[NSG Senate] Senate Chamber: Do We Have Work?

[DrWinner]

Mark rises, frowning.

"Mr. Speaker, allow me to raise some concerns I have with this proposal. Namely, why is this governmental body devising yet another organization to spend money on while it is heavily in debt with the international world? We must either get the international community to acknowledge that this august body is not the government of the ENC, or pay off the debts crippling this country before we go devising ways to waste more money we do not have. Thank you."

Mark then sits, coughing.

[United Provinces of Atlantica]

"Mr. Speaker, I rise today in staunch support for this bill. It is important for nations such as ours to remember and honour martyrs for noble causes such as liberty, sovereignty, equality and democracy through the establishment of memorials for those martyrs and for other great Elizians to be honored after their death through the creation of memorials. Mr. Speaker, I would also urge you to address the concerns of my colleague by reminding him that we are currently enjoying a substantial surplus in government revenue; indeed, the limited sums required to establish memorials are well within our government's budget, and would not even come at a cost of debt repayment, as all costs would be payed by the Ministry of Social Development."

[FreYhill]

Mr Speaker, although I'm not "against" this legislation, I'd like to ask the author how the Memorial Commission operates. Furthermore, would Memorials within Elizia built through the commission be constructed through the winner of a tender?

[DrWinner]

Mark rises again.

"Mr. Speaker, I'd like to firmly state that if this state is producing any surplus, it should all be devoted to clearing the debt, not building temporary monuments to permanent memories of people. History serves to preserve their memories, and once this state is out of debt, history can be put into memorials. History will remain, but our debt must not."

Mark sits again.

[Nariterrr]

"Mr. Speaker I am not against this bill, but I will say having it be a government bill is uncalled for. While memorializing the dead is important, especially those who committed themselves to our cause, but we have better things to consider. Mainly, bills from the opposition that will actually benefit the course of our nation, such as The Hon [Freyhill]'s bill and my Warrants and Subpoenas Acts. While I will be voting for this bill, I advise the government to give government bill status to bills that actually have government importance. The opposition is tired of having our bills deliberately pushed back in favor of such bills."

[United Provinces of Atlantica]

Mark rises again.

"Mr. Speaker, I'd like to firmly state that if this state is producing any surplus, it should all be devoted to clearing the debt, not building temporary monuments to permanent memories of people. History serves to preserve their memories, and once this state is out of debt, history can be put into memorials. History will remain, but our debt must not."

Mark sits again.

"Mister Speaker, I urge you in the utmost manner to remind my colleague that all funds for memorials would be provided by the Ministry of Social Development's budget, not taken from the surplus. Furthermore, Mr, Speaker, I would question why a businessman that claims to have economic knowledge such as my colleague is unaware of the fact that the government budget has produced a surplus. I also rise to this occasion to condemn in the utmost regard the disregard my colleague has for memorials to honour those who have been martyred for the values Elizia holds so dear– justice, democracy, liberty, equality, sovereignty, and other values essential to any sovereign democratic republic–and I urge my colleague to reconsider his stance on memorials. What will our posterity say if we have an opportunity to honour the 75,000 murdered by the ENC regime in the early 1970s, but turn in down on the basis of saving a surplus that would have never even been impacted in the first places? What will our posterity say if we reject the opportunity to honour the recently-martyred Sa Ri An and others martyred by the opponents of the religious freedom and equality she fought so hard for her entire life? What will our posterity say if we do not honour those martyred during the Orchid Revolution? There are things greater, and indeed things millions have died for, such as democracy, liberty, freedom, equality, and sovereignty, than simply reducing our debt a few weeks earlier than expected. Mr. Speaker, my colleague would be wise to remember that."

[The New World Oceania]

Alef nods. "The concept is strong."

[DrWinner]

Mark rises again.

"Mr. Speaker, I'd like to firmly state that if this state is producing any surplus, it should all be devoted to clearing the debt, not building temporary monuments to permanent memories of people. History serves to preserve their memories, and once this state is out of debt, history can be put into memorials. History will remain, but our debt must not."

Mark sits again.

