Blankifikasieheid

[Botha]

[IMG]http://i44.tinypic.com/15xadrn.jpg[/IMG]
[color="#000080"][i][b]Prime Minister A van Matteus of Transvaal[/b][/i]

[i]Pretoria… April 2010[/i]

It had been almost two months since the nuclear nightmare ended, but as summer turned into autumn people began to become more restless. Winter would soon be approaching and the government had so far failed to deliver on reconstruction. For the first time in the nation’s history, white citizens on a vast scale were experiencing firsthand the neglect and disdain which their black and coloured neighbours had to endure.

[i]“Dis onaanneemlik!” [/i]was heard more and more amongst the Afrikaners. [i]“Unacceptable! We won the war but lost the peace”[/i]

Prime Minister Annetjie van Matteus sat alone in her office. In the past couple of weeks she had begun to notice the rising intensity of anger in the [i]Volksraad[/i]. First it was from the backbenchers and opposition – but her controlling majority of representatives permitted her from ignoring them. It wasn’t until those within her own power base, and her parliamentary allies such as Hofmeyr, Steyn, and Strijdom began to quietly and subtly critic the prime minister’s mishandling of reconstruction. She could afford to ignore the bleatings of the DBP opposition; she could not afford to ignore her own party members.

Her position in regards to the military was not good either. During the war, she had caught wind of secret contingency plans to re-establish a junta and replace civilian control with military rule. Although she had no names, she suspected Field Marshal Malan would have a part to play in any such adventure. Field Marshal Cruywagen, her commander-in-chief, she could not trust either; his politics made him a constant ideological adversary although he did not have the willpower nor ambition to act against her.

She saw two distinct course of action in front of her but neither looked particularly prospective. She could simply retain power by proclaiming a dictatorship to eliminate her rivals. That would keep her in power for the short-term but would make the nation difficult to govern, as most of her rivals she required for the day-to-day management of the country. Or she could dig up a contentious political issue which would divide the National Party but possibly win over enough outside voters to see her re-elected at the end of May.

That contentious issue would be the abolition of Transvaal’s ‘[i]blankifikasieheid[/i]’ (‘white’-ification) policy in regards to immigration and population control. Field Malan had instituted the policy a year ago during reconstruction after the Karma War but it had never been repealed on account of its complacent popularity amongst the white population which benefited from the subsequent transformation of whites into a solid majority over the once-feared black masses.

By removing the colour barrier, she would inadvertently re-open Transvaal’s racial wounds and likely raise the ire of the Afrikaner far-right – which the policy had essentially extinguished into political oblivion in its wake. However, while she herself supported the colour bar, its removal would gain her strong, vocal foreign support and any of her opponents that dared to support the retention of [i]blankifikasieheid [/i]would be damned by the foreign press as racists. The gamble too was it might also hopefully win her votes amongst the black voters.

That was her plan. It was a risky move that could backfire but one she would have to make unless she wanted to see herself out of a job. Unless the Transvaler economy picked up suddenly in the next month, she would have to make the gamble whether she liked it or not. It was not in her nature to allow herself to simply go down to defeat from something as trivial as a ballot box.

She first needed to start calling in all her favours overseas. She needed the foreign press to start a vocal campaign questioning the nature of [i]blankifikasieheid[/i].[/color]

[Subtleknifewielder]

OOC: Botha! Long time no see! Good to have you back, man.

IC: One of the few states that, despite its controversial policies, was well-respected due to its neutrality in world affairs, the new measure would have wide support among many Australians, citizens and politicians alike. Some saw the shrewdness of the move, but almost all supported it, regardless of the perceived motive behind it.

[Triyun]

The United States of China in the strongest terms possible condemns the Blankifikasieheid. People's worth in society should not be judged on things they cannot help like skin color. It is morally repugnant and wrong. The ending of this policy would help increase the receptiveness of China to purchasing more Transvaal goods.

[Vedran]

Most Arcticans, living in a multiracial society, had opposed the whiteification of Transvaal, and the white minority rule before it. The government, in charge of such a country, was also against the policy, although it had never really pressed Transvaal on the issue. The poor racial situation in the Republic had never really been a point of contention between the two countries.

Still, other events had sometimes perturbed the Arcticans, such as the heavy-handed tactics Malan had used to suppress labor strikes and other civil unrest, or the April 2007 tour of Transvaal's prison camp system, where the report noted that the group was pressured by Van Matteus to leave after visiting only one of the camps.

Despite Van Matteus' reputation and Arctica's low opinion of her, the government could only support the abolition. The public would suspect that there was an ulterior motive, but they wouldn't really see much wrong with the abolition of a system they thought was wrong.

[Cybil de Blanc]

"It is because of disgusting and ridiculous policies like these that we Northanics have never thought of opening relations with Transvaal. Because of beliefs like this abomination, my father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, and many before them suffered deeply. If Transvaal is smart, they'll kick this nonsense in the teeth."

