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Hutama
Hutama (CivBE)
Introduced in Vanilla
Titles Prosperous Diplomat
"Ambassador of the Commonwealth"
Civilization Polystralia
Preferred victory
Language English
Voice actor/actress Paranee Damodaran

Hutama leads Polystralia.

Starships[]

The leader Hutama (Diplomat) always gets a first visit influence bonus.

Civilopedia entry[ | ]

Early Life[ | ]

Hutama came to public notice first as a 20-year-old college student at the Universitas Sumatera Utara in Medan, Indonesia, heading a grassroots movement protesting differential resources assigned to reclamation projects across the Commonwealth. But what differentiated Hutama was his incredible charm, media savvy, and drive. Ubiquitous on social networks and broadcast, Hutama's cheerful face, trilinguality, and informal quips endeared him to audiences across the Commonwealth. From Perth to Vanuatu, Hutama was instantly recognizable, parlaying this into a career in politics.

Political Career[ | ]

Elected to the Commonwealth Parliament before his 30th birthday as a junior member of the opposition, he famously launched the Platypus Inquiry, which ended up splitting the majority coalition, toppling that government and ushering in a new government with Hutama as Interior Minister. Once in high office, he continued his work against corruption, crony contracts, and waste, all while retaining his famous irreverent, informal sense of humor. His weekly Internet broadcast "Question, Minister" mixed populism, no small amount of flashy production, and occasionally serious politics. Hutama is credited with delivering the popular vote needed on a referendum on funding Polystralia's merchant fleet, on being an early backer of the Tahiti2 Island Project, and on universal access to fresh water.

Politics[ | ]

Hutama's "spread the wealth" populist politics were key to his success, but it would be wrong to assume that these were cynical ploys. His sharpest criticisms were always reserved to people exploiting the public well-being, and his own personal charities were devoted to alleviating suffering throughout the Commonwealth. Gadfly he might be on the screen, but this was motivated by a strong sense of public justice.

Mission to Space[ | ]

Notably, Hutama seems to have misread public attitudes about the Seeding. After publicly calling into question the Commission Report on the Inflection Point, he resisted Polystralia's efforts to strengthen its space program and start Seeding construction. After a series of sharp political defeats (and a decline in his weekly show ratings) Hutama reversed his position, although his support carried something of a satirical edge. But when the time came to nominate leaders, Hutama's loyalists across the Commonwealth put his name forward - even after Hutama devoted an entire program to reasons why he would be a bad expedition leader.

Loading screen quotes[ | ]

<< Excerpts from Colony Archives >> << Personal Log, Hutama >>

[CED.3194.26]

The riches of Earth are behind us. No longer can I reach out and touch gold, freshly plucked from the dirt. And yet, I am not saddened. Our future holds new riches. Our tongues will taste new flavors. Our fingers will be adorned with stones. Our bodies will be draped in the hides of impossible beasts. It is right to miss the world we have left. But we must look to the new one with great reverence.


<< Excerpts from Colony Archives >> << Personal Log, Hutama >>

[CED.1745.68]

This expedition is an opportunity to start over. One for which Polystralia is well-prepared. We have always been economically superior. We know how to forge lucrative relationships. Although I am concerned about the beings we may encounter, I remain hopeful. Though we may be outnumbered by savage beasts, we will find some intelligence with which to ally ourselves.


<< Excerpts from Colony Archives >> << Personal Log, Hutama >>

[CED.3654.14]

We have but one goal: Take this new planet and transform it into a home. What that home is like will be decided in time. The possibilities are endless, but only one is fruitless. We cannot alter this planet to make it like our last. We must embrace the future.


<< Excerpts from Colony Archives >> << Personal Log, Hutama >>

[CED.2546.36]

When I think of the wonders on Earth, I become lost in the thought of possibility. What new materials will our hands find? Will they be harder than diamond or softer than silk? Whatever they are, we will use them to make wondrous things, more amazing than we have ever dreamed.


<< Excerpts from Colony Archives >> << Personal Log, Hutama >>

[CED.1835.74]

My people are looking for answers, but I have nothing but questions. We have much to offer – the refinement of minerals and manufacturing of goods. But who will we trade with? If they be alien, will they pay us for their own resources? If they be human, will they have need of what we create? Until I know what is out there, I won’t know to make of it.


Civilopedia Quotes[]

Wonders[]

Wonders Quote
Xenomalleum "If the planet didn't want to be tapped, then why is it made out of fuel?"

