On economic reform measures

At Issue: The obvious need to proactively consider major reform policies here to kickstart the local economy.

Our View: Indecision is regressive and will only sow the seed of poverty, hopeless and joblessness here.

Detractors are bent to compromise the integrity of the Covenant Agreement guaranteeing self-government and will stop at nothing to ruin the fragile economic foundation of the NMI. What with an election year across the country, the pet tigers of monied labor unions bosses, must perform the usual rain and fire dance.

The nearly decade’s old controversy boils down to protecting California’s garment industry even if it means destroying a fragile livelihood of US Citizens in these remote isles. Congressman George Miller and cabal have the labor unions and textile industry as their constituencies. The NMI isn’t part of their constituency.

The vicious assaults of the Asian Flu since 1997 was fueled by instability sowed by such an insidious plan and further fueled by fear and protectionist measures in recent years. Have we ably created wealth and jobs creation as a direct result of the negative effects of the triad? Local leadership can best provide their answers in straight forward fashion too!

Because of the obvious lack of jobs in the local market, this phenomenon has forced a good number of our people to head to the US mainland in search of opportunities. This is a tale of a fast deteriorating local economic foundation that doesn’t look promising for our children. The problem would have been exacerbated if local leadership simply basks in the blue sea of complacency and in the process create a hell-hole for posterity right here in paradise.

If the definition of leadership means taking the lot of one’s constituency to new heights of opportunities and prosperity abound, then the only road to attaining such goal is to work in concert with the private sector. The administration and the Senate can’t afford chancing further deterioration of what’s left in the economy. It’s time to come to grips with the fact that unless the right hand knows what the left hand is doing, poverty, joblessness and hopelessness would soon become daily reality among our people. Is this a legacy you wish to leave behind for posterity?

Yes, we understand that we can’t leave everything to the experts. But unless you have a better plan to take our people out of the current doldrums, it’s time to shift paradigms by working in partnership with the private sector to remap the economic future of these isles. In simple terms, it means changing old and unworkable approaches while making way for new realistic policies. Let’s work together, today! Si Yuus Maase`!