima became Terraâs first interim head of state, while regions across the planet prepared to convene representatives to draft a constitutional charter to govern the newly sovereign nation.
Haimaâs loyal companion, the fierce general Prachai Ranida, in turn assumed the role of Terraâs first Grand General of the Terran Armed Forces, leading Terran troops to victory against the next successive wave of occupations threatening to once again seize Terraâs liberty and bind her in sorrowful captivity.
Without the valiant sacrifices of the many thousands of Terran souls who fought and died with honor, the Terra we know today would not exist.
Our First Prime Ministers: Edward M. Cranford and LuĂs Roberto GaldĂĄmez y Rosa
Edward M. Cranford is widely hailed as a Terran hero â first democratically elected Prime Minister, from the Center-Rightist Party, who steered Terra through its first hurdles and growing pains as a newly sovereign nation in the decolonial era.
Cranfordâs administration saw slow but steady economic growth, the birth of a professionalized standing military for Terra, and negotiation of several key treaties with foreign powers in the local system and in farther flung galaxies.
The administration suffered criticism for its failure to stop numerous terrorist attacks carried out by The Way, resulting in many deaths, and for Cranfordâs apparent over-reliance on the Terran intelligence directorâs counsel â a relationship many, especially those in Parliament and representing diplomatic missions of foreign powers, saw as suspect, fraught, and ethically dubious.
Terraâs second elected Prime Minister was LuĂs Roberto GaldĂĄmez y Rosa, who began his political career as a fierce critic of the Cranford administration and promised sweeping reforms to stabilize and normalize Terran governance. GaldĂĄmez was not long for Terran national politics, and swiftly lost office in the next elections with Cranford returning to power.
Our First Crisis: Cranfordâs Assassination, The GaldĂĄmez Commission, and Rhea Vaeros
Cranford too, stalwart though he was, could not continue his political reign forever. The Terran people suffered an enormous blow with Cranfordâs sudden, terrifying assassination, perpetrated by the mysterious Jacqueline Rose (aka Whisper) in a series of explosions on Government Center â that Greco-Roman-Turkic beauty built as a shining beacon of Terran idealism and democratic values. The damage lingered for years, forcing Parliament and other agency heads to relocate across Wing City and even to Van Leugen.
GaldĂĄmez returned to office as an interim measure before elections could take place again, with monitors and security ever-present to ensure the safety of the Terran people against saboteurs and terrorists alike.
When the Terran people finished casting their ballots, the results were clear. Terra would now be governed by Rhea Vaeros.
Our Modern Era: Salma Y. H. Khayyamâs Expansionist Ideals and Parliament Reorganized
Following GaldĂĄmezâs government, Rhea Vaeros oversaw the TNG in a tumultuous period of further insurrection, civil unrest, and further incursions onto Terra's sovereignty. Vaeros ceded power to Andrew Pinheiro da Varona, who first served Terra as the interim director of the then-new Terran Intelligence Bureau, and who represented a return to strong defense and centralized government â a bulwark against encroaching chaos, rebellion, and the ever-present threat of future invasion. Varonaâs administration oversaw successful reconstruction in the aftermath of constitutional crisis and rampant terrorism.
Following Pinheiro's government, Salma Y. H. Khayyam took power in the most recent Terran elections, which also saw a completely new Parliamentary political scene with the disappearance of the old vanguard and founding of new parties for a modern era.
Descended from ancestors with roots in Hafirjan, Issunar, and Therrier-Paix, Salma Khayyam is a committed nationalist, who believes in expanding Terran influence and territorial control throughout the Sol system, to increase Terraâs prosperity and foster a stronger sense of national unity while strengthening local power.
Khayyam is trained as an intellectual property lawyer, and left her position as a named partner in the powerhouse Therrier-Paix firm of Weinberg Hwang Khayyam & Quahog LLP to enter Terran politics. She maintains close relationships with a number of powerful corporate former clients as well as some local socially progressive charitable organizations.
Khayyam is the oldest of five children to her parents. Her wife, Foluyinka Olugbemi, avoids politics as much as possible, and is a successful neurosurgeon at Van Leugen University Hospital. They have no children.
At this juncture, Khayyamâs administration has faced harshest criticism for its failure to address growing civil unrest in Wing Cityâs always turbulent municipal zone, and failure to contain the growing threat of the rebelling Terra Nova Empire.
Our Shadows: Rubano Malijin, Elizabeth Innes-Ker Cranford, and Arianne DruloviÄ
Terraâs history is not without its shadows â those figures looming in our past whose deeds many would rather relegate to forgotten history for all the disquiet they bring.
Terra saw the rise and fall of Center-Rightist parliamentarian Rubano Malijin, whose campaign to consolidate power over Parliament and the Prime Ministerâs office reached its peak with his near-ouster of Terran Intelligence Director Arianne DruloviÄ over her involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity prior to her tenure within the TNG.
Terra saw the political machinations of Elizabeth Innes-Ker Cranford, widowed with her husband Edward Cranfordâs assassination, nearly escaping public notice for her graft and philandering without political title while amassing questionable funds.
Terraâs people have survived much â now it is our turn to prosper.
(OOC: I welcome ideas for involvement and collaboration, so if you are interested in any of these plotlines, or something else involving the TNGâs always screwy affairs, please feel free to contact me.)
