Ceryana

Ceryana Suryana 溸雅
Flag Seal
Motto: "Dar Shanti'ayana" (Suryanese) "Abode of Peace and Progress"
Location of Ceryana
Capital and largest city	Noules
Official languages	English
Recognised national languages	Chinese, French, Suryanese
Ethnic groups 2023 census	39.1% mixed ethnicity 17.9% Chinese (Han) 16.0% Suryan 7.2% British 7.0% French 12.8% others
Religion 2023 census	49.5% irreligion 21.9% Buddhism 14.2% Christianity 8.5% Islam 5.1% others
Demonym(s)	Ceryan
Government	Federal parliamentary republic
• President	Pierre Dewa
• Prime Minister	Thomas Preece-Lee
• Chief Justice	Ana Teixiera
Legislature	Parliament
• Upper house	Senate
• Lower house	Assembly
Independence
• Federation of New Hertford, Indaya and Noules	1 September 1948
• Defection of Ceraine and Tebain from France	3 March 1953
• Incorporation of East Beira and Clermont-des-Indes from UK	1 November 1954
• Incorporation of Haut-Tebain from France	20 September 1966
Area
• Total	229,875 km2 (88,755 sq mi)
• Water (%)	13.6%
Population
• 2020 estimate	72,772,830
• 2018 census	71,878,790
• Density	366.41/km2 (949.0/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2020 estimate
• Total	$4.52 trillion
• Per capita	$62,154
GDP (nominal)	2020 estimate
• Total	$4.38 trillion
• Per capita	$60,120
Gini (2019)	35.8 medium
HDI (2019)	0.904 very high
Currency	Ceryan pound (£) (CYP)
Time zone	UTC+8 (CST)
Date format	dd-mm-yyyy
Driving side	left
Calling code	+87
ISO 3166 code	CY
Internet TLD	.cy

Ceryana (Suryanese: Suryana; Chinese: 溸雅) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation consists of six states and two federal territories. Noules is the capital of the federation, the largest city and the seat of the legislative and judicial branch of the federal government. Clermont-des-Indes is the seat of the executive branch of the federal government.

Ceryana has its origins in the Indayan Kingdom, which was the first state to unite the several Malayic fiefdoms in the region in 601 CE. The establishment of the Portuguese colony of Beira Leste in the mid-17th century marked the start of an era of European colonial competition. France annexed the Portuguese puppet state of the Kingdom of Ceriana in the mid-18th century, causing Portugal to transfer administration of its remaining territories to the United Kingdom. The War of 1778 resulted in France surrendering half of its colonial territory to the British. Colonial rule was met with fierce local resistance by the early 20th century, culminating in the then British colonies of Hertford, Indaya and Noules to jointly declare independence as the federation of Ceryana on 1 September 1948. The United Kingdom relinquished its last colonial claims on 1 November 1954, and France on 20 September 1966.

The country is governed under a parliamentary system, with roots in the English Westminster system. The dual-track legal system is based on both English common law and French civil law. The head of state is the directly-elected President and the head of government is the Prime Minister. The complex history of the country, along with high rates of intermarriage and relatively open immigration policies, have made Ceryana a multi-ethnic and multicultural society, which continue to shape Ceryan identity and national policies. The four national languages are Chinese, English, French and Suryanese, although the sole official language of administration on the federal level is English. Ceryana is officially a secular state, with nearly 50% of the population subscribing to no religion.

The economy of Ceryana grew at an average of almost 12% every year for the first 30 years after independence, fuelled by its export-orientated manufacturing and shipping industries. Since being recognised as a developed country in the 1980s, the economy has shifted towards tertiary industries, with Noules becoming a global financial centre and Port Elliot a tech hub. It also ranks highly in quality of life, education, healthcare, safety, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights.

Etymology

The name Ceryana is derived from classical Suryanese Malay Suryanagara. The name Suryanagara itself is a composed of the classical Suryanese Malay words surya (suria in contemporary Suryanese), meaning the sun, and nagara (negara in contemporary Suryanese), which means kingdom. Both surya (सूर्य sū́rya; 'sun') and nagara (नगर nagara; 'city') are derived from Sanskrit, an important literary language in the old Buddhist kingdoms that were located throughout the land of today's Ceryana.

Portuguese merchants made contact with the Kingdom of Suryanagara in 1654, and referred to the country as Cerianagara in written correspondence. Following the collapse of the kingdom, the Portuguese established the puppet state of the Reino da Ceriana, the Kingdom of Ceriana. This name was anglicised to Ceryana.

The French translated the Portuguese name Ceriana to Ceraine, however Ceryana was adopted as the official French name of the country upon independence to avoid confusion with the now-incorporated French ex-colony with the same name. Hokkien traders in the 14th century originally referred to Suryanagara as 溸掠 (Pinyin: sùlüè; Hokkien POJ: sò͘-lia̍h; Cantonese Yale: sou3 loek6). However, the name 溸雅 (Pinyin: sùyǎ; Hokkien POJ: sò͘-ngá; Cantonese Yale: sou3 ngaa5) was adopted upon independence to better fit the Mandarin pronunciation, which was chosen to be the standard Chinese dialect.