"Mister Speaker, I urge you in the utmost manner to remind my colleague that all funds for memorials would be provided by the Ministry of Social Development's budget, not taken from the surplus. Furthermore, Mr, Speaker, I would question why a businessman that claims to have economic knowledge such as my colleague is unaware of the fact that the government budget has produced a surplus. I also rise to this occasion to condemn in the utmost regard the disregard my colleague has for memorials to honour those who have been martyred for the values Elizia holds so dear– justice, democracy, liberty, equality, sovereignty, and other values essential to any sovereign democratic republic–and I urge my colleague to reconsider his stance on memorials. What will our posterity say if we have an opportunity to honour the 75,000 murdered by the ENC regime in the early 1970s, but turn in down on the basis of saving a surplus that would have never even been impacted in the first places? What will our posterity say if we reject the opportunity to honour the recently-martyred Sa Ri An and others martyred by the opponents of the religious freedom and equality she fought so hard for her entire life? What will our posterity say if we do not honour those martyred during the Orchid Revolution? There are things greater, and indeed things millions have died for, such as democracy, liberty, freedom, equality, and sovereignty, than simply reducing our debt a few weeks earlier than expected. Mr. Speaker, my colleague would be wise to remember that."

"Mr. Speaker, in response, I would like to state that our posterity would prefer to live in a world where they do not have to worry about where they will next find food or drink, our posterity would prefer to no longer wonder where they will find medicine for their sick and dying mothers, our posterity would prefer to have the economic freedoms afforded by our debt being cleared sooner rather than later. Our people here in Elizia are currently too poor to even have time between their struggles for survival to appreciate a stone monument to anyone who has died for the cause of democracy."

Mark coughs.

"Now, I am not saying that we should never memorialize the dead. I am saying that there is a time and a place, and that that time and that place are not right now. The economic pressures our people are facing, despite the government finally turning a surplus, show that now is not the time to worry about the dead. Praise their deeds, yes. Write their names in the sky and in our history books, yes. But do not devote money that could best be used elsewhere by the Ministry of Social Development."

Mark appears to have a few more thoughts, and begins to sit down, then straightens up again.

"Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, I do believe that memorializing the past is a cultural issue, and not a societal issue. A branch of the government created to deal with Societal issues should not be spending money on cultural issues when Elizian society has many problems that its money should be going to."

Mark then sits down, smiling slightly.

[Hindia Belanda]

"Mr. Speaker, I share the concerns of my honourable colleagues in that we should make it our priority to pay off our debts before building such monuments to commemorate the dead. While I think it is equally important to memorialise the dead, especially our departed Elizians who gave up their lives for liberty and democracy, we ought to prioritise more pressing economic issues that our nation faces over building such memorials."

"The time will come for building monuments dedicated to the dead, but the time is certainly not now."

Adonis sits down and drinks a glass of water.

[The Sarian]

"Mr. Speaker I am not against this bill, but I will say having it be a government bill is uncalled for. While memorializing the dead is important, especially those who committed themselves to our cause, but we have better things to consider. Mainly, bills from the opposition that will actually benefit the course of our nation, such as The Hon [Freyhill]'s bill and my Warrants and Subpoenas Acts. While I will be voting for this bill, I advise the government to give government bill status to bills that actually have government importance. The opposition is tired of having our bills deliberately pushed back in favor of such bills."

"So the Honourable Member thinks that the Minister responsible for Culture shouldn't make government bills that cover the establishment of a new government agency related to culture?"

[Tumbra]

"Questions to the President."

Order Paper

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All times stated are tentatively 1830 UTC + 8 (Elizian Timezone) unless stated.

Sunday to Monday - Constitutional Amendment (Parliamentary Procedure) Act (Rt. Hon Tijah Dian)

Monday to Tuesday - National Railway Network Act (Rt. Hon Huang Diem)

Tuesday to Wednesday - National Memorial Commission (Establishment) Act (Rt. Hon Jiang Muhammad)

Wednesday to Thursday - Oral Questions to the President

Thursday to Friday - Criminal Code (Narcotics Trade) Amendment Act (Rt. Hon John Chiu)

Friday to Saturday - National Railway Network Act (Rt. Hon Huang Diem)

Saturday to Sunday - Voting on proposed bIlls

Liberal Coalition - 10 Questions
ENC - 4 Questions
Alternative - 2 Questions
National Coalition - 3 Questions from backbenchers

"From the PQs session, I will allow follow-up questions. Once a question has been asked and replied to, the asker of the question may request a follow up question, which may or may not be allowed at the discretion of the Speaker."

