Lawmakers are expected to attend christenings and funerals, buy fundraising tickets for fiestas, sponsor baseball or basketball teams, order hot lunches of students raising money for an off-island trip, call CUC, DPW, Rev & Tax or any other agency regarding a constituent’s disconnected power or low water supply, bad roads, delayed release of government checks or approval of a permit application, etc. It could be anything.
The sessions or public hearings on Capital Hill, and all that posturing and grandstanding, are for the media only. Local politicians, like all politicians anywhere, know what a typical voter wants. The problem now is how to deliver on their campaign pledges, which require funds, which are already scarce, precisely because in the past, CNMI officials kept their promises. They created do-nothing, high-paying jobs for supporters. They awarded “scholarships,” homestead lots, low-interest loans, sole-source contracts and generous pensions to voters who didn’t pay a lot of taxes. CUC charged ridiculously low rates and did not try to collect from those who weren’t paying. Individuals on food stamps could hire cheap, foreign maids. Those who were sick were referred to Hawaii where the CNMI government paid for their escorts and hotel rooms. Government employees expected and received pay increases. And all they had to do was to vote for the right candidates.
Tom DeLay was wrong. The NMI was never a “perfect petri-dish for capitalism.” But it was certainly a liberal paradise. Government was — and still is — all. It’s supposed to do everything for you.
Government’s main task is to provide whatever I need (which is just about everything) and to get out of my way so I can fully enjoy them — and then to look after me and help me deal with the sad consequences of my irresponsibility: lifestyle disease, crime, debts, a bankrupt business venture, lack of money and/or prospects.
Not surprisingly, the welfare and entitlement mentality is now well-entrenched in a place whose native inhabitants used to be self-sufficient. Now no one, it seems, can do anything without assistance from the government or, better yet, a grant from the feds. Here, moreover, race, ethnicity and historic resentments, real or imagined, are primary considerations — not merit or talent.
No one is blamed for committing stupidities. It’s always the fault of someone. The economy tanked? Blame the feds. Crime rate is high? “Ice,” alcohol, poker, poverty, austerity Fridays or payless paydays made them do it. Students are not learning? Teachers’ fault. Politicians quarreling in public? The media egged them.
Politicians, to be sure, play the same game. After blaming his predecessor during the first two or three years of his administration, the governor now blames the feds and other “factors beyond our control.” His supporters say everyone blames their governor for everything. Which was what the supporters of the previous governor said after their boss was blamed by then-candidate Fital for the worsening economic crisis, which continues to get worse under his watch. Uncle Ben, who touted his “proven leadership” during the campaign, now refuses to take responsibility for anything bad that has happened since he was sworn into office five long and dreary years ago.
Meanwhile, the outraged citizens of the CNMI are complaining. Online and anonymously. Their Constitution provides them the tools to go after abusive officials, but no one’s using them. They want to remain employed by their government.
At the end of the day, most of the citizens don’t want reforms. The frustrated young are protesting against the corrupt old not because they’re corrupt, but because they’re still around, still feeding at the public trough, leaving little or nothing to the young.
What most voters want is what their parents and grandparents enjoyed in the past. Or at least the restoration of their 80-hour pay period. And an end to payless paydays. And annual pay increases. And scholarship checks and homestead lots (in an area where there is cable TV and internet connection). And medical referrals. And…
Send feedback to [email protected]
