A difficult midterm election

The huge decrease in revenue collection (while funds for basic necessities jump by leaps and bounds), the subsequent result of downsizing of businesses forcing the release of employees, and reduction in work hours are all bad grassroots level experiences that won’t play-out comfortably for the GOP this midterm election.

The hard times that recently released local employees must endure is sufficient a reason for voters to critically choose between re-electionist politicians who have done nothing to ease unemployment and new aspirants for an office that requires real leadership. This alone makes rebidding for the same office far more difficult for incumbent republicans.

The hardship that jobless locals must deal with since the date of their release revolve around empty family pocketbooks to pay for food, clothing, shelter, family transportation, school supplies for their children and other basic family expenses. They do not now have the means to cover these expenses and not after the companies they work for have cut down expenses which included their release or termination.

It sure is a very difficult family situation and so they have appropriately turned to leadership for help, any form of help, in order to ease their sense of joblessness and helplessness. Some have even ventured to ask the difficult question of “why us and not them?”–referring to the more than 3,000 public sector employees most of whom sport redundancy in their jobs.

Not only have politicians and bureaucrats bluffed the deafening effects of the regional crisis, but they’ve equally taken up protectionist policies that fueled further loss in investments or wealth creation. As a result, current investors have continuously make further cuts in their business operations while prospective investors have headed to friendlier investment venues elsewhere. In the process, less jobs are available in the private sector against the tide of the dire need for more funds for social programs. If you will, the local treasury is basically bankrupt!

Up ahead, legislators must answer questions for fired local employees in the private sector and must equally find answers for nearly 400 Public School System employees who have been issued their 90-day notice of termination. And as the midterm election gets warmer, politicians need to deal with public sector employees whose work hours have also been cut from 80 to 72 hours. This cut has also adversely affected family pocketbooks to the hilt as politicians travel to Manila and other exotic places abroad. A` Saina!

The greater question in the minds of the younger more critical voters is: What have you done in well thought-out policies to make life more meaningful for students who are preparing for life after campus? For the older family type group, it’s: What have you done in the middle of this crisis by way of wealth creation so that the displaced can really look forward with fervent hope for continued meaningful employment? I hope the quick answer isn’t about the FTZ. It’s not an answer but a complete cop-out to avoiding difficult and realistic questions.

Against this set of challenges, the GOP can’t sit pretty on its laurels and neither can it discount the democrats nor the so-called “reform party” in this race. It’s up to each group to pitch their, well, “promises” to persuade the voters that it has the wherewithals to address and resolve the current mess so triggered by both external and internal influences. Nothing looks easy in the eyes of the more critical voters. In fact, it’s a journey that is all uphill. Good luck!

Strictly a personal view. John S. DelRosario Jr. is publisher of Saipan Tribune