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THE WASHINGTON POST
Puerto Rico: A Moment Lost
EDITORIAL
December 24, 1998
©Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
WHAT WAS meant to be a defining moment for the American territory
of Puerto Rico dissolved into confusion in a status plebiscite
held on Dec. 13. The island's governor hoped the vote would start
a process leading from the existing "commonwealth" to
statehood. But for the third time, statehood got less than half
the vote -- 46.5 percent. The biggest vote, 50.2 percent, went
to a "none of the above" catch-all category supported
in good part by pro-commonwealth voters who were indulging a best-of-both-worlds
fantasy definition of commonwealth (many privileges, few obligations)
that Congress would never approve. The independence count fell
to 2.5 percent.
The plebiscite was a flop. It measured only erratically, not
conclusively, the sentiment on the island. It left Puerto Ricans
perhaps more divided. It left Congress without clear guidance
for its own deliberations on the future of a century-old colonial
territory whose nearly 4 million residents, while they enjoy local
autonomy and federal benefits, are second-class American citizens,
denied a voting part in the national government that rules them.
But it is not only the Puerto Ricans who have been unable to
get their act together. Congress is at similar fault. In the run-up
to the plebiscite, for instance, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) wrote
bipartisan legislation committing the United States to take the
key step of putting into binding effect any legitimate Puerto
Rican status choice. The Young bill passed the House, but Trent
Lott and Don Nickles mischievously blocked it in the Senate, leaving
Puerto Rico in the lurch.
Here lies the fault that must be remedied. Congress must select
and fairly define the Puerto Rican status choices it would be
prepared to accept. These would include a version of commonwealth
that enabled Puerto Rico to be governed in a fully democratic
manner, statehood, and nationhood of one sort or another -- independence
or "free association." It would then be up to Puerto
Ricans to make an informed and realistic decision among them.
The decision and the resulting transition may take years. But
nothing less will satisfy the obligation to convert an imperial
property into a place of dignity for American citizens who are
equal in rights to all others.
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