Colonies and Territories Act

[Vaculatestar]

The following bill has passed the Deshret.

Colonies and Territories Act

Section 1: Governing

1) Governors shall be Deshret members, appointed by the Pharaoh or by the previous Governor of that territory, to lead colonies, maintain the founder nation, and ultimately manage the region.

2) The Pharaoh will also have access to this founder account, in the case of inactivity by the Governor.

Section 2: Rules of Governing

1) The colony must maintain that it is under the control of Osiris in the World Factbook Entry

2) The Governor is free to apply Osiris law, or manage the region as they see fit.

3) The password of the founder account may only be changed with approval from the Pharaoh

4) Dissolution of a colony requires approval from both the Pharaoh and a majority vote by the Deshret.

Section 3: Transferring of Governor

Section 3: Transferring of Governor

1) Unless convicted of a crime, loss of citizenship, loss of Deshret status, or if the founder nation falls inactive, the role of Governor stays with the citizen who is appointed, or a successor named by the appointed.

[Cormac]

With great respect for the Deshret, I'm afraid I must veto the Colonies and Territories Act, for the following reasons:

1. The Osiris Division of the Imperial Sovereign Realms Army, the Sekhmet Legion, will not conduct (as in, lead) operations that involve password-protection or ejection of natives during my term as Pharaoh of the Osiris Fraternal Order. As a result, it will be practically impossible for the Osiris Fraternal Order to take further colonies by force, and I hope that this precedent will be continued in the future by my successors if not established by law by the Deshret. Given that most colonies are taken by force and I also have no plans, as Pharaoh, to incorporate voluntary colonies into the Osiris Fraternal Order, this legislation is largely unnecessary.

2. It is true that the Osiris Fraternal Order has three existing territories -- Islamic Republics of Iran, Wuqyin, and Lacedaemonia -- the first of which was taken by force and the latter two deliberately created, to serve as puppet storage and jump points for the Legion. It is feasible that we need some law to govern these existing territories but it should not be this law, for the further reasons I'm about to detail.

3. The Colonies and Territories Act grants entirely too much power to territorial governors. Under this Act, a colony or territory would remain the territory of the Osiris Fraternal Order in name only, as its governor would essentially become absolute monarch of the region with very little oversight by the Osiris Fraternal Order. A territorial governor would be free to either apply the law of the Osiris Fraternal Order or to "manage the region as they see fit." A governor could choose to make a territory of the Osiris Fraternal Order a republic or an autocracy, a defender region or a raider region, and on and on, without any oversight from the Osiris Fraternal Order. Indeed, there is not even any provision for removal and replacement of a governor for actions contrary to the interests of the Osiris Fraternal Order, and a governor's successor is chosen by that governor rather than by the Osiris Fraternal Order. This is not how an empire conducts colonialism.

4. Colonialism itself is not in the interests of the Osiris Fraternal Order. As we have recently seen, despite Osiris being a Sinker region, activity remains a challenge for us. It is not in our interests for citizens to be devoting their time and energy to other regions as governors, which by necessity will divert time and energy from Osiris, or asking other citizens to assist them and thus diverting even more time and energy from Osiris. There are many other ways to express imperialism, including ways that divert activity toward Osiris rather than away from her, and those are the methods we should explore as we move forward. Aside from being against this Act because of the military actions it logically entails or the specific details of the Act, I must veto this Act because I believe it will divert badly needed activity from Osiris to user-created territories.

I thank the Deshret for their consideration of this veto, and the Keeper may now return this Act to the Deshret.

[Durkadurkiranistan II]

1. The Osiris Division of the Imperial Sovereign Realms Army, the Sekhmet Legion, will not conduct (as in, lead) operations that involve password-protection or ejection of natives during my term as Pharaoh of the Osiris Fraternal Order. As a result, it will be practically impossible for the Osiris Fraternal Order to take further colonies by force, and I hope that this precedent will be continued in the future by my successors if not established by law by the Deshret. Given that most colonies are taken by force and I also have no plans, as Pharaoh, to incorporate voluntary colonies into the Osiris Fraternal Order, this legislation is largely unnecessary.

Is this a long standing belief or something you came up with just now because Rachel suspended the speaker election in Balder.

[Cormac]

Rachel actually agreed to this in principle and we were planning to eventually release a statement. So no, this has nothing to do with that...

[Bob Moran]

Could we have an explanation as to why the Legion is forbidden to fully conquer a region?

It sounds absurd to Call the OFO an Invader, or invader leaning GCR if it cant even properly invade a region anymore, and if it doesn't have the invader tag any longer (What's then the diffrence between TNP army and Osiris legion?). Every member region of the UIAF has simultaneously the Imperialist and Invader tag, one doesn't exclude the other. Removing the invader tag, along with those new kind of rules sends a clear message. The OFO has adopted a moderate stance, nothing like what it was at its foundation.

Things change, sure, but it's still disapointing that nothing of that was hinted in your vision when you ran for Pharaoh, and that the Raider tradition brought by the Brotherhood of Malice is no more.

[Cormac]

Removing the invader tag, along with those new kind of rules sends a clear message. The OFO has adopted a moderate stance, nothing like what it was at its foundation.

This is essentially correct. Osiris is an imperialist region and it isn't in our interests to arbitrarily grief regions for no purpose. We aren't The Black Riders.

Things change, sure, but it's still disapointing that nothing of that was hinted in your vision when you ran for Pharaoh, and that the Raider tradition brought by the Brotherhood of Malice is no more.

Anyone who expected a Sinker vulnerable to attack to run around arbitrarily griefing regions and pissing everyone in NationStates who is not an imperialist or raider off, did not have realistic expectations. We don't have a Founder to hide behind.

[Cormac]

As a note, the above mentioned policy in regard to password-protection and ejection of natives is temporary. I hope it will be made permanent, but I first want to discuss it with my Hedjet, FPAC, and probably have a discussion in the Deshret as well, to fully discuss it and make sure the region supports this course of action. It was never meant to be announced this way, but as it was related to the Colonies and Territories Act I felt that it should be noted.

But this will not be fully implemented as policy until there is more discussion on the matter. I don't make a habit of announcing major policy changes in one paragraph, tucked into a veto statement.

[Zaolat]

I have serious issues with 1. and a partial issue with 4.

While I will agree colonialism isn't really an interest it doesn't mean that it should be always off the table. I do not comprehend why you are forcing to limit military operations. I do personally agree that we are not the Black Riders and we do not have to grief everything in sight, but sliding off into some hybrid of Imperialist and Moderate Raider stance is not the way to go here. We know you have issue with TBR and have taken a liking to TEK.

I seriously doubt you'll find a majority supporting this change of policy.

[Cormac]

I'm sure I won't either. Everybody loves them some griefing.

[Zaolat]

I don't, despite on occasion that I like to be evil. But when it comes time that I help in an operation, I put my personal feelings aside.