Letters
Letters
Defending the Indefensible
In your June, 2003 issue, David B. Cohen, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs, and head of the office that would implement the new financial assistance program, attempted a defense of the financial control arrangement in the Compact II between the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and the United States. He argued that the charges leveled against the arrangement as a throwback to neocolonialism, were unwarranted.
His defense of the accountability provisions was to dispel what he labeled as myths, one of which was the "misconception" that the national budget would be subject to U.S. approval, thereby violating the sovereignty of the government. He explained that a bilateral committee in which the U.S. has a one-vote majority would have the "final say" and would, in fact, be charged with "approving" how Compact funds would be used. The committee's central role, he said, would be to ensure that the "proposed budgets comply with the letter and the spirit of the Compact." It goes without saying that the so-called bilateral committee with the U.S. one-vote majority, and under Cohen's leadership, will continue to have the final say and would ensure that the RMI behave according to the "spirit and the letter."
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If this is not over-lordship, I do not know what it is. Precisely what governs the work of the bilateral committee, according to Cohen, is dictated by a "completely new system" designed by the U.S.
He described these focus areas in this fashion: "First, we will... Second, we will... Third, we will... Fourth, we will make Compact funds subject to the same standard requirements and remedies that are used for U.S. domestic grants. Finally, we will hire a new Pacific-based team to provide oversight."
We will this and we will that. So help me God! Is this not over-lordship? Where is the RMI Nitijela [Parliament] in all this? What is this new Pacific-based team to be hired to provide further oversight but another tier of over-lordship?
Furthermore, someone needs to remind Cohen that the Republic of the Marshall Islands is a sovereign nation not a U.S. local or state government. The accountability provisions he listed are, in his own words, the same ones used to safeguard U.S domestic programs. Are the Compact funds then a means for the extension of U.S. domestic programs? I have nothing against U.S. federal programs. Indeed, I believe RMI is fortunate to benefit from them.
But what is so wholly objectionable to many, is the silent rejection as preposterous the idea of devising appropriate mechanisms of checks and balances under the jurisdiction of the Nitijela. In Cohen's article, not a single reference was made regarding the role of the Nitijela. The inevitable assumption one is led to is that the Nitijela lacks the wherewithal to manage and to oversee the funds. To remedy the deficiency is to create an entity outside of the Nitijela, located elsewhere. It is impossible to envisage how such an arrangement could possibly aid the country in developing its institutional capability. To date, despite the continuing clamor to redress the issue, both in RMI and FSM, no explanation whatsoever has been given as to why the legislature does not have a central role in the matter.
The accountability provisions of the Compact cast a suffocating shadow over the sovereignty of the Marshall Islands. Cohen, well meaning though he may be, has dared to defend the indefensible.
Sen. Jiba B. KabuaNamdrik Atoll, RMI
Island of Happiness?
I agree wholeheartedly with the American Samoa inmate who wrote you [May 2003] about their housing predicament. The living conditions are atrocious. I understand that it is a prison, but how can there be any rehabilitation and correction of the inmates if they continue to be treated inhumanely? To be absolutely truthful, our justice system doesn't work. There are people walking around the island who rightfully should be in jail, except for the fact that they have money to throw at their problems. I just hope the inmate who wrote you didn't suffer any repercussions because of your inquiry. The island motto is Motu o Fiafiaga meaning "Island of Happiness." Trust me, the only happy people on that rock are the government officials in league with the well-to-do families and foreigners who have stolen so much from us.
I'd like to go back one day, but where do you go when home isn't home anymore? I mourn for my people.
Adelita Hall
Long Beach, Calif.
