Deference to Covenant Agreement

The formulation of federal policies would grant both sides of the Pacific a better working relationship if national policy-makers defer to the Covenant Agreement to ensure that as partners we proactively join hands to aid the NMI “attain a progressively higher standard of living”.

In other words, policy consideration must be inclusive where greater weight is given to the sentiments of island leaders who deal with the daily realities of resource-poor island economies. But as is often the case, federal policies are formulated without inclusion of the tiny voices of the intended governance situated outside mainstream America.

We’re not demanding much from our national policy-makers, but we humbly beg that you grant yourselves the opportunity to listen to your fellow US Citizens “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right….” If other communities across the country have been given the opportunity at wealth and jobs creation, the simple islanders from the Marianas Archipelago ask for nothing less.

Taking a glimpse at the bad experiences we’ve had to endure from the vicious agenda of our detractors, we often quiz what’s next after the dust of this well orchestrated controversy settles down. In other words, would a shift in the political mood in Washington in the future subject these islands to another wasteful bout with the ill effects of poorly conceived and non-inclusive policies that at best plant an image of instability? Is this the supposed foundation of our relationship as we head towards new challenges of the next millennium?

We know that despite these purposeful infractions being leveled against our fragile and already ravaged local economy, we never for a moment lost sight nor hope that we too can find sympathetic members of the US Congress who believe, as we do, that “the best government is the one that governs the least”. We invite more of our national policy-makers to review the grand success of the free enterprise system in what some writers have referred to as the “laboratory of freedom and democracy”.

Despite all the negative perception fanned by irresponsible national papers and television network, most of our national policy-makers will be stunned to learn the difference between sensationalized news items catered toward better sales and ratings against the often dull but responsible news reporting that takes into account the daily realities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas. Si Yuus Maase` yan ghilisow!