Lethler's Resignation Address

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I have the distinction of being the longest serving Chairman of the Quorum to date. When my time expires, I will have served in this capacity for one-hundred and twenty days - twice the time of either of my predecessors. I have written the Constitution of this institution, conducted institutional reforms, mediated countless disputes, contributed to it financially, assisted in the development of the website that will be launching very soon, provided it with venue after venue for debate and discussion, helped draft and implement more conventions than I care to remember, established the founding conventions of the Justice Commission, developed two separate Advancement Indexes - one of which will soon also be ready for use - and am in the process of drafting the constitutionally important Human Rights Convention for consideration by the Quorum.

And yet it is apparent that I am the single most hated member of this community. Perhaps those who hate me think I care for their personal feelings about me. Perhaps they think by expressing their hatred publically they can somehow see me magically replaced over night by someone who does give a damn about their selfish world view. Or perhaps they are simply so childish, so pathetic, that they cannot comprehend the difference between Robert Lethler and the Chairman of the Grand Unified Micronational. I cannot say what their reasons are, though some appear to have been taken in by the propaganda of my enemies in the right-wing of the community, who are under the impression I organise death camps within my nation and make my political opponents disappear in the middle of the night.

Whatever their reasons are, it has become apparent to me that I have lost the confidence of a number of key figures in our community - their recent actions have demonstrated this. I shall not name these individuals, but they know full well who they are. Together they conspired to keep extremely important, extremely sensitive information a secret from me - information that I could have used to avert the ongoing multilateral diplomatic crisis. Instead of trusting me and my colleagues within the institution to handle this issue, they chose to sail our ship into the storm without the helmsman - and now we are all slowly, but surely, drowning because of it. Their behaviour has disgusted me, and is absolutely unbecoming of such trusted figures in their community. I feel great shame to say that I once trusted at least one of these individuals completely - I did not think them capable of such deception, nor did I think they would be willing to jeproadise the security of our community so. I do, of course, speak of those who conspired to keep the knowledge of Sandus' government change a secret - and in doing so walked down a path that has seriously destabilised our community.

I feel compelled, then, to announce my resignation as Chairman of the Quorum of Delegates. It is painfully clear that I no longer have the confidence to continue in this office, and that those who did vote confidence in me previously did so for reasons that have either since been forgotten or disregarded. Given the proximity to the GUM elections, and the strict provisions of our Constitution, I will see out the duration of my term so I can supervise the nomination and ballot counting process. I will not, however, carry out any function that is not absolutely essential to my constitutional role. I thus transfer, using my unilateral authority to do so, all of my extraconstitutional and conventional rights and powers to the office of the Vice-Chairman effective immediately and remaining in effect until January 11, 2010. Any business outside of Quorum and the Press Office, including conflict mitigation, is now his responsibility until my successor is elected.

And there is, of course, the matter of who will succeed me now that it is known I will not seek re-election as I had originally intended. For the office of Chairman of the Quorum I am endorsing, should he choose to stand, Jacob Tierney of the Republic of Renasia. He remains the only senior member of this community, who stands any chance of fesbiable election, who I can still honestly say has the necessary qualities to perform the duties of this office. There is no other candidate in this institution who is as worthy of the office as he is. For the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Tribune of the Justice Commission, I endorse Wilhelm I of New Europe, should he choose to stand for that office. I would urge this institution to rally around these individuals, who have both the will and the vision required to revitalise this institution, and not contest their nomination if they choose to stand for those offices.

I must also take the time to say that despite what my opponents - many of who suffer from the dillusion that I am some kind of omnipotent and omniscient being sent to punish the world for all Human evil - might think, this action has not been taken under any kind of pressure. Quite the opposite in fact, though I suspect some wish me to remain more to protect their own power than this institution, regretably. The Grand Unified Micronational remains a supberb organisation, with unparalleled success, and I take this course of action because I - unlike some of you - value it and my nation above my own personal career. I care not what the personal or political ramifications of this decision are for me, and I resign because I genuinely wish it to continue to grow and flourish - and I do not believe it can do so if the community is too busy trying to either depose me or verbally assassinate me.

I would like also to offer my praise to the Kalvin Koolidge - though his term was short, he remains beyond any shred of doubt the finest Chairman this institution has had to date. I garauntee you that under his leadership, the kind of machinations that have been going on over the past few weeks would never have been tolerated. I find myself almost regretting that I stood against him in our second election. Of Mr Tierney, or whoever else it is that succeeds me, I would like to ask that they look to his example as they begin their term - for neither of his successors have yet lived up to his reputation.

But finally, I must urge that this decision does not represent a shift in the foreign policy of the Democratic People's Republic of Erusia - as you will see shortly, I do not doubt.

Thank you, Robert Lethler