Chapter 6 : Town Hall Meeting

And Faiza « boldly campaigned where no one campaigned before » by making a visit to the prison camp; for some reason, no one else would even dare go to the prison camp, let alone make a promise for its residents. Faiza expected most inmates not to care about politics more than normal citizens would, and her trip to the most dangerous area of the city (the Outer City was filled with thieves, vagrants and other criminals) made her portray as a fearless leader for the city. Yet, many people expressed their disgust at her promise to extend voting rights to the inmates. They receive the visit from a royal messenger, which rides a wyvern:

"All mayoral candidates are thereby summoned to the royal palace by nightfall. Every eligible elector in the city is invited to go to the royal palace in order to attend a debate between all three mayoral candidates"

This even means the soldiers garrisoned in Thabes… although not all are residents of the city, the King deemed garrison soldiers eligible to vote as long as they did not commit crimes while in service. In fact, if one committed crimes while in service, they would face a court-martial and then serve a prison sentence in a civilian facility, since Marmotord did not maintain prisons specifically for military convicts. However, even if the military has its own candidate, their duties demand that they be out on patrol. And Faiza is prepared to ride to the royal palace once again. Since there are only some burghers that fully acknowledge the system change to actually have an impact, all candidates only expect two thousand at most. The debate is mediated by the King himself, before which all three candidates knelt simultaneously.

"All candidates, move to the Great Yard" the King ordered.

This meant that the debate was held at the base of the royal palace, actually. The Great Yard was surrounded by walls, forming the third and final fortification level of the city. With thousands of commoners in the courtyard, the royal guards are stationed at every corner in order to maintain order during the debate. The debate begins with the opening statements, but the opening statements all begin with corruption. Grace campaigned about public artwork, while Kerson favored lower taxes and Faiza campaigned about social policy. Social policy is the first debate topic of the day, with the topic of convict rights coming up.

"I pledged in the Landfill that convicts would be granted the right to vote. Convicts perform the unpleasant, unskilled work; petty criminals do not serve life sentences in a prison camp. We should focus on helping them somewhat for the life after the prison camp"

"Wouldn't it be dangerous to grant indicted criminals the same voting rights as normal citizens? Wouldn't they use their votes to advance a pro-criminal agenda?" objected Grace.

"How much legitimacy should be granted to their voice? Wouldn't they use their influence to sweep future crimes under the rug?" asked Kerson.

"The population does not understand that most of the inmates are convicted for crimes that are apolitical in nature. Very few, if any, crimes were committed with the intent of advancing a political agenda"

"But aren't inmates dangerous enough not to be granted voting rights on equal footing with law-abiding citizens?" objected Grace.

"The thievery guild active in the region does not care about public policy in general; all that the guild cares about with respect to public policy is trade policy and, to a lesser extent, public security. And other criminals are otherwise no different politically from the law-abiding population"

"Since Faiza is someone who promised to put up the contents of the Landfill for sale as any other legal merchandise would be, I have serious reservations about Faiza's conclusions, but these conclusions are not without merit"

"Try asking some convicted members of the Thabes Thievery Guild about policy issues. Their views on sanitation, educational, public works and public health policy are all over the place, about as much spread out as in the law-abiding population. I do not expect that whether TTG members are free or not have any impact on their opinions about specific policy issues"

"How will letting them vote help in their rehabilitation? You seemed to talk about rehabilitation every time you're talking about public security…"

"They have civic responsibilities and, during the daytime, they have to learn about civics and the law while in the sickbay; in fact, while convicts are used to perform public works, some of them get injured while on duty"

This topic of prisoner rights led the King to switch to a new topic, educational issues. Once again, the heated discussion was drawn out but, somehow, Grace came out with some snarky comment about how she was vastly different from the majority of the city's residents, as Faiza didn't seem to understand the intellectual realities of the kids.

"How can you be so sure that the kids who will make use of your grand educational plan will be able to sustain the rigors of this educational regimen? How can you be certain that the curriculum is not targeted at child prodigies, successful or failed, like you?" Grace asked.

"In fact we currently have no clue as to what the kids can truly do because the educational system is so deficient at sorting. Yet, somehow, it's not because I turned down an elite magic school in Khadein when I still was a teenager that I am necessarily a child prodigy! I may very well have been one back then but, should I be elected, I will make adjustments as necessary"

"Faiza's objectives are inconsistent with Thabes' industries: glassblowing, gunpowder production. Unless Faiza somehow desires Thabes to develop some industries that require better-educated people to run, in which case I could understand her motives" Kerson stated.

"We shouldn't see education solely through the lens of economic output! There is also a danger to see education as merchandise as well, but it is undeniable that, if properly educated, this city's population will be more productive than ever before, on the long run, because the minds we have here in Thabes are currently developed far below their potential. We could lead the world in innovation if this plan works"

"A better-educated population will inevitably lead to more political instability in an equally long run, especially should democracy flourish. With a greater ability to form, and disseminate, opinions and information, people will invariably be more critical of the government they are under, hence the increased political instability" countered Kerson.

"At the same time, better education could reduce crime rates, but I'm sure everyone agrees on this, no amount of education will eradicate crime completely" Grace adds.

"Grace, Kerson, you both leave me the impression that either your respective platforms center on accountability or that you are here only to criticize others' ideas. I want to see your plans!"

"Faiza, it is normal to criticize opposing ideas, but I'd rather institutionalize the apprenticeship system. You have to understand that not everyone is cut out for intense academic training."

"As far as I'm concerned, I'd attempt to screen early who can and who cannot make use of an actual education beyond a basic level. That way, there would be no need to open up more facilities to this end"

After a couple of minutes of equally sterile debates (albeit not degenerating into sophisms, ad hominems and other fallacious devices) the King reaches a decision in order to appease the crowd present that demanded their final topic, corruption. The public started throwing objects on the candidates on the raised, lighted platform. Once again who goes first is chosen at random.

"The next and final topic will be accountability and corruption. The random draw chose Kerson to begin the debate" the King announced.

"I would impose a strict inspection of any contract awarded by the city council before any of them gets signed and takes effect"

"OK, Kerson, but what about auditing? And would you impose a limit on how long would a city councillor or a mayor is able to serve in office? Because the corruption process is mainly borne out of the experience of the corruptor with the targeted officials, I would set a duration limit of 10 years"

"Grace, I do not think that will actually have much of an effect; however, if banks are taxed more, they will have less cash with which to bribe officials, since history has proven that banks are major sources of bribes. And I would deploy a team of auditors, chosen from trained magic users, to perform the function Kerson has in mind"

Faiza foresees Kerson being the biggest loser of this debate; he didn't come up with much in terms of ideas, as more ideas are being introduced one after the other by the ladies: make publicly accessible every single written document that is an act of the City Council, set up a direct line with the city council should any irregularity occur, reduce the maximum contribution any given individual can make to an electoral campaign to 100 gold, all of which was agreed upon by the population.

"I invite all of you to go vote on the designated day!" exhorted the King.

At that moment, the voting public then walked out of the main exit, left open, where there are two thousand voters that got out of the palace, two abreast, which inevitably takes a long time. For this reason, the three candidates got on their horses and waited for the commotion to die down before leaving the premises.