For instance, if the fifty-three mile Babeldaob Compact road in the current Compact Treaty would be described as “fifty-three miles of secondary roads on Babeldaob”, the residents of that island would most probably embrace that stipulation wholeheartedly.
But if the United States has a different ball game in mind when the current Compact Treaty expires, then we would need some very potent arguments, supported by unassailable facts and figures, to present to the U.S. side when we meet at some as yet unknown forums for bilateral discussions on the Compact issue. The areas that could provide us with some potent arguments would be datas and statistics on our population, facts and figures on our people’s state of health, and progress reports on the country’s economy, including its success or lack of it, in the agricultural sector and in the fishing industry. All of these, and much more, could be obtained in a well-prepared nation-wide Census Program, which, to be effective and useful, must be conducted prior to the termination of the current Compact Treaty we have with the United States.Even if we would not need these data and statistics for our talks with the United States, we would still need accurate information and statistics on our population, on our health and housing needs, and on the state of our agricultural and commercial enterprises, in order to plan intelligently for the coming decades. At the very minimum, an up-to-date population count would provide us accurate numbers with which to plan and budget for the construction of educational and health facilities and for the delivery of instructional and medical services in the years immediately ahead. Datas on other developmental areas would enable us to plan and build the necessary facilities that would be needed after the First Compact Treaty.We urge the Olbiil Era Kelulau and the Executive Branch to develop and enact a law calling for a Nation-Wide Census for the purpose of establishing up-to-date and accurate data and statistics on the Republic’s population, housing, agricultural, and commercial activities.
