2012: It’s up to good governance

Even though the New Year has begun, there’s the nagging lump in our throat making it impossible to leave bad memories of 2011 behind. Though our hearts are awash with hopeful sentiments, we know one thing for sure: the pain of 2011 will last forever!

Be that as it may, there’s still the dreadful task of putting the year 2012 into perspective with guarded hope and optimism. Felicitations for a “prosperous new year” were hollowed out by apocalyptic economic hardship in households throughout villages on all three isles.

The heavy assaults against the last economic pillar, tourism, were triggered by major reduction in flight services from Japan. This was further derailed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that forcibly dimmed the sunrays in the Land of the Rising Sun, including the CNMI.

Major foreign capital or investments fled the islands due to uncertainty with the federalization of immigration. Adding fuel to fire was the implementation of federal minimum wage that forced small businesses into slow bankruptcy and closure. And there’s the lack of empathy from people at the helm to improve the lots of families on the islands, if only to avoid loss of the first family home, among others. Simplified scenario: There’s far less for far more doomed in devastation.

Though the CNMI’s a permanent part of the greater American political family, there’s the juvenile attitude of self-denial of our citizenship as though it’s a cog or tool of convenience to thrash about at will. Need we boast off adolescence where we find that the enemy is us?

It seems there’s the obvious lack of clarity of understanding of the responsibility that comes with citizenship. Or is it a juvenile case of simple adherence to our culture of mañana, hoping we won’t have to responsibly embrace the moral obligations of citizens, including upholding the First Principles that founded the U.S. Constitution?

Listen to the discordant and juvenile voice of the “we few” former and current politicians. It’s easy to detect how they’ve demonized and forged a dysfunctional relationship with the federal government. It clearly illuminates that theirs is money and the retention of power that is fast slipping from their once fresh grip. It’s power so far removed from really and honestly helping the lot of the multitude.

This effete bunch is quick in intoning “gimme, gimme, gimme more money” paid for by U.S. mainland taxpayers, but instantly refuse to rein in repealing land alienation or Article 12 so we rid the CNMI of its race-based land policy. Do politicians understand that the right to own property is “unalienable?” It simply means it can’t be infringed nor violated!

I wouldn’t be advocating for the repeal of Article 12 if it weren’t for the fact that it is God-given right included in “We The People” of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Furthermore, it isn’t a civil but a “natural” right, not a government or societal grant. Is there a god of sort among you who can change what He’s given mankind through our humanity? Are you fearful of doing things right for once in your brief political career?

Is the CNMI a sovereign island country? Aren’t we under the sovereign rule of the U.S. per Section One of the Covenant Agreement? Why the adolescent self-denial in perpetuity? For as long as the NMI is run by a mindset mired in indistinct competency, it will continue sending the economic landscape into the abyss of misery and dystopia. No one else but us must domesticate this adolescent illusion.

How timely and fitting the words of former NMI Supreme Court Justice Jose S. Dela Cruz: The NMI “must have a fair and reliable legal system and code of law. Individuals and businesses operating or who wish to establish shop in the NMI should be assured and must have the confidence that they will be treated fairly and not be discriminated against. This means that the NMI government has to assure everyone in the NMI—individuals and businesses alike—will all get a fair shake.”

The CNMI must get its act together with some sense of purpose and definition. To engage adolescent acquiescence for purposes of political expediency only retards the political maturation process. There are substantive issues that need to be taken up with Washington but we can’t do it until we own up to our citizenship responsibilities. It’s mind-boggling the attitude of the elected elite who refuse to step forward and protect the “unalienable” rights of citizens to property. Are they fearful of doing what’s right?

We accepted a change in the land tenure system imposed by the Spanish when it granted the lowest class of Chamorros (Manachañg) their right to landownership. Why then would you find difficulty granting your fellow citizens their rights, too? That you hide under the cloak of “indigenous” doesn’t make you superior, does it?

A lot is wrong in paradise and the enemy is the so-called elected elite and corrupt “indigenous” folks at the helm that consistently victimize their people with polished demagoguery. Perhaps they’ve consistently suffered from intellectual atrophy and integrity as their exhausted demagoguery diminishes.

Policy dictates the success or failure of any economic plan. The recent fleeing of foreign capital from the CNMI by the billions of dollars is a tale that investors can’t stand an uneven playing field. Our bigoted attitude and half-cocked decisions from taxes to piles of fees aimed against their making decent profits have basically chased them off the island.

The sour mood of governance triggered by economic collapse is a tale that it craves for answers, clarity, and real leadership. This call will not be answered by ambiguity and corruption in a system where merit has been parked permanently.

It boggles the mind how politicians would navigate economic collapse that has started its final descent. Not ready to repeat painful experiences of recent past with smiling demagogues. Enough is enough! It’s up to good governance and it starts with a steely determination to institute real change this midterm election.