[Kamchastkia]

Hutapea, had a notepad in hand as he rose to ask his question, "Mr. Speaker, I would like to inquire into the steps this government has taken to provide emergency services to the rural areas of Elizia, such as the Southern Isles -- which lacks heavily both in law & order, medical facilities, and rescue services. People die every single day throughout this nation because of lack of services -- does this government have any plan, whatsoever, to address this issue?"

[Argentarino]

Sayid Kasturi, who was visibly tired, entered the chamber with a simple piece of paper. He passed his colleagues in the Opposition front benches and went straight to the Speaker and passed him the note, simply uttering, "My resignation, effective at the end of the day, Mr. Speaker. May I address the Senate, Mr. Speaker? I understand that it is President's Questions, and I do not wish to take up someone's time, but if you'll allow me to issue a statement before I resign, I would be most grateful."

[Tumbra]

Sayid Kasturi, who was visibly tired, entered the chamber with a simple piece of paper. He passed his colleagues in the Opposition front benches and went straight to the Speaker and passed him the note, simply uttering, "My resignation, effective at the end of the day, Mr. Speaker. May I address the Senate, Mr. Speaker? I understand that it is President's Questions, and I do not wish to take up someone's time, but if you'll allow me to issue a statement before I resign, I would be most grateful."

Seeing the lull in activity, Richard motioned toward the floor.

[Argentarino]

Sayid nodded in thanks to Richard. "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Esteemed colleagues, no doubt some of you in the Government benches are shocked to see me here today. I'm sure it was fitting for some of your political advertisements to paint me as a criminal, despite my having done nothing wrong. But I digress. I will not take much time, nor will I entertain questions from anyone, so that we may continue this session of President's Questions. I will be resigning from my seat, effective at the end of the working day today. The trauma that I and my family have gone through is too much to bear, and I will be resigning from public office to focus on my family and on recuperation. But I will say this: our jails are in a deplorable state, my son, no matter what he is, was tortured in direct violation of his constitutional rights. Upon my arrest, I asked for our arrest warrants, as is my constitutional right, and that was denied me until after I had been arrested, and even then, I was not allowed to review it in full. I was denied counsel up until my court summons. In short, Mr. Speaker, we have a long way to go. My last real act as a Senator of this great nation is to call on the Government to launch an investigation into policing practices, as it appears that vestiges of ENC conduct and practices appear to have remained, despite legislation urging the contrary. I yield back, Mr. Speaker."

[Lykens]

Tijah embraced his Chief Whip and turned to address the chamber.

"Mister Speaker, I would like to ask the president a simple question that should be sufficiently answered with a yes or a no. I hope it isn't too much to ask for.

Mister Speaker, was the president or the couple of Home Secretaries we've had aware of the deplorable treatment of our honorable colleague the Shadow Foreign Secretary or that of his son?"

[The Sarian]

"I notice the member makes his claims whilst in Parliament, protected by parliamentary privilege."

[DrWinner]

"It is a time to ask the president questions." Mark states. "There is yet to be created legislation to limit what questions can and cannot be asked."

[The Sarian]

"It is a time to ask the president questions." Mark states. "There is yet to be created legislation to limit what questions can and cannot be asked."

"The government didn't want to waste time writing that legislation" whispered Jiang to the Attorney General, chuckling.

[The Licentian Isles]

Tijah embraced his Chief Whip and turned to address the chamber.

"Mister Speaker, I would like to ask the president a simple question that should be sufficiently answered with a yes or a no. I hope it isn't too much to ask for.

Mister Speaker, was the president or the couple of Home Secretaries we've had aware of the deplorable treatment of our honorable colleague the Shadow Foreign Secretary or that of his son?"

"Mr Speaker, as one of the Home Secretaries that the Leader of the Opposition appears to be referring to, I can say that I was not aware of these allegations. I would be interested to hear more on this from the honourable gentleman at another time, if that would be acceptable to him."

[Argentarino]

Tijah embraced his Chief Whip and turned to address the chamber.

"Mister Speaker, I would like to ask the president a simple question that should be sufficiently answered with a yes or a no. I hope it isn't too much to ask for.

Mister Speaker, was the president or the couple of Home Secretaries we've had aware of the deplorable treatment of our honorable colleague the Shadow Foreign Secretary or that of his son?"

"Mr Speaker, as one of the Home Secretaries that the Leader of the Opposition appears to be referring to, I can say that I was not aware of these allegations. I would be interested to hear more on this from the honourable gentleman at another time, if that would be acceptable to him."

