Click on image to view the report
A full copy of the final report from the Chuuk Political Status Commission (CPSC) to the Chuuk State Legislature is now available for your critical review. In my book, the report receives a grade of A+ in dreams, but an F- in reality.
- This 5-page document lacks any hard data, graphs, cost analysis, and other information necessary to help Chuukese citizens understand the pros and cons of the Chuuk secession.
- The report was not signed by the most seasoned politicians on the Commission; former FSM Vice President Redley Killion and Epel Ilon. One wonders if these seasoned public servants deliberately abstained from signing out of disapproval of the report. (Updates: 6/21/2018: Both gentlemen have since resigned from the commission and continue to speak out against secession. Click here to view their recent talks in Hawaii)
- The accompanying cover letter for the report was addressed to Speaker Innocente Oneisom, the Speaker of the House of Representative. The problem: he is also a member of the Chuuk Political Status Commission. How can the Speaker review the report with any sense of objectivity for the sake of the people of Chuuk if he was part of the commission?
- The report was submitted on December 17, 2014 following the series of so-called “public hearings” in Hawaii, Oregon, and Guam in November, 2014. According to the enabling law, “before the final report is submitted to the legislature and the governor, the Commission shall conduct public hearings in the 40 municipalities…” The problem is that at those community meetings in November, the commissioners were already campaigning for a Chuuk secession so those public hearings were not done in the true spirit of the law.
- The Commissioners admitted in their public hearings and their newsletter that they determined on their own that secession was their recommendation without getting any input from the community, experts, etc.
- The report contains nothing substantial to educate the average Chuukese citizen on the pros and cons of a Republic of Chuuk.
- The approval of this report from our leaders makes me worry about the state of our political leadership in Chuuk: How in heaven’s name did the entire Chuuk State Legislature, both Houses, accept this terrible Final Report as even remotely close to being good for the people that they were elected to serve? Did they read it? criticize it? assess it? evaluate it? question it? Did any of them ask any questions about the missing components? Did anyone in the chamber ask the same questions raised by the concerned Chuukese citizens in Guam, Hawaii, mainland? Or did our leaders simply line up like little ducklings behind their mother ducks, Speaker Oneisom and President Mailo who are members of the CPSC, and quacked their approval to this non-sensical report lest they upset their leaders? If none of the senators and representatives see the same basic flaws in this process as their citizens have these last few weeks, then what does that say about the kind of leaders we have today in Chuuk?
- Finally, the $21 million dollar question: Who is set to benefit financially if Chuuk becomes an independent nation? Something is fishy about the timing of this whole thing. I have a terrible fear that some of our pro-independence leaders have some personal vested interest in the Chuuk secession. Let’s wait and see…
Click here to download the Final Report.
Dr. Vid Raatior
Dr. Vid Raatior is a proud Chuukese parent, educator, citizen blogger, and social entrepreneur living in the US.
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I do like this page about reforming a new movement for Chuuk. But I do not agree with the fact that you have to always twisted words about CPSC. Please, also put some positivity about our Chuuk Political Status Commission hard work and purpose of this seccession of Chuuk
so that those who do not understand of what is really going on NGANI FANUARH LON RHUUk. Kilisou
Let’s work together as a team to move this movement of Chuuk.
Can you give us few intelligent reasons to secede our federation.?
MyMYPfisu.hi there how are you.?sorry but,are you saying that Vid is making all this up? did you ever been to the so called public hearings?.Let me tell you that..there is nothing wrong for being Independent State.But, what this CPSC or ROCS are doing is not right,they wrote the laws of this commission and they are the one who make voters going crazy and not enough educational materials to educate the none speaking English. Whats so nice and positive about this movement?Where is the blue print for the PEOPLE REPUBLIC OF CHUUK?..You can not just let go sailing to China..who is your Master Navigator?can you get to China?What you think?.stop being nice to these so call leaders cus,they don’t give a CRABS about you,me and our families.they advance their Owen interests not the whole POPULATION<<
To tell you the truth, your fishermen-senators & representatives did read the final 5 page reports from the CPSC, unfortunately, they have zero knowledge/ zero understanding because they only read with their mouths, but never utilized their dying brain-cells..
All they do is quack..quack quack here, quack quack there,quack quack everywhere… How in hell you follow someone with dead brain-cells.?
Smh….what a shame.!
O
Think before you say something…just imagine if your dad is one of the senators or representatives what would you do if we say bad things about them?
Posting from past experience, I really do not want to go back to the same old scenario with all the hardship we faced. What? Are we nuts? If you’d been in the US before the compact effectiveness, then you know what am talking about. If not, then I suggest you learn from the fox who had been in the US long enough before the compact. I think, this is all about money..isn’t it? Why is it, that things are going to be better or work out well this time, not in those many years ago? Is it because of not enough funds? I believe that’s the main cause…and my point of view is that, no matter how big and small money Chuuk State has, whether in the past or in the future, the blame is on ourselves or the leaders who lead us into corruption. Palau and the Marshall islands dumped us and left us laughing, and here we are chasing their asses to follow their path. Why don’t we search for a different path? Searching for the easy way out where we are and further more…not money but status wise..I need a feed back:) Epweappaj
Why do I feel like I’m standing on a cliff, dangerously close to the edge, and I am told that my destination is ahead of me but there’s no bridge to get me there. Only an illusion that there’s a bridge. If this is how I feel now, after all that effort exerted by the CPSC, would you say the commission did a great job or have they failed to provide that necessary bridge to get all of us across? At this point, I am incline to vote NO! unless otherwise.
I am not adherence nor advocating with all the commission membership due to their inadequate intelligence pursuing the idea of becoming an independent state, perhaps becoming a nation. We need some new faces and ideas combination of the commission dudes who are already in that group. Came to mind that this is so interesting and not a joke about unleashing the status we are in, once we become independent, it’s like a one way ticket no return. Be very cautious about selecting your choices. Chances are, we might or we might not be able to have certain options on the table. Hope they give us that open minded option and educate the people about it. They should build a website of something for the people to search for ideas at least frequently ask Q & A..
On May of 2007, Sabino aka ( Taxi-Womw ) came out and expressly opposed/critized the ” Faichuuk statehood” and the faichuuk political leaders, including commissioner, Kachutoshy Paulus..
He talked about how corrupted they ( state & fsm ) faichuukese leaders were..and the bad influence they brought on the faichuukese general public..
And today, Sabino is the engine of this Chuuk state secession idea.. We need stronger leaders..!
In Chuuk case, the ( Collectors ) are the problems, not the ( Debtors )
We need economic indepentant, not political indepentant.!
A Republic Of Chuuk won’t make any big difference unless our dirty politicians changed their approach.!
Very simple..,
Kinisou
With due respect to the honorable commissioners, I honestly think that the whole report is a joke for one of many reasons. Simply put, it has too many flaws and lack in depth analysis not to mention concrete evidence or studies to substantiate their position. With that kind of report, I honestly thought that the members of legislature would at least debated for days and either table it or sent it back to the commission with detail and many recommendations. Just so sad how the law making body of Chuuk have shown their performance in the eyes of the international community.
It’s all confusing…What should we do??? who do we run to???
That 5 page report by the Commission looks more like an essay written for a high school civics class. No facts, graphs, data to back up findings in community meetings in Chuuk and abroad. Funny though how they compare this movement to the Kosovo Conflict..