Saipan Sucks (formerly SaipanSucks.com, now saipansucks.weebly.com) is apolitically andsociallycritical website about theUnited StatesCommonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), particularly its principal island andseat of government,Saipan. The website brings attention to what it alleges as systemic societalcorruption in the CNMI. SaipanSucks.com held its own domain between 2001 and September 2014 but later moved to a subdomain.
Credited as "sticking a giant wrench" into the CNMI's entire tourism industry and the island government's efforts to recruit off-island talent for over more than a decade, the website and its commentary has been reported in a variety of local,[1][2] regional,[3][4] and international[5] newsprint and magazine outlets, onABC Radio Australia,[6] andInternet forums[7][8] andblogs.[9]
The website became a subject of intense debate and scrutiny in the CNMI legislature and by the island's governor, who together threatened the author with adefamation lawsuit. Lacking adequate grounds and likely fearinglegal discovery in any attempt, the government's lawsuit never came to fruition after acounterclaim.[1][10]
SaipanSucks.com's author is celebrated in the 2012 novelThe Master Blaster by author and former SaipanPeace Corps VolunteerP. F. Kluge.[11]
Saipan Sucks calls attention to what it alleges to be systemic societal problems in the CNMI that are supported by misuse of United States taxpayer money. Press outlets have widely quoted the following excerpt from the website:[1][2][3][4][10][12]
Nepotism rules on the islands. Fueled by money paid by American taxpayers and diverted to the far-off territory, politicians run for office primarily for the sake of being in a position to appoint their relatives to high-payingsinecures.
The website levels allegations ofcorruption,racism,nepotism,jury-rigging,worker exploitation,employment discrimination, and mismanagement of the CNMItourism industry by local CNMI officials, and seeks to warn U.S. mainlanders about moving to the islands to accept employment offers.[1][2][3][4][10][12]
Since July 2001, shortly afterSaipan Sucks was published, CNMI government officials criticized the website'sanonymity and characterized it as a "smear campaign". Stemming from its reported investigations, the CNMI government threatened tosue the website's author fordefamation but ultimately lacked adequate grounds to do so.[1][10][13] The website author's response to the CNMI government was to state that they have "apparently never heard of theFirst Amendment to theUnited States Constitution … Is it possible the investigators don't recognizepolitical andsocial commentary when they see it?"[12]
In November 2006, a localenvironmental group, Beautify CNMI!, decried the website's highPageRank in search engines such asGoogle, and the fact that anyone who searches with thekeyword "Saipan" could find the website in the top-ten search result positions. The group published an ultimately unsuccessful plan to counter the website's ranking through a campaign oflinkspamming viaGoogle bombing andtext anchoring.[2][3][4][6][14]
All along, counter-critics who are eitherChamorros (indigenous people of Saipan) or those otherwise knowledgeable about the CNMI have maintained that, althoughSaipan Sucks useshyperbole as aliterary device, what it states is eitherlegally true or subject toopinion privilege.[15][16][17]
Saipan Sucks was written by a person or persons going by the pseudonym "Forgetabilia". Reported investigations carried out by the CNMI government in July 2001 led to an alleged belief about a real identity behind this persona.[10][18] Later, on November 16, 2006, a CNMIdaily alleged thatSaipan Sucks was written by a former CNMI AssistantAttorney General, who the daily reported as having "disliked his position" in the CNMI.[2] The same day, a regional publication denied the claim, reiterating that the author or authors remain anonymous.[4]Saipan Sucks closes by stating, "As for the authors of this essay, our days inMicronesia have ended … In all likelihood we shall remain happily for the rest of our days ensconced in anonymousLongnesia, suffering, with a little luck, from a selective am-nesia. Hence our name – Forgetabilia."[12]
As of September 10, 2014, the website was no longer available at its unique domain, SaipanSucks.com, but was re-published at saipansucks.weebly.com.