The folk theory of democracy celebrates the wisdom of popular judgments by informed and engaged citizens. The reality is quite different. Human beings are busy with their lives…. [E]lections are capricious collective decisions based on considerations that ought, from the viewpoint of the folk theory, to be largely irrelevant — and that will, in any case, soon be forgotten by the voters themselves.
— From “Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government” by Christopher H. Achen & Larry M. Bartels
AS in many other representative democracies, the concerned citizens in the CNMI will, now and then, recommend a particular reform measure, a new law or an amendment to the constitution that would supposedly improve how the government is run or how its officials can perform their duties. Now and then, there will be a clamor for new offices, new duties for existing offices, new boards, new elected officials, a new way of doing things in the government that include a reconfigured legislative branch, etc.
Many years ago, when everything seemed to be getting worse in the CNMI following the Asian currency crisis, local voters, by and large, elected leaders who were reform-oriented, reputable, educated. And these included promising “new faces.” After every election, the newly elected governor and lawmakers were hailed as “beacons of hope.” Many of them would be booted out of office by the same electorate in the next election year.
Through all those dreary years, and as far as I can remember, only one other person besides economist Bill Stewart knew exactly what the problem was. A mother from Tinian wrote a letter to the editor that reminded us what was staring us in the face: the CNMI government didn’t have enough money to pay for its obligations because the economy was down. Tourists arrivals had plummeted. The islands’ only other industry, garment manufacturing, was packing up. And the CNMI-wide economic “ripple effect” was ruinous.
How bad was it back then?
The Retirement Fund was running out of funds for government retirees. CHC was woefully underfunded and was in danger of losing federal (CMS) certification. CUC couldn’t afford to properly maintain its generators or pay its fuel supplier. Amid rising fuel prices, there were rolling blackouts. And austerity Fridays. And paycuts. And payless paydays. Each week, we would hear about yet another local family moving to Guam or the states, or yet another business shutting down, and more workers losing their jobs.
As for the politicians, “reformists” or not, the bickering was mostly about 1) chump change — how to slice the government’s dwindling revenue pie; 2) how corrupt their opponents were; 3) which required reforms: an elected AG, an Open Government Act that applied to the Legislature, a gubernatorial runoff, etc. (There was also a proposal to reduce the number of House seats, and it resulted in…two more House seats.)
What finally turned things around financially for the CNMI government was a new tourism market (China) and a new major investor from Hong Kong/China (casino-hotel). But then Yutu happened, U.S-China relations deteriorated, and Covid-19 shut down the CNMI’s only industry.
Still, it was during those years of relative plenty (around 2014 to 2018) that the financial conditions of CHC and CUC vastly improved, and the Retirement Fund’s federal-court-created successor, the Settlement Fund, received regular and hefty remittances from the CNMI government which also provided retirees with the 25% benefit payments not required by the settlement agreement.
Today, federal ARPA funds have prevented a total collapse of the local economy and its single largest employer, the CNMI government. But all those funds will be spent soon, and then what?
Let’s rephrase the question. In this election year what do we usually hear from many elected officials and politicians?
How to slice the government’s dwindling revenue pie; 2) how corrupt their opponents are; 3) and why “reforms” are badly needed.
To paraphrase and quote the great H.L. Mencken, there are idealists who argue that it is the duty of a concerned, reform-minded citizen to go into politics — “that there is a way out of the quagmire in that direction.”
That remedy, Mencken added, “is quite as absurd as all the other sure cures that [reformists] advocate. When they argue for it, they simply argue, in words but little changed, that the remedy for prostitution is to fill the bawdy-houses with virgins. My impression is that this last device would accomplish very little: either the virgins would leap out of the windows, or they would cease to be virgins.”
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