Government of the Federated States of Micronesia

President Joseph J. Urusemal's Message

On the Occasion
of the
Constitution Day
for the
Federated States of Micronesia

May 10, 2007


My Fellow Citizens,

On this 28th Anniversary of our Constitution, Vice President Killion joins me in extending our personal greetings and special respect to our traditional leaders, government officials, and other leaders in our communities and churches, and to you fellow citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia.

I extend the same to our development partners and friends of the FSM. Please accept my best wishes and congratulations on this historic day, the 28th year since Constitutional government. We deserve to celebrate for having reached this far in our history as a self governing nation, a status we affirmed without the slightest hint of bloodshed or human sacrifice.

This Constitution Day is unique in that tomorrow our new FSM Congress, the 15th Congress, will elect the new administration to guide us throughout the challenging times of high fuel cost and the threat of climate change and sea-level rise. Despite these continuing challenges and the shortcomings we have as a nation, I am proud to say that our cultural differences, customs and traditions have inherently dictated a united stand and respectful regard toward each other. This unique attribute has successfully contributed to the slow but healthy growth of this young nation.

On this day, we can all celebrate this important accomplishment and be proud that we keep faith with our Constitution and that our democracy remains strong. It is an achievement that each of us contributed, in our own respective ways - to its making no matter who you are and what you do as a citizen in your own communities. I therefore would like to take this opportunity to extend to all of you my sincerest appreciation and gratitude for your contributions in whatever way, big or small, that you have made during my administration as the President of the FSM. It has indeed been a great pleasure and honor to have been of service to you, my fellow citizens.

We have been blessed and endowed as a people, and we can be thankful for our constitutional inheritance. Much work lies ahead as we continue to build a Nation of four States, with tolerance and respect for our unique differences and similarities.

While we are grateful for the assistance given to us by our foreign friends and partners, it is our resources and our resourcefulness as a people that will be even more needed in the days ahead. This, my fellow citizens, will require nothing less than our great sense of unity and purpose as a nation and as a people.

In closing, we witnessed these past two months the passing of two of our beloved Founding Fathers - the Honorable Tosiwo Nakayama and his progressive colleague the Honorable John A. Mangefel. While the loss of these two statesmen left our nation grief stricken, it also reaffirms our Micronesian pride that we who have been the wards of other nations are the proud guardians of our own islands.

May God bless you all, and God bless our great Nation.