Republic of Namor on Peitoa: Difference between revisions
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Template:Infobox Former Country Peitoa, officially the Republic of Namor (RON), was a state that exercised control of the Peitoan archipelago, Vanhotoa archipelago, Binh Minh archipelago, parts of the Sonlang archipelago and the island of Meitoa. The successor to a larger republic of the same name that once controlled mainland Namor before being defeated by the Liberationists in the Namorese Civil War, the RON on Peitoa continued to claim sovereignty over mainland Namor whilst rejecting the legitimacy of the People's Republic of Namor (PRN) that had been established on the mainland after the civil war.
Postwar Peitoa was officially a multiparty democratic republic, but in reality it was ruled by an authoritarian state or most of its history. From the 1920s to 1970s, Peitoan politics was dominated by the National Salvation Front (Tengukmon), the reorganized form of the Republican Party of Namor. The Tengukmon outlawed all political opposition amid fears of Liberationist subversion. Peitoa experienced a brief period of liberalization in the 1970s and 1980s that culminated in the restoration of the parliamentary system that had been discarded in 1921. However, liberalization ended after general Jung Fa seized the prime ministership in a 1986 coup d'etat. Jung abolished the parliamentary system and was elected president in 1991. He remained in power until the PRN invaded Peitoa in 2006, ending the RON's 81-year rule from the archipelago.
Peitoa under the RON transformed into a developed economy, owing to the proliferation of maritime trade and the government's economic liberalization policies. Peitoa enjoyed limited recognition on the international stage; its foreign policy prioritized containing the PRN and bolstering its own claim as the sole legitimate government of Namor, although its anti-PRN stance softened in the 1970s as a result of democratization on the mainland.
History
Third Republic (1925 - 78)
The Third Republic of Namor began on 1925, the year the RON retreated to Peitoa after losing control of mainland Namor to the Liberationists. It succeeded the First and Second Republics of Namor, which were both founded on the mainland.
Jung To, president of the RON, consolidated his hold on power in Peitoa amid fears of a Liberationist takeover of the islands. He proposed a series of "emergency reforms," which included the strengthening of the President's powers and reorganization of the Republican Party of Namor. In April of 1925, a referendum was held in territories that remained under Republican control. The government reported a 100% turnout and unanimous approval for the emergency reforms. Consequently, the National Assembly was stripped of its power to override presidential vetoes, and the Republican Party was replaced by the National Salvation Front (Tengukmon), which provided a facade of multiparty competition in Peitoa. Protests and strikes broke out in the islands following the referendum, but were suppressed by the military. The government passed ordinances banning a wide range of "anti-Namorese" organizations, including left-wing parties, newspapers and labor unions.
The regime tried to strengthen Peitoa economically and militarily in preparation for an armed conflict with Liberationist Namor. Construction of an expressway network in Peitoa commenced in 1928 and ended in 1935, facilitating transportation between the four main islands of the archipelago. The city of Shinnachin was expanded to accommodate refugees from the mainland, while new settlements were built elsewhere in the islands for the same purpose. A land redistribution law in 1931 entrusted each farmer to at least six hectares of land, helping to dispel dissent in the countryside. The government introduced conscription for all able-bodied male citizens over the age of 18, and signed a defense treaty with Luziyca in 1933 after the Liberationist Namorese takeover of East Po'ai drew Bethlehem closer to Peitoa. After the onset of the Green Fever, Jung stepped up support for anti-Liberationist movements on the mainland, arming Otekian separatists in the Second Namo-Luziycan War and attempting a failed landing in Binfen, Southern Namor in 1942. The Binfen incident dampened enthusiasm for a military reclamation of mainland Namor.
Jung died in 1947 and was succeeded by his son Jung Ki. Though he retained his father's hostility towards the Liberationists, Jung Ki softened his attitude towards the PRN particularly after Antelope Yunglang's death in 1950. Low-profile negotiations between the two sides began in 1952. In 1957, both the PRN and RON agreed to allow reunions for families separated by the Namorese Civil War. Small-scale trade was permitted as the PRN opened its special economic zones to Peitoan enterprises. However, direct communication and flights between the mainland and Peitoa remained an impossibility. Domestically, Jung Ki's presidency witnessed a slow liberalization in Peitoa. The government allowed direct elections of Peitoan representatives in the National Assembly while representatives of mainland provinces remained appointed by the President. Although opposition parties were still banned, dissenting voices within the Tengukmon were increasingly tolerated.
