Transcript
Senator Surangel Whipps junior says he's running against his brother in law, President Tommy Romengesau junior, as more should be done to bring young Palauans home.
"We have a ministry of environment which is wonderful, but our most valuable resource is our people. We should have a ministry of labour or a ministry of human resources to really find ways to get our young people employed and getting them to realise the benefits that Palau has to offer. We have so many young people that have moved to the United States because they're searching opportunities."
President Remengesau declined to be interviewed, preferring his campaign spokesperson, Olkeriil Kazuo, to speak on his behalf. Mr Kazuo says to bring young Palauans home the president has introduced a bill in congress to raise the minimum wage to eight-dollars-fifty.
"And that allows us to compete with our neighbour, a US territory Guam, with the same amount of money as a minimum wage for our kids to have a little less excuse of not coming back to Palau."
Mr Kazuo says the President would also build more houses to attract Palauans home.
"Not many homes are available for the Palauans to come back. So we're working with state governmnets, traditional leaders to provide land for these homes to be built."
Senator Whipps also favours increasing the minimum wage but says a company tax on importing foreign workers could also help Palauans find employment.
"There's 6,500 foreign workers that work in Palau and less than 6,000 Palauans that work. So many countries which is either they charge a high visa for foreign workers to come in, for example the United States charges a huge visa if you want to bring somebody from the Phillipines to Guam as a worker. My understanding is it's about 100,000 dollars to do that."
Senator Whipps advocates imposing a company tax, and taxing goods and services, to replace revenue he warns could be lost through changes to US funding in 2024. But the President's man Mr Kazuo says the Senator is exaggerating.
"The Compact of Free Association between the United States and Palau is not ending in 2024. It's continuing until 2044. 2024 just signifies a date for us to get back on the table and review it and see what we need to do next."
Senator Whipps maintains, however, that Palau needs more money.
"To run our government today costs 100 million dollars we collect 16 million dollars in revenue. The problem that we have with our government is we don't collect enough revenues to take care of the basic services that we need. For example we have a sewer that's overflowing, roads are getting run down, hospitals not in the best shape, so we need funding, there's no question."
But Mr Kazuo says the President is seeking re-election to continue infrastructure development.
"We're starting major construction work overhauling our sewer system, overhauling our water distribution system. We're working with Japan to overhaul our entire electricity distribution lines. The objective now is to keep that momentum going."
President Remengesau has refurbished the Republic's schools and plans to lay fibre optic cable next year, but Mr Kazuo wouldn't comment on how running against his brother in law is affecting the President's family. Senator Whipps says the President is uncomfortable.
"I hope he doesn't continue to take it personally it really has nothing to do with the family I'm not taking his boat away from them all we're doing is letting the people decide who should be their captain. I wish him the best on Tuesday. At the end of the day, we're still family, my wife is still his sister and will never stop loving him and that's the way it should be."
Surangel Whipps says whoever is elected president, he hopes he and Tommy Remengesau continue to work together to make a better Palau.
