Ubizieten Social Republic

"पितृभूमि रक्षा"

The **Ubizieten Social Republic** (Hindu: उबिज़िस्टेन; Tamil: உபிசிஸ்தான் சமூக குடியரசு) commonly known as **North Ubizieten** is the remnant state of the anti communist forces during the Ubizieten Civil War, in the aftermath of independence from Corusconia. Informally, it is known as 'North Ubizieten' to most of the world, though this is seen as insulting within the nation itself. The Social Republic is deeply corporatist, with an authoritarian, flawed democracy, that lobbies political factions against each other to ensure continued success.

The greatest political factor in keeping the Social Republic functional, is anti communism, the pervasive fear of invasion and encirclement by marxist forces, thus, the democracy ccontinues to function. There exists huge influence from foreign powers, primarily divided into the neighbouring Geurighaven and Thule, as well as overseas Essotori and Entaria.

Life in the Social Republic is bleak, dominated by personal economic success, and consumerism. To cope with this, and the existential dread of invasion and subversion, many turn to spirituality. Within the nation, many detest the label of Ubizieten, seeing themselves as a distinct entity, seperate from the Corusconian term Ubizieten.

## Etymology

The name 'Ubizieten' can be split into two words, Ubiz and Zieten. Ubiz is a tribe who have roamed the territory of modern day Ubizieten. Throught brutal conquest, they have conquered a large territory in modern day Ubizieten and often credited for the founding of Ubizieten. Meanwhile, Zieten is the god of war and to credit the god in their struggle against their rivals, they put the name inside their name and thus making Ubizieten.

## History

Although the history of Ubizieten is long and expansive, the history of the Democratic Republic's is quite modern. For decades, Ubizieten had remained strapped under the colonial domination of the Corusconian Imperial rule, only gaining independence in 1973.

The newly established government however would not last long, only until 1974 when socialist's over turned the government. Despite being socialist, the new government took a staunchly agressive stance against the established socialist world of Elparia, regularly inciting tensions and disputes with the neighboring Zhonghan, while activly putting preassure on the neighboring Geurighaven.

Constantly paranoid over capitalist infultration, as well as communist disloyalty due to their anti Zhonghanian stance, mass, nation wide purges were common, often random, and often brutal. Many were executed based off of assumed ideological leanings, while others were executed based off of race.

Tensions came to a head after the Ubizieten government prompted an undeclared border skirmish along Zhonghan's north eastern border, and being repullsed. As diplomatic talks broke down, Zhonghan officially declared war in 1976.

### Establishment (1976 - 1979)

As war rages on in the south between pro-Zhonghan rebels and the government, the former urban cetres in the north east also rose up in rebellion with extensive aid from Geurighaven, Essotori, Thule and Entaria. The rebel forces wanted the end to the brutal socialist regime and a return to capitalism. In December 1976 with extensive foreign aid and the main military force concentrated in the south, the regional government quickly collapsed and the social republic was declared on the 27 December 1976. The final blow to the old regime came when seperatists in the northwest have also risen up in rebellion and the three factions battled between each other for another 3 years until 1979 when the three sides came to an agreement to end the war with the border with the south denoted along the middle of the Ubiz river, spliting the ancient city of Meikong.

### Democratic Revolutionary Council (1979 - 2001)

With the war ending in 1979, people in the north were optimistic about the future of their country and the country held its first democratic election one month after the end of the war. During the war, the country was led by the Democratic Revolutionary Council (DRC), a military-civilian junta to govern the country for the duration of the war. In the election after the war, the chair of the DRC, General Venkata Raj, won the election in a landslide.

In January 1980, claiming that communist sympathisers have infiltrated the country, he staged a self coup and implemented martial law and suspended civil rights and banned communist parties. His rule was marked also by brutal repression left wing political parties and suspected communist sympathisers but arguably, life was better than the old regime. He also kept the DRC. The country was also plagued with corruption within financial institutions and the government and everyday life became more difficult as they needed to pay for bribes to bureaucrats, police officers just to name a few. Despite this, the government also took a neo-liberal approach to the economy characterised with low tax and low government spending attracting foreign businesses and investments mainly from Geurighaven, Thule, Essotori and Entaria which kept the economy afloat. The economy during this time have begun to steadily improve and so did living standards in the country which made most of the population turn a blind eye to the political repression the government was conducting.

During this period of time, the country began rapid industrialisation due to foreign companies setting up factories here due to cheaper labour cost. The largest exports during this period of time was textile. Women's rights, higher education and standard of living both improved drastically during the two decades under General Raj.

### Millenium Crisis

In the dawn of the second millenium, an economic crisis struck the capitalist world beginning in Treka. The crisis have certainly affected North Ubizieten with multiple large firms filing for bankrupcy and a rising unemployment rate. Thousands of people took to the street in June 2000 demanding economic and political reforms. The government initially was repressive towards the protestors sending the police in an attempt to crush the protestors. However, General Raj decided to give in to the protestors demands after finding out about his poor health.

