Nekoso Yolese

Nekoso Yolese
President of Kawaki
In office 20-3 160 TT – 28-2 150 TT
Preceded by	Forose Horu
Succeeded by	Position abolished
President of the Collective Kelelemi Republic
In office 28-2 150 TT – 20-3 140 TT
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Seifed Wasetono
Personal details
Born	9-7 214 TT Osogado, Republic of Kawaki
Died	15-3 137 TT Izumisawa, Collective Kelelemi Republic
Nationality	Kelelemite (Kawakian)

Nekoso Yolese was the last president of the Republic of Kawaki and the first president of the Collective Kelelemi Republic. A member of the Republican Party, he was a prominent leader of the collectivist faction that advocated uniting all of the Kelelemi races under one banner, in a state expanding over the whole of the Kelelemi isles. The Republic of Kawaki, at that point, consisted mostly of a Kawakian and Sawaji population, with the Sorewa people mostly remaining unassimilated outside of its borders. He was an advocate of the idea that all people had the same innate capabilities and were capable as functioning in one shared society, and that it was rather the Sorewi impoverishment and remote conditions that led them to adopt backwards practices. Yolese was widely recognized within the Collective Kelelemi Republic as being the Father of Unity.

Biography

Early life

Yolese was a sociology graduate at the Academy of Osogado. His body of academic work largely consisted of observation and analysis of the racial hierarchy as existing on the islands, which he received much criticism for at the time. As an educated Kawakian, however, he received more credence than many of his peers from Sawaji backgrounds. His observational studies looked at cases of breaks from the hierarchy, such as Sorewa living in Kawaki cities, away from rural life they would have been used to, or Kawakians taking on traditionally Sawaji roles, such as hard manual labor, in towns and places with homogenous populations. His conclusions mostly consisted in adding to a slowly growing academic consensus that hierarchical role was not innate, and that any people could adapt to any role, if given the chance.

Entry into politics

He would join the Republican Party in the year 172 TT. The Republican Party was, at the time, oriented towards economic deregulation and greater trade with the Sorewa tribes, especially for timber and food, which the Republic struggled to provide at the time. By long-standing national consensus, for decades there was precedent that the Republic of Kawaki would not enforce its laws outside of its borders, and would leave the Sorewa alone, as they were seen as too lowly to deal with and too dangerous to disturb, living in thick rainforests with much cover, and not suitable for carriages to pass through. The Republican Party invited a more open approach, choosing to attempt to diplomatically engage with them in order to create ties with them, though still adopting a strong racialist view of Kawakian superiority.

In 170 TT, Yolese would nominate himself to become a candidate for the Osogado constituency. Strong showings for the Republican Party against the then-ruling Party of Progress-led coalition would lose the latter their parliamentary majority after a 15 year stint in office. The election ended in a solid victory for the Republican Party, which won 102 seats in parliament, a slight majority without need of coalition. Amidst a series of scandals, however, including corruption, nepotism and an infidelity scandal that stemmed from a homosexual affair between the Prime Minister and his deputy, the PM submitted his resignation soon after. As no elections were to be held for another 3 years, the parliament limped on with hopes of a change in national mood, though it did not come. The party would lose all but 37 seats the following election, Yolese being part of the remaining few that did not get removed from the legislative chamber.

Yolese became a more prominent figure within the party, which was now severely crippled, over the following years rising as a more radical collectivist voice within the party, advocating conditional equality and shared identity with the Sorewa rather than mere approachment. In part due to his outsized influence as one of the last remaining Republican members of government, he would establish the Kelelemite Factional Caucus within the party. While the advocacy was at first thought to be electorally harmful, and Yolese was allegedly told to stop or risk exile, a major grain shortage would hit the new government. Following several seasons of oversupply, the Sawaji-backed agriculture of the republic collapsed, resulting in many cases of malnutrition and death, especially among the Sawaji. Yolese's radical advocacy efforts led to the rest of the party adopting him as a more central figure, leading into the next election. In 162 TT, the Republican Party expanded to 89 seats, putting them into power in a coalition with the Radical Bloc.

Presidency

In 161 TT, Yolese was enlisted as a presidential candidate who could back the government's policies for the duration of his 5 year term. Although the role of the presidency was largely ceremonial, a friendly president was largely considered as a boon in political wisdom, being capable of shifting national opinion through being a spokesperson for the party that sent him forward. Due to established precedent, he would abandon his party affiliation while running for president, however, he remained loyal to it for as long as he ruled. He would win in a three-way race, taking 52.3% of the votes following the redistribution of the ranked choice ticket. After his accession to office, Yolese backed the government's attempts to approach the Sorewi in efforts to re-establish food security in the country. In a move away from their deregulatory principles, the Republican government contributed farming subsidies to struggling farms to ensure their operation. The government was largely successful in containing the crisis, and focused on establishing further trade relations with the Sorewa people following it. In exchange for many cheaply made, industrial goods, the Kawaki Republic took in large sums of timber and building materials, which they used to fasten the pace of growing cities.

