Two weeks
p. 34 · Read in the full issue
Government dares executives to take on challenge
ttr . i „_i i i i t? i 1 took the board position because I vc always said that it isn’t fair to criticise if when you’re offered the opportunity to help, you don’t”
ago, I raised hell in the newspaper about Social Security,
criticising the new board and the government for being slow to act,” Jack
Niedenthal told a Chamber of Commerce meeting in early April. “The new government immediately put me on the board of directors.”
It’s an indication of the new environment in the Marshall Islands since the election of Kessai Note as President in January.
Talk used to be cheap in the Marshall Islands, where if you were the wrong political stripe, you could complain until you were blue in the face to no effect.
Nowadays, the government of President Kessai Note seems to be saying, “Okay guys, put your money where your mouth is.”
The appointments of government critics Yoda Nysta, Maria Fowler and Niedenthal to Social Security, and local construction honcho Jerry Kramer - a businessman never
short on advice - and Baron Bigler, who manages the flag of convenience ship
registry, to Air Maarshall Islands is settingg the tone in the retform minded Maarshall Islands these days.;.
“I took the board position,” Kframer said, “because I’ve always said tthat it
isn’t fair to criticise if when
you’re offered the opportunity
to help you don’t.”
Local boards now are
peppered with independent
business people and government critics wlho’ve never before been given the nod by the government to put in their “two cents” where it counts.
Niedenthal supervises the Bikini Islanders’ US$2OO million nuclear trust fund while Kramer operates the largest construction company on the island.
Individuals such as them are now bringing organisational and business acumen to the boards of quasi-government agencies. In turn, they are providing ammunition for the change evident in the operation of these government and quasi govemment agencies in the new millennium. ■
lack Niedenthal, newly appointed board member