Transcript
TOMMY REMENGESAU: This was certainly the toughest campaign race that I have encountered and fought, and the challenge of campaigning in the public and also on the personal side of my family. It's a bittersweet victory in a way, because this is not supposed to be happening in Palauan culture and society.
KOROI HAWKINS: Yes, yes. And is everything OK with the family as this has now come to a conclusion?
TR: Well, we'll have to go through a healing journey that's for sure. I mean you can't fight it out in the public and then expect to come home and have dinner across the table, you know, it's just not realistic human nature. So trust will have to be earned, we have to mend the wounds and all the negative things that were said against my incumbency, we have to try and separate matters. But it's something I don't wish to happen to anybody or any family. It was a Goliath and David battle, too. I mean, my brother-in-law is clearly the richest man in Palau. It is not supposed to happen this way, so I'm also asking the incoming Congress to look at election campaign spending and reform our electoral process.
KH: Right, now moving to your return to the presidency, what is your vision for Palau?
TR: Well my vision for Palau is very much in line with my vision of making sure that we have a sustainable future for Palau and it has a lot to do with balancing growth, development and the protection of our environment and our cultural and social assets. So it continues to be a planned development based on quality high-end tourism as well as the protection of and maintenance of our number one golden asset - or blue asset - the ocean and the environment.
KH: I understand that criticism from your opposing candidate was around job creation and the like. Is there any response to that?
TR: We have a 1.1% unemployment rate. So there is really nothing significant about our unemployment problem here. It's an old election issue, but the reality is the [Asia Development Bank] and the World Bank has determined that our unemployment rate is the lowest in the Pacific. People who, by nature, are termed as unemployment are actually self-employed fishermen who make more money than most government 7:30-4:30 daily employees. So we have to import, really, about 4,000-5,000 foreign labourers to Palau because the employment opportunities are more than what our people are able to get. So that's the challenge, is to try to entice more of our young people abroad to come back to Palau. It doesn't really help that we have free migration to the United States to live and work there and educate ourselves there, which is fine, but at the same time we need to raise the minimum wage, we need to provide housing and to make it more attractive for our children to stay home and to come back home. Those are initiatives that I have already proposed. It doesn't require a presidential decree, it requires Congress to act on my initiatives which are before it.
KH: Absentee ballots again proved to be the decider in this election as in the previous one I understand. Was there some issues around legality? Are there some legal issues, is there to be legal challenges do you know?
TR: No. Elections in Palau have always been very fair and conducted honestly, the only difference in it this time was to bring in cameras to do oversight. But all candidates have come out and thanked the public for a peaceful and well-conducted [election]. We do need to buy new tabulation machines so we can get the results much quicker. Those are things that I will ask Congress for money to provide. Otherwise we allow dual citizenship so our citizens abroad can continue to vote in accordance to our constitution and the laws of the land.
KH: So it's back to business, but I have to ask: A Trump presidency, what does it mean for Palau?
TR: Well there's an element of uncertainty. Rhetorics that were said during the campaign certainly causes concern for not just Palau, but for the region and the rest of the international community. But there's an element of reality now that President Trump is coming into, but now we're all looking forward to working with the leader of the free world. The United States is our best friend and ally, and we're going to work with whoever is President.
