Phing Phong

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Phing Phong
Phing Phong.svg           Coat of Arms web.svg
Flag and coat of arms
Motto: Wisdom shall destroy ignorance
National anthem: Phleng Duang Duen
smallerdistricts.png
 Labelled map of the districts and provinces of Phing Phong
Administrative District
 
Luanyet Capital District
 
Lingua franca
 
English
 
National languages
 
Phasa Daeng, Tiếng ngữ
 
Recognised regional languages
 
Yamatese, Syvorjin, Gujarati, Mandarin
Ethnic groups
 
93.6% Asian, 2.8% Indian, 0.8% Indigenous,
0.6% Western, 2.2% Others
Government


 — Council-shen
 — Luanyet Hall Council
Socialist and democratic people's republic organised as a unitary state

Ngô Huynh
8. Parliament
State religion Buddhism
Establishment
 — Settlement
 — Independence

c. 1000 BCE
12 August 1923
Area
 — Total
 — Metropolitan
 — Overseas provinces
 — National park

99,375 km²
92,307 km²
1,162 km²
5,905 km²
Population
 — 2011 census
 

134,692,647
1,329 persons / km²
GDP (PPP, 2011)
 — Total
 — GDP/capita

Increase NS$ 3,671 billion
NS$ 27,255
GDP (Nominal, 2011)
 — Total
 — GDP/capita

Increase NS$ 2,660 billion
NS$ 19,750
PDAS rating (2011) Steady B (75th percentile)
HDI rating (2009) Increase 0.956 (very high)
Income inequality (2011) Increase 25.1 (low)
Currency Baht (PPB)
Time zone UTC + 00:00
Time format 24-hour clock (0000-2359)
Date format yyyy-mm-dd
Drives on the Left
Internet TLD .pp
Calling code +108

Phing Phong (pronounced /pʰiŋ pʰɒːŋ/), officially known as the City-State of Phing Phong, is an island city-state in Southeast Asia. Phing Phong consists of: the archipelago of Chiang, dominated by the island of Keah, which comprises the majority of the country's land area; and the contested San Hô Islands.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Keah was originally home to two cities, Luanyet and Bôn, and agricultural countryside dotted with small towns and fishing villages. Originally an inconsequential province, it received little assitance or help from the nominal rulers of the region, the Dai Nam Empire, causing much resentment and eventually revolution. The local people, led by Deua Theow Phon, routed the weak garrison of the declining Dai Nam and declared independence as a city state. This prompted the collapse of the Dai Nam Empire, resulting in several other former provinces in the area gaining their independence as nations. Relations between Phing Phong and these nations range from cordial to being in a de jure state of war.

Deua Theow Phon was appointed Council-shen Thannarat I by the new parliament, the Luanyet Hall Council, with liberal economic and social policy causing massive population growth fuelled by immigration and a high birth rate. His successor, Phraya Thaklaew Jitep, officially referred to as Thannarat II, cancelled the elections for a new Council-shen and dissolved the Council, and his period of rule was known in Phing Phong as "the dark years". He remained dictator until in 1999 a popular revolution caused him to flee the country. Led by several opposition factions, a transitional government was installed that remained in power until elections and a new Constitution in 2000. Luang Mongkut Khrapao, one of the leaders of the revolution, was voted in as Council-shen with a large majority. His rule was immensely popular, with an unofficial motto of the city being "Under Thannarat III, Phing Phong is Invincible!" Mongkut Khrapao died of heart failure on September 13th 2010.

Phing Phong's economic system has been a mixture of socialism and the free-market since independence, though economic liberalisation has increased in the past decade. Industry is dominated by information technology innovation and manufacture, aluminium production and shipbuilding, with a sizeable petrochemicals sector establishing Phing Phong as a net exporter of natural gas. The country is overall a net exporter of goods and services and consistently maintains a trade surplus. The central bank of Phing Phong is the Phing Phong People's Bank, maintaining reserves of various freely-exchangeable currencies and precious metals and possessing the sole power to mint money.

The current government of Phing Phong is a coalition between the Socialist Liberal Party and the Communist Party, following a general election in 2010. Healthcare and education have been provided free-of-charge since independence, and public transport and utilities are heavily subsidised by the Government. Equality has been prioritised in recent years to restore racial equality after the decade of discrimination against non-Daeng Thai citizens by the government of Thannarat II. Religious freedom is guaranteed to a limited extent by the Constitution, though Buddhism is seen to be favoured in areas such as missionary activity and tax exemption. LGBT and gender equality has been legally enforced by reforms that abolished the use of gender-specific pronouns in titles and the explicit extension of marriage to same-sex partners in 2000.

