Contradictions and conflicts

In the human resources management business, a politician who has no clue on how and why a business enterprise stays its going concern is a nightmare to professionals and practitioners in this line of work. Mr. Gregorio C. Sablan appearing at a meeting before the CNMI Chapter of SHRM a few days ago is a classical aura of contradiction of conflicting objectives between elitist in government and business owners. The irony is even more comical and pronounced when professionals of the human resource society at this meeting giving overt applause to Mr. Sablan’s position on minimum wage issues in the CNMI.

The business of any professional and committed human resource employee is to secure unconditional, uncompromising, and exclusive loyalty to the owners of the businesses that employ them. Second, all human resource management and doings are strategized and formed for the purpose of minimizing or cutting costs for the company, thus ensuring a reasonable profit to the owners. When these two factors are put together as basic principles for human resources management professionals and practitioners in the CNMI, the value of Mr. Gregorio Sablan’s grandstanding on minimum wage issues runs against the grain of what these professionals represent in that their only interest is for the sole benefit of the business owners. I am sure you may agree that the business owners that employ these HR professionals who were at that SHRM meeting are worried when their trusted employees are compromising the future potential and lifespan of their company. The biblical concept about obeying your master and the one who pays for your labor is a useful reference when one ascertains to which these HR professionals should harbor their commitment to.

Mr. Sablan was engaged in a meeting attended by individuals involved in human resource management and it appears that he took it for granted that since he was in a room full of HR professionals, the concept “human resource” served his purpose in covering the talking points for his speech. It seems that Mr. Sablan was talking more about the “labor force or workforce” of the CNMI region rather than the human resources value of the companies these professionals are involved with. This is an important distinction in my opinion because of the connotation of the speech in that he sounded more or less suggesting to count all employed and unemployed persons within the CNMI. Active human resources productive contributions to a company should signify only those actively employed and participating in an employment environment. Thus, HR professionals do not give much attention to unemployed persons who are not connected to the status of their operating activities.

In terms of the CW and long-term workers group, Mr. Sablan seems to be suggesting that these matters do not have a dark side for the indigenous people of these islands. This is unlikely, if Mr. Sablan does not begin to lighten up and start discussing what he thinks as the confrontational and conflicting sides of these matters. He is lying to the indigenous people of the NMI, and will remain so until we are able to fully comprehend that his position is not placing in despair or disparaging the indigenous people’s situation on account of poor and lack of representation because he is not talking well about it. When is he going to open up and start telling the truth is the question. The only way that these matters can come to fruition is by way of knowing first what he has in mind and stands for.

Logically, even without debating, only by way of letting go of CW workers in the CNMI can one make work available for the unemployed indigenous person of the CNMI. The dark side of the policy that gives benefit to one is actually a negative benefit to the other in the same playing field. Why is Mr. Sablan not saying that pawning the employable workers status of the unemployed indigenous is what he is actually fortifying and hiding because the cause is good for his own benefit in Washington, D.C.? He needs to frequently and satisfactorily talk about this with the masses, and use sparingly the printed media to mold his less-than-forthright discourse on employment issues that requires the attention of the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands. Let’s all know when you would hold your first townhall meeting for this purpose. Otherwise, the dark side of your representation is real, and the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands would not cork what is untruth.

Francisco R. Agulto
Kannat Tabla, Saipan