1991 was a midterm election year in the CNMI, and among the news stories Variety highlighted 30 years ago was an interview with “one of three Saipan homeowners who use solar photovoltaic…panels to bring them electricity.” Long story short: “Solar power suits Saipan homes well,” says the MV headline.
In other (and typical election-year) news: there was a 14% pay-hike bill for government employees pending in the Legislature, and a group called “Public Servants Compensation Rights Committee” that was strenuously lobbying for its passage. During one of the committee meetings, CNMI government officials were quoted as saying that they could threaten to “switch off power” on the three main islands. They also talked about parking DPS and CUC vehicles “with their flashers on…on the side of the road in front of the Legislature” to “persuade” lawmakers to pass the bill.
Of course the Legislature approved the measure which, of course, was signed into law by the governor. P.L. 7-31, however, was an unfunded mandate. Twenty-three years later, the CNMI government still owed many of its employees the pay hike that they were supposed to receive in 1991.
We’re talking about voters who were not paid on time by their government which now, in 2021, wants to take over the responsibility of charging us a fee so it can pay garbage collectors as part of its latest “somewhere-over-the-rainbow” initiative, Universal Garbage Collection.
Be honest. Do you really believe that this (“since ever since”) perennially cash-strapped government would prioritize paying garbage collectors when it has so many other, and more pressing, financial obligations?
In the summer of 1991 on Capital Hill, a lawmaker called for a “united attack to combat the potential widespread and devastating ‘ice’ epidemic.” But he also noted that “there is no single or simple solution to winning this type of war.” But “war” it was, and three decades later it’s still a “war.” And what is it good for? To quote a 1970 song: Absolutely nothing.
Here’s another “old” news item about an issue that, for time to time, will be a “major concern” for politicians: a public land lease agreement with an investor. In Aug. 1991, the public lands official told Variety that “some politicians” were “using the issue to arouse the emotions of their constituents.” What? Politicians were grandstanding in an election year? No way.
“Frankly,” the exasperated public lands official said, “the more pressing issues on Saipan do not center on…land leases but…more on the quality of education and health care, the state of our infrastructure…, social problems like the increases in the crime rate and drug addiction. These issues are being avoided [by lawmakers] because [it is] very hard to find immediate answers…so they pick on us…. They should focus on the more pressing issues….” Good luck with that.
Meanwhile, at Marianas High School, which was then the island’s only public high school, the “overcrowding situation” was a major concern. “Seventy [MHS] students have yet to start the [new] school year [because the school] failed to accommodate them….” The students, who had already missed two weeks of school, were placed on a “waiting list,” Variety reported. PSS said it might renovate the old legislative building (now the Guma Sakman) across from MHS, but the cost was estimated to run as high as $500,000 (worth $1 million today).
On Sept. 27, 1991, a Friday, copies of Variety sold at major outlets in Garapan “disappeared.” A store supervisor said two men bought all copies of Variety which, on that day, “carried articles too critical toward a certain person.” MV promptly printed more copies and delivered them to the Garapan stores.
As it was in an election year, there were several campaign ads on the pages of Variety. One political party pledged to “lead and protect your rights and interests…. Our purpose is to field ‘Positive Leaders for Positive Times.’ … Let us work together for a more positive future for our children.” An independent candidate, for his part, promised to build “A New Image for Saipan.” Another candidate was more specific. Saying that he was an “independent thinker,” he pledged to provide retirees with a mandatory cost of living allowance. For their part, the candidates of the other party announced that they were for the “best medical and health services” and the “best educational opportunities for our children.”
The “attack ads” were no less interesting. One accused a candidate of “not believing in clean, honest and open government,” and of “believing that public office should be used for personal gain, like using public funds to make his fortune” or for going on “junket trips around the world…and spending $40,000 [worth over $80,000 today] of your money.” That candidate lost the election.
“Ecotourism” was the main topic of a conference attended by CNMI officials in Pohnpei in September 1991. One of them said there was a “need to provide adequate training for the local people to enable them to become the long-term workforce of the tourism industry.”
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