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Monday, September 10, 301 AP
Web posted at 1433 UST.
HAASTADT, Rovens. Amea Kope has stood in the path of communist and Army tanks, stared square in the eyes their commanders and DARED them to challenge him in a solidly defiant speech that has confounded critics and elated supporters!
The ethnic Gvonjian no one wanted as their new President has taken the job by the throat and said "enough is enough!" and taken the country completely by surprise.
Kope declared that by the first aniversary of the country's foundation, there would be a newly elected assembly, or "we will spend the remaining years of this lands' existence fighting for those very same freedoms against communist or fascist forces." He DARED the military to challenge his authority when he declared that their numbers would be HALVED by the year's end, and publicly ordered General Keralski to resign!
His inauguration address was brimming with new directives and ideas, some of them politically dangerous, but told the provisional National Assembly that the people of Rovens "deserve better". However, what he primarily offered was his unwavering support for a democratic state, and how.
Swearing in
President Kope was sworn in by his rival for the top job, and Speaker for the Assembly, Janomi Kontoy, who has told reporters that she would join a Kope cabinet if asked, after the 47 year old Kope won the fifth Presidential ballot last Wednesday.
President Kope was considered more of a long shot, with the chief rivals for the top job shaping up to be Speaker Kontoy, with 40 strong supporters and 71 backing her, and moderate communist Juni Kpotha, with 77 votes behind her, mostly the Pataki Communist Party. But, on Wednesday, the PCP withdrew support from Kpotha and gave it to Kope in a deal that had some questioning just what he gave away.
The answer today is clear: nothing.
Leadership
"What President Kope offered today was strong-willed leadership, EXACTLY the sort of leadership that the country needs so desperately", declared one PIMR government Assemblyman after the President's speech.
His speech was full of new ideas and directions, but mostly of a strong defiance toward the communist and fascist forces that threaten the stability of the country.
"By January 1st, this nation will either be a democratic state, with a newly sworn
government, a newly sworn President, duly democratically elected," he declared, his voice
quavering with emotion, "or we will spend the remaining years of this lands' existence
fighting for those very same freedoms against communist or fascist forces."
He challenged the two opposing forces to rethink their strategy of another forty years of civil war.
"I tell you now, the Peoples of Rovens deserve better. They deserve a fair chance at liberty, at freedom, at prosperity, and we either begin right now, declaring ourselves free and working together as a united nation, or we begin by killing eachother in a fruitless and painful war that NOBODY can win, and no one can possibly profit from."
Finally, he told the Assembly that he was prepared to offer the ultimate sacrifice to keep the country democratic and moving forward:
"But, God so help me, I will fight with every breath in my body for the people, I will side with the people, Guwimithian to Pataki, Kpothan to Gvonjian, rich and poor, black and white, not one above the other, all people, united by ONE common destiny in the future of Rovens.
"If the tanks must come, from Patak or Kotovsk, then let their first casualty be me, for I will stand in their path, defiant to my final breath, but I will stand against them, and they will need to kill me first before I will yield! This will be a democratic nation, or I will not live to see it otherwise!"
Walk out
Predictably, several members of the Assembly walked out, including Nationalist rival for the top post, Colonel Deniska Nazdratenko, and some die-hard members of the Pataki communists. However, generally, most were surprised that the former Cruistian lay-preacher, and mid-level bureaucrat was making such powerful and defiant statements.
"I don't think many people, if indeed any, had ANY idea that we had elected such a man to the Presidency!" remarked one Assemblyman from Kpotha, the city in which Rhosei Penyassa was assassinated which started this recent revolution.
Amea Kope has been something of a one-man revolution. He negotiated in March an end
to the forty year war between the military and Pataki Communists, a truce that has yet to
turn into a lasting peace, an issue that has plagued him ever since. He has pledged that
negotiations would no longer be a barrier to the country moving forward, telling the Pataki
communists that elections would either go ahead with or without them.
Sweeping Reforms
However, he also aimed his guns squarely at the military, declaring that the armed forces would be halved in number by November 30th, and that General Keralski, who clamped down on a military coup in April, would be retired.
He then effectively dared the military to challenge his right to enact such changes:
"We, the people, will rule this nation and we will not stand by and allow the minority to overrule the majority any longer."
The newly appointed President also ordered an immediate census of the nation, and ordered the Pataki communist state to allow census bureau operations to commence within the region, or that the region will be "disenfranchised".
He then ordered elections to be held December 1st.
Finally, he reserved his final order for last: Rhosei Penyassa's assassination, he admitted, was the "unfortunate" reason for his appointment, but that he wished it hadn't come to that. He said the communist leader's death would be "thoroughly investigated" by an Rovenian detectives with assistance from an international panel, with "an incredibly wide range of powers".
"We will stop at nothing to bring the men responsible to justice."
Reaction
The President admitted that he was "firmly looking forward to the challenges of this government" and enjoyed dispelling his public image of a dour, humourless bureaucrat. He said he was "mostly" looking forward to bringing peace and prosperity to the majority of Rovenians.
Most Rovenians are to date too shocked by the man they didn't think had what it would take to unite the nation, to consider carefully the changes he has ordered. Almost all in downtown Haastadt support his promise for elections, his pledge to find Penyassa's killer and stand against both the Army and communists in equal measure.
"I seriously thought we would be getting a wimp for President", said one. Another
added that she thought that the President was "too tough" now, and might antagonise either
side. Still others were supportive of the thrust, but thought more could be done.
"I support the investigation into the [Penyassa] assassination, because I want to see justice done." said one man. "But think that the same effort should be applied to the shocking crime rate here in the city."
Perhaps the best reaction was from the tens or even hundreds of thousands of Rovenians who stood in the city square where a million had previously marched against President Kope's predecessor, and listened to the inauguration speech through loudspeakers. They cheered until hoarse, clapped and applauded, and some even cried.
"He makes me believe there is a future" declared one elderly woman.
Indeed, President Kope has hit all the right buttons and Rovenians are believing in themselves and their country again. No one could have asked for more.
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Rioting in Rovens over Penyassa assassination
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©Zeitgeist Magazine, 300 AP.
<TECH> ©Mike Ham, 2000. All rights reserved. No reproduction without, at least, tacit approval. ;-) |