A unitary state with administrative subdivisions known as districts, territories and provinces, Phing Phong is a parliamentary republic operating limited separation of powers, with a fully independent judiciary and a fusional legislative executive. The head of state and government is the Council-shen, voted in by the legislature, the Luanyet Hall Council, from a shortlist of the leaders of the two largest groupings in Parliament. Phing Phong English is the official lingua franca, while Daeng Thai and Tiếng Ngư are official national languages. Yamatese, Syvorjin, Gujarati and Mandarin Chinese are also recognised regional languages with official status in some areas.

Demographics

Phing Phong's last census, officially referred to as the 2555 Census, was commissioned in 2011, and counted 134,692,647 registered inhabitants of the island of Keah. This represented an increase of 12% since the last official census in 2001. At the current annual rate of increase, Phing Phong's population is projected to surpass 150 million in early 2017. 99.4% of citizens live within the Phing Phong Metropolitan Area, making Phing Phong one of the most urbanised nations in the world.

The average population density is 1,329 persons/km² across the total incorporated territory of Phing Phong. Population density was highest in the Borough of North Shori Peninsula at 19,272 persons/km² and lowest in the Lek National Park with no registered permanent residents.

Ethnic groups

Phing Phong has a multi-ethnic population due to its status as a trading port and proximity to various nations of different ethnicities. The aboriginal inhabitants of Phing Phong are an Austronesian people who are believed to have arrived on the island via the southern archipelago of San Hô, and mainly reside in the hills. Phing Phong's largest group is the Daeng Thai, who originate from the landmass to the East of the city and comprise around two-fifths of the country's population. The Viêt Binh are the second-largest group, comprising slightly over one third of the total population, and originate from the landmass to the southwest of Phing Phong. Other influential groups include the Yamatese, Syvorjins, Indians and Chinese.

Other groups, while less numerous, have also had a significant impact on the ethnic make-up of the nation. White people first came to Phing Phong as traders, then as missionaries, and are the most religiously diverse group in the country. Almost all the Jews in the city are of Sephardic origin, and Judaism has more adherents than any other monotheistic faith. Overt racism is highly uncommon in Phing Phong, and usually occurs as a result of different immigrant groups bringing their homeland rivalries with them. The most serious ethnic tensions are found between Syvorjins and the far smaller Luziycan minority, compounded by differences in religion and politics as well as close proximity, especially due to the former's opposition to the former dictator and the latter's support. The remainder of the population consists of hundreds of different cultures and ethnicities from across the worlds.

Ethnic group Population Percentage
Daeng Thai 54,723,843 40.6%
Viêt Binh 50,017,274 37.1%
Yamatese 13,295,490 9.9%
Syvorjin 6,165,836 4.6%
Indian 3,783,539 2.8%
Chinese 1,837,395 1.4%
Indigenous 1,019,492 0.8%
Western 827,395 0.6%
Other 3,022,383 2.2%
Total 134,692,647 100%

Language

English has been the lingua franca of Phing Phong since the beginning of the national modernisation programme in 1925, which mandated that it be taught as a second language to all citizens from the start of formal education. Due to the large number of different ethnicities in Phing Phong, several other languages besides English have official status nationally or regionally. Almost all citizens of Phing Phong are fluent in English and another official language, with the exception of recent immigrants and children under the age of 16. Phasa Daeng and Tiếng ngữ are official languages across the entire country, while some districts have recognised Yamatese, Syvorjin, Gujarati or Mandarin as regional languages. All titles and honorifics are officially in English, though many of them are derived from native words, and are not translated when official documents are published in other languages. The adult literacy rate is 99.3% literacy in at least one of the official languages of the country.

Religion

The majority religion of Phing Phong is Buddhism, with a total of 94.1% of the population professing a religion classed as Buddhist. Since constitutional amendments came in to force on 10 April 2012, Buddhism has been the state religion of the country. The Government of Phing Phong uses a very wide legal definition of Buddhism, comprising Theravada, Mahayana, Japanese, Huynmist and Cao Dai variants, in order to avoid potentially alienating any particular denomination. This is particularly notable because not all Huynmists, and few Cao Dai adherents, personally identify as belonging to a school of Buddhism.

Religious history

Stone temple at Mahayodhya

Before the large-scale arrival of Daeng Thai and later Viet Binh settlers to the island in the early part of the second millennium, the aboriginal Austronesian inhabitants of what was to become Phing Phong followed a set of animistic beliefs. Due to the fact that most centres of worship were made of wood, and writing was not available to the native peoples, little remains of this original polytheistic belief system. Nowadays, most citizens of aboriginal ancestry identify as either Buddhist or Quaker, due to the influence of settler culture and missionary activity.

Buddhism was first brought to the island of Keah by the arrival of the legendary warrior-king turned monk Chakravartampriya Bhikkhu, whose personal emblem can be found on Phing Phong's modern flag. A Daeng Thai monastic of the Theravada school, he and his followers first conquered a large section of the island, before renouncing violence and founding several hundred stupas and viharas across the country. Many of these have become popular tourist attractions and religious sites, including the famous Mahabodhi Chakravartampriyam temple in Mahayodhya.

