Omtab A Bngel Er a Eabed (Land of Lost Opportunities) Leaders of Palau must know that it is their responsibility not only to provide opportunities but also make sure that they continue to be available to the Palauan citizens. It should be their motivation in doing their work in everything they do every day and it also should be equally their undying goal to accomplish. In fact, it should be clear that the daily battle ground during peace time for our leaders is to be relentlessly fighting to secure opportunities for us citizens. If a leader is in office and does not have this belief, he has no business being in public office in the first place. For this reason, no obstacle should be an excuse for leaders not to fulfill this responsibility to the people. The Palauan people should demand our leaders not to stop at anything to fight for us in the battle of opportunities in these lands of our ancestors. Palauan legend has it that a man, who was shortsighted (ng diak a uldesuel ma uutebengel er a tekoi e sebeched el kmo nguuau), went to set his fishing traps in his favorite fishing ground. Being such, he marked the coordinates for each fishing trap to the clouds in the sky that day. After few days of full moon, it was time to collect the catch in his fishing traps. Needless to say, he struggled to locate his fishing traps because the clouds were no longer where they were; all was lost. I am not under any illusion (berous malechub ngomuachel) to be a fisherman by any standard. My father was a retailer. He struggled through endless hardship for many years believing that he had an opportunity to build his life as a retailer enough to support his wife and children. Furthermore, he saw that he could contribute to Palauan society and at the same time earn respect and pride for his family. This land is where he put his heart of sweat and soul of hope without any speck of doubt that this was the land where he shall set his roots forever. He laboriously toiled to make his claim and secure a future for his children and family; He wanted no less for this land of Belau. Looking elsewhere to other country was never an option. It is without doubt that most if not all Palauan fathers like my father believed that this is the land where we will promote our interests and defend all opportunities to the fullest for our children’s children in all endeavors of life we so choose to express our Palauan-ness. No other place on this planet can we boldly make this claim without fear. We are not under any universal principle or obligation to provide opportunity to peoples from other countries. Thence, our constitutional framers enshrined in our constitution to provide for preferential treatment (ileakl el omengeleoch) to Palauan people in this land of Belau. If the leaders of this country are not fighting to secure opportunity for Palauans in retail businesses while allowing illegal operations by Filipinos, Taiwanese, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Americans, and now Bangladeshis to continue, I find it hard to believe that they will ever stand for your small interests or opportunities to be farmers, fishermen, craft makers/carvers, cooks, caterers, makit makers, tour guides/operators, taxi or boat operators, teachers, mechanics, builders, store clerks, accountants, engineers, nurses, doctors, lawyers, and whatever your interests are that you want to do or turn into business ventures to support your family and children in order to be proud Palauans. The last frontier for us Palauans to defend, after being colonized by foreign dominions over this land of Belau for many decades, is our opportunity to thrive and lead successful lives as Palauan people. Not to allow or amend our laws to accommodate them at the cost of opportunities for Palauans. The leaders of Palau better take to heart these burning words: “In exercising our inherent sovereignty, we, the people of Palau proclaim and reaffirm our immemorial right to be supreme on these lands of Palau, our homeland” or else we will lose in the end.
Posted on: Fri, 30 May 2014 01:39:01 +0000
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