The Future Of The Senate
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by NoTie112
Dear Citizens of The Netherlands,
Welcome to the newest newspaper of The eNL, Rewind! A newspaper which will return Dutch media to it's former glory, and even exceed it!
Today, I want to inform you about a debate going on for some time on our national forums. The people of The Netherlands have the right to know what their congressmen are talking about, so it only seemed logical to post an article about the current state of affairs, regarding this debate.
First of all, let me introduce you to the subject of the debate; The Senate. The Senate is the official administrative body of The eNL. It rights are as following; 1) administrating our IRC channels 2) administrating our national forums 3) to propose emergency debates and votes 4) advising the goverment and keeping all goverment passwords.
Chapter 7 - Senate
article 21 - Definition of the senate
A. The Senate is the official administrative organ of the eNetherlands
B. The senate has 3 or 5 members
C. The senate´s official spokesperson is the ´head of the senate´
article 22 - appointment
A. anyone who at least has a ´officer in the order of de Nederlandse Leeuw medal´ or higher can apply for senator by sending a request to be admitted to the Head of the Senate
B. Current senators vote on the proposed admissions internally
C. senators also choose who represents them as ´Head of Senate´ for the next 3 months,
this appointment must be acknowledged by the congress with a majority in a official congress-vote
D. in the case of (suspected) misconduct the congress can remove any senator (including head of senate) from their position by holding a vote of no confidence in the congress, this vote will be considered as an emergency vote instantly.
article 23 - duration
A. Senator appointment is for a minimum of 3 months
B. Head of Senate is for a minimum of 3 months
article 24 - rights
A. to help moderate the enetherlands.nl forum
B. to help moderate the official IRC channels
C. to propose emergency-procedure debates and votes in congress
D. Head of the Senate is also a maintainer of the government password list, as is the Country President.
Above is showed the paragraph in our constitution regarding The Senate. A couple of points I certainly don't agree with:
*It's lack of transparency, most of you don't even know that a Senate exist, and we as congressman don't know what they are doing, if they are doing something it all.
*It's lack of control, as they can only remove theirselves from The Senate, no one else. Who would remove himself, I wouldn't.
*It's powerhungry tasks, which are performed by other people as well. Why do the Senate need so much power, having acces to so many valueable information and rights? eNL existed most of it's time without a Senate, it shows a Senate is not needed at all to perform this tasks. As this is the main task of The Senate, the only reasonable thing to do is to abolish this political body.
Coupled with it's awfully inactivity (the majority of Senate hasn't contributed to our country for weeks) and it's abuse of powers (A senator once edited a post by a congressmember into something, putting this same congressmember to shame), I can't find any reasons why anybody would want to continue support this system. That's why I'm probably going to announce a vote in congress regarding a referendum. I'll give YOU the right to decide who's going to govern your country, as they shouldn't govern without the support of their own people. However, there is a chance there won't be a referendum at all, as congress can refuse me to start one. It's time to follow suit for the congressmembers; Will they allow me to start a referendum, a full democratic right, or will they refuse me to do it, ignoring our democratic values and siding with The Senate? I'll keep you updated.
Regards,
NoTie112
Congressmember
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Comments
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Hm. Can't say I totally agree with you, but yay, another article!
Lol, I see a paradox. You tell us, we all have no idea what the Senate is doing (which is kinda true). But then you say the Senate is inactive. How can you know that, while not knowing what they are doing?
And even if the Senate is inactive, it isn't there job to be very active, their job doesn't require epic activity.
And why would the congress rufuse to have a referendum? Who told you that? Referendums are fun : D
@Shrubbery: I think when you last log on eNL forums in 2010 (In Trinc's case) isn't good, even as Senate member. Same for Auggy, which seems to very inactive lately.
I'll remember your approval for a referendum. Anyways, I never said it was defenitive that congress would refuse it, but there is a chance of it.
Yes, I must agree haven't seen Trinc in a long while. But you don't know why, some congressmembers can be inactive because of IRL reasons. Though they should have made a note on the forum if that were the case.
Most people don't even know the forum exists. You can't blame everything on transparency when it is plain ignorance. It is strange that you rather abolish than repair though, I could've abolished the congress over ten times by that logic.
abolishing the senate will only cripple the power from the congress over the senate even more...
then you have even less transparent admins, is that what you really want?
@Daniel Parker, that's not a really strong argument because you are mixing the duties of the senate, you also wants the senate to have political rights/privileges. That's more than only moderate a forum(section).
yes it's a good argument, because the senate is an administrative organ, not a political institution
Don't like the senate or their power? Form your own political party, take all the seats in congress, and have no one from your party participate in IRC or the forums. Without congress on the forums, the senate and it's members have no power.
I personally never liked using the forums or IRC because IRL keeps me with only enough time for one sight.
I am a little concerned, if what is stated in the article is true. However, the thing I am most concerned with is the allegation that an admin has edited a congressmember's post. Whether that edit changed the meaning or not, admin's should NEVER edit someone's post. They can censor it, and request the post be reworded for obscenity. But I would never allow someone to edit my writing and I would never edit theirs without a request from the author that I do so. In the real world, there could even be legal ramifications, depending on the particular country's laws.
I'm not necessarily for or against a Senate, but if we are going to have one, transparency is a must!
IMO
Just solve the problems and don't abolish immediately. Otherwise we will keep the same problems. Btw, how can you make moderation and irc-op actions transparant?