No sympathy for Babauta
In May of 1999, U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) introduced a bill “to end immigration abuses in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.” In a press release that very month, Akaka claimed that his federal takeover bill “responds to the profound problems [in the] CNMI.”
Senator Akaka spoke of “indentured workers in the CNMI.” He said that CNMI “’Guest workers’ are also exploited in the sex trade, domestic service, and construction industries. They are trapped in a system where abuses are rampant and legal protections are few.”
“After twenty years of experience,” continued Senator Akaka, “we know that the CNMI immigration experiment has failed.”
“The CNMI is becoming an international embarrassment to the United States,” said Akaka. ” . . . The situation has only deteriorated. The CNMI system of indentured immigrant labor is morally wrong, and violates basic democratic principles.”
About a month after Hawaii Senator Danny K. Akaka made these outlandish statements about our beloved islands, our man Juan Nekai Babauta was apparently greatly encouraged. In fact, Mr. Babauta was so encouraged by Senator Akaka’s words that he wanted to give the Democrat Senator from Hawaii some money. According to the Federal
Election Commission, our own Washington Resident Representative made a $200 “Akaka In 2000” campaign contribution on June 15, 1999.
A few months later, in October of 1999, Senator Danny Akaka released another press statement, this time hailing the passage of the CNMI Federal takeover bill in a key US Senate Committee.
“This is a bipartisan bill,” said a beaming Akaka, no doubt referring to the $200 campaign contribution he received from his good friend Juan Babauta, a Saipan “Republican.” “And we have the support of the Clinton Administration. It is time for Congress to act.”
“There are many problems facing the CNMI,” declared Akaka. “S. 1052 targets the most serious concern and the cause of many other difficulties: immigration.”
Thus, not long after Akaka introduced the Federal takeover bill in the U.S. Senate, it cleared a crucial committee. And not long after this, it passed unanimously in the US Senate.
But remember that right after Senator Akaka co-sponsored his Federal takeover bill–right after he savagely vilified our islands–Juan Nekai Babauta gave him $200 in campaign contributions. Juan Babauta supported and endorsed one of the CNMI’s harshest critics–a man who was literally out to destroy our local self-government.
Is Mr. Babauta a gubernatorial candidate we can trust with our fragile Commonwealth? How much will Babauta give Akaka if he becomes our next governor?
