JOHN Oliver Gonzales, who believes he will be CNMI governor one of these days, recently told me that he lost in the November elections because this paper didn’t give his campaign “fair coverage.” I told him that this paper, as far as I remember, never covered the campaigns of ANY senatorial candidate. I added that he probably would have won if he were on the GOP ticket, but John would have none of that. (I now doubt whether he even tried to closely and objectively examine the election results.) “Look at what is happening!” he said. For John, things are getting worse because the CNMI has this set of leaders instead of him and his gubernatorial candidate. However, I am of the opinion that things would not have been this bad if the previous administration, which John served, did something forceful to address the economic slump and the government’s shrinking revenue base. Moreover, I believe that things would definitely have been worse if John’s new patrons were in power instead of what the CNMI has now—an administration and key legislative leaders not beholden to the very same special interest groups whose favored policies have brought these islands to the brink of disaster. I have no doubt, however, that John would have also scoffed at this viewpoint.
He also believes that the Board of Education renewed Dr. Rita H. Inos’s contract because Variety’s editorials opposed her retention. At this point, and even though we were talking over the phone, I sensed that there were already smoke rings coming out of John’s, I imagined, flaring nostrils, like the Covenant Party’s bull, come to think of it. So to cut the conversation short I told John that I was happy to know that this paper finally did something that made him happy (the retention of Dr. Inos). “Congratulations and good for you,” I said. Now this paper believes that a non-partisan education commissioner would be more effective because she will have better leverage with lawmakers and the administration, particularly in securing additional funding. I also believe that BOE agrees with this opinion, but most of its members are also Dr. Inos’s friends, and this was probably a major consideration in their decision. In any case, I would rather believe this explanation than the one John offered because I recoil from the thought that the CNMI has education officials so petty that they would rather do the opposite of what they think is the right thing to do, than be perceived as being influenced by the rational arguments of a newspaper editorial.
But let us return to John as gubernatorial wannabe. He certainly possesses the most important quality a politician should have—he is liked by not a few people. His reputation, as they say, precedes him. He is known to have excelled in school and is definitely more than willing to assume leadership positions. He was on the staff of then Lt. Gov. Pepero Sablan, but his duties were such that he wasn’t sucked into controversies that would have gotten the media’s attention. Likewise, his political stance can easily be summed up in platitudes that no one can argue with. (“Protect the welfare of the local people, more funding for education, public health, public safety,” etc.) However, I am already detecting what could be a chink in his political armor. John is perilously close to becoming a pompous windbag with a flair for demagoguery. More and more people are also learning that his kindness is of the selective variety. It seems that, like a switch, he can turn it on or off depending on the perceived utility of the person he is dealing with. It also appears that John is easily irritated by those who do not find his intellect and his views impressive. All this, of course, is unfortunate, but all is not lost for John. He still has time to burnish his “image.”
The only other piece of friendly advice I can give him is this: NEVER call “kuya” Filipinos who may be older than you if you are NOT related to them. Back home, there are only three types of persons who call older men “kuya” (or older women “ate”) even if they are not related, and these are the bar girls, the maids and the “baduy.” Trust me on this John.
