Minjuha
| File:Electionin1980.jpg Scene from a local election which took place in NMR 2321, the first time opposition parties were actually allowed to take part in elections | |
| Date | March NMR 2316 - c. NMR 2331 |
|---|---|
| Location | Throughout Namor |
| Cause | End of Green Fever, deteriorating relations between Namor and Communist bloc, moderate takeover of Liberationist Party |
| Outcome | Rise of mixed-market economics, increased political, economic and social liberties, militarization, independent course in Esquarian affairs |
Minjuha (Namorese Cyrillic: Минюhа) was a policy that began in Liberationist Namor starting the late NMR 2310s (1970s) and throughout the NMR 2320s (1980s) under the administration of President-General Gelai Antelope, son of predecessor Yunglang Antelope who had led the Namorese revolution and the People's Republic of Namor from NMR 2290 to NMR 2315 when he died.
Although foreign observers usually interpret Minjuha as simply democratization, this interpretation isn't entirely correct; although transition from a single-party state to a dominant-party system was the most important outcome of Minjuha, there were also other significant results, including mainland Namor's opening-up to the outside world, increased economic and social freedoms, and the revitalization of relations with countries that have been long alienated by Namor due to its temporary alliance with Marxist countries during the Green Fever years. In its entirety, "Minjuha" is defined as a stage in Namor's post-revolutionary history when the country underwent a "moderation" in its formerly radical domestic and foreign policy. Another misconception by some is that the generally accepted end of the Minjuha era (c. NMR 2330s when Gelai Antelope stepped down as President-General) Namor became a full parliamentary democracy; in fact, for twenty years after Gelai Antelope's stepping-down Namor remained a dominant-party state, with the Liberationist Party of Namor gaining the most number of seats in the Namorese Central Council up until NMR 2353, when it finally received a mild share of seats in the legislature, ending its tradition of successive victories in national and local-level elections. It is known, though, that Minjuha managed to end the Liberationist Party's status as Namor's only legal ruling party, and brought about a beginning to grassroots democracy in Namor.
Areas of Concern
Political reform and the "Emperor Effect"
Gelai Antelope is considered the founder of Minjuha, and sometimes even the "father of Namorese democracy" although that term is rarely used in mainland Namor (as it implies that pre-Minjuha Namor wasn't democratic, a statement which is usually perceived as negative or taboo). He first brought up the term "Minjuha," which meant "Process of Returning Power to the People," "Process of Democratization" or simply "Democratization," in a March NMR 2316 Central Council conference, only four months after the death of Gelai's father, Yunglang Antelope, and the purging of radical Liberationists from the Central Party Committee. In that conference, which would be known as the "Minjuha Conference," Gelai said that the days of "political tutelage (a term once used by Yunglang Antelope to describe the time period when one party will dominate the government to supposedly 'prepare' the people for democracy)" were over, and that Minjuha is necessary to "complete the final leap of the revolution, the leap where the sweats broken from revolution are turned into full power to the masses," hinting that Minjuha will bring forth political reform and the legalization of opposition parties. Gelai believed that the Green Fever had "done more harm than good to the country," and "if Namor continues to go down the road of a single vanguard dominating the people, eventually the newer generation of Namorese, who have never experienced the revolution since they've never lived through it, will begin to undermine the entire authority," summing up Gelai's view that single-party states are not meant to last forever.
One important component of Minjuha is a belief with Gelai himself brought up in the Minjuha Conference and called the "Emperor Effect." According to Gelai, if a single-party state refused to democratize and transition into a multiparty democratic state, it will continue to distance itself from the people and eventually degrade itself into no more or less than an "imperial ruling class" that receives special treatment while the rest of the people don't. Having said during the conference: "For now, the Liberationist Party is still a people's party, but if we are to go down this road then we will be no longer. Decades will go by, we will hand power to our sons, and they will become nothing but an imperial ruling class, ruled by an Emperor whose real name is the President-General, raising princelings and ruling the people like corrupt Emperors, benefiting from nepotism and cronyism. This will happen because our sons do not know how it was like during the revolution, so they will inevitably fail to remember the revolution and what it stands for - power to the population. We must jump aboard the route of Minjuha, and only then can our revolution be saved."
Militarization and independent role in foreign affairs
Besides advocating political reform, Gelai also saw Minjuha as a policy for Namor to play a more independent role in Esquarian affairs. In an opinion piece authored by himself in the Liberationist Party's official mouthpiece, The Liberator, Gelai remarked that "anything we do to defend our territory, our integrity in the face of imperialist ambitions to reunite their own country so they pounce on us, must be done ourselves. The day will come when these so-called 'friends' of ours (referring to the Communist countries) will turn against us before perishing themselves, and if we don't do anything now we'll be left with no friends, just enemies and those whom we alienated during the time when our party made many ideological errors." With this thought at hand, Gelai continued and intensified Yunglang's policy of Junsiha (militarization), stressing self-reliance in safeguarding national defense. The effects of Junsiha were seen when almost three years later, Namor successfully toppled the Marxist regime in Khao in NMR 2319 and suffering less casualties than expected.
Although through the NMR 2320s, Minjuha Namor continued to try in maintaining nominally cordial relations with the Communist bloc until its very end, it also revitalized the strengthening of relations with countries like Geadland, Ainin, Iglesiantis and Pavonistade, which were alienated by Namor during the Green Fever when it sought better relations with communist countries.