The Theravada school remained the dominant form of Buddhism on the island for several centuries, until the invasion of Keah in 1428 CE by the ethnically Viêt Binh Kingdom of Lê, which later evolved into the Dai Nam Empire. This invasion brought a large number of Viêt Binh practitioners of both the Mahayana school of Buddhism and the native Cao Đài religion. Lê Thái Tô, the first King of Lê to rule the island, realised the potential for conflict between the various religious denominations due to their ethnic basis. He issued a proclamation now known as the Edict of 1974, due to it being issued in the year 1974 of the Buddhist calendar, which recognised all forms of Buddhism and Caodaism as equal.

It was not until the decline of Dai Nam in the late nineteenth century that other religions began their spread to Keah. In 1865, a ship carrying Reformed Catholic missionaries from San Pellegrino Romana arrived on Keah, with the intention of converting the island's people to Catholicism. While this aim was ultimately unsuccessful, as both official disapproval and local mistrust of the Eucharist ritual, which seemed to the native Buddhist vegetarian inhabitants to endorse cannibalism, Christianity had a profound influence on the practices of Caodaism. Jesus was incorporated into the religion as a saint of the Second Period of Revelation and Salvation, and Caodaist hierarchy is today identical to that of mainstream Roman Catholicism.

The last great change in the religious demographics of Phing Phong came after independence in 1923. An open doors policy led to the immigration of millions of poor Syvorjins and Yamatese into the country, bringing with them their own religious traditions. Yamatese Buddhism has become the third-largest religion practiced in the country by number of adherents, and hundreds of new temples in the Yamatese style have been constructed over the last century. The native Syvorjin religion of Huynmism, based around the veneration of the fabled warrior-king Huynma, also maintains a strong following among the Syvorjin community, and has syncretised elements of Buddhism, Christianity and Islam into its practices.

Religion today

The Quangminh Temple is the city's largest religious building by area.

Religion forms an important part of many citizens' social and cultural lives. Between the year 2000 and 2007, attendance of religious worship ceremonies steadily fell to its lowest level since independence. Since 2008, however, religious attendance has been incrementally increasing. Followers of the Theravada school of Buddhism, usually Daeng Thais, often spend a year in between secondary school and university as a novice monk, though only a small percentage of these go on to receive full ordination. Moderate affiliation with Buddhism is a social norm, meaning people are generally neither highly devout nor irreligious.

Hinduism is the largest non-Buddhist faith by number of adherents, the majority of which are of Indian origin. Western religions are practiced by an estimated 2.3% of the population, or 3,100,000 citizens. Over 90% of these are either Jews, Quakers or Reformed Catholics, with the remainder being a mix of different Protestant denominations, Muslims and Sikhs. No faith schools exist in the country due to their being declared unconstitutional by Machu Board of Education v. National Secular Coalition in 2007. As such, citizens may only attend religious institutions of study after the age of majority, and several such private religious institutes have continued to operate after the ruling. These range from universities offering only religious subjects, such as the Machu Institute for Religious Education, to yeshivas and an Islamic madrassa.

Belief communities in Phing Phong are legally classed as either religions, denominations or sects. A denomination is a belief community with over fifty self-declared adherents, at least one place of worship, a codified organisational structure, and which has collectively sworn or affirmed allegiance to the constitution and its authority. A religion can either be a single denomination or, more usually, a group of denominations which claim some level of affiliation to one another while being distinct in some way – such matters are up to individual denominations to decide, with the exception that a denomination which wishes to declare itself Buddhist must be recognised as a constituent denomination of one of the five branches of state Buddhism, and any denomination of one of the five branches is automatically legally considered Buddhist even if it declares itself to the contrary. This has resulted in Huynmist denominations petitioning the other Huynmist congregations of the National Buddhist Congress to disaffiliate in order to no longer be considered Buddhist and the other congregations accepting, but the Congress as a whole rejecting the disaffiliation. A sect is simply a belief community which has not received legal recognition due to not meeting the conditions of recognition as a denomination or religion, usually due to an unwillingness to swear or affirm allegiance to the constitution.

Culture and society

Many young Buddhists spend a period of time as a novice monk for spiritual development.
Phing Phong's culture is characterised by its patchwork of diverse and interconnected ethnic and religious customs that form a single "national identity". Linguistic diversity has created a situation where the national culture, expressed through the English language, is low context, while individual ethnic cultures are high context. The dominant religious influence on national culture is Buddhism, with its festivals comprising the majority of national holidays and its precepts forming the basis for law and individual morality. The government encourages citizens to celebrate both their own cultures and backgrounds and those of other groups, and has designated 3 October as National Culture Day, a public holiday. Art and music take inspiration from mainly traditional ideas, while the film industry is known internationally for modern productions which have come under criticism for their controversial content. Cinema- and theatre-going are popular pastimes for all demographics, while museums and galleries cater to the wealthier, more liberal segments of society.

