Dr. Carlyle Corbin, the U.N.’s adviser on governance and an expert on self-determination, spoke with indigenous rights advocates at the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library yesterday.
Corbin was invited by a Chamoru activist, former Guam Sen. Hope Cristobal. A former minister for external affairs of the U.S. Virgin Islands, he also spoke on Guam before visiting Saipan.
He said the CNMI needs to “assess the situation as it is today and determine which way to go forward.”
Retired Tinian principal Florine Hofschneider said Corbin “kind of summarized the level of frustration that we are going through because our relationship with the U.S. has changed.”
She said the NMI people were hopeful when they negotiated the Covenant, but deep inside “we knew it had a lot of loopholes.”
Hofschneider, quoting Corbyn, said the people can still ask themselves, “Did we make a good decision?”
She added, “We seem to be losing control of what we thought we had. All of the sudden it wasn’t ours and all you can do is wonder, ‘what happened?’ What happened to the relationship?”
Former Marianas District Legislature President Vicente N. Santos, one of the NMI’s Covenant negotiators, said “we have self-determination right now.”
Vice Speaker Felicidad T. Ogumoro, Covenant-Saipan, said she voted against the Covenant in 1975 because of its sovereignty clause.
She said people should have been well-educated before voting on the Covenant — which was overwhelmingly ratified by NMI voters.
Former Tinian gaming commissioner Juanita Mendiola said it is very important for the people of the U.S. insular areas to establish a “common ground” so they can gain “true self-determination.”
“It is very difficult to fight against the U.S. But we all have common ground that we can work on. Imagine the attention if we get together and fight for a common goal,” she said.
