Intergalactic Summit

Aaaah, no.

I am Matari. I am of the Tribes. I do not belong to a system created by the Federation, however well intended it may or may not have been. Fortunately, this is no longer quite the case. We are returning to our Tribes ways and the Republic will soon be that in name only, and hopefully soon enough not even that.

When our identity was suppressed and hidden, our people found belonging where they could. This is not surprising, nor something to blame them for. Now our identities as a people and a nation are starting to reappear, reconstructed in part and rediscovered in others, invented entirely anew even and this may very well prove to be a turning point where Matari find themselves feeling the calling of their spirits. The call to come home, and remember.

And as such, we must do our part. Any Minmatar of any nation, allegiance, faith or ideals are welcome to any Accorded Neutral Ground inside and outside of the Tribes. For capsuleers, this will mostly mean Deck23, or the planetside areas that can be found in galnet registries on Pator.

Your faith or allegiance matters not in this. Come visit in peace and see if you may hear the yearning of the spirit.

I'm Stjörnauga. My Clan lives on stations in Pator and Eystur. There are perhaps five dozen of us, and I'm reasonably sure that those who remain on-station can send a message if they need me to get them supplies, ISK, or direct combat assistance.

I'm Sebiestor. My Tribe has defined my ways and my life for as long as I can remember. When the time came, they gave me the training I needed at the Pator Tech School to go from being a technician to a capsuleer.

I'm Matari. And I will always be Matari. But right now, I'm an expatriot, living deep in nullsec while I work with others who've spilled their blood and saved my rear in combat. Lately, I've been building up ties to some of the Tribal Militia members so that If the Matari need me, they can call on me. I'll answer the call, when it comes.

But a 'Republican'? The Tribal Council and the Sanmatar is our way. A parliament... feh. Acassa Midular is my Chief. If we are unsatisfied with her leadership, the Sebiestor will correct the problem, one way or another.

I am no Republican.

I don't know what I am. My republic is what my people want me to be. My tribe is where I wish to be. In reality my tribe is not the republic, but the republic is my tribe. So in essence I am for the republic but only to care for my tribe. Does that make any sense? And that's why I work for the Gallante...

With all due respect to my ancestors: My identity is self-constructed. My path is none but my own. My alliances stand where I see fit. I am defined by the choices I make. The Republic? It's nothing.

In the constant evolution of my self, there is no room for ideas as simple, or stagnant, or obsolete as "the Republic."

The Matari are a people who value freedom above all other things. We live our lives in a myriad of ways, in uncountable places throughout the cluster.

We value freedom because it forms our very soul, and we know what it is to be enslaved. Each of us, freed or born free, must know that the freedom we enjoy to be diverse, was bought - and continues to be paid for - in blood. Matari blood unites us through the ages and today.

Freedom was not won by individuals alone, but by immense efforts together. We should not lose sight of the power of unity, of a common effort.

The Republic represents that togetherness. It was formed, perhaps imperfectly, from the great rebellion and mass rejection of our fate. It was born from wisdom gained from the other free peoples of this cluster, and though it needed and needs, reform, the Republic remains our only serious hope of preserving freedom.

Freedom is also born from law. Respecting the rule of law, and having that law written justly and with the consent of the people to which it is applied, is the first, highest duty of government.

Many of the opinions here, of those who have left the Republic for various reasons, will be hymns of hope to our erstwhile oppressors. The Empire is a power monolith, single-minded and impatient of dissent. It has all the strengths of such a culture, bounded by its religion so even co-existence is seen as a heresy. Such obedience, as we well know, is most powerful in war.

These imperialists rely on our divisiveness, our tribal squabbles, our individualism. They want us to be scattered. Whilst diversity can be a strength, we are not strong. We weaken each day, as instead of believing in something greater than ourselves, we fragment to place and tribe and family.

We have allowed ourselves to give up the truest strength of freedom, the ability for many ideas to work politically together to achieve something greater than the simple sum of parts. Instead of hard work, we embrace populism. We allow our Sanmatar to appeal to the worst aspects of ourselves - vengeance, struggle, war - rather than engage us all to reform the Republic into something that can represent the people. We appear to comfortable with this, because peace, democracy and compromise are hard, and we are still as children. Angry, resentful, always keen to blame the bogey man that lies in the remembered dark.

We are not unlike the Amarr in much of this. How could we not think like our captors after so long among them? The traditional clans and families hold sway in the Tribal Council, we abrogate our freedoms to a powerful dictatorial leader. We discard Treaty Law and cluster agreements when it suits our momentary aims, as if by doing so we do not imperil friendships and our very future. And still, so many of our brethren abandon the Republic for other dreams, because they feel - knowingly or subconsciously - that freedom is dying on the vine.

We cannot replicate Gallentean democracy exactly. Nor pseudo-Caldari brutalist pragmatism a model most Matari could stomach. There must be reforms that include our confederate nature, and respect Tribal rights. But the voice of the people must be heard forcefully in their representation, and whilst historical culture informs our ways, the future must take account of the power balances of the present. The Old Ways are not sufficient in the era of capsuleers.

We need the flower of our people to come home and fight for the Republic, to create it anew, and anew, and anew. This is what freedom truly means: for with freedom comes great responsibility, and to build something that ensures our children and children’s children will also be free.

I am loyal to my comrades, clan and tribe. So long as they are served by the Republic, I will serve it.

Honestly, I feel like the Tribal system is already pretty democratic. People bad talk it, but really, it functions pretty well. Do I vote for who I want to be an elder? No, but I certainly have say, and these are all people I'm close to anyway. I'm not unfairly represented, I'd say I'm more fairly represented in this way then I would be by vote alone. Origin uses a hybrid cellular virtual democracy, but it takes a lot of cues from the clans and tribes in the cellular arrangement of leaders. I'd really struggle to call the republic at its worst a dictatorship. On the contrary really, a lot of the recent events have proven that, if anything, Sanmatar Shakor can't control his people. The attack on Colelie was clear evidence of that, and you can look no further then Miss "No Abolition No Peace" further up the thread to see a good example of it.

Jili Tonari, tell me, if Sanmatar Shakor made peace with the Empire tomorrow, would you stop fighting them? And then, if total abolition was to somehow happen, what would you do with yourself? Do you have a definition for yourself as anything other then a freedom fighter and an enemy of the Empire?

For a little clarification, Republic does not automatically mean democracy. It simply means; not a monarchy.

What are people's thoughts about democracy in the Republic, or among Matari in general?

Remember, it was largely introduced to us by the Gallente. There are variations from clan to clan and tribe to tribe, but few I think could be described as democratic.

Pardon me for asking.. I guess that the Federation has an immense intellect, fantastic education and wisdom, considering how successful they are ?