Former Xiomeran territories chart different paths
While the emergence of the new state of Huenya and its continued bickering with Xiomera have caught the world's attention, the other two breakaway territories that emerged in the aftermath of the Xiomeran civil war have quietly begun following their own paths towards building their newly independent states.
The government of Manauia Island, under the leadership of Teyatia leader Tanqui, is currently being governed by a tribal council, with plans to hold elections in January 2022. The Manauia Island government has chosen to have a bicameral legislature, with one house for tribal leaders and another for elected legislators. In that sense, they have mirrored the formation of the Huenyan government. However, unlike Huenya, there are currently no plans to have an elected head of state. Instead, Manauia Island will be ruled by the Teyatia tribal leader, with the Manauia Island Congress choosing a Prime Minister to tend to the day-to-day running of the country.
Manauia Island has also chosen a different direction from Huenya in terms of development and the future of the country's economy. Unlike Huenya, Manauia Island was never heavily developed by the Xiomeran Empire; local residents were fiercely opposed to most development projects. This has left Manauia Island in a unique position of being able to plan a slow but steady path of development that preserves the environment while improving the prospects of the island's residents. Manauia Island officials plan to begin approaching business and political leaders in other nations to pitch joint development projects with the goal of building the local economy around ecotourism. Manauia Island officials also are planning to offer those leaders the chance to engage in joint projects utilizing the unique biodiversity of the island. "As one of the last mostly unexploited and undeveloped places in the IDU, Manauia Island could possess the keys to a boom in medical and health developments," Tanqui told DTNS today. "There are plants and other resources that exist here, which we have known about for centuries, which exist nowhere else and which could lead to new medicines, new cures, and new products to improve peoples' health."
Between its goals for building an ecotourism economy, and its ambitions of leading the way in a new direction for science, Manauia Island seems to have a clear path on how to move forward into an independent future. Unlike Huenya, which is still struggling to rebuild after the war, Manauia Island emerged relatively unscathed, and has assets that should have other nations eager to trade with them.
The other breakaway territory, the Netlcoātl Islands, has decided to take a completely different direction. Unlike Manauia Island, the Netlcoātl Islands have made it clear they have no intention of forming a democratic government. Instead, the tribal leader who led the islanders' revolt against Xiomera, Ahuac, has installed himself as an unelected President. His armed movement, the Netlcoātl Liberation Front (NLF), has formed an unelected legislative body known as the Popular National Assembly. In terms of economic development, the Netlcoātl Islands are also taking a completely different path from Manauia Island. Instead, the new government is pushing the islands as a "free trade zone" with no regulations or restrictions, and minimal taxation, in a bid to lure overseas investment. The NLF is especially interested in becoming an overseas tax haven for companies seeking to escape taxation or regulation in their own countries, and has begun heavily promoting itself as such a destination abroad. While the NLF and the government deny it, there are also signs that the Netlcoātl Islands are encouraging enterprises that are banned in their own countries, such as gambling enterprises and drug purveyors, to set up shop on the islands. The economically strategic position of the Netlcoātl Islands in the Nereus Sea would seem to be an ideal place for such developments. The NLF has also begun increasing fees and charges to use island ports and airports for commercial purposes, in a bid to cash in on their lucrative position in eastern Caxcana shipping lanes.
While both Manauia Island and the Netlcoātl Islands have divergent strategies for their future, they also have some common problems. The status of Xiomerans still living in both places, and their unwillingness to participate in the islanders' plans, has proven to be an issue. With both Xiomera and the international community alike demanding that the two mini-states respect the rights of ethnic Xiomerans, the governments of both states have been forced to try to come to accomodations with those Xiomerans who have chosen to remain. The ethnic Xiomerans in Manauia Island want more aggressive development plans and a larger say in the government. The ethnic Xiomerans in the Netlcoātl Islands, alarmed by the NLF and the islander-dominated government, are now pushing to be given an autonomous state of their own on the main island around the city of Citlamina. While coming to a compromise with the ethnic Xiomerans in both countries has been an issue for both governments, the issue has been somewhat tempered by the continuing stream of Xiomerans fleeing both places for Xiomera itself. Many Xiomerans in both Manauia Island and the Netlcoātl Islands do not trust the new governments in both places, and also do not trust that the international community will protect them as promised.
The cynicism of ethnic Xiomerans on both Manauia Island and the Netlcoātl Islands is leading to another problem - the continuing stream of Xiomerans emigrating back to Xiomera is causing both a brain drain, and an economic drain, for both states. The governments of both states have accused Xiomera of encouraging this drain by actively soliciting Xiomerans on Manauia Island and the Netlcoātl Islands to return to Xiomera. The Xiomeran government has been offering economic incentives, and promises of protection, to ethnic Xiomerans in both places in exchange for emigrating. The resulting flight of capital and knowledge poses a serious challenge to the ambitious plans of both states. In an attempt to counter that drain, the governments of both states have begun offering incentives for people from other countries to emigrate to Manauia Island and the Netlcoātl Islands.
The last significant problem facing both Manauia Island and the Netlcoātl Islands, from the perspective of the international community, is the growing influence of Milintica and its Peoples' Party in both states. Milintica sent guerrilla fighters to Manauia Island during the Xiomeran civil war, and has since been heavily influential in the development of both governments. In the Netlcoātl Islands in particular, the NLF is seen as being increasingly under the influence of the MPP.
One of the final pieces to the development puzzle that both Manauia Island and the Netlcoātl Islands had planned was to offer other nations the right to use ports and bases in their territory in exchange for trade and defense agreements. This was seen as a way to help protect the islands by giving nations with an interest in reining in Xiomera sites to build military bases. However, as long as Milintican influence remains strong in both places, the new governments may find this plan to be a tough sell to other nations.
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