ANALYSIS Clinton’s aid policy to failed economies •Can he be generous in the case of NMI?

An outspoken legislator once related that “in the morning, we turn east and salute the raising of our mother country’s flag. In the evening, we turn west towards Japan and East Asia for more lasting investments”. How true a statement that has been in practice for the last 20 years of constitutional government.

That it was left alone to fend for itself, the NMI used its seven-year guaranteed Covenant funds (America’s investment), combined it with Japanese and East Asian investments to build an economy that enabled it in 1993 to sever grant funds for government operations. No other insular government can make claim of this accomplishment other than the NMI.

Unfortunately, tourism has been battered in umpteen ways by the Asian crisis as to force the closure of over 1,080 tourist related businesses. Given the unlikely recovery of Japan’s economy, this sector would head further south before the end of the year. The only other industry that has taken a commanding lead in spurring appreciable economic activities here is garment manufacturing. It is now the main engine that fuels the local economy when tourism crumbled since the onslaught of the Asian crisis.

The future of this much maligned industry is again the subject of several harassment class action lawsuits between New York, California and the NMI. Most people here maintain that there’s nothing new in this litigation given that the issues raised have been addressed and resolved by appropriate federal and local authorities. If the legal battle ensues and turns into a protracted legal battle, chances are the industry might just as well fold up and deploy elsewhere.

Budgetary implications

The NMI’s already reduced fiscal year `99 budget of $230 million will definitely lose some $47 million in direct garment tax contribution. That will leave about $183 million for both salaries of 5,000 strong government employees, government services and payment to vendors. The current payroll will require (if 90 percent of the balance goes to salaries minus $47 million in garment contribution) some $165 million. That leaves some $18 million for public services and obligations. Definitely, the public sector would be crumbling all over the place under this case scenario.

The domino effect of the lawsuit would be so devastating as to force the shipping industry to cut down services back to the old days of bimonthly calls. Such move would translate into more expensive basic commodities that the NMI imports from Asia, US and Australia. It’s a nightmare taking a sneak preview of what lies ahead if and when the garment industry is forced to turn its thriving business operations into ghost towns . It would also translate into the ultimate reduction in force in both sectors as to deny many able local employees the opportunity to support their families.

It’s the destruction of wealth that allows more than 3,000 employees to sink into instant abject poverty because the US Department of Interior has a better scheme–pander to the US textile union’s interest at all cost–even at our expense. It’s a persistent agenda to sink the welfare of the people of these islands into helplessness in perpetuity. Such an agenda is furthest from the so-called American Dream.

Irony in Uncle Tom’s generosity

A recent Associated Press story says that President Clinton is determined to funnel millions of dollars in US mainland taxpayers contribution to failed economies the world over. While such policy is awfully generous to others in the global village, the same administration has quietly worked a scheme to permanently ruin the economic well-being of the NMI. Is something amiss here?

Why the warped magnanimity and generosity for others while so heavily punitive in policy against the NMI? Aren’t we in fact US Citizens too? Most assuredly, the NMI doesn’t figure prominently in the global power game. We’re not in anyway as important in containing the proliferation of nuclear weapons like Soviet Russia or North Korea.

This archipelago is only a grain of sand in the overall global economic scheme, who can never count because it doesn’t bankroll the re-election of members of the US Congress. In fact, the NMI must be a complete inconsequence in the eyes of policy-makers especially under the Clinton Administration as to encourage such willful stampeding of the NMI’s economic interest.

It brings into focus how many investors have decided against making lasting investments in the NMI for fear of the instability of ruinous federal agenda that would effectively trigger the skyrocketing of the cost of doing business in the islands. It would simply kill one of the comparative advantages of investing in the NMI which include a decent wage complimented by other benefits that cost more than the federal wage when translated into dollar figure.

The lawsuit doesn’t take into consideration the eventuality of a total economic meltdown in the NMI if it effectively sways suppliers and retailers to head to Asian markets. The point that it chooses to neglect are the efforts taken by the local government in concert with the garment industry to ensure employee rights and safety are met as per OSHA’s standard.

To force revisiting the same issues that have already been settled only sows the actual motive of plaintiffs whose expenses are rumored to be in the deep pockets of textile labor union. With money falling out of their ears, it’s one simple way to easing their inability to meet stiff competition at the global market. It further illustrates how plaintiffs wish to make windfall profits at the expense of the NMI. Perhaps a relevant query asked by a California judge that plaintiffs must come to terms with is: Did consumers who buy Nike products irreparably injured by Nike shoes and other sports wear?

In the case of the NMI, with issues having been settled as they emerge and the existence of a formal contract for assistance from pertinent federal agencies, it is the local economy and the people it serves that will sink into the quick sand of Interior’s agenda to bring the NMI into the mercy of federal rolls. It would permanently rob the NMI of its rights to self-government. Is this agenda anywhere near the land of freedom, equality and justice being espoused by our mother country?