First, I want to extend my personal apology to Mr. Moore as a citizen of the CNMI for the negativity that has confronted you. I hope this is just a cooling off period and that you haven\u2019t given up hope because I haven\u2019t and I\u2019m sure there are others like me. The problems you face are not of your making nor are they the fault of Mr. Farrell. The problem is also not the fault of the people of Pagan because they are clearly not against mining as they have stated. It\u2019s politics and the failure to prepare or set the conditions for economic success. I\u2019m hoping that you, the people of Pagan and our politicians are now using this time to take a step backwards in order to approach the issue in a more amicable manner. I also hope this letter will help to bring you back together on better terms for the sake of all the stakeholders in this issue.<\/p>\n
People of Pagan, the entire CNMI needs your help. It is that simple and I am humbly and respectfully asking you to reconsider your stance on this issue. I fully realize that you feel disrespected in the way this issue materialized and after hearing that \u201cit was a done deal\u201d but you must take the high road because it involves more than just you. The burden or challenge to be a large contributor in our economic future has been placed on you\u2014the people of Pagan. You have been successful in getting our Legislature to address your concerns but you also created a political dilemma unintentionally. I even understand there is a group in San Francisco that are truly concerned, which is OK but I\u2019m also very certain they aren\u2019t going to send us one investor nor one penny for our budget.<\/p>\n
I truly hope the people of Pagan will reconsider this matter and the magnitude of your decision to an economic experiment that has the potential to be a \u201cgold mine\u201d for the CNMI in the long run. The ramifications of your decision will have the potential to create a powerful new economic force for our economy (or) create a never-ending animosity for you over \u201cwhat could have been.\u201d You owe it to your fellow citizens to at least try the two-year period as proposed and do all the impact and value studies in a real-time analysis. The people of Pagan are already winners and you should be celebrating and focusing on making sure the $3.5 million you have been offered is spent the way you want it spent. Just ask yourself\u2014when do you think is the CNMI government going to give the people of Pagan $3.5 million to do with as they please? Never? The garment industry is also pulling out to a large degree and what are the people of Pagan and the group from San Francisco going to do to help replace the economic shortfall we are definitely going to face? These should be some of the first questions you should ask yourself in your reassessment.<\/p>\n
As I have said before, politics is a true science. But with consensus being the predominant principle over democracy in the CNMI, the politics of the CNMI will always go in favor of the local people that are the loudest and not necessarily with the majority. It\u2019s just the nature of culture\u2019s effect on politics. The Legislature was quick to jump on the bandwagon with Sugar Dock and they are doing the same with Pagan because of the politics in the CNMI. The people became vocal on both these issues and so did our politicians, turning the matter into a political issue. The people opposing the Pagan issue are more public and louder than the ones for Pagan mining\u2014just like Sugar Dock\u2014but do they truly represent the silent majority? I don\u2019t think so in both cases.<\/p>\n
To show you how political the issue has become, Mr. Kenneth Moore had to mention the names of the people in government who were supporting him but I didn\u2019t see any of them supporting him openly in public\u2014CNMI politics. There was never a balance or equal consideration given to the investors by our politicians. Our politicians never gave the investors the public support or the courtesy equal to the treatment of the people. I don\u2019t know if the politicians involved didn\u2019t want to take the risk or if the \u201coutsider syndrome\u201d affected them, which ruthlessly contradicts the principle of equality. Both phenomenon will continue to eat away at the very roots of the Tree of Prosperity if we don\u2019t change our way of thinking. We shouldn\u2019t be too concerned about who it is and who gets the credit or the blame; instead, we should just be fair and do the right thing and let issues stand on their own merit.<\/p>\n
I hope our politicians will reconsider what they have done because the minute a politician made a public statement and created legislation, the whole thing became political. We need solutions now, not politics, and the only solutions our politicians were focusing on were the concerns of a few people vs. the investors and the silent majority who have absolutely no connections with Pagan. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure most of us have heard the saying, \u201cDon\u2019t look a gift horse in the mouth.\u201d Well, we just did it in real life with Mr. Moore and we even slapped the gift horse in the face with legislation that literally told the investor \u201cthe CNMI government is not on your side.\u201d Mr. Moore came to help us and earn a profit but we are more concerned about what he gets before a dime is even made (greed) that nobody seems to realize the magnitude of what we stand to miss. But there is another saying about that kind of mistake: \u201cYou don\u2019t miss your water until the well runs dry,\u201d and that\u2019s what we are waiting to happen before we put our economic decision-making in the proper perspective.<\/p>\n
We have a golden opportunity to put a plan in place to create a new industry and address the decline in the garment industry for free. It can\u2019t get any better. I wouldn\u2019t want to be labeled as one of the people or politicians that ran the potential golden goose away. If we lose this potential investor and we know the garment industry will pull out, the science of politics dictates that someone is going to pay big time politically. It is always better to have tried to do the right thing than to have never tried at all. You will always get credit for trying to do the right thing, regardless of the end result, but you will never get any credit for doing nothing.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m hoping that someone on Capital Hill will take the initiative to get with the people of Pagan, the necessary government agencies and invite Mr. Moore back for a more respectful and productive visit if they really care about all the people of the CNMI and our economic future. Greatness is a potential in all of us but greatness can only surface and be recognized when the opportunity presents itself. Without opportunity there is no greatness. The dynamics of this issue possess the potential for greatness. By creating a win-win relationship for the people and the investors, the people of Pagan and politician(s) that choose to take the risk and \u201ccarpe diem\u201d will have taken a significant step in climbing the daunting pyramid of personal and public greatness. One people, one direction.<\/p>\n
Ambrose M. Bennett
\nKagman High Teacher Rep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
First, I want to extend my personal apology to Mr. Moore as a citizen of the CNMI for the negativity that has confronted you. I hope this is just a cooling off period and that you haven\u2019t given up hope because I haven\u2019t and I\u2019m sure there are others like me. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}