GOVERNOR Palacios and his advisors are currently conducting a fire sale of the CNMI Commonwealth to the United States military. His policies and actions depend on a strategy that relies on growing Chinese-American conflict. With no short-term economic plan, this Administration’s bet is to reduce the CNMI into a minor American military outpost, whose livelihood is completely reliant on the United States’ whim, and essentially abandon the CNMI’s traditionally one and only livelihood — tourism, on which businesses and residents have made a living on since the founding of the CNMI.
A policy focused on combating corruption is admirable, but it must be wholly separate and secondary to a realistic and pragmatic economic policy. In granting the CNMI’s one-of-a-kind China visa waiver, federal officials stated that this waiver was granted in order for the CNMI to derive “significant economic” benefit by allowing for Chinese nationals to visit the CNMI for up to 14 days of business and/or pleasure. Instead of utilizing this significant advantage over main competitor Guam, this Administration has chosen a deliberate path that offers no way to resolve the current economic crisis. Solely blaming China and the former Torres Administration for corruption and financial quagmire, the Palacios Administration ignores that it takes two to tango: the Administration fails to call on the need for politicians and its government officials to uphold their duty with absolute integrity and the obvious need to effectively enforce local laws from start to finish.
Indeed, legacy tourist businesses such as the Hyatt and Asiana Airlines have abruptly left. First Hawaiian Bank, a business which indicates the health of the economy, is closing its Gualo Rai branch. Local residents and foreign workers alike are leaving the CNMI because there is simply no way to survive. These trends evidence a troubling truth: this Administration forgets that its primary duty lies with the Commonwealth and her people — not the United States. The CNMI leadership and its politicians have been too insulated and detached from reality to realize her people desperately need to put food on the table.
Critically, this Administration fails to realize that the greatest strength of the Northern Mariana Islands and her people is its unique political relationship as a Commonwealth with the United States. Indeed, while the United States holds ultimate authority over security, foreign policy, immigration, and citizenship, the CNMI enjoys substantial autonomy over taxation, land use, and local business regulations. The forefathers of the CNMI intentionally created this relationship to underscore the importance of local self-governance and maximize the CNMI’s welfare and leverage to conduct business.
The United States holds ultimate military authority across the globe in the name of self-defense. Indeed, Governor Palacios and his advisors’ only strategy is to receive federal handouts by publicly restating what the United States government already exercises autonomy over: CNMI’s foreign policy. Instead, the Palacios Administration must adopt the policy of self-governance and economic resilience. Any future progression of a Chinese-American conflict will only augment the CNMI’s leverage because it will naturally and certainly cause the United States to come to the table to offer the CNMI financial assistance. Therefore, this Administration should instead play hard-ball with the United States to leverage its strategic location and political relationship as a Commonwealth rather than turning belly-up for help from an unpopular Biden Administration in its re-election year.
Policies and actions that produce unprecedented, consequential damage require extreme policies and actions to mitigate damage. As such, Governor Palacios should solely focus all its attention on countering the collapsing tourism industry in the short-term and tackle failing long-standing domestic policies such as Article 12, which has, for decades, regardless of national origin, encouraged foreign businesses to gamble on the CNMI during good times and abandon the CNMI during hardship. Whether it be to amend Article 12 to allow long-time residents and/or businesses in Garapan core or other critical districts of the CNMI to take ownership of property, this Administration must do things differently in a radical way to encourage immediate, long-term, and reliable investments in order to avoid collapsing the Commonwealth into a valueless, destitute colony of the United States.
In the face of this unprecedented crisis, any policy that does not address the immediate economic needs of the CNMI is unwise and alarming. This Administration’s current policy is posturing the CNMI in a weak position to limp into 902 consultations with the United States. The CNMI is close to seeing a scenario in which Saipan has a cratered tourism industry and Tinian will be used as an emergency military parking lot if and only when war breaks out with China. Without urgently working on a viable and realistic short-term solution to revive the CNMI’s ability to stand on its own two feet, there could soon be no Commonwealth left to govern.
