Must reinvent old approaches

Over the last three decades, we worked long and hard to make life better for our people across the vast expanse of what’s known as the Micronesian Region. These issues included a vicious debate on who should be the regional airline flying the skies between Mili in the far corners of the Republic of the Marshalls, to Tobi in the rock island famous Republic of Belau to the Taga Stone famous isles of the Northern Marianas.

Those were the good old days when visionaries had dreams of nation building encompassing all six administrative districts of Palau, Yap, Marianas, Truk, Ponape, and the Marshalls. In 1975, the goal of nation building came into reality check for the first time when the distribution of funds reached the floor of the Micronesian Constitutional Convention. That spelled the end of Micronesian Unity when each delegation saw how much less in their revenues would remain for local expenditure.

It was money that divided the six administrative districts of Micronesia. As Micronesian delegates passionately debate the essence of nation building, a US Congressional Resolution was being signed into law by former President Gerald Ford which granted the NMI self-government or commonwealth status. Subsequently, the Marshalls and Palau left the Micronesian union. The balance of the administrative districts formed what’s today the Federated States of Micronesia.

While some have built respectable economic foundations in unprecedented ways, others have used their grant funds to build a larger bureaucracy they really can’t afford. If there’s a prevailing commonality throughout the region to date, it’s the mentality that the government is our holy grail for all our inadequacies and subsequent self-inflicted miseries–the old TTG mentality. It’s like waking up in the morning after a heavy bout with boozing the previous night where we find ourselves swimming in the tortuous sea of a bad hangover.

So what’s the point? Each must go back to the drawing boards and take a critical review of all protectionist policies that must have quietly though substantially stifled private sector development. The lessons of history should tell us by now that the strength of our government coffers is heavily reliant upon the health of the private sector. In short, if arcane and protectionist policies have stifled wealth and jobs creation, then the next order of business is to repeal and replace them with investment friendly policies. It may be a long and difficult process, but a process we must embrace forthwith if we’re to realize greater benefits of building and strengthening our tax base through the private sector.