Martial law came to an end after more than 2 decades under General Raj. The DRC drafted a new constitution for the new government and new elections were held in January 2001. The new constitution, though garenteed the country's democracy, have been criticised for making passing legislatures difficult and ensuring future military influence within the government by garenteeing 25% of the Parliament's seats to the military.

#### Rise of the Nozerod Cult

The Nozerod Cult, which originated from Essotori saw a rise in membership in North Ubizieten during the Millenium Crisis as people turned to spirtuality for support during the time of crisis. The numbers increased by 50% in 1999 with 30,000 members to 45,000 in 2000 and doubling to 90,000 in 2001. The cult's popularity continues to rise since then and membership reached 350,000 in 2021.

### Corrupt Democracy (2001 - 2021)

Following the end of the military dictatorship, the country opened itself up to democratic political discorse. As new political parties fill the seats of the country's newly established parliaments. The first administration led by Raghu Pandya from the Congress for Freedom (CoF) party from 2001 to 2006 soon found that the DRC have left almost most of it's problems to the new governments. Meanwhile, they soon found that it would be extremely difficult to pass new laws without the backing of the military.

Situations within the country did not improve under Pandya's rule due to his lack of support from the military resulting in the lose of his elections in 2006 to Kahoda Gazdar from the more conservative Liberal Party despite winning lesser votes but had the backing of the military. Under his rule up till 2011, the country was ravaged with protestors meanwhile the Congress for Freedom collapses into three smaller parties, the Congress for Freedom, Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the League of Grassroots (LoG).

Under Gazdar's rule, the country introduced austerity measures as government debt almost defaulted in mid 2006. Many sectors of the country were subsequently privatised including mining, healthcare and most improtantly education. The government also began heavy deregulation reguarding environmental laws resulting in mass air pollution and water pollution. Deregulation also took place in the manufactoring industry including reducing the minimum wage to attract foreign companies.

Gazdar's rule did not last and in 2011, the Liberal Party also collapsed into two parties, the Liberal and the Conservative Alliance. As the country's political parties breaks up, forming a new government becomes increasingly diffcult due to the differing views. the 2011 elections was inconclusive. With the backing of the military, a coalition government was forced between the Liberal and the Conservative Alliance this time led by Gazdar's sister Rati Gazdar. The alliance between the two was uneasy and for the next four years, almost nothing was improved in the country as the problems becomes more and more entrenched within the country's politics.

In 2016, with both the Conservative and Liberal labelled as military backed, the voters voted in favour of the SDP and the LoG. But once again, neither parties managed to win a majority once again. Another coalition was formed between the SDP and LoG managing to form a majority government led by Mahadaji Sardar . Due to the two ideology overlapping on many issues, some hoped that a stable government would finally work. However, due to issues regarding benefits for farmers, neither sides wanted to compromise resulting in the coalition's collapse in 2018. Seeing this, the CoF, and the Liberal with the backing of the military formed a new coalition government in 2018 preventing a snap election from occuring this time led by Raghu Pandya's son, Aman Pandya. However, the coalition once again failed to function.

In 2021, a grassroot movement was formed known as the All-Ubizieten People's Movement calling for the population to vote for the League of Grassroots in order for them to win the election. The election resulted in a landslide victory for the LoG winning 72.2% of popular votes but only just more than half of the seats in Parliament and the country is led by Om Vadekar. However, progress was made, minimum wage was increased, austerity measures were rolled back slightly and the military budget was reduced much to the dismay of the military.

### Protest and Return of Military rule

In 2022, protest began in late February over railway safety and quickly turned into a protest expressing public discontent over the ruling party and the political establishment calling politicians as corrupt and self-interested. On 1 of March, the military took advantage of the unpopularity and staged a coup against the government and established the Truth and Reconciliation Council seeking to seek justice for the protesters but many people are skeptical.

## Government and Politics

### Government

The country is a Unitary Presidential Parliamentary Constitutional Republic governed under the Constituion of Ubizieten Social Republic, the supreme law of the country. It is a constitutional and representative democracy in which "majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law." The country's current constitution drafted in 2001 ensured that the military have a stake within the government by granting them 25% of the seats in the country's legislature, the Parliament of Ubizieten as well as chosing their own Defense Minister. The country's government can be split into three branches:

* Executive
* Legislative
* Judicuary

### Politics

A parliamentary republic with a multi-party system, the country has 5 political parties. The Congress for Freedom, Social Democratic Party and League of Grassroots are considered left wing in local politics while Liberal Party and Conservative Alliance and the military are considered right wing. There are other smaller parties that have seats in Parliament including the All-Ubizieten Muslim League which advocates for the rights of Muslims.

To international observers, the country has been viewed as a corrupt democracy and the country is ranked as one of the highest in terms of corruption in Elparia. While various governments have attempted to clamp down on corruption, corruption continues to rise. The major political parties in the country are all controlled by massive political families which fights against each other for power.