PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

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

By Ricky Delgado

SAIPAN, CNMI (Saipan Tribune, Oct. 22) – As things get worse for everybody whose fate is somehow tied to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, one thing becomes very clear: we will never see any improvement in our economy or our standard of living until we finally accept realities that have been ignored for too long:

1. We must accept that a tiered society structure where one class of people is favored over another simply does not work. It provides disincentives to all hardworking people, and makes the "chosen" group unmotivated and uncompetitive in the long term. After all, if the government is going to give people land, a job, and some sort of security, why should people really work hard? By babying and coddling people, one takes away their desire to achieve, and worse, makes them insecure about their own abilities when they compete against other people in an open environment. "Give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and he can feed himself for life."

Ladies and gentlemen, we must accept the idea that everyone suffers when there is an uneven playing field. How long has the Commonwealth Utilities Corp privatization been delayed because we have tilted the bidding rules to favor a particular set of interests? Must we need to read by candlelight at night because we finally could not afford the US$90 per barrel fuel to run our 1950s generators? Legislating fuel cuts won’t solve the problems. Understanding that we are running dilapidated plants that waste tons of fuel daily is the main culprit and new plants need to be built immediately.

2. We must accept who we are in this world: at the bottom of the totem pole. We are a mere commonwealth in the middle of the Pacific, with a very tiny population, with crumbling infrastructure, with a government that is still broke, and with an economy on the ropes. We can't afford to be as proud and inflexible as we used to be, because now we need help from everyone and everywhere we can get it. Many do not want to change the constitution now, but if Palau is going into 99-year leases, and Guam already is fee simple, doesn't that force us to react? We are in direct competition with them for tourist dollars, aren't we? Do we rally have another three years to pretend that everything is alright? Real Estate development, tourism, and federal aid are the ONLY sources of income left for these islands, and we need to get started on improving our revenues from all three sources.

3. We must accept that at the end, our standard of living and other important matters like healthcare, safety, and education, boil down to dollars and cents. Yes, we can prance around reciting the inns and outs of the Covenant, or how much we want control over immigration, and other topics of that nature, but lets face it, a broke government equals a weak education system, a sick healthcare system, a crumbling infrastructure, high power bills, and a continued decline in tourist arrivals because compared to Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is a run down location. Even the quality of our tourists has already deteriorated because those with money will prefer to go to Guam, Hawaii, or Palau.

And if our government doesn't start earning more revenues, we will begin to look even more dilapidated, attract even less tourists, and this will again eat into the government’s revenue base, and hurt essential services like schools, hospitals, etc. Aren't these the real issues we need to be discussing? Not what race someone is, or whether we have the feds in charge of immigration? Is it not absurd that we are arguing about how bad casinos could be when we have a hundred poker halls all over the island? We have bigger problems, and once and for all, we need to stop pretending like its 1997, with the garment business booming, Tom De Lay in power, and tourists coming here by the boatload. Those days are over forever.

The government needs to revenues, PERIOD. How are we going to get these revenues so that our families don't end up being sick, uneducated, and impoverished is the ONLY real issue. Isn't it ludicrous that while the SAT scores of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands’ youth fall further behind the national average, nobody bats an eye when the Public School System budget is continually cut due to lack of funds? You want the future generation of locals to have a chance in this world, what good is a plot of land if they don't know how to plant and work the land? A solid education and healthcare is the only way to guarantee that they will be able to compete one day.

Ladies and gentlemen, the time for fundamental change is now, and must be pushed by the populace. If we don't make a serious decision to stop pretending things are pretty darn good, then you might as well write off the future of all Northern Marianas Descendants as well as anyone else betting their future on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. We would all equally share the blame for doing nothing when we could have charted a different path.

Let's remember: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, or the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." Charles Darwin

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