Jung Ki died in 1966 and was succeeded by Vice President Tzang Vangcho, a native of Peitoa and former mayor of Shinnachin during Jung To's presidency. A member of the localist faction in the Tengukmon, Tzang promoted participation of Peitoan-born citizens in the government. In 1968, the government officially abandoned its support for removing the Liberationists from power through military force, dismissing such as idea as "fanciful." That same year, the National Assembly established "Peitoa Province," a national-level administrative division that included the Peitoan and Vanhotoan archipelagoes; the Sonlang archipelago and Meitoa remained a part of Southern Namor Province, and the Binh Minh archipelago became the seat of a newly founded Tuhaoese Autonomous Province (not to be confused with the Autonomous Republic of Tuhao on the mainland). In 1970, the National Assembly held its first completely direct elections for the first time. Seats representing the mainland were removed, leaving only the seats representing Peitoa Province, Southern Namor Province and the Tuhaoese Autonomous Province.
The Tzang administration tried to improve relations with the PRN, but all efforts stalled when Peitoa supported Luziyca in the Third Namo-Luziycan War. In retaliation, the PRN imposed sanctions on Peitoa and invaded the Binh Minh archipelago in 1972, stripping the RON on Peitoa of an offshore territory. After the PRN conducted its first nuclear test in 1973, Peitoa joined the Esquarian Union as the representative of Namor and became a part of the Luziycan nuclear umbrella.
Anti-government protests flared across Peitoa in 1977 demanding Tzang's resignation. In the face of mounting pressure, Tzang resigned from office. A year later, the National Assembly adopted a new constitution which abolished the presidency and introduced the parliamentary system in its place. The new constitution marked the end of the Third Republic of Namor.
Fourth Republic (1978 - 86)
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The first general election under the new constitution was held in 1978. The freest election in RON history, it saw numerous parties run for National Assembly, although "anti-Namorese" parties were still banned to prevent Liberationists from running for office. The Tengukmon won a bare majority in the National Assembly, and Chen Nufa, former Vice President of the RON, was elected Prime Minister. However, his government collapsed in 1981 due to perceived government incompetency in addressing the Recession of 1980. In a snap election, anti-establishment parties took control of the National Assembly and elected Li Kun, a dissident during the Third Republic and leader of the People's Party, as prime minister.
Li tried to kickstart economic growth in Peitoa by introducing economic interventionist policies. To the disdain of business and military interests on the islands, the government raised taxes, reduced military spending to stimulate the economy and appropriated land to farmers. These policies had mixed results; while the economy was officially out of recession in 1983, growth was slow and inflation increased. Protests, strikes and street violence increased — a trend that Li's opponents attributed to his lifting of restrictions on freedom of assembly and the press.
In 1986, Li publicly considered negotiating an eventual reunification agreement with the PRN, on the condition that both sides drop their official names and adopt Namor as the common name of the unified state. The announcement elicited accusations that Li was selling out the RON and calls for his removal from office.
Fifth Republic (1986 - 91)
In September 1, 1986, members of the Republic of Namor Army led by Jung Fa, a general and grandson of Jung To, staged a coup that arrested Li along with his entire cabinet and allies in the National Assembly. Citing political gridlock as the cause for taking power, Jung established the September 1 Revolutionary Commission — abbreviated as the 91RC — as the highest body in the RON. The 91RC ruled Peitoa throughout the brief era that became the Fifth Republic of Namor.
Immediately following the coup, Jung restored many repressive policies that were rolled back in the Fourth Republic. Civic groups and labor unions were outlawed once more, and the military was ordered to forcefully disperse all protests and strikes. However, some degree of political activity was allowed to avoid criticism from Peitoa's allies.
Peitoa suffered a major diplomatic blow in 1990 when Luziyca normalized relations with the PRN, which was no longer ruled by the Liberationists. However, it still recognized the RON as the legitimate representative of the Namorese people. Jung decried Luziycan recognition of the PRN as a "betrayal of a close friend;" at the same time, he tried to improve Peitoa's international image by exiling all prominent leaders of the Fourth Republic who were imprisoned in the aftermath of the coup, including Li Kun. In 1991, Jung ordered the disbandment of the 91RC in preparation for a return to civilian rule, signaling the end of the short-lived Fifth Republic.
Sixth Republic (1991 - 2006)
The Sixth Republic began in 1991 with the adoption of a new constitution that restored the presidential election. That same year, the first elections under the new constitution were held; although multiple candidates were allowed to run, there were reports of electoral fraud. In the end, Jung Fa and the resuscitated Republican Party won by a landslide. Jung claimed that the elections marked the completion of the return to civilian rule.
Under Jung, the government implemented economic liberalization — state-owned enterprises and social security were privatized, tariffs were removed and a flat tax of 15% was introduced in 1993. The Peitoan economy surged after a decade of slow recovery from the last recession, but economic inequality worsened.
