Mass exodus of people and investors are filling up plane seats bound for Guam, the U.S. mainland or elsewhere. People are leaving the islands, mainly from Saipan, seeking greener pastures. Businesses are closing down, one after another, resulting in lesser and lesser tax collections restricting the government to fulfill its obligations. Nonetheless, it is business as usual in the CNMI; we are hosting an election to elect one of our leaders who has tremendous responsibilities and influence on our islands’ fate.
This election is very important. I mean, it is more important than the previous elections. There are many factors that contributed to our current economic slump. Of all those factors, however, I would cite our past and current leaders’ inability to unite and draw a long-term plan as well as the contingency plan as one of the main reasons where we are today. We have, over and over, chosen our leaders on basis of whether they are related to us by blood or not. We have chosen our leaders on basis of whether they are likable or not. We have chosen our leaders on basis of whether they are banidosu or not. We have our leaders on basis of whether they promise us government jobs or not. We have chosen our leaders on basis of whether they host free barbeque parties loaded with beers and goodies before the election or not. We have chosen our leaders on basis of whether they lend us picnic tables and canopies or not. We have chosen our leaders on basis of all these, and look at what happened to the CNMI.
In this coming election, however, let us change the basis of how we elect our leader. Let’s choose the leader on basis of whether he has more capability and passion to lead; courage to face the challenges; drive to improve his constituents’ livelihoods in the CNMI as a whole; and lastly, diligence and tenacity to negotiate with the Congress and other U.S. agencies. Our future is contingent on who we select as our leaders.
DONALD C. BLANCO
Mangilao, Guam
