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JAMAL JOHANSON
Jamal “JaJo” Johanson (*2600 on the spaceship Last Frontier) is a politician from the Gamma Age of the Humans on VOI 700 D.
Jamal Johanson lives in Hope. He is member of the political party of the Individualists.
Political career and political focus
Jamal Johanson, after the landing of the Last Frontier in 2625, was among those settlers who received 65 acres of land as property from the government of the day for agreeing to work as farmers for at least 10 years.
Through skill in trade as well as strategically astute acquisitions of land from farmers who were less successful, Jamal Johanson quickly expanded his land holdings.
In 2627, he succeeded in buying up the former Service Bots of the Last Frontier, then owned by the government, and leasing them to wealthy households and businesses.
With the surrender of the Volunteer Army of Man in the Great War against the Alliance of Native Tribes and the resulting peace treaty, Jamal Johanson lost all of his land, as the Natives no longer tolerated human settlements outside the four reservations of New Kourou, Firetown, Morningstar and Hope.
Following the formation of the Federal Confederation, as well as the election of the Communards as the Confederacy's first governing party in 2632, Jamal Johanson was appointed by the GAIA system to Hope to contribute his agricultural expertise to the newly formed federal agricultural supply operations. Here he met Decker Bolton, later local leader of the Individualists and Hope's first individualist Mayor.
Together they joined the Individualist Party in 2634. At that time the party in Hope was still quite insignificant - and was firmly in the hands of the Communards. However, Decker Bolton and Jamal Johanson fairly quickly managed to rally the reservation's agrarian voters behind them and stir up resentment against the government in New Korou. They also benefited from GAIA's bringing more and more former landowners to Hope as agricultural experts from 2632 to 2636.
In the 2638 election, the Individualists put up Jamal Johanson as one of three candidates for Hope's three seats - and they actually won two. Thus, Jamal Johanson moved into the Federal Council for the first time, along with the then-top councillor Yon Wong and four other individualists.
In the 2638 election, Jamal Johanson even managed to repeat his success. At the same time, his closest ally Decker Bolton was elected Mayor of Hope. Since then, the two have been regarded as important hopes for the party in the Habitual Belt. Before Jamal Johanson and Decker Bolton, the individualists had never been successful outside of Firetown.
In the 2640 election, Jamal Johanson runs as the top candidate for his party for the first time.
Critics and public opinion
Jamal Johanson is considered a charismatic leader and value-oriented politician.
Along with his close ally Decker Bolton, he is considered the “Conqueror of Hope” among individualist voters because, as the Firetown Post wrote, the two “have built Hope into the much-needed second individualist power bloc next to Firetown.”
This reading, however, is not shared by the public service Weekly Gazette, for example. Rather, they say, Hope is now a “swing reservation” where Communards and Individualists alike have equal opportunity. Which, if you look at the facts, is basically true. For in the 2636 election to the Federal Court, the Individualists did manage to win two out of three seats, but in 2638 it was the other way around again. Nevertheless, the fact remains, of course, that Hope is the first Habitual Belt city to have an Individualist as mayor.
Criticism of Jamal Johanson`s politics comes mainly from the party and from the voters of the Communards. They accuse him of populism. For even if the individualists were to promise the voters, for example, to give the farmers “their land” back, the terms of the peace treaty would not allow this at all. And renegotiating the peace treaty would not be possible either, he said, because the people would only have “guest rights” on VOI 700 D and the Natives had made it clear that they would only accept the people into the community as equal partners if they respected the freedom of nature. Accordingly, no tribe or people should simply claim farmland for themselves.
Family background and private life
Jamal Johanson is the second child of Yasmine Saito (*2574) and Sam Johanson (*2572), who were part of the third generation of human pioneers on the spacecraft. He has a older sister (Fatima Johanson, *2598).
Since 2610 Jamal Johanson is married to Wimberley Johanson (*2585 on the spaceship Last Frontier). The couple has three sons: Noah Sam Johanson (*2612), Ethan Sam Johanson (*2614) and Elijah Sam Johanson (*2616).
Physical appearance
Jamal's look is based on Arabic, Asian and Scandinavian influences. Thus, although he has a darker, Arabic-influenced skin color and light brown, wavy hair. His eyes have an almond shape, as known from the Japanese population on Earth, but a blue-green color, as known more from the Northern European gene pool.
Jamal Johanson is 1.92m tall and weighs 85 kg. He has an athletic figure and broad shoulders.