The selection of a political status by the resident citizens of Guam, whenever it may happen, will be a momentous and far-reaching decision. It will have an enormous impact on the lives and futures of every current and future member of our community.
It's, therefore, time to again remind Guamanians that you have been, and continue to be, misled and bamboozled by the Guam Decolonization Commission and the radical/activist elements that hope you will someday act based on erroneous and incomplete information. That must never be allowed to happen.
As a case in point, I ask you to consider a recent news story wherein Mr. Won-Pat Borja, executive director of the Decolonization Commission, sets forth some meaningless drivel revealing either his intent to mislead or an abysmal ignorance, neither of which bodes well for Commission credibility and capability. That may seem a bit harsh, but frankly, I'm fed up with the never-ending misrepresentation of what the United States and the United Nations may or may not favor, require or be capable of.
"The establishment of a sovereign and independent State, the free association or integration with an independent State or the emergence into any other political status freely determined by a people constitute modes of implementing the right of self-determination by that people."
This revision of the previous, outdated version recognizes the right and encourages the freedom of political status choice without any restriction, so long as it is "freely determined". Nevertheless, those who wish to limit your choices press on with their needlessly restrictive provisions, refusing to allow you to consider options beyond the three they happen to like.
Mr. Won-Pat Borja asserts that the decolonization process, if and when it happens, will proceed under the auspices of the United Nations and that "We are pursuing this through the international process, not through a federal process. I would argue that it's almost irrelevant what the United States wants." Those comments illustrate a gross overestimate of the degree to which UN resolutions affect US domestic and international policy and an equally significant underestimate of federal influence over the decolonization process.
That may best be illustrated by the comments of Robert Riley, US Ambassador to the FSM, in the same article, regarding suggestions that Chuuk wishes to secede from the FSM despite being firmly embedded in the Compact of Free Association agreement. He said, "that, unfortunately, will not happen." That applies equally to any attempt by the UN to influence the US-Guam political relationship.
Dave Davis is a resident of Yigo.