Basic Tenet: The Majority Rules!

It is basic tenet in a democracy that the majority rules. Such should have been the case here with respect to the composition of the CNMI legislature. But such isn’t true. It’s a sterling case of the Minority Rules!

In other words, Tinian and Rota decide what’s good and appropriate for the majority on Saipan in stranglehold fashion. Such legal right must be rectified once and for all. And my salute to former Congressman Stanley Torres and Jean Rayphand for litigating the issue now before the US Supreme Court.

This inequity was born in 1972 when the Covenant Agreement was under negotiations. It was a critical document envisioned to showcase to the rest of Micronesia that the political relationship being sought can work. Rota knows the game plan and a powerful politico had the Marianas Political Status Commission under the gun: either they insert the provision that grants Rota and Tinian greater political right or no deal. The MPSC succumbed.

This arrangement not only violates the basic tenets of equality under a republican form of government, but has resulted in the inequitable distribution of taxpayers money most of which have gone to the smaller senatorial districts. Such inequities include more scholarship money for students hailing from Tinian and Rota while scholars from Saipan must make do with bread crumbs. In other words, students going to school abroad from Tinian and Rota are given more money than students from Saipan where a majority of tax funds earmarked for scholarships originate. This is just one sterling inequity under the current arrangement. Students from Saipan must ask: Is this right?

At a time when funds in the local coffers have come in by trickles, Rota was allowed your tax money to the tune of some $100,000 for its Labor Day Picnic. Wish we had that money too in that it is here (Saipan) where most workers are stationed. But this convenient and unscrupulous disposition of your tax money is the result of the two senatorial districts having more than their share of political power. This inequity must come to an end forthwith. Saipan taxpayers must no longer tolerate such willful violation of their basic right. It’s high time that this anomaly is rectified once and for all!

Then there’s the obvious violation of a political right by the two smaller senatorial districts: they want every penny they’ve generated, i.e., the Tinian gaming industry but have sought money from the local CNMI coffers to cover their inadequacies. How far must we allow such abuses? Since when is it legally right (under a republican form of government that a combined population of less than 10,000 people literally decide for the larger 40,000 people on Saipan? Hello? How sad that the lights are on but nobody seems to be home.

The perpetuation of violating the basic tenets of the “majority rules” must not be allowed any further than what we’ve endured over the last 23 years. Enough is enough! I sincerely hope too that the US Supreme Court rights a violation of the rights of the majority to decide what’s better for most of the people in a democracy.

What’s interesting though is the apparent acquiescence of the current violative arrangement by our Saipan senators. Perhaps, they’ve missed the boat completely or have simply decided to play sanctimonious diplomacy to appease their Rota colleagues. What grand fashion to consistently compromise the rights of the very people you represent in the legislature. This warrants critical review up ahead and I will have no mercy shooting down your political career in the best way I know how. Think about it. Let’s rally behind Torres and Rayphand. It’s time that we allow the basic tenets of democracy where the “Majority Rules!”