A lot of Thalassia's problems aren't stemmed from conspiratorial manipulations or power plays, but largely from... complacency and lethargy, which in part is probably due to Thalassia being a relatively peaceful and happy region, unlike the constant turmoil and chaos that was Pacifica. Bor does sort of get that complacency factor right, but then kinda steers off-course with some embellishments.
For now I won't go here or there on the opinion of the Founder-initiated reform, but I wouldn't agree that the people are being actively suppressed, because as far as I can tell, almost all are neutral at worst and supportive at best of a reform if it means fixing issues with the region and making it come out stronger. While you and Toe oppose it... you two opposing regional changes on ideological grounds is something of an old hat here.
Blind noobs just dogpile whatever sounds negative and anti-government. So I will post my critiques here.
Feels like you're implying that people that disagree with you are either part of the corrupt elite or dumb-dumbs that don't know better. In other words, people can either agree with you or be wrong. Isn't that approach supposed to be what you're allegedly opposing in Thalassia?
Elections are heavily dependent on the "endorsements" of government members. You can see for yourself by searching "endorsement" on the RMB. Thalassians wait patiently for the government to say who they like and then they treat their word as gospel. Candidates actually collect endorsements for this reason (example). This is a remarkably stupid system. It lets the same people re-elect themselves. I have never seen systematic (don't confuse with systemic) circlejerking in a democracy.
The last line makes me raise an eyebrow a bit. Don't... pretty much all RL democracies include endorsements; for instance, the 2020 presidential race in the US?
Overall I think the endorsement bit was supposed to be mostly for the fun of playing out a campaign race, but maybe it does make things one-sided, dunno. I can see it as a reasonable concern if it wasn't drenched in so much venom.
Another way their elections (and in this case, amendments) are undemocratic is how easily they are exposed to the lemming effect. They use the in-game polls, which leads to the lemming effect known in the WA. This doesn't happen in forum-based voting without votestacking.
I would figure as someone touting themselves as the former Ministry of Security, you would understand very well why we keep everything on-site and thus under NS moderator's protective authority as much as possible. It was already a relatively contentious decision to reopen a Discord server, and an off-site forum isn't something that has much support, nor has it ever been historically successful for our region as far as I know. Not to mention, it requires having someone trusted to set it up and manage it and... I don't really know anyone interested in actually doing that.
Sinecure cabinet positions with the sole use of putting certain people in power are maintained. These positions include the Minister of Security and the Minister of Information. I don't know whether these positions are intentionally that way, but they are that way. Another critique I have of sinecures is that, if the government really was inactive, as the coupers claim, they should've been putting their active players to the few important ministries, rather than spreading them out. Imagine if you had some bubble gum, and you stretched it out so much that it started to have holes. That's what Thalassia did in their nepotism.
Doubtfully intentionally sincure, as you put it. MoS was useful when the region was potentially under threat, but it hasn't been that way in quite a long time, thus the Ministry spends most of its time in standby mode... which, considering the alternative, most people are pretty okay with.
Some of these positions stagnating and mostly only sitting pretty is part of the reason for the reform, from what I understand. As for the bit about including new blood... that's pretty much what we've already been doing, as far as I can tell from the regular new faces that are popping up in various ministries. Of course, you don't want to put a trainee in the pilot's seat on day 1, so they work themselves up... but lately a lot fall inactive or go LoA instead. Or they struggle to move up because their bosses are LoA or something. Another element of the stagnation that was becoming systemic in the government. This wasn't the fault of any one person or "oligarch" of folks as you put it, but a team effort from several people, arguably both in and out of the government itself. Not really a simple and easy bandaid to throw on this if you're approaching it with honest intention.
As for certain folks hanging onto bigger positions, it mostly stems from 2 things:
1. No one else wants to do the work, and if they try, they tend to fizzle or burn out very quickly, arguably understandingly so in some cases.
2. The people actually willing the pull the weight are doing a satisfactory enough job that no one sees a reason to fix what isn't broken.
I don't know why they reject it when I call them an anocracy, because they admitted to being undemocratic when they made themselves a monarchy. As the Constitutional Monarchy Amendment's author said, "effectively [constitutional monarchy] simply reflects the situation as is".
Missing important context to miscontrue this situation. We have always actually been a constitutional monarchy since Pacifica. Topid declared himself the ultimate authority in Pacifica, and everything had to have his blessing to be authorized. Thalassia's system was partially based after that, in part due to the troubles Pacifica had that necessitated an active Founder, which Topid was not. This design base was, for the record, well supported by natives.
If you're going to be mad at the region declaring itself as a democracy when it's actually a constitutional monarchy, then blame the precedent set by Topid, honestly. I'm not sure if anyone actually noticed the discrepancy until the amendment was proposed to properly and accurately reflect what we had actually collectively been for the past... what, 2-3 years, including our forebear?
And yet, despite the obvious sham and chicanery that Thalassian oligarchs are executing, Thalassians blindly follow them. They talk about how hard the Interim Council works, and how there will be democracy, and how the Interim Council has seen them through dark times. They're parroting exactly what the Interim Council wants them to say. I was certainly right when I said Thalassia was run by dominant personalities. Thalassians have given the Interim Council their voices and minds.
Alternatively, most natives of Thalassia are pretty happy with the people looking over the region and trust them because they haven't had reason to do otherwise. Again, implying that people can either side with you or be blind bleating sheep feels like a bad-faith ultimatum.
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Lastly, I'm mostly just addressing the heading post here and not following most of the following discussions, but one particular comment stuck in my craw:
The Leftist Assembly is already dissolving their embassy, as they should. Keep burning bridges.
This doesn't sound like a comment coming from someone wishing Thalassia well. This sounds like vindictiveness from someone wanting to see the region suffer. This makes me question your motives here (especially since your assertive denouncement on TLA's behalf drew Kavagrad out to specifically disavow it). And it bothered me enough to create this post to start picking through some of the things being said.
As I said before, I don't have much to comment on the reform itself right now. Are your concerns, at the base level, reasonable? Maybe. But covering them with missing contexts, half-truths, and intellectually dishonest illustrations is pushing me in the opposite direction of wanting to listen or put stock in your concerns because that much embellishment makes it feel drenched in ulterior motive.
