The Motion Fails: A Look Back

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"The Motion Fails: A Look Back"
Sopo
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Yesterday, October 4, 2020, Senator Forilian moved to overturn the decision of Senate Speaker Darkslayer which postponed any votes on Cabinet nominees until after the conclusion of the Senate by-election. The Grand Hall quickly spun up into an uproar, largely against the senators seeking to overturn the Speaker’s decision. Now, not much more than 24 hours following the controversy, the participants and onlookers are left to wonder: why all the commotion?

“When the decision was made to delay the vote until after the election, my first thought was that it was an unnecessary delay: no candidate had publicly voiced dissent for the two candidates ready to vote, and I felt that we could waste less time (at least 24 hours for the candidate to be elected and masked plus more if there was a runoff),” offered Senator Forilian to the E-News Network. “Obviously in hindsight I was wrong, but I stand by the decision I made at that time. I would also like to apologise to Josi, our new Senator, who may have been offended with this.”

Elected in a by-election upset over former Speaker GraVandius, Senator Josi has immediately stepped into the Cabinet confirmations with a fresh round of questions. When asked for comment, the senator struck a middle ground:

I think that Speaker Darkslayer made a courteous choice, which objectively wasn’t unreasonable. If I was in his shoes, I would have done the same. However, if another day or so had already passed before the by-election would be over, then I would keep things moving on great and uncontroversial candidates such as Kuramia and Sky.​

Nonetheless, Senator Josi has utilized the time saved for her to offer her own questions to the nominees.

Perhaps the more interesting, and less public, feature of the episode is that Senator Malashaan initially intended to negotiate with the Speaker behind the scenes to change his mind:

I felt and feel that when the Speaker announced no votes would occur until after the by-election, we were pretty close to the line where the resulting delay would be unreasonable. I felt having a discussion about exactly where that line is was important to have. However, the Speaker took the position that any question about whether the delay was needed should be raised by motioning to vote. I disagreed with that approach but didn't think it was worth fighting.​

When asked, Speaker Darkslayer admitted that he had been approached about his decision privately. “When the discussion took place (before the motion) I did inform the senator if they were unhappy with my decision, they were entitled to overturn my scheduling decision,” the Speaker confirmed. “I admitted to them that it would be rather unfortunate to do so and could not fully understand why they wouldn't prefer to wait. However, yes, I did mention they could overturn if they were unhappy with my decision.” This discussion seemingly prompted Senator Forilian to motion to overturn the decision. Perhaps such a discussion in public, Senator Malashaan's preference, would have been the better path.

The senator initially supported the motion, as he disagreed with the speaker's decision, adding, “Then Fori motioned that three vote [sic] on two nominees should occur immediately. I also disagree with that decision, but at that point it was clear the whole Senate was going to have to resolve the matter, so I seconded so we could vote and end it. I regret raising these topic [sic] at all because it caused a needless argument.” Both Senators Forilian and Malashaan ultimately retracted the support for the motion, causing it to fail, and Senator Josi was seated today. The Speaker has already initiated a vote for Kuramia, nominated for minister of foreign affairs, and reported to the ENN that he expects to begin opening more votes in the next 24 hours as final questions are answered.

Ultimately, it seems to be more about precedent for Senator Malashaan. He added:

...once tempers have cooled, I do think we need to discuss the contours of when a vote is and is not appropriate. There's very little precedent here. In 2018 the Senate voted on MD while he was also a Senate candidate in a by-election, but he would presumably have abstained anyway do that's not informative. In 2013 the Senate voted on nominees while having only three members and a by-election was scheduled, but waiting would have caused a week's delay, not 2-3 days. We really have no precedent for how much delay is acceptable.​

At the end of the day, the Speaker’s delay has made no material difference on the confirmation times for this slate of nominees. President Peeps, when asked for comment, said that his administration would still be able to achieve its goals. This same sentiment was echoed by returning minister of world assembly affairs, SkyGreen24, who stated, “...if we did have work to do the staff could just collectively come to an agreement on who would write it.” No one is suffering here – though the question of what length of delay would be justifiable remains.

Former Senator and Minister of Culture Nominee Calvin Coolidge summed up the hubbub in the Grand Hall thread:

...I don't think either side went too far here, and I don't think anybody overreacted. There was an action taken by the Senate with relatively low stakes. The public voiced their opposition to that action, without resorting to threats or namecalling, and ultimately was successful in stopping the motion from going ahead. Where did anybody go too far?​

Not everything is drama, and often governing will lead to opposing sides having a debate with many participants. If you think that is something that is harmful to the region or something we should try to avoid, you're wrong. That's good governance, and I view discussions like this one as a positive interaction for our game. I hope I'm not alone in that.​

Different actors have walked away with different opinions on what transpired yesterday and of what value it was to the region, but discussions like these are a hallmark of Europeian democracy. Tensions did flare a bit, not unusual in a game like ours, and I would certainly rather be arguing about a procedural delay than fight some of the life-or-death battles from Europeia’s earlier years. We should be collectively grateful for such developed discourse and a constructive outcome. This is the Europeia I like, and the one we should cherish. We are better when we argue and still walk away friends.

Of course, it's not all finished business. Next up: Malashaan’s discussion on the precedent of delaying nomination votes, which I’m sure will be just as titillating.
 
Glad someone wrote an article on this, there definitely were a lot of moving parts at play yesterday, so it's good to get a more complete story. Malashaan raises an interesting point, and I think the discussion he wants to have now is a good transition out of this. Thanks for publishing my comment as well, I'm glad it's resonated with people.

I'm confused by Forilian's comment here, however. "Obviously in hindsight I was wrong, but I stand by the decision I made at that time." Is he saying that what he did was wrong, but he's standing by a wrong decision? I don't know what to make of that.
 
Glad someone wrote an article on this, there definitely were a lot of moving parts at play yesterday, so it's good to get a more complete story. Malashaan raises an interesting point, and I think the discussion he wants to have now is a good transition out of this. Thanks for publishing my comment as well, I'm glad it's resonated with people.

I'm confused by Forilian's comment here, however. "Obviously in hindsight I was wrong, but I stand by the decision I made at that time." Is he saying that what he did was wrong, but he's standing by a wrong decision? I don't know what to make of that.
Let me clarify on this: When I have the information I have now, the decision was wrong, but at the time with the information I knew then I felt the decision was right when I motioned.
 
Overall, I think this is a great write up. And it wouldn't be an accurate quote of me if it didn't include at least on typo :)

I do want to clarify/correct one small thing though. I didn't support and then retract my support for the motion. I seconded the motion to force the vote so we could end it quickly. I was opposed to motioning to overturn the Speaker from the start, but once the motion was on the floor, it was clear it needed to be addressed. Maybe I should have ignored it, but my judgment was that someone would second eventually, and it was better to get it done quickly.
 
Excellent article. Thank you for this write up, Sopo. As you said, I'm glad this was a debate where everyone walked away without relations hurt. Thank you.
 
A well-written article and very informative, thank you Sopo.
 
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