CUC Yaqui! No?

I was closing out at the CUC (Commonwealth Utilities Corporation) Dandan office by Joeten the services on electricity, sewage, waste, and water on my dwelling, scheduled to fly out in the morning for three weeks in China, returning to the CNMI to elbow my way into a teaching assignment, either with PSS or a private institution. It has become of vocational goal to teach elementary level grades on the task of learning-how-to-learn, getting clear about how the human brain operates, and understanding that each has the wherewithal to participate in the learning process itself.

Not only that, there is that 16-year formal education journey where we give students permission to continue with their social talk as well as manage how to navigate the British currents of academic English. Focused on the issue of education even while we were closing out affairs from the last term, I was not paying attention to the news on my neighbor down the hall, normally shy of being in the news headlines, when he landed on the front page of the local dailies.

It appears that the reality of CUC unable to accumulate enough savings to save its soul has not been externally imposed but self-generated from within by a board that seemed more interested in power games rather than sustainable and affordably generating power. For its number of years of existence, the CUC board has yet to learn how to learn!

He is just Matt when he lumbers his tall frame amongst us in the apartment complex but when he steps out in the morning to the office, I am sure his attire and demeanor would easily get the “Sir Matthew” that Filipino number-crunchers readily ascribe to their office superiors. This is, after all, the Marianas where the culture is still stratified enough that some are matua and others are not!

For some of us who have watched CUC up close and personal, and from a distance for a “savior” to show up, the top body deals more with operations than policy, focused on politics than on utilities’ priorities. Matt served in Africa and the Middle East, as well as the Far East; his accounting acumen recognizes other factors that determine where the decimal point sits on any given report.

Matt was not vocal in the chatty loquacious sense, though he would not hesitate to call something out the way he sees it. One time in Liberia, only a small portion of the population was served the generated power. That’s almost like the Renaissance City downtown Detroit well lit while the rest of the urban center is pitched dark!

We are waxing poetic here. What we have is a qualified and reliable dude who will tell us the numbers if things do not add up. He was asked at a public gathering about the finances of CUC, and he told them in his capacity as a finance officer. CUC was broke, but whether it is Matt’s language or not that is in question is missing the point. CUC has no money save for operating and personnel cost, and the discerning public was only too familiar with that.

Besides, Matt is not a politician but he sensed (my guess) that the political wrangling was going to take precedence over the sane and rational operations of the utilities company. He kept the sentiment close to his chest.

We all read about the political maneuvering in the CUC board and wonder if it would interfere with the delivery of services, able to exist with the seeming divisive ambience it seemed to operate out of. The infighting has always been a distraction from the fact that the company was not breaking even. But CUC and the island had always been saved by the dole. Even with the mounting debt, who cared? Governance was just a matter of identifying who is next in line to do the bailing! Meanwhile, CUC’s debt mounted; did its board care?

Matthew did, which is not to assert that the board members did not. Matt is on the hot seat. Sure, he just managed finances and shuffled funds so there was sufficient mullah to run the business, perhaps, even inject some entrepreneurship into the stew so that the company could save itself from an absolute depression but he thought through ways to lessen debt so that the company can keel even. Perhaps, he was a bit too optimistic on that score. Don’t matter. One thing Matthew isn’t, he ain’t no heart of stone!

Matt was fired the day he answered the question if CUC had any money. The board decided to shoot the messenger rather than find ways to deal with the message. Or, worst, as someone said, he was no local.

It would be a mistake to paint the picture of heroes and villains. This is about power, the electric kind, and whether the island can afford the twinkles on its trees comes Yuletide or other festivities that consumes power is a choice we can make.

“Power to the people” is a slogan used by street demonstrators. Matt is contracted and that is the legal issue that may play on his sudden dismissal. More important is the truth. Do we have enough strength to face the fact that the Emperor wears no clothes?

Merci, Matt. Au revoir. (That’s Tahitian, in case you missed it.)