Haldric Maldian
Dr. Haldric Maldian | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 2nd Premier of the Caropsyne Pontanore | |
| In office 15 May 1996 – 7 July 2000 | |
| Preceded by | Phodric Dormond |
| Succeeded by | Miria Seranoda |
| Defense Minister | |
| In office 5 April 1993 – 14 May 1996 | |
| Preceded by | Haldric Maldian |
| Succeeded by | Goriath Moscana |
| Interior Minister | |
| In office 5 April 1993 – 14 May 1996 | |
| Preceded by | Fostana Rule |
| Succeeded by | Marias Dortmond |
| Member of the Pontiana | |
| In office 5 April 1993 – 7 July 2000 | |
| Constituency | Ariatra Zemella |
| Personal details | |
| Born | June 30, 1927 Carmeldanna, Ariatra |
| Died | July 7, 2000 (aged 73) Fornænda |
| Cause of death | Suicide |
| Nationality | Caropsyne |
| Political party | Moderate |
| Spouse | Soria |
| Children | 1 daughter and 3 sons |
| Residence(s) | Ariatra, Carops |
| Education | PhD Linguistics |
| Alma mater | Imperial University Fornænda |
| Profession | Politician, Professor |
Haldric Maldian (born: 30 June 1927, died: 7 July 2000) was the 2nd Premier (Pontissiano) of the Caropsyne Pontanore.
Early Years and Personal Life
Haldric Maldian was born on 30 June 1927 in the town of Carmeldanna on the outskirts of Ariatra during the economic depression of the late twenties and early thirties. His parents possessed an expansive farm where they raised pigs, grew grain, and harvested apples. While most farms in the area were teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, theirs were one of a handful of minorly profitable ones and the money they managed to collect was put towards purchasing books for their son. Early on he was instilled with the fierce religious beliefs of his parents which would go on to influence his politics later in life. Upon entering his first year of primary schooling, Premier Dorias Rormold was been overthrown by the Fostana and they shuttered the elected Pontiana.
At age 12 Haldric was transferred to a Fostitio in Ariatra. It was at this time that the State of Carops was in the grip of the Great War against Loslakia and her allies. Needing more men to serve at the front, his father was conscripted. He learned of the news, he feared he would never see him again. To help him cope with his father's absence, he began producing creative writing pieces that would be sent with his mother's care packages. With each finished work, his love of language continued to grow. His father would read them and share them with his compatriots. Luckily, father and son would be reunited.
Haldric would graduate with first honors in language from his Fostitio in 1946 and given a chance to further his knowledge in lingustics at the Imperial University Fornænda. He discussed the opportunity with his parents and he felt bad that he was turning his back on their farm but they both encouraged him to continue his studies, recogizing that he had greater opportunities than being a humble farmer. He received his doctorate in linguistics and published his wartime creative writing pieces in 1951. For the next twelve years he would lecture students at the university. He met his wife Soria (nee. Gamela) one day over a cup of coffee at an cafe in Ariatra following an earlier guest lecture at Holmas University in 1954. They would date for three years before getting married in 1957. Both Haldric and Soria would have four children together.
Maldian's father passed away in 1964, leaving his wife a widow and the farm to him. Haldric, his wife and children, and his mother arranged his funeral which was well-attended by the people of Ariatra and his village of Carmeldanna. The family farm is retained and expanded over the subsequent years to become the largest in the town. Throughout the sixties and seventies he would give numerous guest lectures around the world and write several academic papers on ancient and modern Thearean language structures. Maldian and Phodric Dormond would meet in the early 1980's and would quickly form a close friendship which would make them future political allies. Over the eighties he would make several powerful allies in the business community and the military leadership that would prove useful when decided to enter a life of politics.
