3216 Press Releases
A digest of recent official government press releases, by reporting period.
T133
Ministry of War, New Mars
FROM: MSN Q0 HQ,
NEW MARS
Following the IFF's request for close support from the MSN 2nd Strategic Fleet
at MYSTERY III, the need for a separate local planet orbit MSN presence is no
longer necessary. For this reason, MTF 0.1 of the MSN is to be disbanded in
the MYSTERY system. The CAI from MTF 0.1 will join 1st Strategic (Home) Fleet
at NEW MARS, with a CAI from that fleet transferring to 5th Strategic Fleet
at NIMROD. The remains of MTF 0.1 will become part of 2nd Strategic Fleet (+).
(c) New Mars Press Syndicate, 3216
- Mars to debate expanding Senate
The Grand Council of the Mars Association, which has a single representative
from every world in the Association, has passed a resolution mandating discussion
by the Senate of a recent report on Senate reform. The report was conducted
at the best of the Grand Council by the independant think tank the New Democracy
Foundation, and attempts to deal with criticisms that the current Martian Senate
set-up has too few directly popularly elected positions, leading to politicisation
of the selected positions and undue influence upon them by the major political
parties, and that the relatively small number of senators leads to too much
'granularity' in party represenation and too heavy a burden upon government
ministers in the various senate committees. The NDF report recommends expanding
the Senate from its existing 30 members to 50, and increasing the represenation
from the elected positions according to population and economic activity in
the nine Quadrants of the Association. The two thirds' majority achieved in
the Gound Council forces the Senate to debate the matter, though without prejudicing
its conclusions.
Although it has been denied by the MCGF, there is considerable speculation that
the report and the Grand Council vote have been instigated and covertly backed
by the Mars Colonial Growth Faction as part of a move to bring greater democractic
accountability to the Association's highest body and to redress perceived imbalances
in the current political set-up. Growth among the Association's outer quadrants
means that the worlds of Quadrant Zero Q0 now only represent about 30% of the
population and 18% of the economy of the MAFC, while Quadrants 1,2 4 and 8 now
have about 60% of the population of the MAFC and 45% of the economic output.
Although Quadrant 0 only has two directly appointed seats in the Senate, currently
controlled by the Martian Union, which replaced the old Quadrant 0 Regional
High Council 40 years ago, the appointed positions which represent 12 of the
30 senate seats are all selected by bodies based in Q0, effectively giving Q0
control of half of the Senate. The tension between the centre of the Association
and the quadrants and the opaque nature of the selection of Senators for the
selected positions has been the reason for the rise of the MCGF over the past
20 years.
Senator Banderas, speaking at a New Year press conference, said she was happy
to discuss Senate reform, and said that the report's recommendations would receive
broad support from the MCGF in the Senate. Their coalition partner in government
the Central Democratic Party has given a much more guarded response to the report,
and said that it was "examining the details", but that there had to
be "sufficient safeguards for the traditions of the MAFC", taken as
a coded reference to the influence of the Quadrant 0 worlds where the CDP is
strongest. Given that the two parties control a majority of senate seats between
them, it seems likely that horse trading between the two parties is likely to
influence the end result of the senate vote. There has been criticism however
by the third party of government, the conservative Free Mars Party (FMP), which
is almost exclusively based in Q0 - Senator Hojo, one of the MSN-appointed Senators
who takes the FMP whip has said that he fears "dilution" of the relationship
between the Association and its armed forces. Responding to the Senator's remarks,
Senator Banderas said: "I understand Senator's Hojo's concerns. Of course,
the MAFC is the only major nation which has formal representation by its military
in its highest body of government, but that representation reflects the history
and traditions of the Association and it is an important link to keep. I am
sure that we can find a way in committee to answer the Senator's concerns while
preserving the reforming spirit of the report."