To All Whom It May Concern,
An independent team composed of five members selected from civil service rolls by the Commission of the Republican Cama of the Republic-Khanates of Dovakhan for the South Bai Lungese Question travelled to the Dovakhanese-occupied territories of South Bai Lung. Their mission was to evaluate the progress of the Dovakhanese Government of South Bai Lung and provide recommendations on the final status of South Bai Lung. Their report is as follows:
LEGAL PERSONALITY
The Dovakhanese Government of South Bai Lung, declared by Dovakhanese Governor Jan Demer under the authority of the Khagan-Chancellor and Cama of the Republic-Khanates of Dovakhan, is the legally recognized government of the territories on Mao Island designated as Zone C under the terms of the Dannistrian Partition Plan for Bai Lung (hereafter South Bai Lung). This plan was authorized by the Declaration of Unconditional Surrender made by representatives of the former People’s Republic of Bai Lung and of the Republic of Bai Lung.
GOVERNANCE
The Dovakhanese Government of South Bai Lung is organized into a unitary, republican, and presidential structure by an Act of the Republican Cama known as the Basic Law for the Dovakhanese Government of South Bai Lung.
Central Government
The central government is divided into four branches:
Legislative Yuan
The Legislative Yuan meets in New Jian Sha Zui Provincial-Level City at the Former People’s Central Bank building. Each of the 375 legislators are elected to renewable four-year terms by single transferrable vote from single-member districts called “wards.”
Executive Yuan
The Executive Yuan meets at the Executive Compound in Nanghai Provincial-Level City on the site of the Former Presidential Palace of Port Mao. The Dovakhanese Governor of South Bai Lung (who also acts as Minister for Defense) is appointed at the pleasure of the Khagan-Chancellor of the Republic-Khanates of Dovakhan. The Governor appoints various ministers, agency heads, and other public officials by confirmation of the Legislative Yuan.
[ul]
[li] GOVERNOR - General Jân DÊMËR Governor
[li] MINISTER FOR DEFENSE & SECURITY (ibid)
[li] DEPUTY GOVERNOR - Mr. WEN Jiabao
[li] MINISTER FOR FINANCE - Mr. PARK Myung-Bak
[li] MINISTER FOR JUSTICE - Mr. WONG Yan
[li] MINISTER FOR COMMERCE, TRANSPORT & COMMUNICATIONS Mr. DENG Enlai
[li] MINISTER FOR STATE ASSETS CONTROL - Mr. ZHOU Xiaochuan
[li] MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE - Mr. RHEE Dong-Yong
[li] MINISTER FOR HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE - Dr. ZHOU Shumeng
[li] MINISTER FOR THE INTERIOR AND THE ENVIRONMENT - Ms. CHUNG Geun-Hye
[/li][/ul]
Under the Basic Law, the Governor is generally vested with the power to enforce the laws of the Legislative Yuan. Additional powers of the Governor include the power to veto legislation, which the Legislative Yuan can overturn by a 2/3 majority, and the power to rule by decree during a declared state of emergency. During a state of emergency, the Governor must not dissolve the Legislative Yuan and that same body must review the state of emergency every six months. The Legislative Yuan can remove all members of the Executive Yuan, except the Governor, by a 2/3 vote.
Judicial Yuan
The Judicial Yuan meets at the Palace of Justice in Sing Ren, Xiang Gang Province, also known as the Former Presidential Palace. The Governor, with the consent of the Legislative Yuan, appoints fifteen qualified justices to a life term on South Bai Lungs court of last resort, the Judicial Yuan. Justices can be removed by a 2/3 vote of the Legislative Yuan.
The Basic Law for the Dovakhanese Government of South Bai Lung contains a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Code of Laws of South Bai Lung is largely based on the French-inspired Dovakhanese Civil Code, which provides for little use of jurisprudence. Juries are selected by lot and sit on equal footing with judges under a civil law system.
The Basic Law calls for a system of provincial and county courts, established as needed by the Legislative Yuan.
Control Yuan
The Control Yuan is a unique body of ombudsmen tasked with monitoring the efficiency of all levels of government, holding and certifying elections, and appointing lower court judges and other civil servants by examination. Seven controllers per province are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Judicial Yuan. Four controllers from each province live and work together in their respective provinces, while the fifth resides in New Jian Sha Zui; the sixth, in Nanghai; and the seventh, in Sing Ren.
