Voters should ask the right questions

With the political season beginning to reverberate through the land, I would like to take a very brief moment to express some thoughts.

It has been typical of candidates (and their supporters) to express their views in the media. Monday’s story in the local papers from Washington Rep. Pedro A. Tenorio was no exception and it was perfectly typical! Due to lack of planning, the CNMI government failed; there should be advance planning; I urge the government to start dealing with the issue. The government has to take the initiative. Such fluff means nothing and does nothing.

I would ask you, Mr. Tenorio, the same question that every voter should ask every candidate: What are YOUR plans for governance and how would you carry them out? Why should voters accept all this rhetoric when it is nothing more than finger pointing and bashing, full of sound and fury and yet signifying NOTHING. Why is it that all we have to listen to, election year after election year is somebody postulating that somebody else failed, while offering no plans or solutions of their own? Only the empty words count for me, because I am (somehow) better.

And why is it that, so far, all we have heard is how much the local government should meddle in the normal dynamic forces that govern the conduct of the private business community? Appropriate regulation is one thing, meddling is quite another. Instead of making the CNMI a “business friendly” place of business, most of you, so far, have done nothing more than try to force the business community and prospective business ventures into your little cubicle of duplicity and, sometimes, outright corruption. Most municipalities in democratically controlled nations have found out that this simply does not work.

I urge each voter to begin asking serious questions of his/her chosen candidate. Do not accept or listen to finger pointing indictments about someone else’s failures. ASK: What will YOU actually do and HOW will you do it? It you don’t get an answer you like, let the candidate know, then try asking another candidate, until you find the one you think is truly better. This is NOT the year to rely on familial or custodial obligations; these tenets have only gotten the CNMI as far as the halfway house to oblivion.

And I urge all the candidates to change the attitude of the CNMI government. The competition is rapacious; the global economy is dreadful, so how can this little place contend? Maybe the CNMI is too small to have a great effect on the global economy, but you can bet that recovery will come sooner and with more munificence to those who will welcome it with open arms and a helpful attitude. To wit: When a prospective business venture appears on the horizon, stop asking, “What will you do for the CNMI if we LET you have a business here?” Start asking “What can the CNMI do to GET you to place your business here?” and then DO IT! That is, IF there are still ANY businesses that will even consider the CNMI anymore! You think the whole world isn’t watching how business is treated here. Look at all the recent business departures and all those who were or are being run out on a rail and then—think again!

Dr. Thomas D. Arkle, Jr,
San Jose, Tinian