Forces of change

In his state of the union address our President made a prophetic statement that the CNMI should take note of when he said, “The forces of change cannot be reversed.” But more important about his address was how our President held everyone, including his office, accountable.

One of the biggest inhibitors to social and economic prosperity is lack of social leadership in the CNMI. The bishop can’t be that social leader because of the separation between church and state and there are no local activists promoting the American dream for everyone in the CNMI, only activists promoting local domination. There has never been a social leader to unite the people and lead them through these changing times. But it has become apparent to me that the CNMI has somehow created a social and political leader in the governor, which is why there is no real check by the people on our government when it comes to the social well-being of all people. I have often used the term “one people, one direction” and I truly believe that some, if not many, still don’t get it. The CNMI needs to move forward and that means change, as you can’t find prosperity looking backwards. All the people in the CNMI need to be united now (locals and mainlanders) more than ever as times are more challenging now than they have been since the end of WWII.

The CNMI society is composed of about 21 percent Chamorros, 6 percent Carolinians, and 73 percent who are not local. The American federal system, which the CNMI is part of, is based on the principle of the majority rule as “the needs of the many will always outweigh the needs of a few.” There is also the fact that you can never please everyone and the majority is the best we can do as humans. But as you can see from the numbers, the CNMI has being trying to develop an environment that is totally adverse to the expectations of living under our federal system, which is why I was not surprised to see everything falling apart, just as I predicted years in advance. Making laws that clearly discriminate against the majority and promotes the minority by establishing a double-standard of living in the CNMI is wrong and now we are suffering the consequences of these poor decisions!

The CNMI government has never truly dedicated itself to working for all the people in the CNMI and now we are starting to see the results of these failures. For those who can’t relate, I will refresh your memory: Every economic issue is a local issue and locals (27 percent) have ruled but everyone else ends up suffering. The pozzalon was a local issue and the concerns were only for the locals that didn’t want to let the “days that have gone by” to go. China wanted to purchase the pozzalon for their construction of the Olympic venues but the locals chased the investor(s) away. They didn’t stop to think that the sale of pozzalon was great new way of expanding the very foundation of our economy with a new industry that would have surely grown from the exposure of pozzalon’s usage in the Olympic venues. They couldn’t see into the future to know that pozzalon was a real alternative to the doubling of government fees and licensing that we are now experiencing. They didn’t realize the Northern Islands are the future and even part of our salvation for the present day. No, they only thought about themselves and their memories. But we still have all that pozzalon with no plans to use it and we are all now paying for it with all these increased fees.

The fiasco with the Sugar Dock investor who wanted to fix up the dock for a ferry to carry people and cars to Tinian is another example of minority rule over the majority. It took only a handful of local people to stop an investment that would have helped everyone in the CNMI and now look at Sugar Dock. They didn’t stop to think how badly the CNMI needed to develop a complete interisland transportation system and now we are right back where the CNMI started, with only air and shipping service to Tinian. They didn’t stop to think about the revenues for the government from the ferry operation and the jobs for locals. They didn’t stop to think about how the ferry could lower the cost of living for all the people on Tinian while increasing commerce on Saipan. I could go on and on but the point has been made that a handful of local people who didn’t want to change have contributed to the downfall of the CNMI’s economy.

But the biggest and most influential epic center against change has clearly been Article 12. No one can deny that this law discriminates in favor of the minority. No one can deny that this law has placed a stranglehold on the very economic engine of the CNMI in hopes of elevating the minority. But this law has failed miserably as locals are leaving 100 times faster than they are building homes. This law clearly promotes social superiority through a double standard for living. This law is the biggest inhibitor to fulfilling the American dream of prosperity for all as the housing industry is a primary part of the foundation for a fully developed economy. The CNMI has a developing economy with only one industry, which dictates that the CNMI must change and grow if we are to find prosperity. You can’t grow an economy by trying to keep it all for locals—it just doesn’t work that way. I have said it on several occasions in my letters that “he who tries to hog it all for himself will have nothing in the end and that we [all American citizens] will all find prosperity together in the CNMI or the locals won’t find it at all.”

There was a letter that said only 1 percent of the locals are speaking out and doing something to preserve the local domination over land—well they don’t need to speak out when the law has already done it for them. It was interesting the 99 percent of locals who the author claimed are for keeping Article 12 doesn’t represent the majority in the CNMI. It is these types of outburst that really signal how horrible it is in the CNMI when 27 percent can dictate to the other 73 percent. Instead of promoting the need for a four-year university and local economists, scientist, engineers, astronauts, doctors, educators, politicians, doctors, Olympians, astronauts and other professionals, a handful of locals are putting all their efforts into holding up the wall of social imperialism that is standing on Article 12, holding everyone back from prosperity. It’s sad and a waste!

I truly understand and even have compassion for the people who wanted to save Sugar Dock and those who wanted to preserve the Northern Islands. We all have memories and connections with the past but they need to realize and accept the fact that change is an irreversible force. There is only two ways of dealing with change: you either confront it and use it to your advantage or you can confront it with the intent of stopping it and get run over like the feds just did on wages and alien workers. The opponents of change need to stop fighting change and start using change or everyone will suffer and pay the cost for fighting a force that cannot be stopped. The CNMI failed to change with the times and now we are paying for it by suffering. So I ask the handful of local holdouts (not all locals) to change and to seriously consider adopting the attribute of civic virtue and putting the entire CNMI and every citizen first in your future decisions. You can’t stop change as you may have thought in the past with the pozzalon, Sugar Dock and landownership, as we still need to change in the CNMI or we will all continue to suffer like fools refusing to change.