Relations with the PRN were frosty despite the new Democratic Socialist administration on the mainland and attempts by both sides to achieve rapprochement. Initially a supporter of eventual reunification, Jung reversed his stance in 1995 after the Republic of Namor was relabelled "Namorese Peitoa" in the Esquarian Union. During his second inauguration speech, Jung said the priority of the RON was no longer national reunification, but "international recognition of the Republic of Namor's right to coexist with the People's Republic of Namor," becoming the first Peitoan leader to acknowledge the PRN by name. However, the speech was not received well by Namo, which accused Jung of trying to declare independence from Namor.
Jung stepped down as president in 1999 after completing his second four-year term, naming Vice President Txo Chinven, his closest ally, as his successor. But Jung still wielded a considerable amount of influence in the government and was regarded as the de facto head of state throughout Txo's one-term presidency. Txo attempted to reset relations with the PRN by promising to not unilaterally upset the status quo. In 2002, the PRN and RON agreed to allow direct movement between mainland Namor and Peitoa, which was hailed by both sides as a breakthrough in relations.
As Txo's first term came to an end in 2003, he announced his decision not to run for reelection. Jung Fa ran for third term in office, and was elected despite allegations that his actions were unconstitutional. Protests against Jung's reelection were violently suppressed.
In 2004, Peitoa captured the Changlang, a mainland Namorese ferry. Jung alleged that the Changlang was a mainland spy ship and offered to release it if the PRN lifted sanctions on Peitoa that were imposed in the aftermath of the 2003 election. President-General Kaitlyn Kan responded by imposing a naval blockade on Peitoa, but ruled out a military invasion of the archipelago. The Changlang standoff ended in 2005 when Peitoa returned the ferry as a sign of goodwill to the newly inaugurated President-General Fu Wen.
In 2006, Fu Wen ordered a military invasion of Peitoa after reports surfaced that the regime was developing its nuclear program. Days after the invasion began, security forces loyal to Shinnachin mayor Yung Kang arrested Jung Fa and handed him over to the Namorese Liberation Army. The PRN took full control of the Peitoan archipelago, marking the end of the Sixth Republic and the Republic of Namor as a whole.
Politics
The RON on Peitoa was an authoritarian republic for most of its history, though the degree of authoritarianism varied by republic. The Third, Fifth and Sixth Republics were the most authoritarian periods in RON history, while the Fourth Republic was considerably more liberal.
During the Third Republic, the RON government placed great emphasis on its claim as the legitimate government of Namor. This was reflected by the composition of the National Assembly, the national legislature, which continued to represent mainland Namor even though it was under Liberationist control. Mainland representatives consisted of Republican officials who had fled to Peitoa along with Jung To and were subsequently assigned to represent their home provinces for life; after their deaths, they were replaced by their relatives or other people who came from the mainland. The practice of representing mainland Namor in the National Assembly ended in 1970, when the Tzang administration shrank the number of seats so that the entire Assembly was directly elected and represented only the people living under RON control.
Political parties changed from era to era. The Republican Party of Namor was disbanded in 1925 and replaced by the National Salvation Front (Tengukmon), a coalition of parties and interest groups that were supposedly united by the "Three Cardinal Principles" outlined by Jung To: national salvation, national rejuvenation, and opposition to the Liberationist Party. Members of the coalition included the National Revolutionary Party (representing the middle class), Workers' Party (representing workers), Farmers' Party (representing farmers), National Solidarity Party (representing ethnic minorities), and the United Associations of Overseas Namorese (representing overseas Namorese). All candidates in the Third Republic had to belong to the Tengukmon to stand for election.
In 1978, non-Tengukmon parties were allowed, giving rise to new parties such as the People's Party, which advocated liberalism, and the Democratic Party which ran on a platform of Peitoan localism. The People's Party became the governing party in 1981 and remained in power until the 1986 coup, when all political parties were banned by the military junta.
Following the restoration of the presidential system in 1991 that lifted the ban on political parties, Jung Fa reestablished the Republican Party, which became the ruling party throughout the Sixth Republic. Opposition parties, such as the Progressive Party and New Peitoa Party, were legally tolerated but subject to routine harassment by authorities.
Foreign relations
After the Namorese Civil War, Peitoa continued to enjoy diplomatic relations with some countries that shared its position that the Republic of Namor — not the People's Republic on the mainland — was the sole legitimate government of Namor. Due to mutual non-recognition between the RON and PRN, countries that had diplomatic relations with one entity did not have relations with the other. However, a number of countries that recognized the PRN still maintained unofficial relations with Peitoa.
| Country | Duration of relations |
|---|---|
 Aucuria |
1915-1990 |
 Ambrose |
|
| Template:Country data Ceresnia | 1915-2006 |
 Katranjiev |
1915-1937 |
 Luziyca |
1915 - 1990 (sole legitimate government of Namor), 1990 - 2006 (legitimate representative of the Namorese people) |
Military
The Namorese Armed Forces (NAF, Namorakun) was the armed forces of the Republic of Namor. The military played an important role in stabilizing the Third Republic, and continued to enjoy a lot of influence for the rest of Peitoa's history under RON rule.