Hutama, We are All Destined to Prosper

Armasail "A well-prepared businessman has bulletproof contracts and bulletproof suits."

Hutama, We are All Destined to Prosper

Technology[]

Wonders Quote
Chemistry "A four-billion year old world's worth of resources, shared among a handful of people. We're gonna make a fortune here!"

Hutama, We are All Destined to Prosper

Computing "I love computers because they automate the tedious stuff and give us more time for important things like market manipulation."

Hutama, We are All Destined to Prosper

Cognition "I think I know what you're thinking, and you think you know what I know about your thinking, but you're wrong."

Hutama, We are All Destined to Prosper

Mechatronics "Machines can be journeymen to machine apprentices, as long as we are still the masters."

Hutama, We are All Destined to Prosper

Artificial Evolution "If you want a better deal with evolution, cut out the middleman."

Hutama, We are All Destined to Prosper

Biochemistry "Biochemistry on this world is like a good contract; it looks straightforward but there are some real devils in the details."

Hutama, We Shall All Prosper

Genetic Mapping "If you're going to rejigger an organism's genotype, you should give it the courtesy of reading its manual first."

Hutama, We are All Destined to Prosper

Alien Ecology "There is a historical idiom which states, 'What you don't know can't hurt you.' It does not apply to fungi."

Hutama, We are All Destined to Prosper

Civil Support "You don't win an argument until the other fella thinks your ideas were his the whole time."

Hutama, We Shall All Prosper

Vertical Farming "In the case of the skyscraper, which has existed since the 19th century, it was not the concept which needed to evolve, but rather the minds of those who used it."

Hutama, We are All Destined to Prosper

Protogenetics "The easiest way to win the game is to write the rules."

Hutama, We Shall All Prosper

Exotic Matter "If I could rewrite the laws of the universe, I'd put a few loopholes in there for myself."

Hutama, We are All Destined to Prosper

Metamaterials "If you've got a particle whose properties violate the laws of physics, either we don't understand the laws of physics or there's something special about that particle. Tomayto, Tomahto."

Hutama, We are All Destined to Prosper

Civilopedia Quotes[]

Wonders Quote
Quests "The deal didn’t close if you shook hands and then the other guy said: 'But first…"'

Hutama, We are All Destined to Prosper

Official teaser[]

From Civilization.com:

A Candid Interview with Polystralia's Hutama

Hutama: The Cad's Alliance Interview

At 20 years old, a brash Hutama first grabbed the public’s imagination in his home nation of Polystralia. Within one year, he went from drinking “tinnies” with classmates to staging sit-ins – his longest being 200 days – while happily charming the press and savvy social media types. To the amused annoyance of entrenched politicos, this college student at the Universitas Sumatera Utara did the impossible. He led grass-roots campaigns against corruption and cronyism in reclamation projects only to become the dynamic face for a new generation of the Commonwealth.

Then, he graduated.

A little over a decade later, Hutama is at the center of a much bigger stage – and now with a much bigger stake in the future of humanity as we look to move beyond Earth. This is a big switch for the populist leader who famously tried debunking the Commission Report on the Inflection Point. He’s still trying in vain to convince his constituency (and his viewers) that he’s a horrible choice to lead a seeding expedition. Even now, he’s cracking jokes about it on his weekly Internet broadcast, “Question, Minister.” All while he’s putting in his training time with the rest of the Freeland offworld expedition.

Today’s meeting was originally planned for last summer. That day consisted of us sitting in the green room during his weekly talk show, punctuated with an “emergency meeting” with some celebrity that pulled him away. This time around, a much different man makes his way into the room. Still charming, just a little less cocksure since he had to reverse course on this whole view of the Inflection Point, carrying a little less political clout and looking at ratings that may or may not indicate an end to his broadcasting days.

But that’s not going to stop Hutama. His tone was still more playful than most politicians. His mood, peppered with equal parts sarcasm and sincerity. Before starting the interview, he insisted that we sit down for a minute and have a couple stubbies.

Hutama: The first and most moral responsibility of Freeland will be establishing a decent brewery on the new planet. Yeast should be going through the same vetting process as the colonists. Maybe a more rigorous one.

Cad’s: I can’t imagine that’s an opinion shared by the rest of Freeland team.

Hutama: I have the votes from the microbiology bloc and the hydroponics bloc, and I’m convinced health sciences will come onboard. Once we have completed a demonstration project, the benefits will be self-evident to the entire colony.

