By Zaldy Dandan
Variety Editor

IF the year about to end teaches us anything, it is this: we should stay clear of failed policies that contributed to our current woes.
The economic future doesn’t look very good. The new year promises to bring more hardship for the people of the commonwealth, requiring new goals and new leaders who are capable of recognizing the changes that are required to generate a prosperous society. This cannot happen under the old model of governance.
Previous administrations ignored government obligations and the need for better services in favor of dispensing government employment and contracts to supporters. They neglected the business environment and allowed a fragile economic framework to disintegrate while pursuing bad policies and personal and political agendas that eroded public and investment confidence. They spent revenues in ill-advised ways.
The current administration, for its part, secured approval from a rubber-stamp Legislature to “legally” avoid its financial obligations to, for example, the Retirement Fund. It has also made painful cuts to employee salaries while hiring nonessential — but politically well-connected — personnel. It does little to promote economic development. Its decision to double power rates continues to kill what little business activity remains in the commonwealth.
Ignoring the rules over an extended period of time breeds corruption, and corruption leads to a breakdown of the system. This has been the CNMI’s recent history and the results are all around us.
Meanwhile, the incoming Democratic majority in Congress is all set to impose a federal wage hike on the CNMI, a proposal that is apparently supported by the Republican White House. But instead of preparing for the immediate impact of this measure, the local leadership and business community continue to dicker about the utility of the American Samoan wage review board model and the need to hire a lobbyist — as if it is still 1995 and not 2007.
And we all wonder why we’re in such deep, well, kimchi.