On 10 January, the Chairman of the Grand Unified Micronational, Jack Dean, officially invited the State of Sandus to reäpply for membership in the organisation, where Sandus was a member from 2009 to 2014. The Sôgmô has three times served as the organisation’s chairperson, acting chair, or vice chair.
The formal invitation recognised the injustice done in 2016, when the State of Sandus had previously applied for membership that was rejected due to underhanded political opposition to the State of Sandus, and sought to “make amends for the wrongs of the past.” Sandus had also applied for observership in 2017 that was also rejected, a move that was unprecedented at the time. Today’s GUM, according to the chair, “is different now to what it was years ago” and its members “hold no ill will towards [the Honourable Sôgmô], Sandus, or its people.”
In inviting the State of Sandus, the GUM broke from its own standard practice since, as other micronationalists pointed out, the GUM has never invited nations to join its ranks.
Upon receipt of the invitation, the Officers of State discussed the matter before the Sôgmô presented the invitation to citizens at large in the Council of the State of Sandus. In a quick vote lasting a few hours, a majority of citizens in the Council had voted on the invitation and a two-thirds majority favoured applying for observership in the Grand Unified Micronational. After the Facilitator certified the vote’s result, the Sôgmô sent a letter to the organisation’s chair informing him of the Sandum People’s decision and formally applied to observe the organisation.
The State of Sandus is also a member of the Organisation de la MicroFrancophonie and of the Borean Community. In þess Blue Lecture last month, the Sôgmô characterised Sandus’s commitment to the OMF as « notre première préoccupation diplomatique ».
sandus.org 