Citizen McCarrin motions for secession from St.Charlie

William McCarrin, member of the Citizens’ Communist Party of Sandus and citizen of the Territory of Sandus, has petitioned the Governor and motioned for secession from St.Charlie and a dissolution of the Commonwealth with St.Charlie. Here is the petition and motion in its full:

To the Honourable Governor of the Territory,

I write this letter today to raise with you a matter that I think is most serious and very pressing. I’ve been a citizen of our beloved Sandus for some time now; since just after the Territory’s first governor election. In that time I’ve observed a great many things about the Territory and its governance, and most of those observations have been unpleasant. I’m writing to you today because I believe the Territory, our country is facing a serious crisis that must be tackled urgently. Sandus has a long history of more or less successful self-government. We are a country and a people with a political and cultural identity of their own. We aren’t any more or less a nation state than any other country in our international community. And yet since becoming a Territory of St.Charlie we have found ourselves in a situation where we are denied true self-governance, the ability to exercise our right to self-determination. A right upon which the very idea of micronationalism is built.

St.Charlie is a modern and thriving liberal democracy. As a part of their Commonwealth our country is expected to be a representative democracy for the People by the People. But what have they done to built that democracy? Absolutely nothing! If anything they’ve taken our democracy away from us with the terms of the Territory. Instead of letting our country develop into a democratic realm as they should hope they’ve helped built a tyranny, an elected dictatorship. There isn’t any devolution of legislative power whatsoever; we are denied the right to have our own real legislative body with proper law-making power. We’re supposed to accept that this is because we’re part of St.Charlie and so the federal Parliament is our legislature, but we aren’t allowed to participate in that Parliament! Sandus doesn’t get to elect even a single representative to Parliament, not even in the form of our Governor. How is this democratic? We as Sandum citizens don’t get any say in the laws imposed on us, but St.Charlians do and we are expected as a country, as a people to accept their judgement. Not that Parliament has done a very good job of representing even those citizens who do get to elect of it. I certainly haven’t heard of any legislation being passed by it, and from what I know all it really does is debate whatever the Prime Minister of the day is doing! I don’t call that a legislature and I don’t think any other reasonable person would either. The Sandum people are not the St.Charlian people. We need the power to make our own laws that are in keeping with our own political ideas and cultural values, and we need a legislature that actually uses its legislative power in the interests of the country.

The absence of an elected legislature for Sandus has given rise to a situation where the Governor is essentially the dictator of the Territory. You have executed your office faithfully and dutifully, but the fact remains that the Territory is an elected dictatorship. There isn’t any kind of developed political system and without independent law making authority the Governor just becomes a tyrant who can do whatever he or she wants so long as it doesn’t break St.Charlian law (again, laws that we have no say in the making of!). This system is at odds with some of the most fundamental ideas of Sandus. We are unashamedly a Socialist people. In all the incarnations of our country we have had a long, respectable tradition of democracy, a tradition that has been sadly broken since becoming the Territory. And even the legal status of this system is dubious, especially in light of the St.Charlian laws we’re subjected to that are supposed to protect and uphold democracy. If the federal government really cared about democracy and the welfare of all peoples in the Commonwealth then it would help us build some kind of sustainable democracy in Sandus, but it hasn’t. We can’t continue with the current system. We have a right to not be subject to laws over which we haven’t had any say in the making of. We aren’t even permitted our own courts to enforce those laws, and the St.Charlian courts have shown themselves to be very poor in quality with the recent election fiascos. I know I wouldn’t trust their court system to do a very good job if I had to go to it.

And what about the defence of the Territory? St.Charlie hasn’t made any undertakings to ensure our security. We don’t have our own component of the armed forces. We don’t have a say in military policy. We don’t have any means to defend ourselves against hostiles. Even if our legal status is just a Territory, we are still a country! And countries have the right to defend themselves against those who would harm them! I haven’t heard of any real provisions by the SCAF for our defence in the event of war. And if the St.Charlian government doesn’t care enough about us to give us our own legislature or even just a seat in their Parliament, how can we expect them to care about our defence in the event of war? Whether there’s any real threat to us now or in the future doesn’t matter; it’s a point of principle. We have the right to defend ourselves and control our own fate, but as a Territory we’ve been denied that right.

The obvious solution to these problems might be to apply to become a Federation. But how humiliating is that? For us, a free people who once had their own sovereign nation to apply for the right to have a say in our own government? The Sandum people are a proud people and I think it would be shameful for us to have to ask for our rights back. Which brings me to the point of my letter.

I am asking you Honourable Governor to set the wheels in motion for our country’s independence. I motion that Sandus secede from the Commonwealth and be restored to its former status as a sovereign nation. I think that most of the Sandum population would agree with me when I say this is in the popular interest. I’ve become a proud Sandum citizen these past couple of months and it hurts me deeply to see what’s becoming of our country as part of the Commonwealth. I beg of you Honourable Governor, heed my plea and do what’s necessary to restore our land to its former glory. I ask you to do this not just as a citizen and as a subject of your governorship, but as a fellow member of the Citizens’ Communist Party.

Yours sincerely
William McCarrin