A must for Saipan, before it is too late

The people of Saipan and the CNMI need to carefully consider the future of this island as well as the entire CNMI.

Mr. Stewart’s opinion page entitled Economic Observations of March 2001, which ran in the Saipan Tribune on Nov. 3, 2005 with the subtitle “Some things haven’t changed” should be carefully considered and now!—if the CNMI is going to survive with any dignity or even be habitable.

Mr. Stewart touched on many things that cannot continue to be ignored. His article goes into much detail that I will not repeat here, but suffice it to say that the current state of affairs has come about from severe mismanagement, excessive commercialization, and excessive foreign worker population where the spoils go to wealthy foreign nationals and the people of Saipan get stuck with the by-products such as pollution, depletion of resources, loss of culture and identity, foreign criminal element, and for the most part the people of Saipan have lost almost all control of the island. The fish and wildlife have suffered tremendous strains and depletion from the foreign overcrowding, and now there is talk of allowing big commercial interests from Seattle to come in and wipe out what’s left.

From all of this, only a few Chamorro people have prospered somewhat, while most have watched their island lose its beauty, mystique, culture, peace, and innocence. The bulk of the wealth that comes in only goes back out again, controlled by foreign interests around foreign Asia. Dear people, this is NOT an economy, but commercial prostitution of one of the (formerly) most beautiful places on earth. It is no wonder that many people from Saipan now travel to Palau to see a beautiful and historic island paradise. Before it is too late, we need to see these problems under control and being reversed in the CNMI.

Gov. Juan Babauta and Lt. Gov. Diego Benavente have spent a lot of their administrative efforts and time in trying to get many of these problems and their symptoms under control. Under their administration: the pollution and refuse problem has truly seen a wonderful change in the installation of the new landfill management system; the fresh water situation is undergoing some very needed efforts to ensure clean water as needed by the population; the crime problems are being worked on at a level that is formerly unheard of on Saipan; measures to put control of the CNMI economy back into the hands of the CNMI; and continued efforts to deal properly with the electrical power and wastewater problems. These are just a few, but a very important few, of the major positive efforts that the Babauta/Benavente team have taken on for the CNMI and have made a real difference. The CNMI needs Babauta/Benaventa for the next four years so that progress can continue to be made. Their opposition wants to continue to bring in more and more problems through foreign commercial interests, and further perpetuate the problems that Babauta/Benavente inherited.

More commercialization is not what Saipan needs. Saipan needs to get what they have under control. People, please do what is best for Saipan this week. Help Babauta/Benavente achieve the much needed cures for these problems before it is too late! Don’t let their opposition get a foothold and ruin Saipan forever by turning it into a little Hong Kong!

Juan Babauta and Diego Benavente are wise, educated businessmen who have proven that they have the ability to work within the U.S. federal government’s requirements and CNMI Law for a better CNMI. They know what they need to do and need to be allowed to continue doing it. The CNMI has no logical alternative if it wishes to survive! With their leadership, Saipan can become a beautiful, wonderful, respectable, historical place that tourists would want to visit again and again…and the people of Saipan would enjoy and love forever.

Don Allen
Saipan