- Queen Alysandra of House Lacroix

[Jordosaur94]

The Reich endorses the abolition of the Whiteification of Transvaal, as it proves to be little better than Apartheid. We hope that all goes well in the Republic with the passing of this abolishment, and that all White Supremest groups don't go to any extremes.

[Kaiser Martens]

"Transvaal should keep in mind that, while repealing certain aspects of this policy, they should have a strict control of who is able to immigrate to the nation regardless of their race, as an uncontrolled or loosely controlled influx of immigrants from any given ethnic group would be in the long run something to harm the country. Letting everybody in would be a catastrophe. What we propose is in fact addressing this issue culturally and not as far as colors are concerned: Transvaal should only accept people who have ethnic relation to either their African Cultures and their non-African cultures, which are many. Otherwise simply by receiving large amounts of random non-transvaaler europeans it'll lose its identity just in the same way as it'd be lost if it let people from other cultures in. This would also hurt the economy deeply, and would cause violence. Furthermore, Blacks aren't just Blacks: Africa has a great cultural and ethnic diversity which should be respected, so using merely skin color to evaluate it is an aggression to everyone in the world."

"Replace racialism for common sense. Do not fall for the extremism of either: Restricting it only to whites or otherwise just letting everyone in at any given time. Use meritocratic criteria too: Those who have a reasonable amount of academic buildup or skills, means to sustain themselves. Race is irrelevant and should have been abandoned as a political concept long ago by this country. Yet in the end, we will support whatever that they do due to respecting their sovereignty. We would like to make a donation to help Transvaal rebuild, on the sole condition that the aid is not shared in a racial criteria, but otherwise through common sense."

[Botha]

[color="#000080"]The four men stood steadfast and stared grimly across the prime minister’s desk. Strijdom, Malan, Hofmeyr, and Steyn. As soon as rumours began to spread through the corridors of the Government House of what Annetjie van Matteus intended to do, they had converged as a group to challenge her to rescind her decision.

Hendrik Strijdom, the deputy prime minister, felt the most betrayed. After patching up their differences from over a year ago, he had thrown the weight of his political support behind the woman that many had viewed unfit to govern the nation. Likewise with Field Marshal Malan who had rewarded Van Matteus’ participation as a civilian member in the unpopular military junta by appointing her his successor.

“You cannot just decide on a whim to alter national policy, what you propose to do would split the nation. And we are not talking whites versus blacks here!... We are talking a full-fledged white civil war. And we know who would win that. Not us whites!” bellowed an enraged Strijdom.

Field Marshal Petrus Malan surveyed the situation. Of anyone in the room, he probably had the means to ultimately decide Van Matteus’ fate.

“The policy of blankifikasieheid – as instituted by the good marshal here” continued Strijdom, “had brought an unprecedented level of racial peace and stability to our country as well as all the benefits of prosperity. But with our Republic still reeling from the economic effects of the war, we cannot afford an influx of unsuitable immigrants nor an exploding increase in the number of Black Africans in the country. What you are proposing to do is re-open all the wounds created by Hertzog and doom us to national suicide!”

Hofmeyr and Steyn watched silently. Unbeknownst to most, it was on their shoulders that the day to day management of the national economy rested on. Neither of them had much charisma to work independently, but whomever was in charge would require their complacency otherwise the nation would ground to a halt. That was why Strijdom and Malan had brought them along to the prime minister’s office, both were ideologically likeminded and their presence in the meeting was to show Van Matteus how tenuous her position was if the four of them decided to throw up political roadblocks.

Annetjie van Matteus saw herself outnumbered, so she called their bluff. “Is this some sort of coup against me?”

Field Marshal Malan replied, “No, it isn’t – for that would be for me to decide. However what we are… let me see, how shall I put it?... ‘suggesting’ is that you rescind any decisions to abolish white-only immigration and blankifiasieheid… otherwise we shall alert the national press to your, err… queer behavior… which we all know is deemed illegal under Transvaler law and thus making you unfit and ineligible for office.”

Malan then smiled.

“So, to answer your question Prime Minister: no, this is not a coup. It is, however, blackmail. And you can buy our silence by retaining blankifikasieheid as a state policy.”

"We will wait until Monday for your decision." [/color]

Edited April 24, 2010 by Botha

[Botha]

[color="#000080"][i]RADIO-TRANSVAAL:[/i] Prime Minister Annetjie van Matteus survived a snap vote of no confidence today in the National [i]Volksraad[/i]. While the support of the military was split between the air force and army in support of the prime minister and the navy and rocket corps voting against her, all four provincial governors as well as the church threw its support as Ms. Van Matteus retained control over the government by 9 votes to 5.

The motion was launched by Deputy Prime Minister Hendrik Strijdom and seconded by Field Marshal Petrus Malan. Although not expected to have passed, the vote was used as a means mostly to determine exactly where potential anti-AVM support lay in the government. Along with Strijdom, Ministers Hofmeyer and Steyn voted against the prime minister.

The vote came by ominous coincidence or design on the one-year anniversary of the ascension of Marshal Malan as leader of the Republican Military Government.[/color]