Official TRP Debate: whither TRP?

Day 413, 08:26 • Published in Thailand Thailand • by Ealb

Greetings, fellow TRP members!

I write to you today to discuss the future of the party. Its future is not clear, but one could argue that I come not to praise it, but bury it. I come to propose TRP's subsumption by Sabai Unity Party.

This is something that has been discussed since October by some members of both parties. The veritable raison d'être of TRP was for the longest time just what its name implie😛 reform. Reform of the eThai government and defeat of the Rockman 9 regime. Well, we got that. After this, we stood for vigilance against a reversion, and we still do. Generally, we stand for the principles of liberal market democracy, even though we don't require our members to espouse them (indeed, I myself am a tepid supporter such things). However, most parties in eThailand do. Our differences with other parties are of culture and nuance, not substantive policy. In particular, some have argued that our differences with SUP amount to having a different symbol and name.

We have stood as a bloc with SUP from its creation. We backed Jack in his first bid for President, though had the reform faction won the TRP party elections in October, it would have been SUP supporting our candidate. We made up a large portion of the Roberts administration. We together supported the King administration, both during the election and after. We threw votes at each other's Congressional candidates when we could, and we spoke in favor of many of our bills, leaving room for individual disagreements.

In short, we have to a large degree been acting as a unified party even though we are not unified. I would like to see that latter point rectified. Unification has several practical points strongly in its favor.

First, it reduces complexity and overhead of Congressional voting. We would no longer be competing against each other even on paper, so vote distribution and the logistics associated therewith would be streamlined.

Second, it increases the "gravity" of the party in terms of attracting new immigrants. Right now TNT garners many new eThais simply because they want to join the largest party, even though that effectively means yielding up their voices. If we merge, we can potentially bring in a larger share of new immigrants, who we can attempt to shape and mold into ePolitically active citizens.

Finally... because it's the right thing to do. The democratic thing to do. Currently, the eRepublik political system is extremely flawed and highly undemocratic. Most pointedly, it is not possible for citizens to run for Congress unless they not only belong to a political party, but one of the five largest. By distributing ourselves over two separate parties, the SUP-TRP bloc excludes would-be voices of dissent. We limit political participation to TNT (and its offshoot party), our bloc, and one single "third party". This stifles democracy enormously. It is our responsibility to become one party in fact as well as function, so as to allow dissenting voices a chance to make themselves heard and to argue the merits of their case.

However, some might ask why I propose TRP, the larger and older of the parties, should migrate into SUP rather than the other way around.

First, because it's TRP leadership proposing the merger, and thus it behooves us to make the move. Politesse and suchlike.

Second, because if we look only at actives, our parties are actually about the same size. This does have the troubling effect of letting some would-be politicians who choose to move in and take over the shell an exaggerated voice to a degree they would not from an SUP husk, but the TRP inactives will slowly die off and drop out of the party, so unless the newcomers work to make themselves into a real party they'll faded into obscurity.

Third, because perhaps not everyone will want the merger to occur, so TRP's successor might rise from its own ashes. There's no reason a dissident voice from within the current membership cannot stay behind to change the tenor an add their voice to the eThai political choir.

Fourth, because the differences in treasuries mean nothing at the moment, and if we judge by the prognostications put forth by the admins, they'll never mean more than little. This is a true non-issue.

Fifth, because we are the older party. We have more history... and not all of it is good. Our early months gave us a reputation as a contentious party who disagreed for the sake of disagreeing. The "young Turk" reformist faction fought that and eventually succeeded in changing the party's tenor, but TRP is still remembered by some as one of the "Brazilian" parties promoting personality politics and partisanship above all else. SUP lacks this particular baggage.

Sixth, because no more TRP would sound the long-delayed death knell for the superficial aspect of the TNT-TRP rivalry. Change in membership did much to erase this, but there still exist those souls who reflexively opposes their "opposite number" not for substantive policy reasons but because they're sitting under the wrong banner. This has been much more subdued as the Brazilians-to-others ratio has changed in the two parties, but I'll still be glad to draw a line under this for once and for all.

So. Whither Thailand Reform Party? I say the annals of history. What say all you? Let's talk this through, and make our decisions. Those who agree with the above can join me in shifting to SUP. Those who find my case uncompelling can stay. It's been an honor to lead you, and I'd hope we can all continue to work together for the good of eThailand no matter what we individually chose.