INTAKI PRIME – In a surprise move, the Intaki Assembly’s Interstellar Relations Committee has scheduled a hearing for the secession bill put forth earlier this year by Sahjan Assemblywoman Desri Yauvani.
The bill is essentially the same measure put forth by the Sahjan delegation every few years and calls for the Intaki Assembly to begin the formal withdrawl of the Prime world and its aligned colonies from the larger Gallente Federation.
The bill has been filed in the past, but never received the required co-sponsor to move forward. This year, Assemblyman Vishta Kenchammana, of Rohaanar, signed on as a co-sponsor in exchange for Yauvani supporting his bill limiting non-reborn births to one per couple throughout Intaki space.
Last month the bill appeared dead, having been tabled indefinitely without a scheduled hearing before the Interstellar Relations Committee.
In light of recent remarks critical of the Intaki Assembly made by high profile members of several Gallente Federal political parties, Suresha Saxon Hawke of the Intaki Liberation Front renewed his group’s call for secession and the matter has come up in several Assembly floor debates.
Assembly watchers noted with much interest this morning when an updated agenda including a closed session hearing on the bill was posted. Closed hearings are uncommon, and usually take place only when committees feel there is a compelling reason to do so. The awarding of shipping and security contracts to Ishukone Corporation and Mordu’s Legion, respectively, followed the most recent closed hearings.
On her way into the committee chambers, Yauvani was clearly pleased with turn of events.
“It’s about time my fellow Assembly members took this matter seriously,” she said.
Committee Chairman Zheet Chandrark, of Kapda, downplayed the hearing, however.
“With so many so publicly discussing secession, it is only prudent that we consider the issue amongst ourselves,” he said. “Considering something and taking action on it are entirely separate things altogether.”
A search of the historical record shows that the time a secession bill made it this far in the Assembly was in AD 23163. That bill had actually cleared the committee and was set to go before the entire Intaki Assembly, but was set aside following the exile of many of its key supporters.
News of the current bill’s progress was met by mixed reactions throughout Intaki Space.
Naalashi Baboor, a timber harvester on the Vey System’s Maatrukaanan colony, said he felt the measure was much ado about nothing.
“The Assembly has its authority and the Feds pretty much leave us alone,” he said. “Why poke a sleeping bear?”
For bauxite miner Jaleel Ujjwala of Agoze’s Dubaana Colony, the issue has more significance.
“I read in the news some general saying the Gallente and the Intaki are all the same,” he said. “What kind of man would forsake his ancestors like that?”
On the Kapda Colony in the Ostingele System, support of the measure is particularly low.
“My brother was on Ostingelle II when the ships came,” said tailor Simon de Valier, referring to the sudden attack by forces of Sansha’s Nation that saw 2 million colonists abducted. “Now is not the time separate ourselves from the Federation. If anything we need to ask the Navy for more patrols.”
Whether for or against the issue, all eyes will be on the Assembly’s Interstellar Relations Committee in the coming days.