Social protocol is formal and strict, especially around strangers and perceived foreigners, with values such as punctuality, politeness and reasonable modesty held in high regard. Patriotism is considered to be of moderate importance, though foreign cultures are often considered to be either technologically backward, decadent or imperialistic. Education, specifically academic ability, is the most important indicator of social status, which is determined irrespective of parentage, while public displays of wealth are frowned upon. The principles of justice, social democracy and equality are held sacrosanct as inviolable tenets, conflicting with several traditional views and practices. In fact, there are many arguments which citizens will virtually refuse to debate due to the strength of the national endorsement of them, notably democracy, gun control and vegetarianism.

Food and drink

Vegetable phở, a popular soup dish of Viêt Binh origin.
Meat is notably absent from the local cuisine, as Buddhism, Caodaism and Huynmism in Phing Phong all proscribe the consumption of meat under any circumstances, in contrast with the ethics of these religions elsewhere. It is illegal to possess animal products in the city without a permit from the district authority, which is in practice only granted to foreign ambassadors. Local dishes usually consist of a noodle or rice base combined with either a curried sauce, herbed soup stock or other spiced ingredients. There are a total of sixteen varieties of rice commonly consumed in the city-state, nine of which are endemic species. Common spices include chilli, ginger, galangal, lemongrass and black pepper, and common ingredients include soy-based meat substitutes, vegetables and roots. Pastries, sometimes filled with almond or red bean paste, are a common breakfast foodstuff along with more traditional rice soups, and bread products are becoming increasingly popular. Dessert is rarely eaten with meals as sugar cultivation has historically not been practised on the island, while apiculture is uncommon.

The most commonly consumed beverage in Phing Phong is tea, of which there are many varieties grown locally or imported. Most people relax at the ubiquitous tea houses, while coffee shops are becoming more popular with younger people. Western-style bars are viewed as immoral due to their association with drink-related violence and prostituition, and are almost exclusively found in and around the Western district. Alcohol is however commonly consumed in a variety of social situations, with rice wine infused with ginger or cloves a popular local spirit. Its purchase and consumption is legal from the age of majority, 16.

Ethics and equality

The ethical stances of Phing Phong are generally considered to be progressive or liberal. Historically, progressive policies have been advocated by the three major schools of Buddhism present in the country, though in recent years they have become more outspoken and socially conservative regarding ethical issues. An exception to this is abortion, which is only legal in exceptional circumstances, namely endangerment of the mother's life and severe defects in the foetus. Euthanasia is legal with explicit written consent in the form of a living will, and no subsequent nullifications of that will by the individual. Homosexuality has been legal since independence, while the Constitution explicitly legalises same-sex marriage, which is voluntarily performed by: the three largest branches of Buddhism, Theravada, Mahayana and Yamatese; the Caodaist movement; and the Phing Phong Huynmist Congress.

A strong egalitarian tradition has been continually present in Phing Phong since its independence, enduring even through the racial policies of Thaklaew. Affirmative action was proposed in 2003 to equalise a gap in earnings between men and women, but this proved unpopular and was scrapped. Since 2001, all languages and consequently non-religious personal titles have been gender-neutralised, a move which was controversial among nationalists and language purists. Income inequality is low by international standards. Adults address each other as Luang (หลวง), meaning royal or honourable, and children are usually addressed by their first names. People with special titles such as ministers, professionals and heads of state, are addressed with their respective titles, and honours are written after the name. An example of this is illustrated with Mongkut Khrapao, referred to by his birth name here, whose title as a Minister was Phraya Mongkut Khrapao, while his title as Council-shen was Council-shen Thannarat III. His full posthumous title is Chao Phraya Mongkut Khrapao, Third Council-shen of the Luanyet Hall; shortened to Mongkut Khrapao, OrdK. I.

Holidays

Below is a list of all the public holidays in Phing Phong:

Date English Name Type of Festival
1 January Constitution Day National
1 February New Year's Day Cultural
9 March Taoism Day Caodaist
21 April Tết Cultural
8 May Vesak Buddhist
11 July Labour Day National
12 August Republic Day National
3 October Culture Day National
20 November Children's Day National
8 December Bodhi Day Buddhist

Additionally, the 8th, 14th, 15th, 23rd and final two days of each month are the official uposathas and employers are legally obliged to give complete days off on all of these in addition to any public holidays. This amounts to the equivalent of 92 days, or slightly more than thirteen weeks, of week-end per year.

