THE great Republican Plan for the CNMI to flourish from the casino has blown-up along with blowing-up the Republican Party that told us that LIE for over a decade. I’m sure many of us would like to just blow-up the casino and I’m sure most of us know Rep. Vicente C. Camacho wasn’t totally serious about blowing-up the Casino and Hotel, just upset and extremely disappointed. Most voters with common sense probably even share his sentiments but we all know that once we disconnect from our emotions with a rational mind that it is far more rational to try and salvage what we can from this “white-elephant casino.” And don’t forget, I TOLD YOU SO it wouldn’t last for long. I can remember helping to lead the successful fight against the casino on my yellow moped and telling voters that “casino destinations were a thing of the past as even Las Vegas had to adapt and change to a more family oriented destination.” I knew from the start that it would not last I just didn’t know the pandemic was coming and that the hotel would never really get built. Given the strong religious fiber of our society I really thought that MORE people would have realized that putting our hopes and dreams on a casino was NEVER going to end well.
Maybe NOW voters will get-it and see WHY I was shouting and screaming the Republicans were killing our Tourism Industry and running the very “FOUNDATION of our Tourism away” — the Japanese. It is really an “UNFORGIVEABLE Political Sin” what the Republicans did to us by FORCE and yet voters continued to reward them with full control of both houses of our Legislature and the Governor’s seat. The Casino was only a SYMPTOM of the problem because the real problem has always been the Party that created the casino even though they KNEW we would lose the Japanese Tourism Market. Now WE the People don’t have a leg to stand on they are figuratively telling us South Korea is now our new Tourism Base. It is not so much about the gaslight show of the plane landing with the first S. Koreans tourists but how many plane loads will land once they stop paying the airlines to bring the tourists and paying the tourists just to come with absolutely NO guarantees of any kind that there will be continued and return visits. This South Korean Plan is what Economist might call “a goblin-give-away” with no returns on the investment because when people line up to get the cash rewards but disappear once the rewards run out and that is exactly what is going to happen with this S. Korean plan. In the end, or should I say “in the long run” the CNMI will virtually get the same amount of S. Korean tourists that we have been getting all along — so don’t forget, I TOLD YOU SO.
The Casino plan has finally blown-up, people want to blow-up the casino & hotel but what really needs to be blown-up are the Republicans who got ALL of us-folks-in-the-cheap-seats in this economic disaster leaving the CNMI without a genuine base for our tourism industry. South Korea could never send enough people to drive our economy and it seems there is nothing on the table to really put forth a “good-faith effort” to bring the Japanese back or expand. There is a saying of wisdom that we often hear in sports which says “sometimes we need to go back to the basics or go back to doing what made us a champion” and for the CNMI that is the Japanese Tourist Market. If the CNMI was going to give money to any tourists it should have been the Japanese but I think most of us folks already know our Republicans don’t want to expose fixing a problem that they created. So if we don’t elect Democrats come Decision Day we may NEVER see the Japanese Tourist Market that built our Tourism and we will be stuck with islands full of Japanese Tourist Sites with no Japanese — duh, HELLER and PLEASE wake up voters.
Let’s Count the Ways Voters
“How do I love thee, let me count the ways,” as Shakespeare might say, so I hope voters will help me count the ways they Love the CNMI as I count how OUR trust and confidence has been eroded and even completely decimated by the Governor and his crew of Republicans. I must thank the editor for bringing to light the mess made by the Republicans over the years but it is not fair or even politically correct to try and put the burden on Democrats to clean everything up in one term, especially when their Bills still need to the approval of the Republican Senate and our Republican Governor.
The Governor and Republicans have literally USED “culture & our environment” as a gaslighting tool to keep voters FOOLED. The preservation of the local culture is the FULL responsibility of “Locals & Local Entities,” not the Feds. Our American government DOES NOT promote culture preservation as there are dozens and even hundreds of different cultures in our nation, which makes it virtually impossible to address the preservation of all these cultures through political means.
Republicans have continued to promote Article XII in its entirety to play on the sentiments of Locals even though everyone with common sense already KNOW this legislation is FLAWED and at the very least needs changing if not trashed. But there is a way to fix Article XII but Republicans don’t want to because they won’t be able to use it anymore to FOOL voters like they care soooo much WE should know its about KEEPING all the POWER!
Article XII has only served to delay PROGRESS, as even locals are leaving their FREE homesteads for a better life on the mainland. The Governor and Republicans don’t CARE about us-folks-from-the-mainland having a home only to USE us to fill their labor shortage as if we are CWs. No one from the mainland should EVER vote for these Republicans and Local who KNOW BETTER also need to do the same. Article XII is the most racist Law on the books in the CNMI and it’s the number ONE reason the CNMI looks pretty much the same way it looked 20 years ago just better streets with red-lights and the quality of life hasn’t changed at all and in some cases it has decreased with many businesses LEAVING the CNMI because of these Republicans’ who only cared about keeping Locals fooled so they could stay in power and catering to their Casino Investors.
The Governor recently took control of the Federal Stimulus money putting it under HIS Secretary of Finance who does the Governor’s bidding and to say the House doesn’t have the right to “budget” this half-billion dollars is wrong. The assertion that the Democrat controlled House used an old “REPUBLICAN Rule” to vote twice is somehow now wrong reeks of “hypocrisy” when the Democrats use the rule. Furthermore, there is no need for a Public Hearing as it would be ludicrous for voters to not want this money budgeted by THEIR Representatives in the House so that this money will be held accountable to the budget. But now this money can be reprogramed at the whelm of the Governor with no accountability. Even though the Senate will not pass H.B. 22-33 that was transmitted to the Senate it does not erase the fact and PROVES that the Democrats are TRYING to do their job with the Bill.
It is also funny that a now Republican Minority member is complaining about his Bill not making it to the floor when the Republicans have been literally KILLING everything the former minority tried to do which included investigating the Governor and holding him accountable as REQUIRED by the CNMI Constitution to place a “check on the Executive Office” FOR the People. If we were to count all the times the Republicans have blocked the former minority and all the times the Republicans have made Bills that HELPED Best Sunshine & IPI we would be far into the three digit numbers, which is why it won’t be hard for voters to come up with many reasons to FIRE the Governor and most of his Republican Crew in the Legislature who have served more to block accountability and progress and the promotion of accountability and real progress.
To be continued: One People One Direction.
The writer is an Economist, retired teacher, former CNMI Board of Education Member, James Madison Fellow (U.S. Constitutional Scholar), a Fulbright-Hays & Humanities Scholar who resides in Kagman III.
The head-rest of George Washington’s “Rising Sun” chair.
