To Mr. Moore, people of Pagan and politicians

First, I want to extend my personal apology to Mr. Moore as a citizen of the CNMI for the negativity that has confronted you. I hope this is just a cooling off period and that you haven’t given up hope because I haven’t and I’m sure there are others like me. The problems you face are not of your making nor are they the fault of Mr. Farrell. The problem is also not the fault of the people of Pagan because they are clearly not against mining as they have stated. It’s politics and the failure to prepare or set the conditions for economic success. I’m hoping that you, the people of Pagan and our politicians are now using this time to take a step backwards in order to approach the issue in a more amicable manner. I also hope this letter will help to bring you back together on better terms for the sake of all the stakeholders in this issue.

People of Pagan, the entire CNMI needs your help. It is that simple and I am humbly and respectfully asking you to reconsider your stance on this issue. I fully realize that you feel disrespected in the way this issue materialized and after hearing that “it was a done deal” but you must take the high road because it involves more than just you. The burden or challenge to be a large contributor in our economic future has been placed on you—the people of Pagan. You have been successful in getting our Legislature to address your concerns but you also created a political dilemma unintentionally. I even understand there is a group in San Francisco that are truly concerned, which is OK but I’m also very certain they aren’t going to send us one investor nor one penny for our budget.

I truly hope the people of Pagan will reconsider this matter and the magnitude of your decision to an economic experiment that has the potential to be a “gold mine” for the CNMI in the long run. The ramifications of your decision will have the potential to create a powerful new economic force for our economy (or) create a never-ending animosity for you over “what could have been.” You owe it to your fellow citizens to at least try the two-year period as proposed and do all the impact and value studies in a real-time analysis. The people of Pagan are already winners and you should be celebrating and focusing on making sure the $3.5 million you have been offered is spent the way you want it spent. Just ask yourself—when do you think is the CNMI government going to give the people of Pagan $3.5 million to do with as they please? Never? The garment industry is also pulling out to a large degree and what are the people of Pagan and the group from San Francisco going to do to help replace the economic shortfall we are definitely going to face? These should be some of the first questions you should ask yourself in your reassessment.

As I have said before, politics is a true science. But with consensus being the predominant principle over democracy in the CNMI, the politics of the CNMI will always go in favor of the local people that are the loudest and not necessarily with the majority. It’s just the nature of culture’s effect on politics. The Legislature was quick to jump on the bandwagon with Sugar Dock and they are doing the same with Pagan because of the politics in the CNMI. The people became vocal on both these issues and so did our politicians, turning the matter into a political issue. The people opposing the Pagan issue are more public and louder than the ones for Pagan mining—just like Sugar Dock—but do they truly represent the silent majority? I don’t think so in both cases.

To show you how political the issue has become, Mr. Kenneth Moore had to mention the names of the people in government who were supporting him but I didn’t see any of them supporting him openly in public—CNMI politics. There was never a balance or equal consideration given to the investors by our politicians. Our politicians never gave the investors the public support or the courtesy equal to the treatment of the people. I don’t know if the politicians involved didn’t want to take the risk or if the “outsider syndrome” affected them, which ruthlessly contradicts the principle of equality. Both phenomenon will continue to eat away at the very roots of the Tree of Prosperity if we don’t change our way of thinking. We shouldn’t be too concerned about who it is and who gets the credit or the blame; instead, we should just be fair and do the right thing and let issues stand on their own merit.

I hope our politicians will reconsider what they have done because the minute a politician made a public statement and created legislation, the whole thing became political. We need solutions now, not politics, and the only solutions our politicians were focusing on were the concerns of a few people vs. the investors and the silent majority who have absolutely no connections with Pagan.

I’m sure most of us have heard the saying, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Well, we just did it in real life with Mr. Moore and we even slapped the gift horse in the face with legislation that literally told the investor “the CNMI government is not on your side.” Mr. Moore came to help us and earn a profit but we are more concerned about what he gets before a dime is even made (greed) that nobody seems to realize the magnitude of what we stand to miss. But there is another saying about that kind of mistake: “You don’t miss your water until the well runs dry,” and that’s what we are waiting to happen before we put our economic decision-making in the proper perspective.

We have a golden opportunity to put a plan in place to create a new industry and address the decline in the garment industry for free. It can’t get any better. I wouldn’t want to be labeled as one of the people or politicians that ran the potential golden goose away. If we lose this potential investor and we know the garment industry will pull out, the science of politics dictates that someone is going to pay big time politically. It is always better to have tried to do the right thing than to have never tried at all. You will always get credit for trying to do the right thing, regardless of the end result, but you will never get any credit for doing nothing.

I’m hoping that someone on Capital Hill will take the initiative to get with the people of Pagan, the necessary government agencies and invite Mr. Moore back for a more respectful and productive visit if they really care about all the people of the CNMI and our economic future. Greatness is a potential in all of us but greatness can only surface and be recognized when the opportunity presents itself. Without opportunity there is no greatness. The dynamics of this issue possess the potential for greatness. By creating a win-win relationship for the people and the investors, the people of Pagan and politician(s) that choose to take the risk and “carpe diem” will have taken a significant step in climbing the daunting pyramid of personal and public greatness. One people, one direction.

Ambrose M. Bennett
Kagman High Teacher Rep.