"For the first category of questions, we will be talking about domestic affairs and reforms. One of you will be asked a question directly, and any of the other candidates can feel free to respond once the first has answered this question." said Dijamij.
"For the first question, Metsetscuk, how would you handle destroying the remnants of human trafficking and prostitution from the Confederation's days?"
Xoscaj was mildly taken aback to be picked upon first but they gladly stepped up to the task of giving an answer to the asked question.
"The prosecution of the sex traffickers and the illegal slavers within our borders is an absolute top priority for me and my party. We believe it must be a cooperative, collective effort to weed out the filth within our nation, while respecting the rights of individuals who have not done any harm."
Some people in the crowd clapped and Basclijem rang his buzzer in to speak. "Yes, Basclijem, you may speak." the announcer replied. Gerom took a deep breath and turned to his opponent to speak.
"Your party is very anti-statist and libertarian, correct?"
"Yes, that would be correct. We believe in a form of libertarian collectivism, if you wanted to give it a name."
Gerom paused to think before continuing.
"While that does sound very intriguing, what I was intending to ask you with that question is, without having a strong government, how exactly would you be able to fight crime at all? It seems like you wish to abolish police forces and use a civilian guard, like how the anarchists want society to be run. But personally I believe that without a strong state, collectivism will falter and be unable to purge its internal "filth" as you call it. So I'm curious to know how exactly you plan to do anything, much less fight trafficking rings, when your proposed state structure can barely tell its own people what to do."
Metsetscuk nodded, responding, "I understand your concerns, and I wholly sympathize with any part of the population that fears a weak government, but a decentralized proletarian government by no means would be a weak one, in fact in my opinion it would be stronger, with the direct control of the means of production under the people of Kyldigard, without the need for the middleman of state bureaucracy, people would be able to get anything they wanted through direct representation. And in the case of the question at hand, I would say that most people want to end the trafficking rings, and therefore, speedily and democratically, the whole of society would work together to put its best minds and strongest fighters together to defeat them."
Applause rang throughout the room.
Tsovij Terelebij rang in to speak.
"You may speak, Terelebij."
She nodded in gratitude towards the announcer.
"While I agree with the concept of democracy, if your intent is to be as efficient as possible, why not create a dedicated revolutionary police force? We may have had our troubles with the oppressive police of the Confederation but under proper guidance, dedicated police units would be far more useful than civilian militias in fighting all crime, especially systemic crime."
Metsetscuk nodded along until it was their time to speak.
"The police have long been a symbol of oppression of minorities, of the poor, and of state control. The civilian guards we would establish would not lack the qualifications of the police, just the reactionary symbolism of the old forces. They would also be much more restricted from engaging in conflict with civilians so as to prevent the civil violence that occurred in the past."
A moment went by and some applause went up into the air.
Motol Scorrosc rang in to speak, and was given the go-ahead.
"If I may say something, large portions of this country are still yet unconvinced of this new revolutionary government, and many of those people respected the old police, despite their flaws, for fighting crime across the nation. And now I hear you want to risk destabilizing the fabric of society even more by disbanding them, possibly costing thousands of people their jobs? What is the point of doing such a thing if you're just going to create the police by a different name anyway? Won't they just end up doing the same thing as the regular police? And if so, why even bother in the first place?" he said.
Metsetscuk was mildly ruffled by the harsh tone of the Social-Democratic candidate, but kept their cool and responded in turn.
"The structure of our crime-fighting force not only needs to change for symbolic reasons, but also because a more supervised, decentralized, and less controlling force will result in a safer society. And as for your concerns for conservatives who value letters on a badge over the actual, real needs of Kyld across the country, we did not fight a revolutionary guerilla war for decades in the shadows just for someone like you to come along and say we should pander to the forces of fascist degeneracy who want every single one of us in this room dead!"
Motol was taken aback but tried to keep his cool. "With all due respect, I understand your ideals but not every citizen who initially disagreed with the revolution is an inherently bad person, many are just...misled... to believe in harmful ideologies that we disagree with. And how are we going to create a stable country when we don't concede to the other side?"
Dangam Kotsij rang in to speak.
"While I disagree with the anti-statist extremeness of the Social Radical Party's platform, I agree with the fact that we shouldn't bend to the will of people who have harmful or dangerous ideologies. They're obviously misled, as you say, but they will be convinced not by us bending to their wishes, but by our actions as a proletarian government showing them they can trust and have faith in us."
The timer for the first question started to run low so Gotaj Gurmezh rang in to establish himself in the conversation.
