Regarding South Africa in eRepublik

The reason I kicked up such a fuss about what was happening in South Africa prior to the elections of May 1st was mainly because I thought it had the possibility to set an unwelcome precedent in the geopolitics of the Erepublik world.

A few points to make before I explain more about why I had this concern:

1) People move around in Erepublik and many countries are populated and even governed by people who did not start off their life as a citizen of the new world in that country.
2) Some countries have been taken over by groups of people who have left from one country, started or taken over a political party, and then voted that party into power in the general elections.
3) Quite often the 'native' epopulation of a country are not from that country in real life.

Examples of 2) include Poland (from America), Ukraine (from Turkey I believe), Switzerland (Canada), China (Indonesia) and Thailand (various, including UK and Sweden). Austria, India, South Korea have all at one time had groups emigrate from Sweden. Most nutoriously Voxx became president of Austria and then stole over 1000G from the nation's treasury!

Examples of 3) include Russia, Austria now (which is basically e-Slovenia), India, and of course Pakistan.

Twice previously countries have also declared war on a neighbour country because they wanted to merge with the larger neighbour. This happened early in April with both Belgium (to the UK) and Moldova (to Romania). The same also happened to Slovakia (to Czech Republic) although that wasn't their intention when they declared war!!!

So individuals and groups have always moved around in Erepublik and some times this has led to a change of government. This has most often happened when a group of friends got tired of being small fish in a big pond (especially Sweden) and wanted to have a go at running their own country. Most often they have gone to countries that are virtually inactive and I think this is on the whole good for those countries. On some occasions though such moves have caused conflict with the 'native' population and the ensuing native v newcomer fight isn't always pleasant.

Why bother about South Africa?
My concern with what was happening in South Africa was that this was going to be the first time a country would be taken over in a political coup:
1) under the direction of the *government* of a major eWorld power (ie Indonesia)
2) for the purpose of annexing that country through military means.

I was aware that Pakistan was doing the very same thing with China but trying to bring diplomatic and community pressure against Pakistan is pretty pointless as they don't really care what the rest of the world thinks anyway.

A change of heart?
But this is not the case with Indonesia! The response from the Indonesian community to my forum post was quite surprising. Many were upset and even offended by the suggestion they were 'cheating' or using 'underhand' tactics to improve their position.

Some unkind words were said in that thread about Indonesia (and Sweden) but not by me. And I certainly did not want to cause anyone offense.

But since the outcry at the plan I have been impressed with how the Indonesians have responded in follow up to their succesful coup in South Africa. They clearly do care about their international reputation as a country.

mamangbakso - the new South African President, originally from Indonesia, has taken steps to ensure that South Africa will actually remain independent and promises to keep South Africa neutral. We shall see...

Initiatives have also been launched to improve the economy:
South Arica - The Cooperative
South Africa Today

I hope this will continue and that the Indonesian government will not take advantage of South Africa's vulnerability (with it's MPPs being cancelled - why was that necessary?) to invade the country.

Conclusion
So was my objection based on some 'moral' imperative? Or was I showing inconsistency by not condemning ALL political takeovers? No and no. My objection was because this was the first time such a tactic was being used by a government in order to then take a country over by military means.

Small countries have some chance to defend themselves militariliy against larger powers by forming an MPP. But against such a form of political attack there is NO defence other than getting a friendly country to also ship people in to vote. And I really don't want to see us having to go down that road.

If a country does get taken over politically, if in the future more people join that country from the real life country then the nation will soon be back in 'native' control. But this cannot happen if the country has been taken over by (unfair) military means. The only way to do so is via Fight for Freedom, a module which isn't released yet.

So good luck to South Africa, wherever you are from originally. I hope the newcomers from Indonesia will be able to live in blissful harmony with the natives. Enjoy the cricket, rugby and most of all the braais :)