다욤日報 - 月語版
CHANGTAE INDEPENDENCE DECLARED
Declaration cites "Federal Tyranny", calls on Prince Baek Sŏngkyu to Reign as King
Yesterday on 5444.8.15.,
Changt'ae Special Self Governing Region, which encompasses the islands of Changt'aeto, Ulmanto, and Nampukto that lie to the southwestern extreme of the Dan Peninsula, officially declared independence from the mainland as the Kingdom of Changt'ae.
The extraordinary act was drafted, signed, and sent to the Dankukian Federal Senate after passing with overwhelming approval in the Changt'ae Regional Council (長泰特別自治州議會/ᄃᆞᆫᄃᆞᆫ특벨ᄌᆞ치주상회) after under 24 hours of legislative proceedings.
Ever since the
first constitutional amendments in the Kingdom of Great Bae were passed in 5311, the region began to enjoy a great amount of political, cultural, and industrial autonomy. These advances were furthered during the great Federal Reforms of the 5360s, which de facto gave the regional government the power to independent police itself and maintain a separate military. Thanks to the luxury of the region's warm beaches, precious minerals, and its strategic position near the Kyo Strait, the island became a hub of international travel and commerce. This made the island very wealthy - Changt'ae island is the second most wealthy region per capita in Dankuk - but also made it heavily reliant on foreign trade. Resultingly, new reforms in the mainland have been extremely unpopular on the island, which have attempted to close off the region's most lucrative trades and bring the entire polity under heavy government intervention.
The document itself lists various grievances pertaining to the new and unprecedented expansion of Federal government power over. The document claimed that governments are constituted for the purpose of serving the welfare of a group of people. The Declaration claimed that "Federal Tyranny" had led the Changtae people to a position in which it not longer benefited them to continue participating in the Federal union that Dankuk is. For months the regional government has been engaged in multiple legal struggles with the Federal government, having refused to implement new corporate regulations, free market restrictors, compliance with new nationalization policies, and the forced Federal liquidation of the nation's numerous stock exchanges.
The Regional Government have declared their reconstitution as a new "
Kingdom of Changt'ae", which they hope to become a sovereign state that can "
cooperate and cooexist harmoniously with the new Dankuk as partners of equal standing". The transition period will not be easy, but it is significantly aided by the fact that the islands have a long-standing legal precedent of political and military self-governance. The Changt'ae Island Peacekeeping Forces (CIPF), consisting of the Changtae Island Army (CIA), Navy (CIN), and Airforce (CIAF), were established initially as a supplement auxiliary to mainland soldiers stationed on the islands, but have since transformed into de facto military forces. Formal command of the island's naval and army bases were transferred from the Royal Army to the CIPF on May 4, 5367, and have remained under their control ever since. Politically, the Regional Government is used to striking down Federal legislation given the special constitutional liberties afforded the island, and a history of political, social, and cultural activism has created a strong civic identity and community independently centered on the Changtae identity as opposed to that of the mainland.
Changtae also has a license directly from the Mint of Dovani granting it the power to print Dovanian Circuses under WDU supervision and guidelines, similarly to other contracts in place between the Mint and member nations like Lourenne. Although located in Gongmangdo, the Mint of Dovani is an independent agency. Legal scholars assert that the Dankukian government has no power to cancel the license and must instead defer to the WDU, but worry that Dankuk could try to extralegally pressure the Union given that the Mint's headquarters are in Gongmangdo. They are presently unsure if WDU officials would be willing to escalate conflict with Dankuk over hypothetical pressures that could even come to the extent of a government raid on mint property, which is legally the sovereign jurisdiction of the WDU per
Sentence I Article VI Section V of the Union Charter- "
The land ceded to house the institutions of the Union shall be under the sole jurisdiction of WDU law". Additionally, this license was explicitly granted to the Changt'ae Special Self Governing Region as a special federal subject of Dankuk, which is a founding member - it is unknown if the WDU will continue to give these rights to a state. If not, the new country will face difficulty working off of existing foreign currency reserves, but they are luckily plentiful in the region.
For now, the current Head of Government remains the former Governor of the Region, Kim Taŭn. However, the position of Head of State is currently vacant - but the fledgling government knows where to find them. The new government explicitly called on Prince Baek Sŏngkyu of the Baek Dynasty to come rule Changtae in the declaration of independence. The prince, 29, is the second nephew of Dankuk's present monarch, the Changsu Isageum (長壽尼師今), was one of the few royals to be born on Changtae soil, inside of the island palace Kwanghwangkung. Because he is behind in the line of secession, he was allowed to be raised and educated on the island, which made him a personality closely connected with the island. After graduating from the University of Changtae City, he. He is also the only modern royal that is known to be fluent in Tawntawn Pangŏn (國語: 長泰方言, 長泰語: ᄃᆞᆫᄃᆞᆫ말), the mutually unintelligible local dialect/language of the island. Having seldom gone to the mainland other than for official functions, the prince both has wide recognition and popularity among the public as well as the legitimacy of a royal.
The Federal government has not yet responded to the declaration, which is an unprecedented interruption to the increasingly deteriorating status quo on the mainland as radical socialist reform continues to nationalize industry, defy civil liberties, and lead to mass brain drain and exoduses of both concerned citizens and large corporate backers, threatening Gongmangdo's historical position as one of the industrial, financial, and technological hubs of Dovani and the wider Northern Hemisphere, even potentially threatening its continued participation in the West Dovanian Union.
As of 5444.8.16, Prince Baek Sŏngkyu's whereabouts are unknown. He is assumed to still be residing at the Kwanghwangkung palace in Changtae City, but has made no public statement regarding his support or rejection of the calls for him to be made King. Under royal law, a member of the royal house that supports a secessionary movement is instantly stripped of their royalty and can be prosecuted under treason laws to the extent of execution. Political analysts expect his participation to be paramount to whether the new government can seek legitimacy.