"I agree with my comrades that have already spoken before me. While it is regrettable that we might anger some of the people in our country, a revolutionary government must take revolutionary action." he said, point-blank.
"That's all the time we have for the first question, now it's time to move on to the second question", announced the announcer.
"For the second question, Dangam Kotsij, how does your party plan on expanding our healthcare system to integrate primary and secondary care?"
Dangam grinned and spoke to the announcer and audience.
"The International Revolutionary Party believes that all people have the right to medical treatment and checkups, completely free of cost. The new national medical system will be reworked to ensure that nobody goes without their medical needs! That is an absolute right of the people."
As expected, Scorrosc rang in.
"While I agree that people should have easy access to healthcare, making it entirely cost-free will surely put a huge burden on the national economy...How do you expect to pay for all of this?"
Kotsij shook his head and responded, "You are thinking very capitalistically about all of this. Yes, it will be an expensive endeavor, but our government has had hundreds of millions of Tsing to spare for ages now, and as we are no longer a capitalist nation, we have no reason to hoard all that money away where it cannot benefit the people of our nation."
The crowd clapped.
Not many were willing to challenge Kotsij on this issue, as free healthcare under collectivism was pretty much a given, but Terelebij still wanted to ring in and speak.
"While I totally agree with the idea of fully provided healthcare, our party believes that immediate implementation is dangerous and could lead to negative side effects on the economy and medical system. How do you expect to successfully pull off rapid shock reforms and not suffer long-term consequences because of it?" she questioned.
"Well, Tsovij, I understand your concerns but any economic downturn from reforming the system for the better will by far be outweighed by the system being better positioned to help the people it is meant to govern."
Dangam turned back to Motol and questioned him. "If you dislike my policies so much how about you answer the question yourself and give your plan to the people of this country?"
Motol was slightly surprised by the request but gladly complied. "Well, since you ask so nicely, the Social-Democratic Party believes that while there should be a safety net for all citizens, the market should still be able to do its job; the economy should be regulated, but not controlled, and therefore the medical needs of the individual should be taken into account when calculating the amount of aid every citizen should get."
Gerom Basclijem rang in. "That sounds like a load of liberal capitalist ccamad to me! We didn't fight for capitalism, we fought for collectivism, and we expect the benefits of collectivism to aid and heal our broken, hurting nation and our proud people. If you elect me, crypto-capitalist leeches like this man will never be able to jeopardize your hopes and your future ever again! And just as my...comrade Kotsij put it, everybody has a right to healthcare, fully free of cost. Anything else would bring back the class system we fought so hard to destroy..."
The crowd clapped and cheered for Basclijem.
Metsetscuk rang in to speak. "I absolutely agree with Kotsij and Basclijem's position on this matter, and so does the Social Radical Party's platform. However, I am a bit concerned when you say that people like him will "never be able to jeopardize the country again", it sounds a bit... authoritarian. While I agree that capitalism should not have any part in our new society, would what I assume to be a crackdown on people's freedom of speech be a violation of their rights as a citizen?"
Gerom nodded and replied, "Is it truly freedom of speech to speak violence, hate, and backwards ideological thought? Isn't it truly a free country to speak in when you can express yourself without risking harm by an opposing reactionary party? If you truly want to achieve economic and political equality as you say, is it not true that we as a government of the people must first re-educate the people who do not want to cooperate and believe in what is right?"
"With all due respect, "re-education" sounds like brainwashing. Not that I disagree with a hundred percent of what you believe, but I am simply very disturbed by the concept of the state influencing people in such a way. If we are doing the right thing and it is helping people, why would we need to convince them if they would be convinced by our actions alone?"
Dangam Kotsij spoke up again. "Personally, I and my International Revolutionary Party comrades believe that both of you have valid points, and while there does need to be some state accountability so that people are not oppressed, (he looks at Xoscaj), there does also need to be protection against hate speech and violent far-right rhetoric. (he turns to look at Gerom) We must move forward as a country, past the era of racism, discrimination, and capitalism, but clamping down too harshly on anyone who even moderately disagrees with state policy will lead to nothing but stronger opposition and violence."
No one else bothered to speak up after that.
"That's it for the second question, then", said the announcer, "Now, for the third question, Gotaj Gurmezh, how will your party address modernizing Kyldigard to keep up with our rapidly industrializing economic and political rivals such as Tepror?"
The crowd whispered amongst itself after such an interesting question was proposed.
"Well, thank you for asking. My party proposes a mixed program, one by which a market collectivist system may combine the efficiencies of a market system with the efficiencies of a state economy, allowing us to focus on collectivizing what is necessary to lift up our population while letting the magical and technological geniuses of our nation work autonomously to innovate our country into the new age of technological and magological progress."