LGBT citizens

In various polls, between 20 and 25 per cent of Phing Phong's population identifies as non-heterosexual. Phing Phong holds an annual Pride parade on the last uposatha of June, drawing in tourists from across the multiverse. LGBT citizens enjoy full equality and protection from discrimination, and such individuals facing challenges not experienced equally by heterosexuals is rare.

Traditionally, four gender identities have been recognised in Phing Phong, two of which, nam and nu, correspond generally to the Western ideas of male and female respectively. The term "plao" is used to describe masculine women who form sexual relationships exclusively with other plao and women. Feminine women, or women who generally form sexual relationships with men, would be considered nu rather than plao. Additionally, the term "kathoey" was used to describe effeminate men or transvestites who form sexual relationships exclusively with other kathoey and men. Masculine men participating in same-sex sexual activity would not be considered kathoey. Nowadays, the term kathoey is widely considered to be offensive and has fallen out of common parlance. The government no longer recognises a distinction between the genders, though in traditional barays, or bath houses, four varieties of changing facility can often be found.

Politics and Government

The current composition of the Luanyet Hall Council. Click the image for details.

The City-State of Phing Phong is constitutionally defined as a democratic, Buddhist and socialist people's republic, and is organised as a unitary state using devolution, operating as a unicameral parliamentary constitutional democracy.

Constitution

The highest authority in the City-State is the Millennial Constitution, from which all government power is derived and subject to which all government power is exercised. The Constitution guarantees all citizens and subjects certain universal freedoms, and outlines the structure and operation of government. Any government which attempted to subvert the Constitution would automatically be regarded as illegitimate. Amendments to the Constitution may only be passed by popular referendum.

Judiciary

Responsibility for ensuring that the Constitution is correctly applied falls with the High Court. As well as being the court of final appeal in Phing Phong, which may review the judgements of lower courts at its discretion or through the appeals process, the High Court is responsible for determining the constitutionality of proposed laws. It is comprised of ten judges, who are elected for life by a joint electoral college of Parliament and all lawyers who have been admitted to the Bar. In cases where there is a tied vote in the High Court, the Minister of Justice may register a casting vote. However, reforms to the election process have been proposed due to the advanced age of many High Court judges. High Court rulings are subordinate to the written text of the Constitution, but may overrule civil and case law. The High Court and lower courts together comprise the judicial branch of the political system.

Legislature

The Luanyet Hall Council is the unicameral parliament of the City-State. Members of the Luanyet Hall Council are known as Phraya, and take the postnominal PL, standing for Phraya of the Luanyet. One-third of the Phraya are elected by instant-runoffs from single-member constituencies of near-equal size, and the remaining two-thirds are elected at-large by party-list proportional representation. Currently, as there are 120 single-member constituencies, there are 360 Phraya of the Luanyet. The Luanyet Hall Council is responsible for proposing, debating, amending and approving laws, which are then sent to the High Court for the aforementioned checks of constitutionality. It may also vote to repeal previously passed laws or call a constitutional referendum.

Most Phraya belong to a political party, though 12 of the 360 Phraya do not affiliate with one and instead run independent campaigns. Independent candidates can only stand in constituencies. Voters may vote for independent candidates at-large, but only indirectly, by voting for the unordered list of all independent candidates standing in the election nationally, known as the Unaffiliated List. Candidates are ordered in the Unaffiliated List based on the number of total number of preference-weighted votes they received (in the round of the instant run-off before they were knocked out as the lowest-placed candidate), and are removed from the list if they win a constituency seat outright. After the votes in an election have been counted to the degree necessary to determine the order of candidates on the Unaffiliated List, the List is awarded seats in the equivalent manner to a party list.

Head of State

Ngô Huynh, fourth and current Council-shen.

The Head of State and Government of Phing Phong is known as the Council-shen. After an election, the Council-shen is appointed by and from the membership of the Luanyet. All Phraya vote for a candidate to become Council-shen, customarily their party leader, and the two most popular candidates enter an intraparliamentary run-off election. The winner of this election becomes the Council-shen, who functions as a combination of Prime Minister and figurehead President – leading the government, performing state visits and the like. The second-placed candidate becomes the General Moderator, who functions as a combination of Speaker and Leader of the Opposition. Phraya may pledge themselves to either the Government, led by the Council-shen; the Opposition, led by the General Moderator; or neither, led by no one. As a result of the way Luanyet debates are conducted and moderated, when the Government is speaking, the Opposition moderates; when the Opposition is speaking, the Government moderates; and when the Government and Opposition are debating against each other, an unpledged Phraya moderates. The current Council-shen is Ngô Huynh, of the Socialist Liberal Party, and the current General Moderator is Gaoh Rattanakosin, of the Democratic Party.