Provincial Governments
South Bai Lung is divided into the following provinces and provincial-level cities:
[ul]
[li] DOKWAI (Capital: New Daegu), Lt. Governor Wang Li (PIP)
[li] NANGHAI (Provincial-Level City), Lt. Governor Jia Qinglin (CFL)
[li] NEW JIAN SHA ZUI (Provincial-Level City), Lt. Governor Zhou Jiping (PIP)
[li] XIANG GANG (Capital: Sing Ren), Lt. Governor Judaide Mugu (Ind.)
[li] XIANG LUANG (Capital: Biu Wok) Liu Qi (CFL)
[/li][/ul]
PIP Peoples Industrial Party | CFL Chongsheng Farmer-Labor | Ind. - Independent
Each province has a Lieutenant Governor and a Provincial Assembly, both of which are popularly elected by single transferrable vote. There are also provincial courts whose fifteen judges are appointed by examination. In practice, provinces are devolved a key role in secondary infrastructure, welfare and education policy coordination, special economic initiatives, and protection of regional culture. Provincial Courts receive appeals from county courts, except in the case of provincial-level cities, where there are both trial and appeals circuits.
County Governments
Provinces are further divided into counties. Counties can be rural, as is most of South Bai Lung, or urban, as in the County-Level City of Sing Ren. Each county has an elected County Magistrate and County Council responsible for civil defense, welfare and education administration, and the maintenance of vital records. A county court of five is appointed by examination to serve as the court of first instance in a given jurisdiction.
Ward Administrators
The lowest level of government in South Bai Lung is the ward. Each county or provincial-level city has at least one ward. Ward offices act as polling places, community centers, and welfare offices for all levels of government. These offices are often housed in former PDRWP branch offices. County councilors act as or appoint Ward administrators.
A Note on the Electorate
The Basic Law establishes the right to citizenship and suffrage to all natural-born and naturalized Bai Lungese who are 18 years of age or older. A petition delivered by fifteen percent of the electorate can order a recall election for any non-civil service government official other than the Governor. County governments conduct voter registration based on social insurance rolls.
POLITICAL AND INTEREST GROUPS
Labor Interests
The South Bai Lung Trade Union Congress was founded with the help of Dovakhanese labor activists who sought to organize workers in state-owned and already privatized firms to ensure that the best interests of the workers were kept in mind. The centralized industrial union organizes workers according to industry to provide for efficient collective bargaining.
Political Parties
The Dovakhanese Government of South Bai Lung did not institute a program of systematic de-Stalinization. Former party cadres from the Peoples Democratic Republican Workers Party of Bai Lung or the Bai Lungese Nationalist Party were allowed to re-inter civil service or political life so long has they had not committed any serious crimes against humanity. A program of truth and reconciliation commissions is being set up to deal with complaints not already taken care of by the legal system.
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CHONGSHENG FARMER-LABOR is a center-left, socially moderate party largely aligned with the interests of the ruling New Democratic Alliance in Dovakhan and the Dovakhanese Governor. The party resulted as an amalgamation of the non-Marxist socialist Chongsheng (rebirth) Party and the conservative, agrarian-left Farmer-Labor Party. Leaders of the New Democratic Alliance in Dovakhan orchestrated this merger in to create a stable, centrist majority party. Much like their Labour equivalent in Northern Bai Lung, Chongsheng Farmer-Labour has built a wide coalition of left-wing intellectuals, labor leaders, and farmers.
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THE PEOPLES INDUSTRIAL PARTY is the main opposition party with a center-right, liberal agenda, helped along by the Dovakhanese Populist Party. They are strongly anti-communist and are in many ways the democratic reincarnation of the Nationalist Party. However, they are consistent in their advocacy for personal responsibility and freedom, down to the implementation of laissez-faire market capitalism. Their power base rests with the rising urban middle and upper classes, particularly in New Daegu and New Incheon.
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THE HEARTLAND PARTY, much like the Peoples Industrial Party, holds a right-wing agenda. However, their base is more socially conservative, such as strongly anti-communist members of the proletarian class and reemerging religious leaders. In fact, there is an ongoing program to merge with the Peoples Industrial Party to better oppose Chongsheng Farmer-Labor, but it is meeting significant roadblocks as the cultures of the urban and rural right-wing clash.
