What does this mean? It means, first of all, that CNMI government and private sector leaders must work together to come up with firm plans to improve the islands’ standing in the global tourism market. Building homesteads in Marpi, Saipan’s only remaining recreational, historic and natural preserve, wouldn’t fit into this category. The CNMI, moreover, must generate new business interest in this area — and this wouldn’t include Asian businesses that are adept at breaking ground ceremonies and not building anything.
The 180-day delay is an opportunity to prepare for the end of this, well, stay of execution. Despite what the governor’s lawyers would like us to believe, federalization will still happen. Change is coming. While the administration buries its head in the sand of denial, the private sector should begin making the necessary adjustments and plan ahead. The economic summit, which started yesterday, should focus on the creation of an investment climate that can thrive under federal immigration and wage rules. This means identifying businesses that are not labor-intensive and can make use of the current pool of resident workers.
All this has to be done while the government drafts a rational plan to streamline its operations, including cutting nonessential employees, while delivering crucial services, which decidedly would not include maintaining a growing roster of non-essential government employees who also happen to be registered voters.
Non-essential hiring continues
THE governor’s special assistant for administration was quoted as saying that cuts will be necessary under current conditions, and some argue that this move is long overdue. But it is also an opportunity for gross abuse of the system. It is easy under these circumstances to justify the nonrenewal of contracts, early terminations and trigger resignations of essential employees whose loyalty to the governor is suspect.
The administration should have a system that establishes criteria for these decisions in order to protect employees against arbitrary and capricious actions. But this administration has already established that it is capable of eliminating positions as a pretext for not renewing contracts and then hiring unqualified people for these same positions.
This administration has also plainly revealed that it prefers to terminate contract employees while spending money it doesn’t have on hiring dozens of nonessential employees. This is not the only administration to stoop to such an obvious political ruse. Previous administrations have done the same thing. But such actions further debase politics in the CNMI. Even more disturbing, it involves securing political allegiance from people who are in severe financial distress.
The people want and deserve a markedly improved standard of living. The way to achieve this is not with desperate appeals to desperate people, which only devalues the human spirit and extinguishes any hope for a better life. The people must reject these cynical tactics and be prepared to make changes the old fashioned way — with hard work and commitment, over time, steadily and consistently.
