World Editorial Issue #2
June 11, 2017

By winning, we have been defeated: Ryccia's view on the June 11th plebiscite
By Ryccia

Puerto Rico, United States of America- Today was the June 11th plebiscite! And boy was this event magnificent! Statehood won with almost 98% of the votes! We won by a landslide!

...Actually, that's bizarre. Let's look a little closer.

Let's start off with the turnout

Turnout

Hmm, turnout was at nearly 23%. That's not...good.

Yes, only ~500,000 out of about 2.3 million registered voters in an archipelago of 3.5 million voted in this plebiscite. That's low. Very low. Pathetically low.

I cried inside when I saw these figures. In the school my mother was serving as a volunteer, I went to three out of the four classrooms where the votes were being held. Only statehood got double or even triple digits out of the 3 options (Statehood, Free Association/Independence, and Current Status *cough* colony *cough*). One classroom that I remember got these results:
-Statehood: 153
-Free Association/Independence: 2
-Current Status: 4
Total: 159

Why did this happen?

Well, there was a massive boycott, coupled with voter apathy. Both the main pro-status quo and pro-independence parties (the former is one of our two big parties *grumble grumble*) boycotted this plebiscite. The first did so out of differences on ideology and one reason that will come later, and the second boycotted this after the status quo was introduced in the ballot. In the original ballot there was only Statehood and Free Association/Independence, but a certain metropoli decided that the colony should be included, when we rejected it in 2012 by 54%. The US ruled in favour of colonialism. Sound familiar?

But, this plebiscite was binding, sanctioned even by the federal government! The main pro-statehood party said it was! No matter what, the result was final, untouchable! Pristine! The populares and independentistas were warned!

No.

Was it binding? Was it worth it?

As I've said, no. Sure, they must inform the US about this vote and its result, but this was not endorsed by the Justice Department, and I'd doubt a Republican-controlled Congress would let a broke latino territory with shaky proof of the voice of the people as a state. And worse, Trump's at the helm too. What a pity.

Even the BBC called it "non-binding". What a waste of public money.

Yes, in the very dire state we're in, the government spent a few millions on this disastrous vote. But they can't afford an honest audit, in hopes that some of those billions of dollars of debt were illegal and cancelled? Or help tackle the debt directly if you hate audits, even if millions of dollars is miniscule to our $70 billion debt? Invest in cash-strapped areas? Balance the budget a lil' bit?

No. They knew this was going to fail. They knew this will not be accepted by even the most foolish and naive in D.C. And still, they spent. Arranging a botched and obviously aesthetic event, just to gain a few political points with their diehard supporters. Sound familiar?

And now, they'll spend millions more of public money to go to Washington, in order to lobby for statehood (sound familiar?). Now, don't get me wrong. I want statehood as much as they do. I want equality for 3.5 million American citizens, not being able to go to Capitol Hill and have a say in how the nation is governed. In fact, some of us are even more patriotic than the Americans themselves. But this is not the way. It is clear to me that the PNP is just a corrupt gang of political elite thieves, deceiving honest-to-goodness statehooders for their benefit.

Is it worth sacrifing our people in order to achieve something we might not even get? We cannot afford this. I wish we could send delegates to lobby for our rights, but there are way more important things right now. How about corruption, nepotism and cronyism? How about our life-or-death financial crisis? How about our social degradation? How about poverty and double-digit unemployment? These are issues far more pressing than to spend millions on ideology.

Like Mao Zedong (sorry for quoting him) said, in the Japanese invasion: "We can't even discuss communism if we don't have a country on which to practice it". I would say in this situation: "We can't even discuss statehood if we don't have a land on which to survive".

We shouldn't celebrate

But the PNP has. They are currently celebrating as I write now a farse that wasted millions that we didn't have. I am all for statehood, but I want the main pro-statehood party to die. Because they're not realistic. This is not realistic. This is lunacy.

Celebrating something so shaky you cannot defend it with reason, facts or even accessible mathematical calculations is going insane. It's grasping at the very last straw, being childish and saying with no credible reason "MINE!". It is time to snap out of this fantasy, and do things right.

Despite probably having the best of intentions, this is not the statehood I want. We must have the people's true voice, be representatives of the public, of 3.5 million American citizens wishing equality in this colony, who are not heard. Honest warriors, vanguard of our liberty. But, no. They wish to be delegates of themselves. Of the diehard supporters they must please. Not of the Puerto Rican people. They didn't even care about their fellow citizens voting, basically echoing a feeling of "I'm better", "More for us", or even "Good riddance" against their fellow kin. These parties and politics have divided some of us into tribes solely based on politics and hating the other. Jobs in the public sector are sometimes even given based on how much you have contributed to and how loyal you are to the party in power, not because of merit or whatever. In fact, the ruling pro-statehood party has had a few problems with some of its supporters who worked for them in 2016 campaigns, disgruntled on how they are not able to get a job in the public sector or get rid of X or Y person at work because he's from the other party. Instead of looking at the bigger picture, even the most noble of causes can rot from the inside. Thanks to our greed and impatience. Rather than doing that, we should hoist our banner and clean up our act. I don't want a job from the party personally. I want to fulfill what I believe is the best course for our people.

We are at risk of dividing ourselves into political tribes. Our dignity as a people has been shattered. What else will we lose in the long-run? Our identity? It is very unprobable that we will divide each other so much we'll be actual tribes, considering that we are Puerto Ricans at core, but how much we hate the other from the other side of the political spectrum is so vivid, so alive, that it makes me want to cry and just leave for Alaska, where I can be the farthest away from this broken home.

And that is why, by winning, we have been defeated.

The Nova does not necessarily share the views of this editorial and/or writer