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WORKERS STRUGGLE is a reincarnation of the People’s Democratic Republican Workers Party of Bai Lung that has a following among certain members of the working class and former party cadres. It has very little support but provides a lively forum for reevaluating certain Chenite initiatives.
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SOLIDARITY is a tiny liberal, left wing party that advocates Green politics and the repeal of draconian social legislation concerning such topics as homosexuality and the status of ethnic minorities. Their following consists mostly of left-wing intellectuals and students from Sing Rens Polytechnic University.
AN OVERVIEW OF DOVAKHANESE RULE
Security and Stability
South Bai Lung, particularly Sing Ren, presented a peculiar challenge for the Dovakhanese military and for subsequent security forces. The urban environments were conducive to insurgency and civil unrest. However, the Dovakhanese military was relatively successful in surgically removing security threats, bringing about order, and allowing relief efforts to win the hearts and minds of the people. A recent polls suggests there is at least 60% confidence in the Dovakhanese government among the local population, a significant gain from a little over a year ago.
Currently, Dovakhanese troops are responsible for securing the maritime borders, key infrastructure, and sensitive urban sites. Otherwise, the locally-staffed South Bai Lung Police has taken over most security operations after a period of Dovakhanese training and logistical aid. The South Bai Lung Police are under the charge of the Bai Lungese-led Ministry of the Interior, which also operates border checkpoints alongside the Dovakhanese military.
Particularly since the advent of the Control Yuan, elections have been both free and fair. The government seems to have an adequate degree of legitimacy in the eyes of the people. However, this is obviously contingent on the governments ability to continue to provide for security and the rule of law in South Bai Lung.
Economic Development
The Marxist-Leninist regime of Chen Jong Sun debilitated the economy through inefficient forced collectivization, central planning of heavy and light industry, and the outlawing of both private property and enterprise. The Nationalist regime introduced market reforms, including the encouragement of small business, which had begun to develop in secret as the Marxist-Leninist regime began to lose its grip. The process of industrial privatization began, but who received what was based more on patronage and graft than on market principles.
The Dovakhanese governments first order of business was to provide relief for the millions of people left destitute and displaced by the war with Dannistaan. The Dovakhanese Green Crescent provided humanitarian assistance. As provincial governments were reestablished, the Dovakhanese government began the Public Works Initiative with several pilot projects in Xiang Gang. The Initiative provided gainful employment to millions of unemployed industrial workers, rebuilt key infrastructure, and rehabilitated farmlands.
The next order of business was to turn Bai Lung from a net importer of staple crops to a country that could sustain its own burgeoning population. The Public Works Initiative rehabilitated collective farms and taught farmers how to make more efficient rice paddies. The Ministry of Agriculture partnered with county surveyors and deed offices to provide for the efficient privatization of the agricultural industries while setting up cooperatives to help farmers earn a living wage and share with one another. The greatest economic gains were made in this sector, with Bai Lung becoming a net exporter of rice within two years. Service sector privatization was also relatively simple, as many industrious Bai Lungese used relatively large savings from the Chenite era to secure loans and buy off the storefronts where they had worked.
Industrial privatization was the least successful of all the economic initiatives, with many firms already sold off to nationalist cronies. The Dovakhanese government decided to renationalize railways, electricity, and water/irrigation companies to better provide for the public welfare, but profits in these sectors suffered as a result. Other companies were privatized by lease buy-out, where a company signed up for a payment plan with the Ministry of State Assets Control to buy up the companys assets. The workers at the time of privatization are organized in share-cooperatives and maintain ownership rights, while the use rights are delegated to the manager.
This model of limited worker self-management was used during the Popular Front period in Dovakhan and was judged to be an ideal intermediary to full market capitalism. To that effect, the Ministry of Commerce, Transport, and Communications has reported that the pilot project for the Sing Ren Stock Exchange will be phased in within the next fifteen years. Meanwhile, the project creating the Central Bank of South Bai Lung is well underway to replace the supervision of the Dovakhanese Reserve over the South Bai Lungese economy.
All in all, Dovakhanese leadership has seen large economic gains, but these are not quite as great as in the Dannistrian and Free Pacifican-controlled zones of Mao Island. There were potentially greater barriers to development considering the cronyism that had become entrenched in Sing Ren. Also, South Bai Lung was more rural to begin with. However, the team would like to caution the economic planners to also consider that certain social measures might hinder the emergence of a strong, independent Bai Lungese economy.
