Imperial Gardening Council

> *"The Imperial Gardening Council, in all their glory, are merely governors of the Gardener Supreme's kingdom."*
>
> ―Tan Chiew Sern, to Kevin Wang
>
>

The **Imperial Gardening Council**, also known as the **Imperial Governing Council**, **Gardening Council**, or simply **Imperial Council**, was a collective body of 50 permanent and numerous provisional bureaucrats appointed by the Gardener Supreme on advice of the Gardener Prime, including: Tan Chiew Sern, Wu Bokai, Terrence Powderly, Praveen Kumar, Zavier Tan, and various other Gardeners. All permanent members on the Council were Master Gardeners, while temporary members comprised primarily of field experts or business leaders who did not possess Master Gardening Certification.

## History

### Charmaine Chiang's Council

Charmaine Chiang was elected Gardener Prime of the Imperial Gardening Council by Wang Xingchen, becoming the seventh female Gardener Prime in the history of the Federation. A conservative and efficient leader, Charmaine was elected to continue for an additional two full terms, serving a total of fifteen years prior to her retirement.

Nearing the end of her third term, the Council called for a vote of no confidence in her leadership, which ended in her victory, with 33 members in favour of her premiership and 16 members against. Despite winning by a two-thirds majority, Charmaine's general approval was considered to be at an all-time low throughout her tenure, with a significant number of Councillors suggesting that she was 'too worn out by time' to lead. She stepped down from her post at the end of her third term, retiring from the Council.

### Tan Chiew Sern's Council

Tan Chiew Sern found the Council left behind by Charmaine Chiang backward and almost regressive, and he set out to resolve certain problematic issues after his appointment.

#### Combating corporate influence

Tan Chiew Sern found that the presence of business representatives on the Council placed it at the mercy of the industry leaders, to the point where the IGC was wrestling with the business magnates for political power. The magnates could use their proxies on the IGC to bend the economy to their will, profiting at the expense of the general stability of the Federation. This also resulted in the declining legitimacy of the Council as a whole. As a result, Tan Chiew Sern decided to open investigations into them, expelling a total of 8 members from the Council.

#### Budget allocation

Tan Chiew Sern found that a disproportionate amount of budget was allocated to the research and military sectors, and found that not all of the spent budget was properly reported. He decided to cut expenses on the research department by over a third, displeasing Research Secretary of State Jasmine Koh, who argued that the progressiveness of the Federation would be stalled by this decision. Tan Chiew Sern also found pensions of top-ranking officials to be excessive and seemingly unrestrained, and reduced the allocated budget to that department. His actions, while antagonising the upper classes, seemed to gain the approval of most other Federation Gardeners.

#### General Opinion

Tan Chiew Sern's radical decisions gained the respect of many and disdained many others, and he was seen as a ferocious and unrelenting head of government. A vote of no confidence was called shortly after his term began, and Chiew Sern won by a landslide, with 44 Councillors in his favour and 5 against.