OIA's more obvious agenda
Dr. Webster defines reform as an “amendment of what is defective, vicious, corrupt, or depraved”. Now let’s analyze each word within the context of the historical intent of the Covenant Agreement.
Defective: Since the founding of our republican form of government in 1978, reasonable men would assume that developmental problems come with the territory of building and strengthening our democratic institutions.
Such painful lessons of history is replete in the very exercise of American Democracy our country had to endure over the last 200-plus years.
Vicious: Although the CNMI group of US Citizens now enviously boast the crown of the only Americans who are not represented in the US Congress, we humbly take each day in stride never losing hope that someday soon we shall overcome and be made a part of our greater American Community.
Corrupt: For those who think they know the historical intent of the Covenant (and we know they know not), it’s time you voluntarily retreat to the quiet corners of your mind and think once again whether your irrelevant agenda comes close to what the founding fathers envisioned under the terms and conditions of the agreement.
Depraved: This laboratory of democracy has had its share of cuts and bruises as it works diligently to refine its democratic institutions.
We challenge our detractors to honestly remove politics and compare the strides we’ve made to improve the quality of working conditions for all workers here. An honest answer would allow detractors a humble acknowledgment that they’ve simply refused to look at a set of facts.
If OIA had been sincere from the outset of its efforts on reform, it would have stepped-in as a partner since the inception of our constitutional government in 1978 to help institute appropriate measures to ensure an orderly economic growth. But it left a child behind to fend for himself and couldn’t accept that its very abandonment has turned into phenomenal successful with a brighter future.
Then it came back with a half-cocked reform package concocted by the US textile labor unions all aimed at tripping the kid’s progress in his quest to build greater self-confidence and sense of independence even as an abandon. Even with significant and appreciable success, OIA is telling the kid “Your Uncle Knows Better”. It reminds me of the television classic “Father Knows Best” who eventually took his own life.
If anything, the controversy had nothing to do with reform other than to push the hidden agenda of the US Textile Labor Unions gift-wrapped in what OIA dubs as “reform”. It is its (labor unions’) insidious way to ruin the local apparel industry that now scaffolds the economic foundation of these isles via the arbitrary imposition of US immigration and minimum wage. Ironically, none in the well shield federal-labor unions’ conspiracy had ever thought of the long-term consequences of current and future investments if their ill-conceived proposed policy is attained.
Everything that we’ve done successfully under the free enterprise system is, in the eyes of the US Textile Labor Unions, wrong! If in fact such is their view, then they should have fought against its establishment here since 1983 when the first apparel factory was opened. But their “might is right” attitude, a carry-over after
World War II which blinded their vision saying nobody would jerk them off their comfortable rocking chair. Well, Goliath found out 16 years later that the once insignificant Pacific’s Little David has grown-up and flexing his muscles in corners where Goliath can’t maneuver.
Well, Sir Clinton’s men have met the enemy his faithful Pinto Boys at Interior. They’re now in their own wooden shed in the forest of confusion quizzing whether to cross the bridge or let the raging and deadly flood of Congressional Investigation descend upon them. Well, we shall see what happens henceforth.
