Bob Toshi (born December 30, 1969) is a El Kadsreian politician who was President of El Kadsre from 2007 to his overthrowing in 2011. He is currently a youngest El Kadsreian president to take office, as he was 37 when he was sworn in. He is a prominent member of El Kadsre's Gang of Four. Aligning himself as a social democrat, he implemented the variation of socialism known as “Arito socialism” with the goal of making El Kadsre “a happiest country in the world”. His presidency lasted until 2011 after he resigned to avoid impeachment for attempting to dissolve Parliament who showed hostility towards him earlier that year.
Bio[]
Bob was born to a Sentanese mother, Mei Toshi (b. 1942), and a White South African father, Gerald Van Schalkwyk (b. 1939) in Heart's Landing, Vlokozu Union and grew up in El Kadsre City.
While studying at the University of El Kadsre, Bob became interested in socialism after reading socialist books he found in the library in 1989, and was in a socalist group called the "Castro Squad" for much of the first half of the 1990's. In 1994, Toshi entered Parliament and became an member of the El Kadsreian Socialist Party.
In 2007, following the resignation of Kazuya Meyers due to alligations of alleged corruption, Toshi was elected president in the snap election and announced that "Socialism is coming to El Kadsre, and it will make it a happiest country in the world!" However, a financial crisis began in El Kadsre which included the El Kadsreian stock market crash of 2008 known as Black Friday. As the result, dozen companies based in El Kadsre filed bankruptcies, including Saba, Naisuka and Kurokoshi. Experts believe this was due to a combination of the Great Recession and Toshi nationalizing way too many businesses including funding for TTV and major shares in companies such as Kentsei, Viva Television, EKOC and EKRail. Many people were disinterested with Toshi's socialist experiment. In fact, the El Kadsreian economy shrank by 33% every year from 2008 to 2011 and inflation greatly increased by 500% between 2007 and 2011.
Toshi imposed sanctions on Israel in mid-2010 and threatening to break off relations entirely and start recognizing Palestine instead. As a result, the Jordanian embassy in El Kadsre City installed a Israeli interests section to "prevent the Jewish community in El Kadsre from having an exodus thanks to Toshi's radical ideas of straining the Israel-Palestine problem further."
In 2011, After years of opposition from the Parliament and hostility from the El Kadsreian mainstream media, Toshi conspired to dissolve the Parliament and replace the members of the parliament with the members who are the most loyal to him. After months of crisis and enflarement, the Parliament voted to impeach Toshi. In response, Toshi resigned from office in order to avoid impeachment.
In 2012, Toshi along with other members of his inner circle were arrested and charged with money laundering and corruption. Toshi was found guilty in 2014 and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. However in 2015, Toshi and his members were pardoned by then-president Ryo Kimura, who condemned Toshi’s trail as politically motivated. Toshi was released from prison with the charges dropped and was allowed to lead the Socialist Party