With Gavrisom Absent, Republic Stagnates

Senate Rotunda, Coruscant — Mere weeks after the approval of Ponc Gavrisom's "Peace First" agenda seemed assured, that agenda is now in doubt as the Chief of State is being blamed by many for a precipitous decline in relations with the Imperial Remnant and a lack of leadership in the Senate. The Chief of State, who has been largely absent this month from Senate deliberations, was not available for comment. However, an aide told The Coruscant Journal that Mr. Gavrisom, a Calibop, was recovering from a persistent avian flu and was expected to resume his duties "later this week."

"I hope so," one Senator remarked anonymously, "[Gavrisom] needs to provide direction to the Senate, but he hasn't been. His opinions need to be heard on the measures we've been discussing, but he's not said a word. He's had no presence here, and it's alienating many of his supporters. We don't know where he stands, or where he is." Added another anonymous Senator: "Nothing is getting done."

There is no question that the Chief of State's sudden, diminished role has undermined his plans to negotiate new agreements and provisions to build upon the Pellaeon/Gavrisom Treaty—which ended the war with the Imperial Remnant and opened it to free trade with the Republic—and to have those provisions ratified in the Senate. A summit with Imperial and Republic diplomats on Morishim last month completed the negotiations, but Mr. Gavrisom has not followed up on the summit or introduced the new measures to the Senate.

"We're ready to move on them," Senator Artemis Vanden (Naboo) told The Coruscant Journal. "We've been ready."

The Imperials appear to be frustrated also. Especially damaging to the Republic's already precarious relations with the Remnant is the issue of Bandomeer, a planet situated at the terminus of the Braxant Run—the Remnant's primary trade route. The Republic maintains a full time fleet base, starfighter base, and several garrisons on the planet capable of potentially blockading the Braxant Run and therefore preventing merchant ships from reaching Imperial worlds. Walther Fiske, the Imperial Minister of State, has called the Republic's bases "an affront to peace" and demanded their dismantling. King Mercutio of Naboo and Senator Oswaldt (Eriadu) have made similar statements.

"With its forces at that planet, the Republic is threatening to cut off supplies, food, and medicine to trillions of [people]," remarked Oswaldt, a former Imperial governor, in a typically acerbic address to the Senate, "The Empire has made a reasonable demand, and I support it."

But Mr. Gavrisom has not responded to the growing pressure, leading to increasingly acerbic words from Mr. Fiske as well. "The Empire is dismayed by the New Republic's cavalier disregard for its entreaties," Fiske said in a statement released this evening, "In the month that has passed since the conclusion of the Morishim Summit and the Empire's subsequent demand that the Republic dismantle its garrison at the planet Bandomeer, the Chief of State has ignored not only the Empire's demands... he has ignored the demands of morality."

The Bandomeer affair is an example of the important role that the New Republic's Chief of State plays in the Senate; with his opinions on the matter unknown, Gavrisom's allies—namely the chairmen of the influential Senate Councils, for example the Councils on Economics, Commerce, and Defense—are reluctant to express opinions that might contradict him. Without the direction of the Councils, the Senate stagnates. Other measures on arms control and piracy have stalled in a similar manner.

Complicating the matter further, Senator Gustav Emerest (Coruscant), the Chair of the Senate who would ordinarily assume the Chief of State's duties in his absense, has been hospitalized for a heart condition, and many Senators have exacerbated the stagnation by departing Coruscant because of it.

"Our third in the line of succession is the Minister of State, a position which has been unfilled since the beginning of the Gavrisom administration," Senator Mical de Crion (Tapani Sector) noted, "and it appears he has no intention whatsoever to fill the seat. This leaves us in our current situation." Added Crion: "If he is sick, as his staff says... he should have made sure the proper positions were [filled]."

The Remnant, meanwhile, has suggested the use of force for the first time since the signing of the Pellaeon/Gavrisom Treaty last year. Mr. Fiske, in this evening's statement, threatened to install missile platforms within firing distance of Bandomeer and Taris if Mr. Gavrisom does not respond to Imperial demands in one standard week. "[The] Empire is not to be held responsible for certain acts that it is obliged to take in response... to this gross diplomatic indignity," Fiske announced. He also threatened the construction of one hundred new Star Destroyers, in defiance of Mr. Gavrisom's agenda to reduce the sizes of both the New Republic and Imperial fleets.

While the threat to build additional Star Destroyers is generally considered an empty one (it is not believed that the Remnant has the means to construct so many vessels), it could still jeopardize the Chief of State's agenda. The threat of attack on Bandomeer or Taris, however, is quite real, and has reminded the galaxy how very new, and very fragile, the peace truly is. Whether Mr. Gavrisom will preserve it with a timely response to the Remnant and a return to the Senate remains to be seen. If not, he might well face a crisis of confidence.