YOU can tell it’s election season already when you hear politicians say things that have been said in previous election seasons. Politicians today are, more or less, talking about the same old issues. And it seems that not a lot of us recall that in election after election, previous politicians — including the educated and the virtuous — also promised to “address” and/or “solve” the problems that today’s politicians say they will “fix”; all you need to do is to elect them.
And of course, once they’re elected and sworn into office, many of the same problems will persist, and what we’ll hear from elected officials is that they’ve inherited a terrible mess — the same one that, during the campaign period, they said they would clean up. So the next election comes along and they end up running against the past, and not on their record, which is usually pitiful. (“The hospital and public schools are still open. CUC has not shut down. Not all of you have left the island.”)
The “real” solution, according to concerned citizens, is to elect “new and better” politicians — which is exactly what voters believed they did in previous elections.
I believe the main problem is that many of us seem to be unaware of what the real problem is: A government with so many obligations and not enough funding sources to meet them because the local economy is down.
Someone, for once, has to ask candidates for office the following questions:
Are you aware of the policies proposed, enacted or implemented by previous elected officials to solve the very same problems that you say you intend to address?
What was the result of all those laws and policies?
What possible legislation or policy can immediately boost tourism arrivals or improve the local economy? Is there such a thing as a quick-fix? Are you promising one?
It is, however, unlikely that imposing new or higher taxes in this economy will result in more government revenue — quite the opposite, in fact, might happen. But then again, implementing sweeping cost-cutting measures to significantly reduce government costs is also problematic. Government employees, retirees and their families form the largest bloc of CNMI voters. Who will dare propose massive government spending cuts in this election year?
And when will we finally realize that the “players” are not the problem, but the “game” itself? To win an election, one must promise to “deliver” — to usher in, well, “better times.” Not surprisingly, for many voters, the ideal “public servant” is someone like Mayor Skeffington in Edwin O’Connor’s novel, “The Last Hurrah”:
“He plays Santa Claus in person every morning…. The people come to him with empty stockings and he fills them: with jobs, dentures, eyeglasses, money — what have you. Every day is Christmas Day at the mayor’s house…. And you can talk from now until doomsday and all [the people will] understand is that no power on earth — and no scandal, however serious — can turn them against the man who shakes their hand, inquire solicitously for each member of their family by name…and who does so much for them, day after day, year after year.”
But in the CNMI, to keep the good times rolling:
1) The local economy must be “exempted” from the business cycle and its recurring pattern of expansion and contraction. (Not to mention natural disasters and cataclysmic global events over which the CNMI has no control.) And/or,
2) The feds should provide the CNMI with half-a-billion dollars every two years.
Sadly, neither is possible.
The CNMI government will continue to face financial difficulties until the local economy improves, which is not going to happen until more tourists start visiting the islands again, and/or a new, legitimate major investor decides — God knows why — to do business in the Commonwealth despite its remote and typhoon-prone location, high costs of living, including transportation costs, labor shortage and a government run by politicians who are generous with other people’s money.
When will the local economy finally recover? Who knows. After peaking in 1997, the local economy took a nose dive starting in 1998, and did not recover until 2012-2013. The current economic downturn began after Yutu in the fall of 2018.
Meanwhile, as you read this, the cash-strapped CNMI government is incurring costs by the minute. In response, the leadership is issuing press releases and/or conducting meetings. As the saying goes, if you can’t beat them, talk a lot about them.
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