By Glen Hunter
A concerned citizen in the CNMI
IN Part 1, I examined how entrenched power can co-opt promising people and why real redemption requires public accountability. Now, as the gubernatorial election approaches, we have to move from principle to reality and financial truth.
The question is not whether the CNMI can survive another political cycle. The question is what happens if we allow a major political “snap back” to the same old habits of unchecked spending, weak accountability, and transactional politics.
Across our islands, a dangerous story is being sold: that a recent period of public spending was proof of a thriving economy, and that the CNMI somehow lived through a golden age of prosperity.
That was not prosperity. It was an illusion.
Over several years, nearly $2 billion in extraordinary federal relief flowed through the CNMI. That money should have left behind lasting results: a stronger hospital system, better schools, a more reliable power grid, and a more diversified economy.
Instead, the previous administration over-relied on a highly volatile geopolitical gamble: putting all of our economic eggs into a single Chinese tourism basket. The crown jewel of this hyper-focused, reckless strategy was the multi-million-dollar Chinese casino gamble. We were told it would be the CNMI’s ultimate economic savior.
Instead, look at what it actually delivered. Today, we are left with nothing but a massive, half-built concrete eyesore scarring our central tourist district in Garapan. It left behind a trail of unpayable debts, federal regulatory fines, human trafficking and labor scandals, and an unmitigated disaster for our global reputation — all while highly influenced politicians looked the other way. When global dynamics shifted and the pandemic hit, this fragile house of cards completely collapsed, plunging our islands into a deep financial hole that we are still fighting to climb out of.
Make no mistake: while the vast majority of our community suffered the consequences of this collapse, a select handful of well-connected individuals got immensely rich. A small circle of insider networks and wealthy constituents benefited tremendously from this reckless behavior, extracting vast personal wealth while the rest of our islands paid the price.
It is no surprise, then, that the push to bring back this old style of governance is backed by an aggressive, heavily funded campaign. The very people who rode that gravy train for years have seen it cut off, and they are desperate to turn it back on. They are funding a political resurrection not to save the CNMI, but to save their own bottom lines.
To make that grand illusion look real to the rest of us, the public was kept dependent on short-term relief: utility discounts, small grants, temporary jobs, and other forms of political handouts. Those measures may have helped some families in the moment, but they were not a substitute for long-term development. They were crumbs tossed out to secure our compliance while the steak dinner was served behind closed doors to the wealthy few.
That is the difference between real progress and transactional politics.
Real progress builds independence. Transactional politics creates dependence.
Once the federal safety net tightened and the artificial casino economy cratered, the truth became impossible to ignore. The money was gone. The illusion was gone. And our community was left with the difficult job of stabilizing a system that had been allowed to drift into serious structural trouble while consecutive annual single audits were completely neglected.
Over the past three years, painful but necessary corrective work has begun. For the first time in years, local spending has been brought below revenue. The missing single audits have been aggressively researched and brought up to date. That work is not glamorous, but it is essential. Without it, the CNMI cannot maintain credibility with federal partners or protect future funding.
That is why the risk of a “snap back” matters so much.
If the CNMI returns to a system built on weak oversight, unearned loyalty, and a disregard for public accountability, the consequences will be immediate. Federal agencies do not reward a government that refuses to clean up its books or returns to a broken casino-gamble mentality. They do not keep writing checks when trust has been broken. If progress on audits and structural stability is reversed, future funding will be frozen, and the entire burden will fall squarely on the backs of working families.
We are already seeing signs of how this old pattern operates. Instead of an honest reckoning, we see legal maneuvering, blame-shifting, and coordinated attacks on critics. A small civil court settlement should never be used to shield serious public misconduct or the disappearance of public assets from scrutiny. The public deserves transparency, not smoke screens.
You cannot restore trust while hiding the truth from the people you expect to govern.
When a political system refuses to atone, it does not return to power with humility. It returns with revenge. Critics get targeted. Loyalty is rewarded over competence. And the public is pushed right back into dependence on temporary favors instead of stable policy.
That is exactly what we must not allow.
We cannot let the romanticized myths of an artificial boom blind us to what actually happened. The difficult work of stabilizing our finances, catching up on audits, and protecting public resources is finally underway. To turn back now would risk handing the future back to the same machinery that helped drain our coffers, enrich a select few, and deface our islands in the first place.
Our people are forgiving. But forgiveness is not the same thing as forgetting. And it is not a substitute for accountability.
The CNMI does not need another illusion of prosperity. It needs discipline, honesty, and leaders who understand that public money is a trust, not a tool for political survival.
The path forward is still open. But we have to choose reality over a major snap back.
