Dissolution of the Deric States and Melvyn Kalma's cult of personality: Difference between pages

Revision as of 06:34, 20 October 2022

Melvyn Kalma’s cult of personality was and is still a major element of the politics of the Federacy of the Cape. Although initiated by himself during the final years of his rule to cement his legacy as the first Chief of the Republic and Prime Executive of the Cape and the legacy of his reforms, it was continued and popularized extensively by members of his own Republican Nationalist Party and the regime of the National Reclamation Government. It has been described as the “world’s longest-running personality cult”.

Overview

Melvyn Kalma led the National Revolutionary Army in the Capetian War of Independence in the final years of the 19th century, defeating both Kiravia and Cartadanian Natalia to achieve Capetian independence by 1901. Under his leadership as both first head of state and head of government, the modern Capetian republic, the Federacy of the Cape, was declared.

Under his leadership as Prime Executive, Kalma embarked on a variety of reforms, Occidentalizing the Cape, and laying the groundwork for Cape nationalism and the birth of a coherent national identity from the three ethnicities that composed the country. To these ends, Kalma secularized the state, enacted a Western code of fundamental rights, instituted industrializing reforms, and promoted Cape Coscivian - a form of mutually intelligible creole popular in the southern Cape Peninsula - into a national language. Doing so, he is credited by many Capetians today for transforming the Cape into a modern nation state governed as a constitutional republic.

Following his death he was honoured with a variety of titles by the Supreme National Assembly, including “the Father of the Nation”, “Father of the Fatherland”, “the Marshal”, and “the Great Teacher”. He is known simply in Capetian vernacular as Prezident - “the President”, held in contrast to the term Restarkima, the modern term for the Capetian presidency. He still holds the eternal chairmanship of his Republican Nationalist Party.

Characteristics

Kalma’s legacy remains arguably the central element of Capetian politics into the 21st century. Almost every Capetian city has streets named after him, a memorial in his honour, with statues and portraits found in city squares, classrooms, public offices, and Capetian embassies abroad. A large mausoleum in his honour, the Mausoleum of the National Father, sits above Cape Town, and the city of Kalmasar, home to a majority of the Federacy’s ministries and its bureaucracy, bears his name.

In society

Although his cult of personality has been compared to that of Linge Chen in 21st century Corumm, Kalma’s cult differs as it was largely constructed after his death and in honour of his progressive and democratic reforms. He remains immensely popular in the Capetian consciousness, with every government and military coup following his death invoking his memory and contributing to the cult.

Kiravian journalist V. X. Xoman remarked that:

Thanks to him, every Capetian lives in a society that would have not existed without his effort. The legacy of his influence bears heavily on the nation. Sure, images of his face may appear in almost all official contexts from the headers of high-school exam papers to the largest banknotes - but they also appear spontaneously as fresheners hanging from car mirrors, in posters that adorn supermarkets, and in portraits that appear everywhere from private homes to the chicest of Cape Town cafes.

In politics

Kalma’s legacy has been invoked by every government since his death. Similar to the cult of the Marble Emperor in Kiravia, Kalma’s name is used to lend legitimacy to state actions and ideologies that he, as a deceased person, could not possibly agree to. For example, his name was used by both the Communist insurgency of the 1990s and the government that opposed it; the former appealing to his ideations of worker-liberation and the latter appealing to his ideas of nationalism and unity.

Constitutional amendments proposed in the Supreme National Assembly begin with “in the honour of great Kalma”, and the phrase “as decreed by the National Father” is used before the delivery of the Miranda rights.

Appeals to his authority (known colloquially as appeals to Kalma) are common in Capetian politics. In instrumental terms, his name has been used successively by military leaders to overthrow elected governments. In ceremonial terms, every military coup concludes with an address to Kalma, and addresses opening a new convocation of the National Stanera are delivered at his Mausoleum and occasionally addressed to him.

Kalma law

Kalma’s legacy is protected under the 1951 Constitution of the Federacy of the Cape, which declares illegal “insults towards his reforms, memory, and legacy”. Laws passed since have criminalized criticisms of his memory and are punishable with up to a year in prison and a fine of ₴100,000 Saers. In 2023, 14 people were charged under this law.

Sociological analysis

A variety of parallels have been drawn between his cult and that of Kiravia’s Marble Emperor.

