Tim Dunkin
Overview
(Tim Dunkin was elected as President of the Federal Republic of Cyberia on March 25, 2007)
Tim Dunkin is an old-line micronationalist from back in the heyday of the hobby. Having been involved, alternately, in Cyberia, Cyberland, Rocentia, Terra Novum, and the United Imperium, Dunkin is also the founder and CEO of Dunkin Scientific Services Inc., micronationry's oldest and largest manufacturer of hyper-advanced weaponry and scientific equipment, as well as lizard food. A shadowy associate of Emperor Jacobus, Dunkin has often been considered one of the chief antagonists of the Virtual Commonwealth of Cyberia, though he himself considers this to be a somewhat unfair characterisation.
Participation in the Virtual Commonwealth of Cyberia
The VCC was the first micronation which Dunkin participated in. Dunkin joined the VCC in April 1998, but was more or less a lurker for the first month of his citizenship. How Dunkin found the VCC is still obscure, shrouded in both legend and the veil of a poor memory. Dunkin left Cyberia briefly (June-July 1998) to join Cyberland, a breakaway micronation made up of disaffected Cyberian Rightists under the leadership of Skinner Layne. As stated in an interview on 4 June 2003 with the Plasma Picayune, DSSI's internal newsletter, his reason for leaving Cyberia and joining Cyberland was the opprobium being heaped on Cyberian conservatives by the Left, for reasons which Dunkin, as a new citizen, did not fully understand as these attacks related back to events before his citizenship began.
Dunkin's stint in Cyberland was short-lived, as was the existence of that micronation. Once Cyberland was organised, and the short-term diplomatic issues with the VCC had been more or less settled, a rift began to splt the Cyberlandian polity. The primary division was between the Natural Rights and Sovereignty Party (NRSP, founded by Dunkin), whose membership included citizens such as David Oatney, Gary Ceres, and Scott Rosen, and the ruling Conservative Party headed by Layne and his inner circle of Lee Varner and Chris Harrop. The issues of contention revolved primarily around the attempt by Layne to institute broad bans on a number of items such as tobacco and alcoholic products. The more libertarian-minded NRSP opposed these moves, and a crisis was precipitated when Layne attempted to stifle the ability of NRSP members to vote and otherwise express dissent against the measure. When reasoned debate proved fruitless, Dunkin left Cyberland and returned to the VCC, soon to be followed by the rest of the NRSP membership. Cyberland collapsed shortly after Dunkin's departure.
Dunkin served in various posts in the Cyberian government, most notably as the Governour of Menet for a term, and also as the Minister of Defence during the Second UPEC Crisis. Dunkin was noted in Cyberia for his social conservatism and studied militarism. Dunkin earned the lasting emnity of the moderate branch of the non-Socialist element in the nation, especially Ken Thacker, by his decision to support political neophyte and conservative Adam Graham in the 1999 presidential election over the more seasoned, but also more socially liberal Thacker.
Contorversy
Dunkin emerged after the Presidential election as a more controversial figure than previously, largely because of the polarisation that had begun to split Cyberian society after Graham's narrow loss in the election. The Cyberian Left, led by Peter Hickey and Alan Grieve and their Progressive Futurist Party, began a concerted effort to demonise and drive out prominent Rightists. At about this time, Dunkin had (to be continued)
