A transcript of Makoto Priano’s remarks in Malkalen:
Good evening. Let’s talk honestly about this momentous day.
Today, we mark the tenth anniversary of the Malkalen Disaster. Ishukone – and with it, the State as a whole – suffered a grievous blow.
Despite this blow, despite the loss and suffering, we persevered. We have built a future from the ashes and debris of history. Let us not forget, however, the blow that was struck. Let us not forget the blows that followed. Let us not forget the blows that preceded.
The Malkalen disaster was not merely a product of a mad nationalist capsuleer in control of military hardware. It was the product of decades of economic drift. It was the product of colliding worldviews. It was the product of sociological forces that we may only truly grasp far removed from the time itself.
Let’s speak simply and honestly.
So long as the citizens prosper, the State prospers. So long as the State prospers, the citizens prosper. That is our ideal.
We often speak of duty: duty to kin and comrade, duty to corporation, duty to the State. We often forget, however, the State’s duty to its citizens. We do so at our own peril.
In the time before the Malkalen Disaster, the State had been suffering an economic downturn. The meritocratic ideal had faded. The State had seemed to forget its duty to its citizens.
We had allowed venality to trump the competitive ethos we espouse. The downturn, the labor organization and the violence that preceded the Malkalen disaster was a blow we made against ourselves.
It was this blow that necessitated the economic conference that Gariushi-imkura hosted.
It was his dream of a peaceful, productive future that was so grievously harmed on that day.
In place of the dream of a productive peace, we had instead war. Zealotry in the form of xenophobic nationalism drove us, and the State was yoked to that. Ishukone was nearly exiled, despite being the one most directly attacked. Kaalakiota itself was nearly driven to death by the fire of hatred, a hatred which wanted the Federation destroyed more than it wanted the State exalted.
If the State is to prosper, the citizens must prosper. If the citizens are to prosper, the State must prosper.
We must face those howling demons within the State, we must root out those skulking shadows which would whisper us down a path of destruction, and we must see the ideal of duty and service take its fullest form: citizen to State, State to citizen.
It is in this ideal of service to State that Itsukame-Zainou has pushed for the consortium to engage in further legal efforts.
We believe that the engine of progress works best when well-tended, that stakeholders must be able to make informed decisions, and that secrecy does noone any favor in this matter. We must not merely believe that the State is looking after its citizenry, but we must know it. We must know that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated, and that citizens will not die for the sake of secrecy or venality.
And so it is that the State must be made to root out those skulking shadows, else disease will fester in the damp and the darkness.
The Arataka Research Consortium has submitted filings to the Caldari Business Tribunal on two matters. Pursuant to the State’s HFAA obligations, we seek full disclosure of all matters relating to the weapons research conducted by Jaron Kasaras, from his embezzlement from Kaalakiota to the nature of his work relating to the Kyonoke pathogen. We implore Kaalakiota to freely disclose the corrective measures that they have undertaken to prevent this from ever occurring again. We likewise seek full disclosure of all failures and breaches involving the Kyonoke Pit itself, where Ohmon Kasaras and the Pakera family were able to retrieve a sample of the Kyonoke pathogen.
Fourteen million State citizens died because we had not faced those demons since Heth’s fall. Twenty-two million died across the cluster. Had we not been successful in Postouvin, billions more may have been lost.
We must do better.
For the State. For the citizens of the State.
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