Executive

State ministries and their employees, appointed ministers of state, the Council-shen and the General Moderator together constitute the executive branch of government, which is responsible for the regular administration of state functions. Ministries of state may be created by the Luanyet to aid in the proper enacting and enforcement of passed legislation, with each ministry being headed by a minister. Ministers, in turn, are appointed by the Council-shen with the consent of the Luanyet, collectively forming the Civil Executive, along with the Council-shen and the General Moderator. At least three-quarters of the Civil Executive must consist of elected office holders (in practice, Phraya of the Luanyet, though members of lower assemblies and mayors theoretically qualify), and the remainder may be anyone of the Council-shen's choosing who would otherwise qualify to stand for election to the Luanyet. In addition, members of the executive branch of government, with the exception of the Council-shen and the General Moderator, may not concurrently hold a directly elected office. This results in appointees to the Civil Executive necessarily vacating their seats upon appointment, causing a by-election if the appointee in question holds a constituency seat, and resulting in the highest-placed candidate on the party list who did not gain a Luanyet seat replacing an appointee elected at large.

Local government

Districts, and below them cities and prefectures, also have elected Assemblies and Councils which make local regulations within a limited scope, and generally deal with administration that would be inefficient were it performed by central government. These function broadly as microcosms of the Luanyet, but with less power. Each district or province is governed by a 75-member regional assembly, where members are elected by instant-runoffs from single member constituencies. The assemblies nominate from their membership a moderator, who functions as the majority leader and speaker of the assembly. Elections are held for the assemblies in thirds, with one-third elected each year, and one year with no elections, leading to an overall election cycle of four years. Cities, prefectures and boroughs also have elected councils of various sizes, depending on population, and are elected in full every four years by instant-runoffs from single member constituencies.

Direct democracy

The provision for legally-binding ballot initiatives, as recommended by the Referendum Commission, was introduced by constitutional amendment in June 2013. Laws may be introduced by citizen-led initiatives without requiring constitutional amendment and a Phraya co-sponsor, providing the proposal is constitutional as determined by the High Court. These laws would be unamendable and unrepealable for the duration of the Parliament in which they were introduced. However, in subsequent Parliaments, their mandate would have been superseded by the new Parliament's mandate, and they would be able to be amended or repealed.

Religious influence

Although Buddhism is the state religion of Phing Phong, it has no official part in the lawmaking process. Despite this, as the majority of Phraya are Buddhist, reflecting the majority religion of the City-State, the opinion of the National Buddhist Congress carries significant political weight. The National Buddhist Congress is the governing body of Buddhism in Phing Phong, and is comprised of three estates: the lay people, the sangha, and the executive. Any citizen can vote for lay representatives, but only ordained monks and priests may vote for the sangha representatives. The executive consists of eight religious leaders appointed by the religious denominations in question: two representatives each from the Theravada and Mahayana communities, one from the Caodaist community, one from the Yamatese Buddhist community, one from the Huynmist community, and the Council-shen. Congress resolutions must be approved by all estates to pass, and usually focus on ecumenical relations. As the current Council-shen is a secularist, he refuses to attend Congress meetings and consequently abstains on all resolutions.

Education

Education in Phing Phong is a centralised matter and is managed by the Ministry for Education, which delegates some of its authority to district councils for ease of management. Universally free of charge education was introduced in 1926 from the ages of 4 to 14, rising to 18 in 1967 and has been mandatory for all aged between 4 and 18 since then.

Examination system

Students take a series of examinations at various stages in their education, which determine what sort of education they will receive, and whether or not they get into university.

Primary exams

The first exams students take is called the Primary, and it is sat aged 10 to determine their secondary school. Passing this exam enables a child to go to an academic school, while failing it means they will be sent to a technical school. The examination is divided into four sections: first language comprehension, mathematics, science and humanities. Students are given the option of choosing to weight one section, as some children have more narrow ability than others. The grading is as follows:

  • 1 - indicates a pass result in the 90th percentile of passes or higher
  • 2 - indicates a pass result in the 60th percentile of passes or higher
  • 3 - indicates a pass result in the 30th percentile of passes or higher
  • 4 - indicates a pass result below the 30th percentile
  • 0 - indicates failure to achieve above the pass mark

Academic schools have end of year tests, which are graded as simply pass or fail. If a student fails such a test, they will have to re-sit the year or move to a technical school. However, technical school pupils can also elect to sit an academic end of year test, and if they pass this have the option of moving to an academic school. Between 5% and 10% of pupils will end up in a different secondary school to the one allocated to them by the Primary, the majority of which failed the Primary but then passed the academic end of year test.

Higher exams

After five years of secondary education - when a student is aged 16 - they have reached the age of majority. Despite this, they are still required to be in education until the age of 18. At this stage, all academic school pupils sit another series of exams (the Highers) to determine whether they go on to an academically-orientated comprehensive college, an academically-oriented specialist college or a vocational college. Comprehensive colleges tend to have lower expected exam results across the board, while specialist colleges mandate higher results in a few subjects, but ignore results in others.

