Simple Solutions

[Nentsia]

Batavia Vrystaat
1578

General Paul Steytler sat unmoved in his chair as he and the Batavian President, Hertzog, watched the police troops march in front of them. General Steytler headed the Batavian Police, and it made him one of the most powerful men of the country - if not the most powerful one. In the Batavian Free State, the police stood practically above the law. Its powers were practically unlimited, and the politicians always listened to the police chiefs. Through the National Security Council, which had usurped most of the powers of the Batavian Council of Ministers over the past decades, the Batavian Police and Security Services ruled the country.

They were collectively known as the ''Securocrats''. The Securocrats were, as the word suggests, apolitical, technocrats who cared only for the security and the survival of the Batavian political system. The country's politics was split between two opposing groups: the ''Verligtes'' (the Enlighteners), who wanted to soften the racial Apartheid system, and the so-called ''Verkramptes'' - for which no really good translation exists, but it means they are very strict and narrow-minded. The Verligtes were paradoxically enough most found among the members of the Conservative Party. They prided themselves as being pragmatists. The Verkramptes were mostly found among the National Party, and saw themselves as the heir to their forefathers who founded the National Party and who implemented Apartheid in Batavia.

The Securocrats, like General Steytler, preferred to think of themselves as standing above such petty squabbles. They thought of themselves as soldiers, not as politicians or ideologues. The enemy was a Black Nationalist Communist conspiracy that threatened Batavia and the survival of the White Batavians. All means were justified to stop that conspiracy and to defend the Batavian state.

General Steytler in particular had a harsh reputation. Known as ''The Beast'', he was known for the violent way in which he on several occasions had restored order in the Townships during his police career. But he was also accused by human rights activists of having personally tortured to death several imprisoned black anti-Apartheid activists. Police investigations into the conduct of Steytler of course concluded he had obeyed all the rules. It was also no secret that the supporters of the National Party wanted Steytler to become president of Batavia one day.

But first, Steytler was happy in his current position. He was working on a plan, together with the Batavian security service and some military regiments, that would greatly undermine the Anti-Apartheid movement in Batavia. It was a plan however that was being kept secret from the politicians, for it was better if they had no idea about it. Steytler was willing to sacrifice himself for his country. He was willing to get blood on his hands, so that others could keep theirs clean.

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-- Niqualand - Home State in Batavia --

Good morning Niquans! Our new Chief Sizakele Mageba has been formally installed by the Batavian authorities as the Chief Minister of Niqualand. All people of Niqualand shall celebrate this day, because Chief Sizakele will stand up for our dignity, our humanity, and our culture. Sizakele the leader that we need in these times. Sizakele is our son, and he will make us proud. Sizakele, I salute you from Radio Niqua!

Jennifer Ebbesen turned down the radio a bit in her car. She was driving a white Jeep through the Batavian svannah, in the middle of Niqualand - a Batavian autonomous regions where the native black population had been given self-rule. The Niqua Chief, Sizakele, had been approved by the Batavian authorities as the chief minister of Niqualand. Sizakele was supported by a political party, the Inkulu Freedom Party (IFP). Ebbesen was a young Nylander woman, a development aid worker who had come to Niqualand to help set up something of a healthcare system. Ebbesen graduated from medicine school three years before. Her parents warned her for going to Batavia, to a dangerous region. But Jennifer knew she just had to do this. She wanted to help the peoples of Batavia living under Apartheid.

But things were getting more tense in the past years. The Batavian government was negotiating a peace with the Black nationalist guerillas, but the peace process was being undermined by hard-line governors tightening their grip on local oppositionism to Apartheid, and there had been instances of black violence targeting white families. In Niqualand, the autonomous region, this gave rise to an entirely different conflict.

The main enemy in Batavia is traditionally the PNLF rebel group, the People's National Liberation Front - a black nationalist communist rebel movement conducting a guerilla war against the Batavian government. In the civil arena, the Apartheid was being opposed by the United Democratic Front (UDF), which was an umbrella organization of civil associations, churches, organizations, trade unions, students organizations and other civil society groups to form a unified democratic opposition to Apartheid. Whites, Coloureds and Blacks all took part in this organization - which posed the most serious challenge to the Apartheid system. The UDF not only proposed a morally superior alternative to Apartheid, they managed to stay within the narrow limits of the Batavian law and had the potential to undermine Apartheid from the inside out. In Niqualand however, the UDF wasn't popular at all. Niqualand was a special region within Batavia, with its historical roots in ancient, powerful kingdoms that once dominated the savannah. The Niquans were ethnically different from the rest of the Batavians (whites and non-whites alike), and given their autonomy, they were not entirely hostile to the current system. In fact they were more hostile to the UDF and the political aspirations of the UDF, because they feared the UDF wanted to abolish Apartheid - and with it the autonomous rights of the Niquans. ''Those UDF, they're gonna take Niqualand away from us, Niquans.'' so the Niquan workers whispered among each other during their breaks.

Sizakele Mageba, Chief of the Niquan tribe, and simultaneously leader of the Inkulu Freedom Party that claimed to stand up for Niquan popular interests, suddenly found himself an ally of the Apartheid system. Although he never openly endorsed the Batavian Apartheid system, the Batavian government funded his election campaign and welcomed him with open arms once he got elected as the leader of the autonomous region. The Batavians saw him as an ally in their attempts to undermine the UDF and the growing anti-Apartheid movement. The people in Niqualand had seen their rents increase enormously over the years, their wages were stagnating, unemployment was growing, and corruption was rife throughout the entire region. Some fled to East-Tambossa, others entered smuggling and trafficking businesses and crime. Discontent was on the rise. Sizakele Mageba, seized upon the growing popular resentment by offering his people very simple solutions. The glory of the ancient Niqua Empire had to be restored, and power should return to the hands to the true Niquan people. The problems of Niqualand coincided with the growing, de-stabilizing influence of the UDF, and its attempts to infiltrate the organs of power in Niqualand. ''The UDF snakes have sent their Boneya and Oru sons to our homeland, and brainwash our children with their promises of racial pluralism and equality. We need none of that. We need to seize power. We need to revive our great culture. We need to remember our glorious history and our ancestors. We need to start being true Niquan Warriors again!''

Jennifer, from how she had seen the place change and from what she heard on the streets and on the radio in her Jeep, feared that this Batavian-Niquan alliance would be paid for at a very high price in the future. While the world feared black-on-white violence and white-on-black violence in Batavia, it was actually black-on-black violence that loomed over the country. It was a symptom of despair.