PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center
With Support From Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawai‘i

By Guam Senator Ben Pangelinan

HAGATNA, Guam (Marianas Variety, Feb. 13) – This past week, hearings were held in Washington, D.C. by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on the future status of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands’ continued local control of its immigration and minimum wage. These powers were ceded to the Commonwealth in Section 503 (a) and 503 (c) of the Covenant to establish the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in political union with the United States of America. The covenant was the product of negotiations between the representative of the United States and the then trustee of the United States, the Northern Mariana Islands.

The hearing before Chairman Jeff Bingaman received testimony from the United States chief covenant negotiator Haydn Williams and the current Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs, Mr. David Cohen. Both federal officials testified why it is in the best interest of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to change the current relationship.

All who follow the affairs of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands will not argue the fact that change needs to occur in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Most will not even dispute that the change must be radical and that incremental change at this time will only continue the spiral of descent for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and its people.

The question is how will that change be effectuated and who should be in the driver’s seat? Will Congress step in and make the changes unilaterally or will it use its powers in conjunction with the Administration via the Department of the Interior and the ever-growing influence of the Defense Department to jointly bring about the change?

In all of the arguments that I have heard cited as the reasons for the need for bringing about this change, it is all premised on the failures of the local Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands government. I have not heard one single federal official admit to the failures of the United States in ensuring that the powers of self-governance given to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in the covenant included the necessary skills to nurture and grow institutions established to ensure they were firmly planted and became rooted.

In his testimony before the Committee, Assistant Secretary Cohen supported the granting of a non-voting delegate to the U.S. House before "drastically changing the lives of the people of the Commonwealth." One can assume what this means before passing the various proposals before the Congress. He invoked the deaths of four sons of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands who lost their lives in Iraq, so that the people of Iraq could enjoy rights that are still not enjoyed by the people of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. I doubt that these brave young men of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands died so that the people of Iraq can get a non-voting representative to their parliament.

These brave young men gave their lives so that the United States will remain a nation of honor. It is time the United States shows that same honor in dealing with its own.

The United States must honor the covenant and invoke the provisions provided for in the covenant that can bring about the desired change.

That is what these brave young men of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands fought and died for. To defend the honor of the country, the institutions of democracy we built that guarantees our rights and the lives we enjoy because of them.

[Ben Pangelinan is a senator in the 29th Guam Legislature and a former speaker now serving in his seventh term in the Guam Legislature. He may be contacted via email at: senbenp@guam.net or ctzenben@ite.net.]

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