Students sit the Highers in the following compulsory subjects:

  • English Language¹
  • First Language (either Phasa Daeng, Tieng Ngu, Syvorjin, Yamatese, Gujarati, English¹ or Mandarin)
  • Mathematics
  • Basic Science
  • Citizenship and Government

¹ If a student's first language is English, they are not required to sit the English Language paper.

A student must also select five or more, though rarely more than eight, from the following optional subjects:

  • Physical Sciences²
  • Social and Biological Sciences²
  • Computer Science
  • Additional Mathematics
  • Probability and Statistics
  • Political Science
  • Information Technology
  • History
  • Geography
  • Buddhism
  • Religious Studies
  • Philosophy and Ethics
  • Economics
  • Literature
  • National Non-Native Language (either Phasa Daeng, Tieng Ngu, Syvorjin, Yamatese, Gujarati or Mandarin)
  • Modern Foreign Language (usually but not exclusively Korean, Hebrew, French, German, Hindi, Arabic or Persian)
  • Ancient Language (Pali, Sanskrit, Classical Chinese or Angkorian)
  • Music and Drama
  • Physical Education
  • Cultural and Media Studies

² If these two science exams are both taken, then the student is not required to study Basic Science.

Every exam has an absolute pass mark, but grades other than pass (3-13) and fail (0-2) are awarded on a percentile basis.The grading is as follows:

  • 13 - 99th percentile of passes
  • 12 - 98th percentile of passes
  • 11 - 97th percentile of passes
  • 10 - 95th percentile of passes
  • 9 - 90th percentile of passes
  • 8 - 80th percentile of passes
  • 7 - 70th percentile of passes
  • 6 - 55th percentile of passes
  • 5 - 40th percentile of passes
  • 4 - 20th percentile of passes
  • 3 - Pass below the 20th percentile
  • 2 - 50th percentile of fails
  • 1 - All other fails
  • 0 - did not sit the exam

Different colleges have different requirements for admission, but the most prestigious, Luanyet National College, sets its admissions standards such that only the top 250 students in the country are offered a place. Offers range from ten 11s at the very most, to eight 3s at the lowest end.

After two years at non-vocational college, students sit entrance exams for the particular course they wish to study, or alternatively universities make offers based on Highers results. Students from vocational colleges go on into employment or practical apprenticeships.

University education

The majority of College students will go ahead to Universities based on their Graduation Exams. The Primary Degree courses take between two and three years, and provide students with a Degree in their chosen subject that greatly increases their employment prospects. Full Degree courses take two additional years on top of the two or three of the Primary Degree, and are the equivalent of a Masters Degree at foreign universities. Universities use a grading system similar to the British system, going like so:

  • First Class with Honours (1:1)
  • First Class without Honours (1:2)
  • Second Class with Merit (2:1)
  • Second Class (2:2)
  • Third Class (3)
  • Degree not awarded

Economy

Some of the structural features of Phing Phong's economic growth developed under the rule of Dai Nam, such as access to foreign markets, improvements to infrastructure and transport routes, the introduction of modern banking and the rise of the middle class. The weakening influence of imperial Dai Nam on Phing Phong in the latter period of the 18th century saw the replacement of feudalism and mercantile guilds with a market economy. After independence in 1923, many sectors of the economy formerly under the control of guilds experienced rapid growth, and Phing Phong emerged as the most developed nation in the former empire. Increasing immigration and economic liberalisation led to real economic growth averaging 6.2% annually from the 1950s to the late 1970s.

Growth slowed significantly during the 1980s due to a combination of rising living standards increasing the price of local labour, and economic policies culminating in state takeovers of several successful corporations under the dictatorship of Thaklaew Jitep. The economy experienced a period of economic stagnation and inflation during the 1990s, which came to be known as the "Wasted Decade". The economy showed strong signs of recovery after the Restoration of Democracy in 2000, as well as the privatisation of all loss-making state monopolies.

Phing Phong today maintains an economic system incorporating aspects of both capitalism and socialism, primarily reliant on the service sector and light industry. The country's GDP in real terms measures $2.7 trillion, while the purchasing power parity-adjusted GDP is a much higher $3.7 trillion, or $27,255 per person, due to low food and utility prices.

The country is one of the region's largest importers and exporters, and is consistently one of the top five trading nations of the Social Liberal Union, depending on the precise method of calculation. As of August 2012, Phing Phong has the second-highest trade surplus in the region, primarily due to the difference in value between cheap imports of raw materials and exports of high-end goods with significant added value.

