Ibrahim Kamza, who brought together a coalition of political parties in the aftermath of the 2023 Election has finally been officially confirmed as PM with Parilmeant being allowed to start its session. For the past year, President Azim Shahid, citing security concerns prevented the parliament from gathering in Mallacaland City. However, last week an agreement was reached with Parliament being allowed to continue, with the concession that Pro-Kamza military units would cooperate with the rest of Mallacaland’s small military force. Kamza, who recently led Mallacaland to a 3rd place finish in the IDU Baseball Classic opened negotiations several weeks ago with President Shahid. Kamza leveraged his continued status as a national hero to the Mallacan people to force Shahid to concede, in what was widely seen as an attempt to suppress dissent. In addition, the Republic of Mallacland has recently struggled with high levels of desertion and losses to insurgent groups, thus an agreement was soon reached for Parilmeant to return.
Upon his swearing-in as Prime Minister, Kamza addressed the nation with a speech calling for national unity behind a common identity as “one Mallacan people”. In addition, Kamza called for an end to the Mallacaland Civil War via a program of animosity and re-introduction for those “non-complacent in the horrors of war”. The Kamza Ministry, which consists of several political parties including his own National Democratic Front has made economic stabilization and rebuilding a key priority of the administration. Experts have estimated that Mallacaland remains extremely susceptible to the risk of famine and drought as a combination of destruction, weather, and the loss of agricultural production. In the past several days, several NGOs have been allowed to reach rural areas by the military to distribute grain as a precaution if food resources fail.
Although Kamza’s swearing-in was met with celebration by many, the causes of the Revolution that brought Mallacaland into existence as a Republic 3 years ago remain unsolved. Economic inequality remains high, the youth still are jobless, traditional Islamic laws are still being enforced by some, and a sprit of civil disobedience remains among many. Will Kamza strike these issues out of the park, or will they be enough to send him back to the end of the dugout, as it had for so many?
