Overview:
Fuel prices above wages, rising costs, and growing public frustration are raising questions about the role of government in protecting citizens from economic pressures. In this opinion piece, Dudalm Kelulau argues that Palau’s leaders must prioritize affordability, relief programs, and people-centered policies over decisions that place more burdens on households already struggling with inflation and high living costs.
Dear Editor:
When the price of fuel is higher than the hourly wage of the average worker, something is deeply wrong. In Palau today, fuel remains above $7 a gallon while wages hover at $5 an hour. Yet instead of relief, President Surangel Whipps has chosen to slash the PPUC subsidy while maintaining the Palau Government Stress Tax (PGST). This decision leaves ordinary citizens carrying the burden of global inflation, rising costs, and stagnant wages, while corporations continue to benefit from credits and refunds.
This is not a new pattern. From his first year in office, the slogan “Palauans First” has echoed across speeches and campaigns. But in practice, it has often meant “Palauan Corporations First.” Subsidies are cut, taxes remain, and the people are told to budget better while the government operates like a business. The result is stress, not just financial, but social, as families struggle to meet obligations and keep up with rising costs.
Leadership is not about running government like a corporation. It is about protecting citizens from the harshest edges of the global economy. Other leaders around the world have shown what is possible when government acts boldly. President, Ministers, Senators, Delegate and Governors, study what Mr. Zohran Kwame Mamdani, the 34-year-old mayor of New York City, who governs a population of 8.5 million, far larger than Palau’s 20,000. Within a year of taking office, he implemented rent stabilization, secured $1.2 billion for universal childcare, launched free public transit pilots, created a tenant protection office, and invested $20 million in community health initiatives.
If a mayor of a city can deliver such tangible relief, why can’t Palau’s leaders provide basic support for power subsidies and food costs? Why can’t they design programs that lower the cost of living, raise wages, and protect families from economic shocks? The answer lies not in capacity but in priorities. When government is run like a business, profit comes first. When government is run for the people, relief comes first.
Palauans deserve more than slogans. They deserve leadership that recognizes the absurdity of fuel costing more than wages, that understands subsidies are not luxuries but lifelines, and that sees taxation as a tool for equity rather than stress.
We are told to budget better, but no amount of budgeting can fix a system where the math itself is broken. If leaders continue to prioritize corporations over citizens, then Palau will keep “going to hell in a handbasket” made in china, imported from US, taxed with PGST, and sold back to us at a premium, that includes PGST.
Everything for everyone and nothing for ourselves. That is the principle we must reclaim, a government that sacrifices for the people, not one that sacrifices the people for profit.
Your Humble Servant
Dudalm Kelulau