According to economic data from the fiscal year 2010-11, the private sector accounts for 58.4 percent of Phing Phong's regulated economy, with the remaining 42.8 per cent contributed by government and state-owned enterprises. However, the unofficial cash and barter economy together with the black market is estimated to be between one-third and one-half the size of the regulated economy. Phing Phong's economy is developed and industrial, with the service sector contributing 58.8 per cent of GDP. The large harbour on the island of Keah has become one of the busiest ports in the region. Heavy industry, primarily shipbuilding, petrochemicals and aluminum refineries, is concentrated in the Docklands, Daan Su and Saraburi districts; manufacturing forms the majority of the secondary sector and is spread across the city. Collectively, industry and manufacturing form 32.1 per cent of GDP. The primary sector, consisting of agriculture, forestry and mining, contributes less than two per cent of GDP, due to the country's lack of natural resources and the fact that all areas outside the city limits of the Metropolitan Area are either military bases or national parks. Information technology, research and development, referred to as the quaternary sector, comprise the remaining 7.2 per cent of recorded GDP.

The largest employer in Phing Phong is the state-managed National Health Service, while the largest private employer is the Dokbua supermarket and café chain. Phing Phong's leading business field is tourism, followed closely by retail. Petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and electronics are the largest manufacturing industries. Commercial agriculture is generally limited to the growth of luxury items, such as tea, tropical fruit and uncommon rice strains.

Banking and finance are concentrated around the district of Chaweng, where most foreign multinationals operating in the city and the country's central bank, the Phing Phong People's Bank, are headquartered. Phing Phong's currency, the Baht, de facto floats freely against other currencies while remaining theoretically backed by gold and silver. However, the amount of either metal that would be exchanged for currency at a bank is several times less than what could be purchased on the open market, meaning the Baht is effectively a fiat currency.

Geography

Mount Chiang, the highest peak in Phing Phong.

Due to the large number of islands that comprise the nation's territory, Phing Phong is characterised as an archipelagic state. The Chiang archipelago lies to the south-east of the Celtic Provinces, to the south-west of Avaerilon and to the north of the San Hô Archipelago, a part of Phing Phong, while the Maha Sea lies to the west of the country.

The total land area of the country is 99,375 km², of which 92,307 km², or 93%, consists of the Phing Phong Metropolitan Area. The remainder of the land area consists of over three-quarters designated national parks and the rest the overseas province of Saan Ho.

The island of Keah is dominated in the centre by the Inthanon Mountains, of which Mount Chiang is the tallest at 1,347 metres above sea level. Flat plains predominate adjacent to the coastline, rising to hills further inland. There are a total of seven distinct peaks on the island with an elevation greater than 750 metres above sea level, which are all extinct volcanoes.

Climate

Phing Phong consists of two archipelagos which are relatively close to one another. The northernmost, the Yai Archipelago, is dominated by the island of Keah, which is surrounded by several smaller islands. Under the Köppen climate classification, Yai has a tropical wet and dry climate (Aw). The San Hô Archipelago lies further south and is much smaller, with a tropical rainforest climate (Af).

Temperatures vary little throughout the year. During the dry season, which occurs from early November to mid-April, temperatures vary from lows of 22°C to highs of around 31°C. The rainy season, from late April to the end of October, is marginally hotter as the temperature range narrows. Temperatures then vary from lows of 24°C to highs of about 32°C. The average mean temperature for a year is 27.2°C.

August downpour in Bon Ko.

Rainfall is around 10 mm in the month of January, increasing to about 30 mm for February and March, then up to 70 mm in April as the rainy season begins. May frequently has rainfall between 210 and 260 mm, which drops to between 170 and 230 mm for June, July and August. September is the wettest month, with an average rainfall of 367 mm during the month. October has an average rainfall of 258 mm, which then drops down to around 50 mm in November, and 10 mm in December. The record lowest temperature within the city limits is 12.6°C, while the highest is 41.8°C. Temperatures are generally about 2°C colder in the hills, and about 5°C colder on the summit of Mount Chiang, the highest point in the country.

The tropical rainforest is the dominant ecosystem in the national parks, though the Phing Phong Metropolitan Area is so urbanised that there are a wide variety of plants cultivated. The San Hô Archipelago is also predominantly tropical rainforest outside of the settled areas.

To cope with the generally hot climate, air conditioning is common inside public buildings and private homes. Citizens generally wear loose-fitting long-sleeved shirts, and trousers or sarongs due to religious modesty, cultural aversion to tanning and protection from sunburn. Wide-brimmed hats and sunglasses are common. Many areas such as outdoor cafés are covered by awnings, both to provide shade and to block out water during the rainy season. The city also has many public green spaces in an attempt to counteract the heat island effect.

Administrative subdivisions

Phing Phong subdivides into 118 metropolitan districts, 1 capital district and 1 overseas metropolitan province, which together comprise the Phing Phong Metropolitan Area, as well as 8 centrally-administered national parks and seven extrapolitan military base areas. Districts subdivide into cities, which further subdivide into boroughs, and prefectures, which further subdivide into amphoe; provinces only subdivide into prefectures and then amphoe.