Coscivian nationalist historiography has asserted the “artificial” supplementation of the Marble Emperor with Melvyn Kalma in the consciousness of ethnically Coscivian Capetians by the Capetian state.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{FutureLore}}
+[[File:Cape father of the nation.png|thumb|330px|The grandiose [[Mausoleum of the National Father]], where Kalma’s remains are interred.]]
+'''Melvyn Kalma’s cult of personality''' was and is still a major element of the politics of the [[the Cape|Federacy of the Cape]]. Although initiated by himself during the final years of his rule to cement his legacy as the first [[Chief of the Republic]] and [[Prime Executive]] of the Cape and the legacy of his [[Restarkism|reforms]], it was continued and popularized extensively by members of his own [[Republican Nationalist Party]] and the regime of the [[National Reclamation Government]]. It has been described as the “world’s longest-running {{wp|personality cult}}”.
-The '''dissolution of the Deric States''' was a multi-staged process that brought about the end of the [[Deric States]] organization specifically and the post-[[Second Great War]] geopolitical status quo of [[Dericania]] generally.
+==Overview==
+Melvyn Kalma led the [[National Revolutionary Army]] in the [[Capetian War of Independence]] in the final years of the 19th century, defeating both [[Kiravia]] and [[Cartadania|Cartadanian]] [[Natalia]] to achieve Capetian independence by 1901.
+Under his leadership as both first {{wp|head of state}} and {{wp|head of government}}, the modern Capetian republic, the Federacy of the Cape, was declared.
-==Background==
+Under his leadership as [[Prime Executive]], Kalma embarked on a variety of reforms, {{wp|Westernization|Occidentalizing}} the Cape, and laying the groundwork for [[Cape nationalism]] and the birth of a coherent national identity from the three ethnicities that composed the country. To these ends, Kalma {{wp|secularism|secularized}} the state, enacted a Western code of fundamental rights, instituted industrializing reforms, and promoted [[Cape Coscivian]] - a form of mutually intelligible creole popular in the southern Cape Peninsula - into a national language. Doing so, he is credited by many Capetians today for transforming the Cape into a modern {{wp|nation state}} governed as a {{wp|constitutional republic}}.
-{{Main|Third Fratricide}}
-===Questions of redundancy===
+Following his death he was honoured with a variety of titles by the Supreme National Assembly, including “the {{wp|Father of the Nation}}”, “{{wp|Pater Patriae|Father of the Fatherland}}”, “the Marshal”, and “the Great Teacher”. He is known simply in Capetian vernacular as ''Prezident'' - “the President”, held in contrast to the term ''Restarkima'', the modern term for the Capetian [[Chief of the Republic|presidency]]. He still holds the eternal chairmanship of his [[Republican Nationalist Party]].
-Beginning in the 1970s, many scholars and public officials began to call into question the necessity of the Deric States organization given the existence of the [[Levantine Union]], which was established with many of the goals and functions as the Deric States on a larger scale. In the 1970s and 80s, many of the internal organs of the Deric States ceased to function, having given over their role to similar bodies within the Levantine Union. Two extremely prominent examples exist within the Deric States' structure. The first, relatively obscure body is the Council for Tariff and Trade Protection which intended to regulate the entire Deric States as one trading unit. While the Council still exists officially, it did not hold any official meetings after February 4 1962 and the Deric States ceased to distinguish itself from the rest of the Union as a matter of trade policy. The second and more prominent body that was superseded was the Confederation Defense Force (CDF), which served as the official armed forces as the Deric States until its constituent parts were largely integrated into the Coordinating Office of Dericanian Forces (CODF), a part of the [[Levantine Union Defense Council]]. The Deric States CDF continued to serve in the 2020s, but its defense jurisdiction solely consisted of [[Alba Concordia]] and began to be primarily associated with that city rather than with the Deric States as a whole.
+==Characteristics==
+Kalma’s legacy remains arguably the central element of Capetian politics into the 21st century. Almost every Capetian city has streets named after him, a memorial in his honour, with statues and portraits found in city squares, classrooms, public offices, and Capetian embassies abroad. A large {{wp|mausoleum}} in his honour, the [[Mausoleum of the National Father]], sits above Cape Town, and the city of [[Kalmasar]], home to a majority of the Federacy’s ministries and its bureaucracy, bears his name.
-==Activist efforts prior to 2020==
+===In society===