Political Career
The Fall of the Fostana and Election to the Pontiana
Maldian, despite agreeing with some of the Fostana's more nationalist policies, recognized that their reactionary social stances stood to destablize the country. He would observe the council's heavy-handed supression of Hermalas' Socialist Uprising in 1991 and their failed attempt at using military force to disperse protesters in his home city of Ariatra the following year. Although he was not a direct participant in either event, he was sympathetic to their general demands including that in order for Carops to be truly strong, the people needed to be charge, to work together under an ethos of national pride and cooperation. In the wake of the 1992 protest, Chair Rolmand Roth decreed that the Pontiana would reopened and democracy would be restored. Elections were called for 3 April 1993.
Although most political parties had not been banned during Fostana rule (except the Communist Party), few had the infrastructure and resources to carry out an election since no votes had taken place since 1933. Phodric Dormond, who Maldian had met in the years leading up to the 1991-1992 social struggles, established the Moderate Party and immediately recruited him to be his second-in-command. Between the two of them, they had an extensive network to lean upon for financing. Given Maldian's talents at language, he took the lead on developing the manifesto. Through his use of language, he was able to bury much of their shared ideology of center-right politics, state interventionism, civic nationalism, and a strong military that would become the core of future Dormondism by presenting the Moderates as a 'centrist' party.
He would become the party's candidate for his constituency of Ariatra Zemella and be tasked with delivering Ariatra's votes on the day of the election which they deemed to be key to their electoral success. Maldian's reputation in Ariatra and its surrounding communities return a solid majority for the Moderates in the 3 April 1993 election and aids them in winning the highest number of seats in the Pontiana. Dormond is set to become Premier but the Moderates do not secure enough votes to govern alone, forcing them to enter into a coalition arrangement. Maldian assisted in brokering the agreement with the Social Democratic and the Liberty parties. He, like other MP's, take their seats on 5 April 1993.
Dormond Government
Haldric Maldian is given two predominant portfolios, Defense and Interior, making him the undisputed second-in-command in the government. Four months into his tenure, an assassination attempt on his life is made but fails, supposedly carried out by foreign agents. Maldian had become a trusted voice in the country due to this electoral speeches for the Moderates but he saw it grow considerably following the event.
As Defense Minister, he successfully persuaded the Pontiana to invest three times as much on the military than what the Fostana had expended at the height of their rule. The arguement he gave was that to properly defend their restored democracy and properly project Caropsyne interests around the world, the military needed to be expanded and experience a complete overhaul. Though much of the funding did make it to the armed forces, tens of millions were siphoned off by the Damosca to finance their covert operations. In his capacity as Interior Minister, he was responsible for maintaining the safety of the Pontanore's citizens, something which he is thought to have excelled at during his term.
Like the Premier, Maldian shared a similar worldview in regards to international affairs and encouraged the Pontanore to implement an aggressive foreign policy against those countries whose own disagreed with the Pontanore's. One nation of particular note was the Republic of Curiastan which was believed to be a threat to long-term influence in developing countries. It has since been determined it the Damosca, pressured by Zarmal, who coaxed this policy. As more 'incidents' occurred around the world, Maldian's and Foreign Minister Miria Seranoda's working relationship declined rapidly. She was was highly critical of the Government's handling of foreign policy. Seranoda would resign and flee to Ardalia at the end of 1995.
Phodric Dormond's Government collapsed over the events of the Great Oil Crisis of 1996 where it was perceived to be inept and slow to react to problems facing the Pontanore. Members of his own party including respected backbencher Alza Permentanna demanded his resignation. Foreign Minister Seranoda, who had fled to Ardalia in 1995, gave a fiercely critical address over State Television claiming that the Government had been ruled by the Damosca. She delivered a damning dossier to the Pontiana's Executive Committee listing a range of terrorist acts for which she claimed Dormond (and by relation Maldian) were responsible for orchestrating. Seranoda and Maldian, who already had a poor relationship became outright political enemies during the Oil Crisis. Having lost the confidence of the Caropsyne people and the threat of a motion for his removal being put before the chamber, Dormond announced his resignation and snap elections called for. Maldian would become Premier based on the results of the election and would reassemble the original coalition government.
