Namas Tayam.
A dark day in Placid.
Less than three weeks ago the mood was very different. How long ago that feels for many of us now.
As Alix Moreau was declared President-elect, there was a rare sense of optimism.
Here was a candidate that spoke of reaching for our potential. Of free thinking, both scientifically, but also politically, as a society. They spoke of prioritising the needs of the individual first, as the core building block of a free society. Of the rights of those individual citizens, their planets, their districts, to embrace their chosen destiny.
In their acceptance speech they said, “Every triumph and every failure has been a teacher, and we have learned their lessons.”
This evening, in the wake of the Caldari State’s defacto control of the Syndicate region, an Intaki Syndicate fleet attempted to break out to freedom.
We will never know whether their attempt to reach Federal space was in direct response to President Moreau’s offer of amnesty, but it is clear that their actions were aligned with the President’s campaign speeches.
They rejected the State’s assumed control of their people, stations and constellations. They rejected the State’s stated objective to actively dismantle the systems of governance that had developed over generations.
Cognisant of the potential outcomes, they embraced their chosen destiny as free citizens of the Intaki Syndicate, and we celebrate them.
They failed, but lessons have been learned.
Some will claim, and have already been claiming, that they were criminals. Terrorists. Guilty and deserving of their fate.
They will point to the wrecks of the Syndicate fleet that hang in Orvolle, and that the holds of those ships were not filled with the huddled masses of innocent civilians seeking sanctuary. Innocents that would have been slaughtered in their thousands, each death rewarded with State funded PLEX. And until the shooting started, none of us knew who was and was not aboard those ships.
Instead the dead were servicemen and women in uniform.
Criminals. Terrorists. Guilty and deserving of their fate.
However State authorities have not even confirmed the guilt of any Syndicate citizen or official. All they have are confessions extracted under interrogation. There has been no due process. No trial. And yet they apply assumed guilt to every crew member aboard those ships? And to others who may yet attempt the same?
The State’s actions are entirely without merit. The State’s processes here have failed. I wonder… when will they learn their lesson?
In the meantime, the Intaki Liberation Front welcomes President Moreau’s offer of amnesty and we are working to actively support the process.
Already our cross border networks are moving people and resources from Syndicate and into Placid and Verge Vendor, and we will do all that we can to support them as they resettle and rebuild their lives.
We attempted to assist the first break out fleet earlier today, and we will be there to do the same for the next.
#FreeIntaki #FreeSyndicate