By Lee Webber
According to the primary election results, less than half (only 40 percent) of the people who were registered to vote actually turned out and voted in last Saturday’s primary election.
For whatever reasons, when only 40 percent or 23,261 of the 58,152 registered voters turn out to vote in an election, in this writer’s opinion, that is disheartening to say the least.
Residents who cared enough to register may also be people who really do not care who gets elected (which is hard to believe), do not understand the importance of the primary election (which may be more likely), or are so angry that they are waiting for the general election to upset someone’s mango cart.
$1 million
Given the reality that candidates spent more than $1 million promoting themselves prior to the primary election — the clear majority of which was spent by the incumbent governor and her running mate — it appears that a clear majority of registered voters did not care who was elected and moved on to the general election.
Here again, in this writer’s opinion, spending nearly $1 million dollars prior to the primary election certainly didn’t really get people out to vote, although it may have, along with some well-timed muck raking and some obvious media control, worked in their favor.
The real question remains was it the money, the muck raking or the apparently collaborative media (the supposed fourth estate) that drove the vote from such a meager turnout?
Prepare
Whatever the reason, it is time to move on — congratulate the winners and get on to preparing for the general election on the second Tuesday in November.
While all the mudslinging may be fun for ill-mannered people, it doesn’t do — nor has it ever done — a thing to fix the myriad of problems facing our island home.
It reminds me of another quote by C.S. Lewis from The Silver Chair, “crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.”
Perennial problems
While the politicians may not be crying, they remain faced with a myriad of perennial problems with which they must deal if we are to make Guam great again.
If those putting themselves up as citizen representatives — theoretical public servant jobs — really cared, they would be spending their time and our (and Uncle Sam’s) hard-earned tax dollars fixing things and not slinging mud.
Fixing the problems at hand also should be where the people who call themselves journalists should be spending their time: Haunting these same public servants until the tasks are complete and government is functioning properly.
We’ve got to point out the island’s problems and then stand firmly on politicians with both feet — never backing off on the pressure — to ensure those we elect properly address these issues in a timely manner and maintain these solutions, as well!
So, as we head into the final stretch leading up to the general election, let’s lay out some of the challenges with which these candidates and so-called journalists must deal, so we can finally see some significant and lasting improvements in our beautiful island community.
Politicians are fond of saying their main concerns are public health, public safety and education. So, let’s take a look and see how we fare in these areas.
Public safety, health care
Let’s first look at public safety. This would include the Guam Police and Fire Departments, along with the Department of Corrections.
What about the ever-growing crime, family violence and growing drug problems facing our families and communities?
You could also throw in the (supposedly independent) attorney general (its growing lack of qualified/trained prosecutors) and courts into this group given the current revolving “catch and release” program that plagues our island home by repeatedly sending criminals with records back onto our streets and into villages.
Then we could take a look at the public health, mental health and Guam Memorial Hospital areas and the historical and current issues facing the community in those areas.
If you have any questions about the needs in these areas, you can ask doctors Tom Shieh, Hoa V. Nguyen, Vince T. Akimoto or the myriad of other less outspoken — but very competent physicians — serving our community on Guam.
We can then jump to the Guam Department of Education and the problems with facilities overall (particularly poorly maintained high school buildings) and the lack of qualified and certified teachers for the island and our children’s classrooms.
Solid waste
What about the perennial problems with the island’s landfill, as well as those facing the old Ordot dump area and the potential health problems these could create?
Or whatever happened to the possibility and implementation of a viable waste to energy plant to help us deal with the growing trash and recycling issues.
Water
Then we have the Guam Waterworks Authority with its historically leaky and broken pipes, and poor pumping pressure problems that we have been facing with the near-daily text messages they send to taxpayers.
To add to this long list of challenges, we are also facing an ever-growing homeless problem.
Where do our current set of elected officials coming into the general election stand on these and many other issues? What are their plans to address them?
Better yet, what have they actually done while in office or in their personal lives to address them?
These are the burning questions you must ask yourself before voting anyone back into office, or into office for the first time.
Esta.
Lee P. Webber is a businessman and civic advocate, the former publisher of the Pacific Daily News, a former president and publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser, and a former director of operations for USA Today International/Asia
