Before I make my rebuttal, I want to take this opportunity to let the Colonel know that I am a fan of his. He is a commonwealth icon and a treasured local musician. The last time I heard him sing and play his uke was at a political fundraiser two years ago. It was the highlight of the evening for many of us in attendance!
Colonel, I know you have health issues, and as a fellow Christian, I pray for your health and for your family. Regarding your letter, I do want you to know that I have never attacked or tried to intimidate the employees of CHC, from the doctors and nurses to the kind cashiers. They all work in a very stressful environment, and they should be appreciated for all they do. If you read my letter again, I simply stated that our fine doctors need the necessary tools to their job, along with adequate rest.
Colonel, have you ever met or had any exchanges with some of the doctors who departed suddenly? These are doctors that came here with the best intentions, yet they are mistreated or disrespected. Some of them have to wait as long as five months before they receive their first paycheck! Is this how we take care of our doctors? As I stated in my previous letter, doctors are to be treated with respect, for they are here to help and heal our people.
Regarding Marvin’s differences of opinion with how CUC has been managed, or mismanaged, I want to let him know that I am always willing to sit down with him and open up a few contracts to dissect and discuss, and we can start with DCM. I’d also like to explain to him why Aggreko was not the best choice, and while it temporarily improved power production, there were other options on the table that could have been hooked up just as fast, for HALF THE COST! My friend, part of good governance is making the right decisions by putting people’s interests first instead of friends and familia.
I think it is safe to say that there has been some unfairness when it comes to the way CUC customers have been treated. How is it possible that certain customers and corporations never got their power cut by CUC, even though they were in payment arrears? Yet, the one time someone is a bit late in making a payment to CUC, they are cut off immediately. Some are cut off without an explanation. Case in point Marvin, my power was cut off at my office a couple of years ago. I produced documents at CUC and showed that I still had a week to pay my CUC bill. I was told that I would have to pay my balance and pay a reconnection fee, regardless of whether or not my power was cut by mistake. I was told I could file a complaint and try to settle it later, but if I wanted my power to be hooked up immediately, I had to pay. So what did I do? I paid for it, and for the sake of my blood pressure and sanity, I took the loss and never went back to CUC again. So what is the problem here? MANAGEMENT. The frontline must be empowered to make the right decisions by their managers, and they must be trained and equipped to ensure that customers are treated fairly and with proper respect. As a friend of mine in the hotel industry once told me, “The customer is not always right, but the customer is the customer, and therefore must be treated with respect and kindness.”
Marvin, you called me “Bitter Ed.” I chuckled when I saw your article. As my dear friend from Sicily often says with a smile, “To know me is to love me!” Marvin, I am not bitter. I am simply a local island boy who cares deeply about the dismal state of our commonwealth. I do not write because I am bitter — I write because I want things to become better! Ignoring problems will not make them go away. When wrongs and COVER-UPS are committed, they must be addressed and exposed in order for them to be corrected. Sadly, all the suggestions good citizens make to this administration continue to fall on deaf ears. But that doesn’t mean we will stop. I have learned that change is a gradual process, and it doesn’t happen with one meeting, or one forum, or one hearing, or one protest, or one rally. It is perseverance mixed with humility that will eventually conquer the status quo.
As for this administration’s defenders, they are quick to point out that Governor Fitial is not to blame for all the problems the CNMI is faced with today. And they have a valid point to some degree, because he did inherit some problems. But that is not why he was elected. Governor Fitial, being the “businessman” that he is, knows full well that new CEO’s are hired when a corporation is on the verge of collapse, or is having financial problems, or needs a new direction. Governor Fitial had four years to set a new course for the CNMI and to make decisions that would help not just his supporters, but every person living in the CNMI. Now tell me, is the CNMI better off today than it was four years ago?
Marvin, since you really don’t know me, please allow me to tell you a little bit about me. I think I can say I am from Saipan, especially after being a resident here for 36 years. I grew up on Navy Hill and Susupe and am a product of the public school system, a proud MHS Dolphin. After attending NMC for a couple of years, I went off to Hawaii to get my bachelor’s degree, all the while working three jobs while attending classes full-time. I amassed a ton of credit card debt along with student loans and lived off of canned tuna and soba the last two months I was there. I was fortunate to come home and find a job. Sadly, many are not as fortunate. I’ve seen former students and friends who left the CNMI to get their college degree, only to come back to their home and find out they can’t find a job. Why? Because more often than not, they apply for a job they are highly qualified for, only to find out that it was given to a political supporter who is less qualified as “payback.” Don’t we want our children to have a fair chance to find a job when they come home? Sure, they can work from the ground up, which is certainly admirable. But what was the point of going to college for four or five years and incurring a huge college debt, only to come home and make minimum wage? Part of the reason of going to college is to find a good job and to be considered management material, not entry-level material. Marvin, would you consider this a fair statement?
Here’s something that I have been thinking about lately that I want to share with you, Marvin. I have godparents living in Oregon right now. They would like to come home. But they have some health issues, and CHC is ill-equipped to address their health concerns right now. The same thing can be said for hundreds of our people who have sent their parents to the U.S. so that they may live longer, or live more comfortably. So, as they grow older, we get to visit them once a year, if that, because the cost of travel is insanely high. Marvin, if we want our parents and aunties and uncles and grandparents to come home to live in the CNMI, we MUST have better technology and doctors who specialize in caring for their needs, along with emergency care. Do you know why it is difficult to attract the golden market from Asia to come to the CNMI and retire and buy or lease condominiums and homes? It’s not because of visa problems, or Article 12. It’s because of inadequate health care. Can this be fixed? Certainly. But it won’t be as long as we have an administration that shoots for the status quo instead of shooting for the stars.
And speaking of shooting for the stars, there was once a president of the United States who spoke of putting a man on the moon, something that seemed unattainable at the time. In 1962, in a speech given at Rice University, President John F. Kennedy stated, “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win….” President Kennedy had a vision and set the stage for space exploration, and by 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon!
To put things in perspective, if the United States can put a man on the moon some forty years ago, then the CNMI should have no problem in fixing CUC, CHC, building its tourism base, and finding REAL investors.
Marvin, please know that one of the many unfulfilled promises made by this administration’s “Road Map to Better Times” was TRANSPARENCY. While this administration ignored a lawmaker’s request to see the financial records of how much was being spent on the governor’s lawsuit over federalization, she was denied access, even after the superior court ruled in her favor to disclose the financial records. To add insult to injury, this administration fought Rep. Tina Sablan all the way to the CNMI Supreme Court. Thank God our Supreme Court had the wisdom to agree with her and to order this administration to produce the documents. All the thousands of dollars wasted on court litigation could have been averted had Governor Fitial come clean and produced the documents in the first place. What is he hiding?? And spare us the nonsense that it will hurt the CNMI’s federalization lawsuit. All Rep. Sablan and the rest of the CNMI taxpayers wanted to know was, “How much was being spent?” and “Where was the money coming from?” This is only one of a thousand “differences” that I have with this current administration. I’ll save 30-day government employee contracts and the Flame Sako fiasco for another time and another letter.
In closing, I wish Marvin and the Colonel the very best in life, regardless of our differences of opinion. While we may be separated by political ideologies, let us remember we are bonded in our faith and in our love for our homeland. If we relentlessly pursue and debate all that is in the best interests of our people, I am confident we will eventually find ourselves on the same side.
May God bless the CNMI, and WELCOME HOME TROOPS! Hooah!
ED PROPST
Dandan, Saipan
