Happy Birthday Northern Marianas

It was in March 24 years ago yesterday that former President Gerald Ford signed into law the Covenant Agreement establishing a permanent political relationship between the US and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

At its incipiency as a constitutional government, the NMI was about to lose some $9 million when the seat of what is now the Federated States of Micronesia relocates to Pohnpei.

It was a rough beginning, but a hopeful beginning in the exercise of self-government so guaranteed under the Covenant. History was made when the first convention delegates drafted the Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas in 1976, followed by the election of the first governor and members of the bicameral legislature in 1977.

To spur economic growth, the Fifth Marianas District Legislature, the forerunner of current bicameral system, repealed the foreign investment law opening the floodgates of investment effectively doing away with local partnership. The wisdom behind this decision is both troubling and perplexing: It ended local participation in investment schemes especially in the tourism sector, leaving most of the industry in foreign hands.

Essentially, the indigenous people became utilitarians of the very ambiance of their tropical isles being promoted and sold as a tourist destination. The federal government, specifically Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs, the lead federal agency, withheld any proactive role during the incipiency of our constitutional government. Like a neglected child, we fended for ourselves hoping that by some stroke of common decency and fortune, we would make it to the end of a dark tunnel. We basically reached that goal with US investments in guaranteed grant funds, coupled with investments from Japan and East Asia.

But our phenomenal success–employing the free enterprise system–came under scrutiny by our detractors, including OIA–our supposed partner–where dirt is kicked-up against our face behind the convenient shield of human rights when in fact it is a well orchestrated scheme to protect California’s apparel industry. OIA never acknowledged that it is equally responsible for the dysfunctional family that emerged for pulling back from the outset or during the incipiency of our constitutional government. Perhaps there’s truth that the new political relationship is an “American Experiment”. A lot has happened then, including the dissipation of a once treasured strategic importance of the NMI before the cold war curtain descended upon the global village.

For all our travails, we’ve never lost sight of the fact that we belong to a greater country. But we’re equally troubled by the relentless agenda to federalize these isles without proven economic substitutes from OIA under its plans. It shows in sterling fashion that it (OIA) refuses to live up to its fiduciary obligation to “assist the NMI attain” not only a “higher standard of living”, but a progressively higher standard of living. Indeed, we must have neglected the social aspects in the lot of our people. We must return to this area soon to forge a brighter tomorrow for posterity. Be that as it may, in our hearts and minds, the pearly strings of the Marianas remain the beautify isles we all call home. Happy 24th Birthday Northern Marianas!