Order of Imagua

Order of Imagua Ordine d'Imagua
File:MemberOrderImagua.png Medal of a Member of the Order of Imagua
Awarded by President of Imagua and the Assimas
Country	Imagua and the Assimas
Type	National order
Eligibility	All persons excluding Imaguan politicians, judges, and civil servants who are currently in office
Status	Currently constituted
Motto	Miscerique probat populos et foedera jungi (He approves of the mingling of the peoples and their bonds of union)
Post-nominals	Companion (CI) Officer (OI) Member (MI)
Statistics
Established	29 June, 1948
First awarded	29 June, 1948
Distinct recipients	1,440
Precedence
Next (higher)	none
Next (lower)	Hummingbird Medal

The Order of Imagua (Vespasian: Ordine d'Imagua) is the national order of Imagua and the Assimas, and the highest honour in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Imagua and the Assimas. The order was established in June 1948, following its independence from Estmere by the first President, Walter Redmond Keswick, which supplanted the Cross of the Federated Republics which was the highest honour in Estmere at that time.

History

Since Imagua was granted equal partner status in 1936 following the Great War, there had been substantial discussion on Imagua establishing its own system of orders, decorations, and medals to replace the Estmerish system, as Imagua was effectively a de-facto sovereign state, but was still a de-jure possession of Estmere.

Thus, during the late 1930s and early 1940s, a debate emerged around establishing an Imaguan system of orders, decorations, and medals, with the governing Sotirian Democrats not wanting to "burden the Imaguan taxpayer" with the costs of creating a distinctly Imaguan system "when we can utilise the Estmerish system of honours," while both the Democratic Party and the Labour Party wanted to create a national system of honours in order to assert Imagua's growing independence from Estmere.

While this debate was set aside during the Solarian War, following its conclusion and the annexation of the former Etrurian territory of the Assimas Islands, this debate flared up, especially as Estmere began to grant full independence to most of her colonies.

In 1947, Sotirian Democratic Prime Minister Frederick Maynard, seeing that Imagua may be granted independence announced that the government will look into creating an Imaguan system of honours and decorations. Thus, over the next year, the government devised a system, which while modelled after Estmere's honours system, was to be completely separate from that in Estmere.

After Imagua was granted full independence in 1948, the first President, Walter Redmond Keswick approved of an Imaguan system, with the Order of Imagua created to be Imagua's national honour, and to be the highest honour for all Imaguans.

Thus, on 29 June, the Order of Imagua was established, with its first inductees being Maynard's predecessor, Lucas Pembroke, and Redmond Keswick's predecessor as Governor-General, Christopher Fitzcharles.

Grades

The fount of honour for the Order of Imagua, as well as any other national honours in Imagua and the Assimas is the President.

Below the fount of honour are three grades, which are, in the order of precedence, Companion (Vespasian: Compagno or Compagna), Officer (Vespasian: Ufficiale(ssa)), and Member (Vespasian: Membro), with each grade having their own post-nominal letters.

Companions of the Order of Imagua have either demonstrated either an act of merit "so outstanding" that it improves the reputation of Imagua, or showed "distinguished service" to Imagua during their time in office. As well, this award is often given to foreign heads of state and government.

Officers of the Order of Imagua are those who have demonstrated an outstanding act of merit, and/or outstanding talent and service to the Imaguan nation.

Finally, Members of the Order of Imagua are those who have contributed extraordinarily to the local community, either on a municipal level, or on a parochial level.

Eligibility

Any of the three levels of the Order of Imagua are open to all living persons, regardless of whether they are citizens or nationals of Imagua and the Assimas, or are foreigners, excluding for all currently-serving Imaguan politicians, judges, and civil servants.

Nominations may be submitted by any person or organisation, and as of 2018, around 300 nominations are submitted to the Nominations Board, whose role is to evaluate the nominations submitted, determine if the candidates are worthy enough to be inducted into the Order of Imagua, determine what grade that they should be granted, and then submit their recommendations to the President.

Following the decision, appointees are invested by the President at the Red House, although the Prime Minister or the Deputy Prime Minister may do so if the President is unable to perform the ceremony, and the location may be changed, usually if the recipient is unable to travel to Cuanstad.

The award is held for life, unless the holder either resigns or is removed from the Order of Imagua. Following the death of the holder, the award automatically expires.

Resignation and removal

Resignations from the Order of Imagua may occur by having the member submit a letter to the Nomination Board requesting that their membership be terminated, and if approved by the President, their membership is to be considered terminated, and their insignia required to be returned to the government.

It is a constitutional convention that if any former national politician granted the award wants to return to national politics, that they resign from all Imaguan honours before they run for national office again: while it is not officially against the rules for a politician to keep their honours if they run for political office again, those who tried to run for office without resigning from their orders have not fared well, as it would be seen as trying to sneak around the ban on granting politicians their awards while still in office. However, this does not apply to appointments to the Imaguan Legislative Council: members who already are part of the Order may maintain their honours but cannot receive any new ones.

As of 2019, there have been ninety-two resignations, for a wide variety of reasons, such as protesting the appointment of someone into the order, criminal charges that may bring disrepute to the order, returning to national politics, or retiring from public life.

Removals from the Order of Imagua may occur if the Nominations Board feels that the actions of the member in question has brought the order into disrepute. In this scenario, the Nominations Board informs the recipient, and the recipient must send an appeal if they want to keep their order. If the appeal is received, it will be discussed, but if the Nominations Board reject the appeal, or if no appeal is received, the member is required to return their insignia to the Nominations Board and are no longer part of the Order of Imagua.

As of 2019, only three people have been removed from the Order of Imagua: Kit Barnes, who was removed in 1988 after being convicted of fraud, Pietro Muro, who was removed in 1994 after being charged with corruption, and Robin Barker, who was removed in 2006 after being disbarred for embezzlement and misconduct.