By Zaldy Dandan
Variety Editor

GALVIN Deleon Guerrero wrote a short but thoughtful letter which we published on Monday regarding the promises that politicians make — and break, once elected.
Here’s a well-known example. Politicians are, to a man — and woman — all pro-education. Indeed, that area on Capital Hill where the administration and legislative buildings are located has, quite possibly, the most pro-education public officials per square meter on the face of the planet. The CNMI has been electing pro-education politicians since the first commonwealth elections in 1977, but you and I know that public schools are still struggling with the same problems year after year. Lack of classrooms. Lack of teachers. Dilapidated buildings. Not too long ago, we even ran a series on each of the schools and their problems. Letters to the editor were written. Politicians expressed their concerns. Promises were made. Yet the school system’s problems persist. Two more weeks before election day, we are hearing the same promises from candidates.
When Galvin says that “most politicians start out with good intentions and are, for the most part, concerned about the public good” — we ought to listen. He is right. And he should know, as a former special assistant to the governor and a grassroots campaigner in 2001 for the most promising gubernatorial ticket ever elected by CNMI voters.
Once elected, says Galvin, politicians have to struggle with “the reality of politics.” And because political reality deals with human beings like you and I, it is, eventually, “[not] necessarily about the public good.”
“Politics” or “politicking” is simply human nature in action and wielding power.

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There is this story about a farming village that was, every year, attacked by a giant. The giant looked like a cave man, was hairy and had sharp teeth. And he would come down from the mountains to stomp on the small huts of the village and pluck the people running for their lives and eat them like cheese and olives skewered on frilly cocktail toothpicks. And then he would leave. Every year, the village elders would choose their bravest and strongest youth who would then set out to hunt for the giant who, they knew, hibernated like a bear in one of the caves in the mountains. None of these young men ever returned to the village. But finally, one did and he told the villagers he had found the giant, but didn’t kill him. “Why?” the villagers asked. “The giant told me that killing him is easy,” the young man replied, “but then I will become the giant, and I will never want to be anything else.”

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Politicians, if they’re any good, must believe in themselves. They must be convinced that they can do splendid things for the community. Eventually, however, some of them end up seeing power as an end itself and not just a means to their original goal of serving the people. They come to believe that their being in office is, in itself, good for the public.
Consider the CNMI’s current crop of elected officials. We may violently disagree with their pronouncements and the legislation they pass. We can criticize them for not doing anything or for not doing enough. But most, if not all of them, are tirelessly giving back to the community every day through, well, handouts. They buy fundraising lunches and tickets. They and their staff join weekend cleanups. They donate money and time to community events, including weddings and Christenings. They provide tents, tables and benches for wakes and other village gatherings. They try to find jobs for their constituents. They sometimes even pay a constituent’s MCV, CUC or PTI bill. In other words, they do what elected officials have been doing since time immemorial. They aim to please. We shouldn’t be surprised that a lot of them get re-elected despite the worsening conditions in the CNMI since 1998.
But times have changed and the CNMI now needs elected officials who are no longer content with business as usual. The CNMI needs new leaders who want real and meaningful changes in the way the government is run. And if voters are tired of the status quo then they should elect those who want to end it. But what if these promising candidates also end up breaking their promises? Then they, too, should be thrown out with the rest of the bums in the next election.
This is not exactly an uplifting editorial, I’m sorry to say. But you should still be glad that what the CNMI has is still the best political system there is because it allows you to elect bright and dynamic candidates — and replace them if they’re not. It’s a system that gives you to power to choose. So choose wisely.

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