%20of%20Latte%20Black%20and%20White.jpg) The Jan. 5 speech to the Saipan Chamber of Commerce by deputy assistant secretary of Interior for Insular Affairs David Cohen warned of the “federalization” of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and forewarned an approaching “typhoon” that sometimes ”slams through ... in a direct hit”—the CNMI minimum wage will increase to $7.25 an hour, with a jump of $1.50 in the first year alone, and CNMI immigration will fall under federal control.
Both actions, being considered by the new Democratic Congress on Capitol Hill, would create "a drastic impact" on the CNMI.
Yet, Cohen noted, CNMI's "finest sons and daughters" fight and die to serve the United States but have no representative in the Congress, among whose members only 20 percent had heard of the CNMI "because they read Ms. Magazine."
"And nobody is going to care about your well-being if they don't know that you exist," asserted Cohen, who called on the CNMI community to "come together now" -- "You are all in the same boat, and if that boat sinks, then everyone drowns," he said. He also urged a "strong, united voice," because "Washington simply will not take the time to decipher many voices speaking in cacophony. ... Then maybe Congress will listen."
Only "then," and just "maybe?"
A powerfully worded editorial appeared in the Dec. 8 Washington Post: "Apparently the Bush administration's 'freedom agenda' doesn't apply to Washington," referencing the "demise" of a bill to grant voting rights in the House of Representatives to District of Columbia's citizens, because "Republican leaders in Congress and the White House oppose democracy for anyone who happens to live in the nation's capital." The editorial called on the new Democratic Congress to "do better" and that the Republican Congress "blew a perfect opportunity" to remedy the disenfranchisement of D.C. citizens who pay federal taxes and fight in the Middle East "for a democracy they are denied at home."
Again, on Dec. 24, the Post's editorial, "Quasi-Freedom Agenda, For President Bush, democracy doesn't begin at home," spoke of how it is "pathetic that six years into his presidency, Mr. Bush can't bring himself to endorse basic rights for residents of his current hometown."
What messages do leaders and people of Guam choose to hear from Cohen's statements and the capital's influential newspaper?
In this context, I found Neil Weare's "Joint plebiscite first step in decolonization" of Guam in the Jan. 8 Pacific Daily News to be a breath of fresh air. Because "Chamorro self-determination" never got off the ground in the "five scheduled plebiscites in the last eight years" -- Weare repeated the saying, "if you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten" -- he proposed a "joint plebiscite" as a process to veer Guam and its people from "insurmountable procedural, legal and political obstacles" that have stopped Chamorro self-determination in its tracks for so long.
Cohen's urging to the CNMI community "to transcend the divisions" and find a common ground to present a united front to Congress, hoping Congress will listen and the Washington Post giving up on the Republican leadership and appealing to the new Democratic Congress on citizens' voting rights in D.C. should be food for thought to the leaders and people of Guam about what they, themselves, should do.
Weare's brave vision of the Guam Legislature presenting a "resolution" to Congress following a joint plebiscite to request "immediate congressional action" to "develop a political relationship" between the United States and Guam may be a dream, but, as Cohen said about CNMI, "You have nothing to lose, everything to gain and your community to save."
Some 8,000 U.S. Marines, and their families, will relocate to Guam, and the status of the minimum wage and immigration policies will be "federalized."
Though I'm not convinced that a joint plebiscite is going to sway how Congress thinks about U.S. interests, I think it would weigh in Guam's negotiations with Washington. Talk about pride, integrity and determination is just talk. Guam's people need to walk the walk and be proactive. Maybe, in the end, courageous efforts will result in little gain, but wouldn't it be better not to succeed while trying, than to fail with just rhetoric while doing
nothing?
The approaching "typhoon" warned of by Cohen will come. Big changes will occur on Guam, affecting the island and its people.
I am a believer in doing something so that something else will happen. We're not always at karma's mercy.
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the
University of Guam, where he taught political science
for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.
|