Following re-election, Yolese would begin advocating for even more drastic embrace of the Sorewa people into the Kawaki Republic, aiming to integrate them into the state as an essential part of it. The Kelelemi Reclamation campaign, as it began being put into practice in 155 TT, in the months following Yolese's election, focusing on expanding the territory of the Kawaki Republic, and enveloping Sorewa settlements believed to be friendly into its jurisdiction. While the campaign did not see much resistance at first, several incidents of non-compliance resulted in the application of corporal force. As the number of such cases grew, it would spread around the Sorewa across the isles that danger awaited them from the Kawakians. Ultimately, this would result in a protracted guerilla warfare effort of resistance. At several points, large parts of the rainforest were burned to the ground in efforts of halting and intimidating the Kawaki from progressing. However, by 152 TT, most of the fighting had subsided, and the Kawaki militants had established a presence across the country. Yolese took this as a harsh, but necessary measure, one that had to be done should the Sorewa become part of the Kawaki Republic and be civilized.

With the drastic change in territory that had occurred, the president called for a new constitutional convention to reflect the new shape of the nation that has taken place, covering all of the known world. When the existing parliament proved skeptical, he decided to dismiss the current session and call for new elections. Dramatic successes with the territorial acquisition, which gave the republic access to fertile land and mountains, were enough to propel the Republican Party to a constitutional two-thirds majority, establishing a formal rewriting process.

New Constitution

The new constitution fully adopted the collectivist ideals of its main author, establishing the Collective Kelelemi Republic. While most of the CKR's government's structure was in continuation of the Kawaki Republic, major differences were introduced to explicitly address the topic of the nation's racial composition. In its preamble, it would formally establish that total equality and unity between races was to be the goal of the state henceforth created. It prohibited national separation on most questions, requiring all three races to be treated equally in work and capability. Legal differences between the Kawakians and the Sawaji were abolished. However, it also established that the Sorewa, in spite of their innate capability to be equal, still lacked the proper cultural development to unite with the two races. Voting rights, available to the Kawakians and the Sawaji at the time in equal measure, were not to be given to the Sorewa right away, but only "once it is shown that the Sorewa may in responsibility and moderation participate in this shared republic, the Parliament may by constitutional act afford them the voting rights privileges reserved for the other races." The hope of Yolese, at the time, was that following a few years, to possibly a decade, the Sorewa could be uplifted from their plight and join the Kelelemite identity as equal and proud constituent parts of it. The new constitution was signed on 28-2 150 TT.

Yolese would remain president for the next ten years, winning re-election twice before resigning due to his health, which had visibly deteriorated him by the day. By 143 TT, he could not hold a speech without an assistant helping him onto stage, by 141 TT, he was in a wheelchair, and had to be pushed around. Throughout the rest of his time in office, his original vision for a Sorewa integration had waning hope, though he still believed it was possible. Attempts by the Republican governments to move the Sorewa into cities, forcing them into Sawaji roles, resulted in failure, more often than not, with the Sorewi rarely being willing participants. Establishing new towns and villages in Sorewi territory did not tend to help much either, with many choosing to leave the area rather than staying. By the end of Yolese's fourth term, the campaign was mostly derided as hopeless, though Yolese remained in positive memory due to the territorial expansion he had accomplished.

Post-presidency

Following retirement, Yolese became a largely reclusive figure, likely due to his declining health. Publishing a book of memoirs in 138 TT, a year before his death, it was believed that someone else had type-written it in his name without him having as much as seen it. He would die in Izumisawa in 137 TT. He would be given a state funeral.

Legacy

Although Yolese's motivations behind the establishment of the Collective Republic were motivated by desires and beliefs of equality, later critics have alleged that the actions he condoned amounted to cultural genocide. At the time, and especially in the decades that followed, it was largely accepted that it was the Sorewi's fault for not integrating or choosing to live in Kawakian or Sawaji places and cities. Critics have said that the Sorewa understandably misinterpreted their invaders' intentions, as being motivated by theft and the desire to oppress rather than establishing a shared government under peace. That Yolese remained remembered among conservative and nationalist circles more for his territorial expansion rather than philosophically collectivist beliefs contributed to his legacy as a war-monger and imperialist. However, his legacy has also been claimed by later collectivists, who had weaker assimilatory aims but continued to believe in Yolese's notion of racial innate equality. Despite critics in academia, Yolese remained a respected figure among the general public, with a poll in 4 TT ranking him among the "Top 10 Greatest Kelelemites."

In the years following the First Kelelemi Civil War, his legacy began to be seen as more mixed, with waning belief in the idea that coexistence between the Kawakians and the Sorewa was possible. Collectivists have held onto the belief that equality should have been pursued, and have blamed the war on its decline. Conservatives continued to respect him as a figure, and the New Republicans continued to list him as their ideological ancestor, however, they would give up on the will of re-conquering the Sorewi territories. The nationalists fully embraced his expansionism, and called it a mistake that Kelelemi did not try to reclaim its territory following the war. The time also saw outright opposition to him in the Sarkist movement, which rejected collectivism in favor of a complete embrace of hierarchical ideology and Sorewi genocide.