Dangam Kotsij rang in.
"Why would the markets be more "efficient" than simply putting it under the control of the proletarian government? Back in the days of capitalism, the markets didn't do anything but make the rich richer and chase profit over progress, do you honestly think they can be trusted to develop collectivism?"
"Well, yes. I am a market collectivist." replied Gurmezh.
"Well I think you're being ridiculous. Our party's platform believes that we should prioritize making economic ties to other collectivist nations, such as Kveuton and the Tblek Vong, to strengthen our proletarian economy and help us build up to the strength, both economically and militarily, to overwhelm our rivals."
Metsetscuk rang in. "Why are we even focusing on external imperialist rivalries when our nation is an uninvadable fortress? Our first priority should be helping the well-being of the Kyldigardian proletariat first and foremost."
Gerom Basclijem rang in. "Furthering our strength to ensure said fortress of a country never becomes invadable is important, though. And the Worker's Patriotic Party plans to accomplish that by focusing on multi-year plans to industralize and advance rapidly to not only match our enemies, but surpass them."
Tsovij Terelebij rang in as well. "Our party believes that rapid advancement can be dangerous and risky, so we believe in gradual advancement and focusing on green energy to move us forward."
The Social-Democratic candidate rang in again. "We agree with gradual reforms, but also very much in market cooperation, even more so than the People's Unity Party. If we try to restrain the free flow of... ...the free flow of scientific information using the state, we will only end up harming our economy, not advancing to match our rivals."
The tension was getting higher in the room so, seeing as all candidates had already made a satisfying answer to the question, announcer Botsimek moved on to the next question.
"For the next question, Basclijem, how does your party plan to tackle immigration?"
Gerom smiled and nodded.
"The Worker's Patriotic Party will enact a law to allow limited immigration into Kyldigard based on working expertise and talent, rather than being based on how much money an immigrant can pay to get in like the old system, which allowed our great nation to be picked apart by greedy foreign parasites."
"With all due respect", said Kotsij, "there are many refugees and other people who need to seek refuge in our country from oppression and persecution, and your plan would severely limit their ability to come here for safety."
"There are plenty of other places they can go", retorted Gerom, "We need to put our own people first."
"What gives us as the proletarian government the right to deny entry to anyone who seeks it? Are we not meant to help the proletariat of the world?" injected Xoscaj Metsetscuk, "Kyldigard is a vast, diverse land of many peoples, with a lot of room for more. Allowing refugees in is not a deterrent to the ability to advance society, arguably, immigrants can even be a net positive, providing work where there are worker shortages."
"Work that should be done by Kyldigardians, not outsiders", said Gerom.
Motol Scorrosc rang in to speak, even though at this point nobody was using the buttons anymore and were just speaking whenever they felt like it. "If I may, I would agree with Gerom, surprisingly enough. While some immigration is good, it is important to consider the fact that we are still a wounded nation from our revolution, and we need to focus on developing our economy and bettering people's lives first."
"But what's the point of even developing our economy if it doesn't serve the interests of the international proletariat?" inquired Kotsij, "Immigration should be allowed for all who request it, given they aren't of criminal background."
"The spectre of internationalism is tempting, but I must agree that immigration cannot just be allowed completely free of strings", interjected Gotaj Gurmezh, "there must be some regulation to keep our people safe."
"But what's the point of saying we're going to keep our people safe if we are going to be hypocrites and reject the needs of the billions around the globe?" responded Dangam.
"The fact is that we cannot be so idealistic as to ignore our own people in favor of people that could easily be spies, or sabateurs, or worse", replied Gerom.
"And the time is up for this question!" shouted the announcer, "the final question in the Domestic Affairs category will be, Tsovij Terelebij, how do you plan on busting the drug cartels that smuggle deadly hard drugs into and out of our country? After this question there will be a recess and then we will the continue the debates."
Tsovij and the other candidates paled in the face slightly when the cartels were mentioned, knowing their ferocity and the vile things they had done, but despite all having very different ideas on so many things, they all agreed on one thing that would change the nation of Kyldigard forever.
"We will declare total war on the drug cartels", boldly said Tsovij, "and wipe them off the face of the earth forever, even if it takes a million guns and a trillion spells!"
The crowd had never cheered louder, standing in a standing ovation for the spirit of the six candidates, who now finally had something they had no reason to debate.
After a short while, the time for the final Domestic Affairs question ran out and the recess was called for a few hours to give time for a lunch break and to prepare for the next segment of the preliminary debates.