"Mr. Speaker, if I may respond?" After waiting for approval, Sayid spoke up. "I had not seen my son in days. When he called me, saying he was in Kentang, I was relieved. I told him to come home and have dinner with his mother and I. As we had begun to eat, the police barged into our apartment, demanding we get on the ground. None of us resisted, and when I asked for the warrants to be presented to us, my son and I were arrested. An officer pulled out two warrants, but we were not allowed to review them to ensure their validity. I was questioned without a lawyer present, and despite my repeated demands for one to be presented me, I was denied. Only until I was allowed a phone call did I speak to a lawyer, and even then, they were not allowed to see us before attainment. As my lawyers can attest, my son in the meantime underwent water boarding, and was questioned without an attorney present. He may be a murderer as is claimed of him, but everyone is entitled to constitutional protections. For if one of us is denied these protections, Mr. Speaker, then any of us can be denied them."

[The Sarian]

"Again made under the cloak of Parliamentary Privilege"

[The Licentian Isles]

"Mr Speaker, as one of the Home Secretaries that the Leader of the Opposition appears to be referring to, I can say that I was not aware of these allegations. I would be interested to hear more on this from the honourable gentleman at another time, if that would be acceptable to him."

"Mr. Speaker, if I may respond?" After waiting for approval, Sayid spoke up. "I had not seen my son in days. When he called me, saying he was in Kentang, I was relieved. I told him to come home and have dinner with his mother and I. As we had begun to eat, the police barged into our apartment, demanding we get on the ground. None of us resisted, and when I asked for the warrants to be presented to us, my son and I were arrested. An officer pulled out two warrants, but we were not allowed to review them to ensure their validity. I was questioned without a lawyer present, and despite my repeated demands for one to be presented me, I was denied. Only until I was allowed a phone call did I speak to a lawyer, and even then, they were not allowed to see us before attainment. As my lawyers can attest, my son in the meantime underwent water boarding, and was questioned without an attorney present. He may be a murderer as is claimed of him, but everyone is entitled to constitutional protections. For if one of us is denied these protections, Mr. Speaker, then any of us can be denied them."

"Mr Speaker, while I am reticent to respond as it is still President's Questions, I am disturbed by the allegations presented by the honourable gentleman, and would like to thank him for making me aware of them." Sitting down in an attempt to avoid creating more of a disturbance during question time, Chu made a mental note to contact Kasturi later, and also to contact the Head of the Capital Police Force. It sounded like things were, once again, not as he hoped in Elizia.

[Skyviolia]

"Again made under the cloak of Parliamentary Privilege"

"Point of order, I was not made aware that my Honorable College was made the Parliamentary Speaker, or the Deputy of that office. Nor was I made aware that the Honorable member was made a presiding officer of any sort. If he was, than I apologize. But if he isn't, then please tell him to stop talking. We have business to conduct. I think the honorable member mistakes his place, I think the honorable member may think that he holds the office his predecessor held."

[Ainin]

"Mr. Speaker, if I may respond?" After waiting for approval, Sayid spoke up. "I had not seen my son in days. When he called me, saying he was in Kentang, I was relieved. I told him to come home and have dinner with his mother and I. As we had begun to eat, the police barged into our apartment, demanding we get on the ground. None of us resisted, and when I asked for the warrants to be presented to us, my son and I were arrested. An officer pulled out two warrants, but we were not allowed to review them to ensure their validity. I was questioned without a lawyer present, and despite my repeated demands for one to be presented me, I was denied. Only until I was allowed a phone call did I speak to a lawyer, and even then, they were not allowed to see us before attainment. As my lawyers can attest, my son in the meantime underwent water boarding, and was questioned without an attorney present. He may be a murderer as is claimed of him, but everyone is entitled to constitutional protections. For if one of us is denied these protections, Mr. Speaker, then any of us can be denied them."

"Mr Speaker, while I am reticent to respond as it is still President's Questions, I am disturbed by the allegations presented by the honourable gentleman, and would like to thank him for making me aware of them." Sitting down in an attempt to avoid creating more of a disturbance during question time, Chu made a mental note to contact Kasturi later, and also to contact the Head of the Capital Police Force. It sounded like things were, once again, not as he hoped in Elizia.

The Attorney-General hands over a Post-It note to the Home Secretary reading "Allegations are bullshit."