+Although his cult of personality has been compared to that of [[Linge Chen]] in 21st century [[Corumm]], Kalma’s cult differs as it was largely constructed after his death and in honour of his progressive and democratic reforms. He remains immensely popular in the Capetian consciousness, with every government and military coup following his death invoking his memory and contributing to the cult.
-In 2002, activist organizations from across the Deric States merged into an organization known as "Movement for Mediatization in the 21st Century", popularly shortened to "21MEDNOW". 21MEDNOW began to conduct both lobbying efforts with Dericanian governments as well as popular, grassroots agitation.
+Kiravian journalist V. X. Xoman remarked that:
-By 2015, polling indicated that, on average, 35 to 40% of residents of the Deric States supported the dissolution of the organization and further mediatization of its member states.
+{{quote|quote=Thanks to him, every Capetian lives in a society that would have not existed without his effort. The legacy of his influence bears heavily on the nation. Sure, images of his face may appear in almost all official contexts from the headers of high-school exam papers to the largest banknotes - but they also appear spontaneously as fresheners hanging from car mirrors, in posters that adorn supermarkets, and in portraits that appear everywhere from private homes to the chicest of Cape Town cafes. }}
-==Secession of the Vandarch Republic==
+===In politics===
+[[File:Ataturk Airport Karakas-1.jpg|thumb|250px|An aerial view of [[Cape Town]]’s [[Melvyn Kalma Airport]].]]
+Kalma’s legacy has been invoked by every government since his death. Similar to the cult of the [[Marble Emperor]] in [[Kiravia]], Kalma’s name is used to lend legitimacy to state actions and ideologies that he, as a deceased person, could not possibly agree to. For example, his name was used by both the Communist insurgency of the 1990s and the government that opposed it; the former appealing to his ideations of worker-liberation and the latter appealing to his ideas of nationalism and unity.
-On 8 March [[2023]], the [[Vandarch Republic]] informed the [[Levantine Union]] that it intended to leave the Deric States and become a standalone member of the Levantine Union. The decision to leave lead to large popular demonstrations across [[Dericania]] organized by 21MEDNOW calling on its leaders to change the post-Great War geopolitical arrangements of the region. This triggered a diplomatic crisis among leaders of the Deric States, which met in a series of informal conferences and meetings in [[Corcra]] beginning in July of 2023. These meetings, commonly known as the "Congress of Corcra", failed to reach any cohesive answer, and in April of 2024 the ambassadors were asked to leave the city following the breakdown of negotiations.
+Constitutional amendments proposed in the Supreme National Assembly begin with “in the honour of great Kalma”, and the phrase “as decreed by the National Father” is used before the delivery of the {{wp|Miranda warning|Miranda rights}}.
-With the [[Deric States]] playing a minor role in the immediate diplomatic aftermath of the [[Final War of the Deluge]], popular mediatization efforts temporarily lost priority in some of the Deric States, cooling tensions and the pace of dissolution. However, many of its members held elections in 2025 in which the dissolution was a key issue, any many pro-dissolution elements won across the Deric States in part due to 21MEDNOW support.
+Appeals to his authority (known colloquially as appeals to Kalma) are common in Capetian politics. In instrumental terms, his name has been used successively by military leaders to overthrow elected governments. In ceremonial terms, every military coup concludes with an address to Kalma, and addresses opening a new convocation of the [[National Stanera]] are delivered at his Mausoleum and occasionally addressed to him.
-==Secession of Lutsana==
+===Kalma law===
-On 14 August [[2026]], [[Lutsana]] informed the [[Levantine Union]] that it, like the [[Vandarch Republic]], would be leaving the [[Deric States]] and would becoming a standalone member of the Levantine Union. Unlike the Vandarch Republic's decision, it announced its withdrawal would be immediate. The decision to remain in the Deric States was a major issue in the 2025 Lutsanan elections, and the new government - formed in part by the Orenstian People's Revival Party - made withdrawal its top priority.
+Kalma’s legacy is protected under the 1951 [[Constitution of the Federacy of the Cape]], which declares illegal “insults towards his reforms, memory, and legacy”. Laws passed since have criminalized criticisms of his memory and are punishable with up to a year in prison and a fine of ₴100,000 Saers. In 2023, 14 people were charged under this law.
-[[Category: Levantia]]
+==Sociological analysis==
-[[Category: Deric States]]
+A variety of parallels have been drawn between his cult and that of Kiravia’s [[Marble Emperor]].
-[[Category: Levantine Union]]
+Coscivian nationalist historiography has asserted the “artificial” supplementation of the Marble Emperor with Melvyn Kalma in the consciousness of ethnically Coscivian Capetians by the Capetian state.
+[[Category:IXWB]]
+[[Category:Politics]]