Who is going to be the next lieutenant governor?

We have heard so many rumors about more than a handful of people wanting to run as governor in this general election. Some of those who lost in the last election want to run again as if to prove to the people that they could have done better! My biggest puzzle is trying to figure out who and why should one consider running as lieutenant governor.

In case one should run as lieutenant governor, I think one should consider some pointers:

Don’t choose as a running mate one who has never tried being poor in his entire life. Choose someone coming from a humble background, but has excelled in figuring things out for himself. This person can then turn to help others for he has already helped himself. In other words, choose a running mate who is a rags-to-riches kind of a fellow. They are cool and down to earth!

Consider diligently our Chamorro/Carolinian humanity and choose a running mate who can relate to both of our CNMI cultures in terms of language, outlook, orientation, and needs. The candidate should also understand other cultures and thrive in a multi-cultural environment that respects all peoples and culture.

It is important to understand and realize that your commander-in-chief should be seasoned! An individual that is not hindered in making unpopular decisions if it is in the best interest of keeping the government afloat! One that is ready to face the fact that it is next to impossible to please everyone. One that will risk failure in order to succeed.

The governor should be a numbers man. He should be known to have dealt wisely in business, and have some degree and experience in international business—a great sense of business acumen, perspicacity, and circumspection. He plans, plants, nourishes, and then carefully harvests the particulars! Do not choose someone who is only a philosopher. Philosophers die but practical minded people continue to move on, reaping and living off of it.

The next lieutenant governor should be like be a farmer who supports his favorite plant (the governor). He sees it is planted and understands that he has to be patient before the plant can start to bear fruit. It will have taken more than four years to see the first buds come out and, in the mean time, he continues to support it by fertilizer, weeding, watering, etc. And the consumers (the people) also understand that they, too, have to be like the lieutenant governor. Why? If you plant a mango tree and you don’t see fruits in the first four years, you uproot it and plant over a new seed? And then repeat the process over and over before you finally find out that it takes more than fours years for your plant to actually bear good fruit?

When time is not of the essence, then at least understand that time changes. At 50, I can still vividly recall the easygoing life during the Trust Territory times. We want to continue our carefree style of island living from then and stretch it into the way things should be nowadays. We still want to go picnic whenever it pleases us and on the smallest of occasions we want to celebrate it with a big festive party. And we blow everything out, regardless of whether we will run out of rice and chicken tomorrow for as long as we can have that party. And this is because we are fun loving kind of people and there is nothing wrong with that. But adjustments have to be made, and understanding our surroundings has to be sought. It took me the luxury of time to think deeply and resolve to accept that we as people from this small island nation must begin to act locally by thinking globally! We have to start living in the inevitable circumstances of our global economic system. We are all dead meat if we don’t hastily link up to this thing called global economy.

Say for instance my name is Greg, and I have inherited a not-so-profitable business that was entrusted to my care to make it survive. And this form of business is the only commodity store (CUC) where all the people go to fetch their daily bread (electricity). I am Greg and I am ill-informed of the effects of the global economy and I insist on operating the business in such a fashion. How long will the business survive if I should buy a can of Spam for a dollar and retail it at .75 cents? Justification is that the people are used to paying .75 cents for the Spam, therefore I will sell it at that price lest they get angry and shout that I am greedy! How long will Greg’s business stay afloat?

Say for instance my name is Ben, and I inherited and was entrusted with the same not-so-profitable business to care and make it survive. I know that I shouldn’t sell my Spam at .75 cents because I spent a dollar buying it. So Ben sells his Spam at $1.45 each (45 percent mark-up) just to stay afloat. The people all shout, “Ben, you are greedy!” The people wouldn’t pay $1.45 for the Spam but at the same time still overindulge in their happy-go-lucky lifestyle of party hardy everyday and tomorrow, “Can you borrow me cigarette, please?” It is the same basic reason why all basic necessities of life have gone up! Okay, so the price of oil has stabilized a little but does that mean we should sell bottom low and risk the fact that the global economy is still dangerously unreliable? We have to wake up to the tune of practical living in 2009, and not living in the days of the Trust Territory where everything is free or given free by the government. We all have to learn how to count our days, and count our blessings and become good stewards.

Even a bakery these days has to cut down on everything. I am used to buying the standard-size Chamorro cake at Herman’s Modern Bakery but I was astonished when I found out that the size of their Chamorro cake has been reduced to more than half the original size but still being sold at practically the same price as the standard ones. Even this family (Herman’s Modern Bakery) has made some adjustments in their Chamorro cake just to keep up.

And so has Gov. Ben Fitial. Unpopular as some of his decisions are, any numbers man would not hesitate to do the same if he where to keep things afloat. Gov. Ben Fitial will not just lie back and allow the government to sink if he can help it. You want to be a lieutenant governor? Then choose a hybrid mango tree like Gov. Ben Fitial and begin producing fruits immediately like the no-frequent-power-outages we are now enjoying, aggressive attempts to balance our budget, standing steadfast on our rights for self-government, etc. Please open up and let your eyes envision beyond what it can see, and listen beyond what your ears can hear.