Social Development
To that effect, the Dovakhanese Government of South Bai Lung has put a special emphasis on both the development of civil society and the emergence of a social safety net. The goal of creating a democratic society in South Bai Lung has been particularly difficult to achieve, considering the peoples lack of experience with democratic institutions. Therefore, a paradigm of gradual democratization has been coupled with the managed Bai Lungization of the occupation government. The Basic Law was only recently changed to accommodate the democratic institutions that are seen today and to provide for the election of Lt. Governors. Meanwhile, the Bai Lungization initiative has been going on all along to give the people of South Bai Lung a stake in their civil society. Now, all Cabinet members except for the Governor himself are Bai Lungese and over 95% of the civil service is Bai Lungese. The team would like to see full Bai Lungization in the next two years and particularly criticizes the Dovakhanese Government for excluding Bai Lungese from certain Cabinet positions until now.
That said, the Ministry of Health, Education, and Welfare is to be particularly commended for providing for the development of free public education and a social insurance scheme for all South Bai Lungese. The Uniform Curriculum for South Bai Lung provides all the best of Eastern and Western education and the reopening of Sing Ren Polytechnic University is a particularly great triumph. Meanwhile, the barefoot doctor scheme has brought healthcare to the countryside. Also, the new social insurance scheme, which provides for old age security, basic hospitalization insurance, disability, and unemployment, is both thrifty and comprehensive, paid for by a dedicated payroll tax. However, as South Bai Lung industrializes, there will be pressure to expand these institutions.
Fiscal Situation
The Dovakhanese Government of South Bai Lung has been running a budget surplus until this year, when the expansion of the welfare state outpaced sales of state-owned industries and tax collection. Projections indicate that the relatively minor budget deficit will be reduced or eliminated as the tax code system matures and as the last state-owned industries are sold off. Meanwhile, public debt is a relatively low percentage of annual GDP.
On the subject of taxation and general revenue, the Department of Finance has reported that tax delinquency is still a problem, but that this should be reduced as South Bai Lungese begin to take a greater state in their future. The current tax system is very similar both to that of Dovakhan and to that of the Dannistrian-occupied Free Republic of Bai Lung. A flat tax of 15% provides the bulk of central government revenue. There is currently no estate or corporate tax, in an effort to spur growth. Other taxes include a land value tax, a capital gains tax, and a VAT tax of 15%, with exemptions for commodity goods.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The fundamentals of Dovakhanese South Bai Lungese governance are strong. Both Dovakhanese and Bai Lungese officials within the occupation government are to be commended for the progress they have made in providing for the defense, social order, economic development, and public welfare of the people of South Bai Lung. The program of transitioning South Bai Lung to a democratic market economy should continue as planned.
However, regular Bai Lungese must now begin to take a greater stake in their government. At the earliest date, the Republican Cama of the Republic-Khanates of Dovakhan revise the Act Establishing the Basic Law for the Dovakhanese Government of South Bai Lung and, with the consent of the Legislative Yuan, other relevant statutes to recast the occupation government as that of an self-governing territory.
In particular, the Dovakhanese Government of South Bai Lung should be retitled as President of the Executive Yuan; his deputy, the Deputy President of the Executive Yuan; and the Provincial Lieutenant Governors, simply Governors. Also, various institutions should be retitled, where appropriate, as National, such as retitling the South Bai Lung Police as the National Police. Finally, the Dovakhanese Government of South Bai Lung should be renamed the South Bai Lung Free State; and its Basic Law, the Constitution of the South Bai Lung Free State to reflect its autonomous character.
The Republican Cama should then amend the Constitution to provide for the direct election of the President of the Executive Yuan. In the interim period, the present Deputy Governor of South Bai Lung, Wen Jiabao, should be appointed Acting President. At that point the Constitution should add clauses to allow the Legislative Yuan to amend its own constitution and the Republican Cama should then send special certified copies of the document in Chinese and Korean for ratification by the full Legislative Yuan.
After ratification, a treaty should be signed between Dovakhan, the South Bai Lung Free State, and other stakeholders, such as the Royal Confederacy of Dannistaan and the Free Republic of Bai Lung, stipulating the framework for the independence of the South Bai Lung Free State, the final drawdown of Dovakhanese troops from the region, and the reunification of the Bai Lungese people under one nation.
