The Honourable
William Melda (born 25 October 1784) is a Pulian politician who was the first Deputy Prime Minister of Pulias and President of the Pulias People's Party from 1822 to 1832. He served as Senator for Haven of Peace from 1822 until 1843. He served as Minister of Culture from 1822 to 1833, and as Minister of Science from 1833 to 1843.
He is currently fifty-eight years old and lives between his home electorate Haven of Peace and the national capital of Pulias City when Senate is in session.
Born in 1784 to George and Elizabeth Melda before the Fall in the kingdom that would later become Pulias, by 1800 and age sixteen he and his family had moved to the urban centre of Pulias, which would later become the capital of the modern nation of Pulias.
In 1806, aged twenty-two years he married Anne Pitt. They had a son,
Charles, in 1807.
In 1812, the Melda family moved from Pulias City to Haven of Peace where Mister Melda worked as a historian at the local museum until 1822.
After the general election in 1812, aged twenty-eight years Mister Melda became a member of the Pulias People's Party.
At age thirty-seven he ran for election to the Pulian Senate in Haven of Peace in 1822, and leadership was unexpectedly thrust upon him quite suddenly when his party leader the Honourable Silverman withdrew from the contest and retired from politics. With the timely return of the Honourable Gustavus Gurra founder of the Pulias People's Party and former Prime Minister the two worked together to successfully double the party's representation in the Third Senate.
As Senator for Haven of Peace, Senator the Honourable William Melda served in the Second Heerlo Ministry as Minister of Culture and as the first Deputy Prime Minister of Pulias. In these roles he oversaw the successful implementation of modern Pulias's secular and socialist state, and drafted a great deal of highly significant legislation which he successfully shepherded through the Senate, including the
Senate Voting Act 1822, the
Casual Vacancy Act 1822, the
War Powers Act 1822, the
Constitutional Amendment Act 1822 and the
Pulias City Naming Act 1822.
While it would be expected that the Act he was most proud of passing into law as a pacifist would be the War Powers Act, or as a constitutionalist the Constitutional Amendment Act, he admitted privately that it was actually the Senate Voting Act of which he was the most proud because it established proper senatorial processes to assist with the day to day running of the Senate while ensuring the constructive involvement of the Opposition and crossbench Senators.
When the Prime Minister, Senator the Honourable Heerlo decided to lead the Anti-Luddite Task Force in 1822 he appointed Senator the Honourable William Melda to serve as Acting Prime Minister in his stead. He took to this role with great enthusiasm.
With the dissolution of the Third Senate in 1832, the Honourable William Melda resigned as President of the Pulias People's Party, citing his guilt at having allowed fear to guide him into supporting the Anti-Luddite Task Force, which was at that time rumoured to have killed innocents. These claims of wanton bloodshed were never truly proven nor disproved one way or the other, but the Pulian military had been responsible for rendering homeless many innocent Luddites who had previously dwelt in the encampment razed. Another factor to his resignation not well publicised was that the deaths of his longtime Senate colleagues the Honourable Gustavus Gurra and the Honourable Augustus Absoluti had shaken him deeply and led him to greater introspection in his life. Now aged forty-eight years, he was starting to feel old and began to properly realise and appreciate the fragility of life.
The Honourable William Melda supported the nomination and election of new faces to the Pulias People's Party leadership team and gave advice to party president Aurora Gurra and party secretary Percy Huggins, largely by taking on the role of an elder statesman in the 1832 election campaign. In the ensuing general election he was returned to the Fourth Senate as Senator for Haven of Peace for his second term.
In 1833 the newly elected Prime Minister, Senator the Honourable Aurora Gurra appointed Senator the Honourable William Melda as Minister of Science and Culture in the Second Gurra Ministry. He served in this ministry well at first, with the Government formally adopting a Pulian flag, entrenching fundamental rights and freedoms in the Constitution of Pulias as well as altering the Constitution to allow the Government of Pulias to be more accountable to the Senate by bringing the confidence threshold in line with Europan standards.
However in February he became embroiled in the Anthem Affair, a scandal in which he proposed to Cabinet that they consider his own son Charles's composition
Pulias, Rise Like a Phoenix for adoption as the national anthem. This action wasn't taken, but information made its way to the press and he was savaged by the
Godwin Herald for abusing his ministerial authority. The pressure built until the Emperor himself expressed his displeasure and dissatisfaction with Senator Melda's behaviour, at which point he resigned as Minister of Culture. For the next decade he continued to serve as Minister of Science in the Gurra Government.
In 1839 his son Charles married and in the years since he has been blessed with three granddaughters.