State of the Republic - Year 9 Day 343

(This address was held on Day 343 in Year 9 by Edhrikhor Tlakh`sar )

Edhrikhor Tlakh`sar

As the holocam energizes, the scene portrayed is not one that has been typically seen in a State of the Republic address. Usually, the Chief of State is standing behind a podium or sitting behind a very large and ornate desk onboard a capital ship with a huge banner of the New Republic behind him and an audience of hundreds, but today, he can been seen sitting behind a modest wooden desk in what appears to be a small log cabin and he appears to be completely alone. There are no banners or flags indicating that this is an official setting for the Chief of State, but there is a gently flickering fire off to one side.

Fellow citizens, today we are three weeks away from the opening of campaigning for the next term of Chief of State. I am currently on a sabbatical from my Jedi training and have found an out of the way world in which to meditate. When I ran for Chief of State all those months ago, my platform was one of stability, recovery, and growth. I feel that I have accomplished those goals. Since I have been CoS, we have not had a company go bankrupt or get dissolved, we have not lost any substantial assets, we have overwhelmingly recovered from the Black Sun coup, and not only have we grown, but we have been a part of the growth of the Galactic Alliance. While we were not totally unscathed in the last eleven month with the murders of several prominent figures and insignificant lootings of a couple of our companies, we have to understand that as long as we stand for the good of all sentients, we will remain in the sights of those that love turmoil over order and of those that think we are an easy target. We are stronger than ever before and I believe that the New Republic has come a long way.

I said all that to officially announce that I have decided not to run for the next term as Chief of State. I have been highly active in this role, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I have lost touch with the very sentients that I serve. I feel that I have accomplished that which I set out to do and even though I would very much like to remain at the helm of the NR, it is time for us to set a new course and go to higher levels. I have been very tenacious with protecting the NR from harm, but I absolutely believe that we are strong enough and ready to take some risks and see where we can go under new leadership.”

I announced last month that we were days away from accepting the Jedi Order into the Galactic Alliance. I couldn't have had anything more wrong. Just as we thought the debate was becoming finalized a new issue was brought up and the debate actually became extremely heated to the point that I felt that I had to call for a censure against another GA member. Thankfully, the talks calmed down and everyone was able to come to an agreement and the JO is now officially part of the GA.

In other diplomatic news, we now have a Non-Aggression Pact with BlasTech Corporation and the Tion Hegemony. Several trade bans have also been presented and passed by the Senate. RDC is also continuing work on territory consolidation.

Our newest tax planet is expected to be done in early December and with the amount of work that all the builders have put into it, the New Republic has regained sector control of Mayagil. One other tax planet has just gone from the planning stages to asset acquisition and we should be breaking ground on it within the next month or two.

I am proud to announce that one of my last proclamations as Chief of State will be to officially recognize Adbatar, Republica as the current Capital of the New Republic. Until such a time as we are able to regain Coruscant as our seat of government for the New Republic, Adbatar will be our symbol of freedom and equality. I hope that ARGH is able to come up with an appropriate celebration for this announcement.

I feel that it is the least I can do to bestow the Hydian Star of Excellence posthumously upon both Eli LaSalle and Oilios Katastrefor for their dedication and commitment to the New Republic and her ideals. We will miss both of these great men and may the Force be with them.

I have not made this type of announcement before, but hopefully, it will become a staple of this address. In this last month, Gothar Haerdwyn has been appointed to lead Astralwerks Engineering. May we all wish him the best and support him any way that we can. As our Minister of State has already announced, Zeff Traner has been named to the position of Employment Chief Administrator. He has been tasked with ensuring our citizens get the development opportunities they deserve, have a point of reference for disputes, and just be there to answer their questions. This is a huge boon for us as it now brings recruitment, education, and information all together under one department and should provide all of those functions with more support.

This leads me into the last thing that I would like to discuss. We received a formal complaint against the appointment of Minister Traner and there have been continuous accusations that the Advisory Council and upper NR leadership is an oligarchy. Now, since I have made my announcement that I will not be re-running for CoS, I feel that I can be less of a politician and tell you like it is. These accusations started when our very own Azzi Blackgate wrote an article for the Holocron detailing how he viewed the New Republic leadership and an oligarchy was the term he used. Since he has become the Minister of Trade and Industry and has seen how things work from the other side of the fence, I questioned him as to whether he still felt the same way. After listing several statistics, his response was,

Now obviously, putting someone we trust in high positions is a factor, justifying Zeff's appointment (along with him obviously being one of the best we've got here), but some will inevitably see that as favouritism. However, with those few examples, and the obvious amount of leaders used in those statistics, coupled with the new constitutional amendments, no, we're not an oligarchy and moving yet further away.

And the following was my answer to the formal complaint:

Your objection is noted and filed. You are correct in saying that we have a shortage of leaders, but you did miss a few words. We have a shortage of 'qualified and capable' leaders. I would much rather leave a position vacant for years than to put someone into the position who was not capable and could very well cause a very large mess. The position that Zeff is filling has been vacant since before I became CoS. It was a known vacant position and absolutely no one applied for it and those that were asked, didn't want it. I am confident that Zeff is more than capable of filling the position and I support Kapryn's decision and the fact the Zeff agreed to take that position (that no one else wanted) is a big factor for me.

Some of the problems that we have run into is putting people into positions that they aren't qualified or capable of filling and then we can't get them out of those positions. That may be something I need to look at over the next few weeks.

There was a response to my answer with the fact that the opening had not been announced, but the issue there is that announcing openings for positions is the responsibility of the ECA, the very position that was vacant. The AC had made an attempt to fill the position on a couple of occasions, but other events took precedence and the department heads were doing a satisfactory job without someone over them. In summary, I will not be happy with any further accusations of this nature. If you want to advance, then work hard, let your ideas be known, network, and don't be a pest or an annoyance.

Long Live the New Republic and May the Force be with us all.