Before the RON retreated to Peitoa, thousands of Peitoans were forcibly conscripted into the NAF to fight the Liberationist insurgency on the mainland. In 1925, the regime officially introduced conscription for able-bodied male citizens over the age of 18. Conscription was extended to women in 1941. Conscription led to an increase in NAF personnel; at the time of the PRN invasion of Peitoa in 2006, the NAF had over 80,000 total personnel — equivalent to around 8 percent of the total population.
The NAF had six branches — the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and National Defense Force (NDF). The NDF, a paramilitary force, was created in 1926 with the task of supporting the NAF in military conflicts and conducting guerrilla warfare if Peitoa came under Liberationist attack. In spite of its perceived role in Peitoa's defense, the NDF was bloated with corruption, lack of discipline and scarcity in advanced weaponry that made it useless in an actual conflict with the PRN. This was demonstrated in the 2006 invasion, when most fighting on behalf of the RON was done by the better-equipped Army.
Peitoa enjoyed extensive military support from Luziyca and other countries that recognized the RON. The Peitoan-Luziycan military alliance was codified in the 1933 Namo-Luziycan Mutual Defense Treaty, which guaranteed Luziycan assistance in the event of a PRN invasion of Peitoa and allowed Luziyca to station advisors and troops in Peitoa. Peitoa, in turn, provided military support to Luziyca whenever the latter went to war, even going as far as to support Bethlehem in its two wars with the PRN. The Namo-Luziycan Mutual Defense Treaty was annulled after Luziyca switched recognition to the PRN in 1990, although it continued to provide armaments support to Peitoa. Arms sales were suspended during the Changlang Crisis of 2004.
Economy
In the 1920s, Peitoa — like the rest of Namor — had not yet industrialized. However, due to the archipelago's location the East Namor Sea, it profited from maritime trade. Its geographical separation from mainland Namor also meant that it was left unscathed from the civil war, which was mostly fought on the mainland.
Jung To persuaded some of Namor's largest companies to move to Peitoa. After relocating to Peitoa, his government adopted a business-friendly attitude, promising to reward businesses that generate large amounts of wealth. While the mainland tried to reduce foreign trade, Peitoa increased trade by keeping its ports open and lowering tariffs on exports from its diplomatic allies. The land reforms of 1931 greatly boosted agricultural output, while infrastructure programs such as the construction of highways and new settlements helped reduce joblessness. These factors combined facilitated Peitoa's transition to a developed economy whose standard of living was higher than the mainland's. This remained true even as mainland Namor's total GDP rose at an exponential rate in the second half of the 20th century.
Culture
Media
The flow of information in Peitoa was tightly controlled by the government through the Ministry of Information, which owned all television and radio stations. Newspapers, on the other hand, were privately owned, but were subject to laws that prevented them from criticizing the state or presenting a favorable image of mainland Namor. Press freedom reached its zenith in the 1980s before it was rolled back by the 1986 coup.
Namorese Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), the first state-owned broadcaster in the RON, went on air in 1926. In 1930, the government launched an international broadcaster, Radio Free Namor, which beamed anti-Liberationist propaganda to the mainland. NBC began its television broadcasts in 1946; that same year, the tallest television tower in Peitoa was erected in Shinnachin. Called the "Stone of Nozama" after the mythological stone that foretold the demise of the tyrant Nali, the tower was envisioned as a transmitter of the truth to Namorese living under Liberationist occupation, though in reality it was incapable of transmitting signals to the mainland.
Censorship and self-censorship were prevalent. The Ministry of Information served as both a news agency and regulator of the media by feeding radio and television stations with the official perspective of the news and imposing prior restraint on "inaccurate" information. Print media were required to follow a set of basic guidelines, such as referring to the PRN as "the Liberationist authorities" (later changed to "mainland authorities") and marking the name of the President in bold — a practice that was briefly abandoned under Prime Minister Li but restored by Jung Fa.
Religion
Peitoa was officially a secular state, though religious freedom was among the basic rights listed in the 1921, 1978 and 1991 editions of the RON constitution. Religion in Peitoa faced less regulations than in the mainland; during the Third Republic, the government went great lengths to promote religious freedom as part of a campaign to present Peitoa as the last free territory in Namor.
Most Peitoans are Txoists, living alongside a Lutheran Catholic minority on the archipelago. Lutheran Catholics in Peitoa gained the trust of the regime for their strong opposition to Liberationism; many, including Tzang Vangcho and Chen Nufa, were promoted to top positions in the government.