I must admit that I am both dismayed and saddened by the rhetoric of the current administration concerning improved status of guest workers and the anti-American sentiment being fostered by several elected officials, including the Governor. To hear Mr. Fitial say that he has always opposed the relationship the CNMI enjoys with the United States and that the U.S. continues to oppress the local citizens of the CNMI is laughable. It would seem that Mr. Fitial and many elected officials would prefer to go back to the days before the US wrested these islands from the iron fist of the Japanese.
Perhaps they are pandering to the “good ol’ boys” but I’m sure the younger citizens of the CNMI are embarrassed by the misinformation and outright misrepresentation of history.
But, of course, the most fascinating comments are those opposing the improved status of the foreign work force. Mr. Fitial would lead us to believe that he has always opposed the colonial rule of the U.S. and that the U.S. (historically and today) forced a huge foreign work force on the CNMI.
Unfortunately, just the opposite is the case. For well over 25 years, the U.S. Congress and numerous consultants had warned the CNMI government that an economy based on cheap foreign labor was doomed to failure. They even pointed out the problem of foreign workers eventually outnumbering the indigenous population with the potential for a major shift in the political makeup of the CNMI. Did no one believe those reports? And if Mr. Fitial had been so adamantly opposed to an economy based on foreign labor, why did he, as a VP for a large garment company, and his colleagues hop in bed with Mr. DeLay and Mr. Abramoff to lobby for maintaining the status quo?
Lobbying efforts that cost the CNMI millions of dollars and resulted in nothing.
One of our great presidents, Theodore Roosevelt (a Republican, by the way), said this about America’s policy towards foreign workers: “Never under any condition should this nation look at an immigrant as primarily a labor unit. He should always be looked at primarily as a future citizen.”
Something to think about.
ELAINE WHITMORE
Oracle, Arizona