Premiership
Maldian's elevation to the Premiership gave him an opportunity to reshuffle the cabinet and ensure the coalition did not splinter away as it had under his friend. Social Democratic Party Chairman Marias Dortmond was made Interior Minister while the Liberty Party's leader Garel Thormond became Foreign Minister which removed Seranoda from the government. The rising Moderate politican and military veteran Goriath Moscana was made Defense Minister, and despite her criticism of the former government, decided to make the well-respected Alza Permentanna both Health and Culture Ministers.
Haldric maintained many of Dormond's domestic policies while emphasizing the need for further investment in the military. He too carried out the same aggressive, hardline and nationalistic foreign policy against other governments who did not agree with the Pontanore. Following the end of the Oil Crisis, the Premier instituted a trade embargo upon Curiastan for their involvement. This started a cold war between the two countries. Closer to home, the Ardalian Civil War would break out in October 1996. Maldian announced that the Pontanore would honor the terms of the 1994 Treaty of Taerisz by providing military advisors, weapons, vehicles, food, and war material to help keep the legitimate Hran government in power.
Relations with the Curian bloc got worse with the rise of the dictatorship of Marshal Andart Sadner resulting in an war of harsh words between the two leaders. In April 1997, there was a potential Curian plot to kidnap Miria Seranoda who had fled to Ardalia in self-imposed exile. Although Maldian still hated Seranoda, he could ill-afford to allow her to be captured and give his Curian rivals a propaganda victory let alone Caropsyne secrets. After much persuasion from Bureau Chief Zarmal, he instructed the Damosca to get to her first. The operation was a success and she was made Administrator-General of Euvodora by the Premier in exchange for her ceasing any public criticism of the government and its policies.
Maldian would face the repercussions of the previous year's Oil Crisis with the outbreak of the Jaj Revolution in Chonoré by the Jaj Independence Front in October 1997. At the behest of military advisors, including Zarmal, he reacted swiftly and with overwhelming military force to crush the movement before it could spread across the rest of Polythia. The Pontanore would engage in a series of military conflicts that would send soldiers to many corners of the world, all would be considered victories. These events would only further Maldian's reputation as a violent and warmongering man. Maldian's foreign policy would be considered increasingly isolationlist and nationalistic and would pit him against a resurgent Latagon in the battle over international influence in addition to Curiastan.
He would sign the Treaty of Monchento which would create the Thearean Community in November 1997.
Downfall and Death
The highly aggressive and hardline foreign policies carried out by Maldian between 1998 and early 2000 finally prompted that something needed to be done to stop him before his decisions completely isolated the Pontanore. Miria Seranoda, Alza Permentanna, Goriath Moscana, and Fostana Chair Rolmand Roth would secretly meet in April 2000 to plan his removal from office. On the afternoon of 3 July 2000, in an unprecedented move, the Fostana abruptly stopped their proceedings mid-session and marched upon the Pontiana Palace, effectively invading the lower house and sparked the five-day long Caropsyne Constitutional Crisis. Originally planned to be resolved without bloodshed, events quickly turned violent when the Damosca acted on its own and preciptated the bloody Siege of the Pontiana in an effort to keep Maldian in power.
67 people died in the firefight with 108 injured. The combined events that had occurred during the siege is what drove Haldric to commit suicide. Once the Pontiana was secured by the Casmara, officers found him dead by hanging himself from a ceiling light fixture in his office, draped in the flag of the Pontanore. He left a note on his desk in which he expressed severe regret and guilt at the events that had unfolded.
He was survived by his wife Soria and their four children. She would be appointed a member of the Yutrias' reformed Fostana in September 2020 in recognition of her late husband's tenure as a former Premier.
In the wake of his death, Dormondist political ideology became politically toxic in Pontanore politics and would paralyze the Moderate Party for decades to come.
The Pontiana's Executive Committee and the officers of the Fostana jointly administered the Pontanore until snap elections could be held three weeks later. Maldian's sworn political enemy, Miria Seranoda, soundly defeated Olimand Kossroth for the Premiership.