History

Pre-unification

Prior to the 7th century CE, Proto Suryanese people began settling throughout Ceryana around the 4th century BCE. Proto Suryanese communities were isolationalist and dispersed, and were headed by hereditary chiefs, known by their titles Hang.

The first recognisable centralised power was established in the early-6th century CE by Hang Indai, the chief of a village known as Pangkor near modern Bukit Gajah. Pangkor villagers had mastered gold panning and rice farming, resulting in stockpile surpluses. Hang Indai traded this surplus with neighbouring villages, allowing him to expand his sphere of influence over their chiefs. Hang Indai also started trading with Indian merchants, who brought along with the Hinduism and Buddhism. Hang Indai eventually converted to Buddhism in the mid-6th century, with many of the chiefs under his influence following suit. With expanding influence and increased trade, Hang Indai engaged Buddhist monks to start writing laws, creating a recognisable governmental system.

His son, Hang Wangsa, inherited the chiefdom in 591 and began subjugating neighbouring chiefs by threat of force for trade deficits. Eventually, Hang Wangsa claimed sovereignty over those villages and established the Kingdom of Indaya in 601, named after his father. The establishment of the kingdom saw the title of the ruler change to Raja, with Indaya continuing to expand until the 13th century, often by diplomatic force, eventually incorporating the lands that make up most of today's Ceryana.

A crisis in the inheritance of the Indayan crown occurred in the mid-13th century, when Raja Mahameru died with no male issue. This eventuated in the War of the Indayan Princes between Putra Wikramawira (Raja Mahameru's eldest brother), Putra Sri Nila (Raja Mahameru's second patrilineal uncle) and Putra Sang Muda (Raja Mahameru's youngest brother), which eventuated in the fracturing of kingdom into three principalities at the end of the century - Indaya, Surya and Nalus. The severely weakened principalities largely collapsed 50 years later, with warlords and hereditary chiefs seizing control over local communities in what was known as the Period of Fiefs.

Unification

The collapse of the

Government and politics

Ceryana is a federal parliamentary republic, with the federal constitution setting out the structure of the state and government. The system of governance is closely modelled on the Westminster system, a legacy of British rule over most of the constituent states. The federal government is divided into three branches:

• Executive: the President and the Federal Administrative Council, comprising the President-in-Council and the Cabinet (composed of senior ministers appointed by the President-in-Parliament);
• Legislative: the bicameral Parliament, comprising the President-in-Parliament, the Senate and the Assembly of Representatives; and
• Judiciary: the Supreme Court, whose justices are appointed by the President-in-Parliament.

Executive

The head of state is the directly-elected President, who acts on the advice of the Cabinet in most matters ("President-in-Council"). The Prime Minister is appointed by the Cabinet as the head of government, and the Cabinet are members of the Assembly who are in turn appointed by the President on the advice of the Parliament. While this reflects the the constitutional conventions of the Westminster system, the constitution expressly recognises this legal arrangement where the President acts as the legal figurehead for the government's actions. However, the constitution also grants the President a few exclusive powers ("autonomous powers") which may be exercised "ex-Council", with the most significant that being the power to dissolve parliament.

The Cabinet consists of the four Offices of State, known as the Prime Minister's Office, the Home Secretary's Office, the Foreign Secretary's Office and the Defence Secretary's Office. While formal power is exercised by the Cabinet as a body, in practice the Prime Minister

Legislative

In the Senate, there are 72 senators. Each state has 10 senators, while the federal territories of Noules and Clermont-des-Indes have eight and four senators respectively. The Assembly of Representatives has 335 members elected from single-member constituencies allocated on the basis of population. Both senators and members of the Assembly are elected directly, although the former is elected on using a single transferable electoral system, while the latter an instant runoff system. Elections for both chambers are normally held every four years simultaneously, although only half of the Senate is dissolved before each election. Consequently, the term of a senator is eight years, while the term of a member is four years.

As the President can only appoint members of the Assembly to the Cabinet and on the advice of the Parliament, members from the

While a multiparty liberal democracy, federal politics in Ceryana has been dominated by two coalitions since independence. The National Alliance is comprised of the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, while the People's Front is composed of the Labour Party and the Ceryanese Greens. In particular, the Conservatives and Labour have not cumulatively not held less than 300 of the 355 Assembly seats until the 2020 general election.

Judiciary

The Supreme Court is the highest court, acting as the final court of appeal from the federal courts and several state court systems. It also has original jurisdiction in several matters of importance, most notably in constitutional interpretation. which may have the consequence of striking out acts of Parliament and exercises of administrative powers. Common law tradition is followed on the federal level and five of the eight jurisdictions, with the other three being civil law jurisdictions. Customary law, notably Islamic law, is recognised on a voluntary basis in family law and certain other areas of law.

State and territories

One of the few autonomous powers that is granted to the President is the power to appoint a Resident in each of the six states, who act as the presidential representative in the states.