Time for long-term solutions

Everyone who has been involved with the CNMI in the last decade has witnessed a destruction in the quality of life that people would’ve have never thought possible in 1998.

Funny how quickly everything changes. The closure of the last big garment factory seems to be yet another blow to an economy that is already reeling from a severe drop in tourism in the CNMI, the disastrous rise in the price of fuel which rose $16 yesterday, and our beloved CUC which is not only insolvent, but a victim of poor management and bad decisions over the last 20 years.

While many citizens are calling for the impeachment of the governor and are visibly angry at their local politicians, the responsibility for this mess lies on our laps as well. Why? Because until we demand and are prepared to accept real change, we deserve what we got coming to us.

What do I mean? We still cling to the notion that our people are somehow an endangered species that need “protection” from the outside world. By restricting the amount of people who can buy land to other locals who already have it, or don’t really need it, we unfairly cap the price of land owned by these very indigenous. Article XII is making them poorer by the day. This law is robbing them of income that should be theirs when they sell their own land. Look at their cousins in Guam, they are not protected or told that they can’t make decisions for themselves. So while we are having a hard time paying for gas, they are driving around in new Lexus and BMWs, all fruits of the real estate boom Guam is experiencing today.

The CUC privatization law is another example of what needs to change. Sure, we can mandate what “we” want an investor to come in with. We can ask for $250 million and a host of other conditions. But ladies and gentlemen, we live in a world where electric companies have choices as to where they invest their money. And we ain’t on their most wanted list. Therefore, when we reach the point where we are fed up with waking up three times a night because of the blackouts, perhaps we should write our well-meaning Legislature and ask them to drop all these preconditions.

Let’s invite the world over and ask those who are the experts what we must do to entice them to invest long term in the CNMI. Again, we are an island whose economy is in tatters, with 70,000 people, many of whom may not be around in five years. How can we demand that someone sinks $250 million into this island? What if the costs of construction goes down? Does it mean all of us are willing to give the operator $30 million per year in profit after taxes, or a 12 percent return (which is actually low in a world of high risk and no credit)? Ladies and gentlemen, we need to get real. We are in no bargaining position to ask for such terms. It’s been 20 years since Japanese businessmen parachuted here with bags of money, and our economy has been reduced to rubble.

So really now, even if people change this administration in midstream, with a year to go before an election, it would only waste scarce time to find long-term solutions to our problems. Fact of the matter is, as long as the albatrosses of Article XII and the CUC are tied around the governor’s neck, no matter who you put there, he or she will suffer the same fate.

You want change, and are fed up with the situation, then clamor to realistically privatize CUC with no preconditions or insider dealings, and be done with Article XII once and for all.

While these changes by themselves will not immediately change the fate of our ship, at least it will give the Commonwealth a chance down the road of reversing its ill-fated course.

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