By Dave Davis
For Variety

IT wasn’t all that long ago when Gutierrez protégé Leland Bettis, chairman of the Guam Commission on Self Determination, pointed to East Timor as a shining example of the decolonization process for Pacific insular areas. Please check the international news networks for daily updates on events in East Timor: rioting, civil war, troops and dead people in the streets. Sorry Leland, it looks as though you were wrong about that, and about lots of other things as well.
The equally worthless and ineffective successor to Leland’s group — the Guam Commission on Decolonization—continues the tradition as a hobby for activists and a job factory for otherwise unemployable political appointees. The governor, as commission chairman, isn’t doing his job. It’s doubtful whether he’s ever attended a commission meeting. He consistently refuses to address the political status issue, as did Governor Gutierrez before him, and Governor Ada before him. What’s the holdup?
Money shouldn’t be a problem. Puerto Rico has had several political status plebiscites, all congressionally approved and federally funded. No Guam politician has ever asked for or suggested that kind of assistance for a Guam plebiscite. Why not? Is it lack of information? Inadequate electorate education? Fear of being branded a racist? The commission was initially funded to provide for all that. What happened to the economic impact assessments for which the commission paid $225,000 of our tax money? Shouldn’t the expensive results have been widely disseminated as part of the voter education process?
And by the way, where’s the so-called ‘native inhabitant of Guam’ electorate? How many are there, and why aren’t they clamoring for recognition? They don’t seem to be in any hurry to sign up with the Guam Election Commission. Last time I checked, the only elected official registered on the ‘native inhabitant’ list was the former attorney general.
Let’s get the political status process rolling and bring the vote to the polls! Get up front and personal with those you helped elect. Make yourselves heard. Vow to never again vote for anyone who won’t pledge to bring the political status issue to a vote within a year, and watch how politicians and activists squirm. Realistically, the entire racist voting scheme is a dead issue as currently configured. It stands no chance whatsoever of actually happening, and island ‘leaders’ know that very well. It’s one of the three or four primary reasons why the Draft Commonwealth Act tanked with the U.S. Congress and Administration.
Deputy Secretary of the Interior John Garamendi, presenting the Clinton administration’s position on the ‘Chamorro Only’ voting provision during the 1998 Draft Commonwealth Act hearings, had this to say: “Among the key concepts we cannot support are…. providing for a legally binding government-sponsored or endorsed vote on the ultimate political status of Guam in which only one group can participate to the exclusion of other U.S. citizen residents of Guam.”
It’s high time to do away with lame excuses. The governor should disband the do-nothing Decolonization Commission and spend the money on something worthwhile like better health care, public safety and education.