The here and now
NOT only are arrivals down, but they continue to drop. Why? Because the CNMI, which once had three viable tourism markets, now relies solely on South Korea, which is facing economic and political uncertainty. We are also competing with other less expensive and/or more well-known destinations that have, as they say, “more to offer.”
The tourist numbers before and after the pandemic say it all.
The rational response is for MVA to go all out and promote the CNMI in its two other traditional markets — China and Japan — while tapping into new ones. However, because of the governor’s preferred policy — for which he has no mandate — MVA is basically doing its job with one hand tied behind its back. MVA, to be sure, is working hard to revive the Japan market, which remains weak, and has “reached out” to potential new markets. But what used to be the CNMI’s second largest market is pointedly ignored because of the governor’s policy stance. A majority of MVA’s board members are gubernatorial appointees, while the others run tourism-related businesses that, like the rest of the private sector, remain at the mercy of the politicians in power. None of them would be inclined to publicly tell the governor that he is wrong.
The governor, for his part, is fully aware of the consequences of his diktat, as he himself admitted. It is now clear that he has miscalculated. This is already the third year of his administration, yet there is still no federal bailout for the CNMI to offset the loss of the China market. The governor has no choice but to continue lobbying the China hawks in Congress to (finally) make things happen for his increasingly-desperate-for-cash government. The delegate, for her part, should, as she herself stated, pursue whatever federal assistance is available for the CNMI. That should include the governor’s proposed “repurposing” legislation. Yes, the political climate in Washington, D.C. — where debates over government spending and the need to reduce it are ongoing — doesn’t seem hospitable for a federal financial rescue. But the CNMI must try everything and anything to prevent a fiscal catastrophe — a scenario that is now more likely due to the administration’s election-year decision to lift a modest austerity measure and borrow $51 million.
In the meantime, as the entreaties to “repurpose federal funds” continue, and as a weary CNMI electorate waits to be heard in the next general election, what can be done now to pay for the Commonwealth government’s obligations?
That is the question the administration and lawmakers must answer soon.
Speaking of next year’s general election
VOTERS, beware of politicians who: 1) are eager to create a “better future” for a hypothetical new generation while making the present worse for you, and 2) are heedless of the dire consequences of their policies on actual people.
In a guest essay published by the New York Times recently, GOP pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson calls it “a strategy that asks voters to grin and bear it in the checkout line today for a promise of something better tomorrow.”
How’s that turning out?