Cad’s: If this is part of your campaign to convince the Commonwealth to pick a new leader for the Freeland expedition, I don’t think you are succeeding. [Note: The beer was very cool and very good, and the day was hot.]

Hutama: (laughs) No, certainly not! I hired the oppo firm to do some polling in the hope they’d come up with a different picture, and they said: “As much as we hate to admit it, you’re a popular man.” I’m putting my time in at Melbourne in the hopes that a darkhorse candidate shows up and replaces me. I keep pinging Sumatera Utara and asking if they have any irritating Poli Sci majors who remind them of me at that age, who they’d like to nominate to Freeland, but the Uni doesn’t even hit me up for alum donations anymore. I’m pretty sure I’m a comms blacklist database entry.

Cad’s: Your campaign spokespeople have suggested you’re the ideal candidate, that you’d be the guy to make sure Freeland is run above-board and free from insider deals. But you keep waving your hands and yelling: ‘No no!’

Hutama: Let’s be clear, Freeland has to be the most transparent project the Commonwealth’s ever put together, because not everyone is benefitting from it equally. Some people are being given an amazing opportunity to go and develop a new planet, while the rest of the punters have to sit at home and muddle along. The common man and woman in Jakarta and Sydney must understand who’s going, and why they were chosen, and moreover they have to feel like the right decision has been made.

Too much of our history has been someone in power dictating the terms to the rest of the population. Too much power blinds you, which is what motivated me to get into politics and what keeps me staying in touch with the public voice. Because I want to know what Jane Jakarta and Sam Sydney are thinking and how they feel, because we all have a right to decide how we’re going to live our lives.

Cad’s: That may be, but you were stridently opposed to Seeding right up to the point where you switched opinions on it.

Hutama: I was the champion for those voices who weren’t being made part of the process. The Commission might have been right about the Inflection Point, but they were wrong about the way they handed down their report. It got my jimmies rustled. Was I wrong about Inflection? Yes. Was I wrong about questioning the entire Seeding initiative? No way. Too many assumptions, too little buy-in from the citizens, too much of the old guard saying: “thou shalt.”

Cad’s: So then what changed your mind?

Hutama: [pauses] It was the least-bad deal.

Cad’s: The least-bad deal?

Hutama: Look, the Inflection Point’s a thing, right? It’s going to happen. Or is happening. Whatever. In fifty or a hundred years, Freeland will not be a viable project. There are going to be a lot of people on this planet and some hard decisions are going to have to be made. But you have a chance, an outside chance, of taking a small number of those people – a number so small that taking them off this planet is a rounding error – and you can put those people on a new planet where they can do… I don’t know. Everything. Anything. Live like kings. Burn hydrocarbons. Smelt aluminum from ore. Eat beef three times a day. Just not suffer.

Cad’s: That seems to fly in the face of giving everyone a fair deal.

Hutama: But it’s not, don’t you see? On one hand you don’t send Freeland; five billion citizens of the Commonwealth suffer privation. On the other hand you send Freeland; four billion, nine hundred ninety-nine million, nine hundred ninety thousand citizens of the Commonwealth suffer privation. But ten thousand live free and well. Maybe those ten thousand figure out how to fix Earth. Maybe they don’t. Maybe they all decide to drink alien kava and play house music. It doesn’t matter.

As long as every citizen of the Commonwealth has a crack at one of those ten thousand seats, then this is the least-bad deal. If every citizen understands how those ten thousand are being allocated, then this is the least-bad deal. Anything else, I’m going to lead the citizens to the barricades myself.

Cad’s: How is it fair for ten thousand Freelanders to live better than the rest of humanity on Earth?

Hutama: I thought you were smart! I thought you kids at Cad’s were supposed to be the sharp ones! Living well is their only obligation! Living well is the meaning of life, right? Every philosophy boils down to that, and most religions too. You’ve got an entire planet in front of you. Sitting in a bubble dome and eating Spam and wearing a hairshirt makes no sense. That’s the worst kind of miserliness – to live meanly when you’re sitting on riches. No, Freeland’s first obligation is to live well. After that? Well, we’ll figure it out. Right now my planning just goes as far as getting a brewery up and running. Or getting out of leading the damn thing.

Affinity gallery[]

Affinity Level 6[]

Hutama - Midgame-0

Hutama in mid-game wearing Harmony, Purity and Supremacy outfits respectively

Affinity Level 11[]

Hutama - Lategame

Hutama in late-game wearing Harmony, Purity and Supremacy outfits respectively

Starships Images[]

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