Stayman "levelheaded"?
Perhaps it is all within the lingo of diplomatic niceties to say that the appointment of Allen Stayman as the US negotiator for the compact of free association involving the FSM and the Marshalls is an “excellent” choice or that he is “level headed”.
The former OIA helmsman may have the experience of knowing key political leaders in both jurisdictions, but we seriously question that he has the wherewithals to build the economies of these places to the level of economic self-support. The 37 years of sterling failure as the lead federal agency should confirm our assertion in this regard.
Stayman must have been speaking with amnesia when he recommended that the two island nations “find a way to enhance the private sector, promote entrepreneurial activity, things that create some wealth in their own countries”. Nice try!
But it would equally be relevant if Stayman explains his performance, in terms of wealth and jobs creation, with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands especially in recent years. He was the boss who is supposed to “assist the NMI attain” not only “a higher standard of living”, but a “progressively higher standard of living.
It seems, however, that like most of his colleagues at Interior, he placed the interest of the US textile labor unions and warped human rights activists ahead of the livelihood of the people of the Northern Marianas. The recent contempt citation issued his former colleagues for allegedly launching political attacks on key members of the US House of Representatives is a tale of why the sterling record of failure of OIA’s handling of the NMI and other insular areas.
If in fact Stayman is “level headed”, then it should have dawned on him that the descending Asian Crisis two years ago would eventually assault the NMI local economy and would have taken the lead to stave off total economic meltdown. But he didn’t rise to the occasion. Instead, he added fuel to a raging fire in order to ensure that “our hearts and minds follow” his ugly design of a federal takeover of minimum wage, labor and immigration.
Definitely, such vicious attempt to inflict economic annihilation of the livelihood of the people of the NMI is far from our definition of being “level headed”. Furthermore, if there’s any truth to his new found toy of “wealth and jobs creation”, then the more appropriate query is: why didn’t he ensure that the Clinton administration policy to ascertain that the “economic good times” didn’t “leave anybody behind” is made equally applicable in the Northern Mariana Islands? Nothing can be further from the truth!
Finally, if there’s any truth to the saying “The past indicates the future” then it behooves the leadership of the Republic of the Marshalls and the Federated States of Micronesia to carefully listen to “what” he says versus “how” he says it. If per chance any of the two jurisdictions needs assistance in this regard, please talk to the leadership of the CNMI for we have tons of information to share with you on the newly appointed US negotiator alleged “levelheadedness”.
