Rights of the Majority

For 21 years now, the basic principle in a democracy where the “majority rules” has been and continues to be violated by a Covenant provision granting minorities on Tinian and Rota greater political say on issues of importance for the entire Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

The tolerance of being ruled by the minority must be rectified and it behooves our Saipan senators to stand up and be counted in protecting this very basic tenet in a democracy. In other words, no longer must this principle be allowed willful violation where the rights and views of the majority is compromised via a defective statutory provision found under the Covenant Agreement.

As such, the three Saipan senators must veer-off any plans to join their minority colleagues in a lawsuit the Senate plans to file with the US Supreme Court that would basically allow the abrogation of the very basic tenets of the majority rules in perpetuity. If per chance Saipan senators subscribe to relegating such principle in the interest of political niceties, then it goes without that you have decided to suppress the interest of the very people you represent in the upper chamber. For once, let us right an historical wrong solely premised on convenience.

For 21 years, the rights of the majority has been relegated to the abyss of political power granted the minority. It has resulted in the blatant abuse of distribution of funds at the expense of the majority of Saipan taxpayers, including the annual utility subsidy of some $3 million while the struggling majority had to fork out payments lest they’d be denied such service. It has also given birth to a grossly unfair distribution of scholarship funds where students from Tinian and Rota receive more money (even while going to the same school) over Saipan students where the greater portion of taxes for this purpose originate.

All the while, there isn’t anything the majority could do to right this willful violation of a suspicious political right given that we’ve allowed, through the Covenant Agreement, a greater right for minority communities to hold the disposition of substantive issues hostage. Again we reiterate, Saipan senators must file an “Amicus Curiae” in support of putting an end to the violation of the basic tenets in a democracy where the “majority rules”.

Nowhere could such a new form of violative decision-making be found throughout the democratic world. Stand up and be counted. We will carefully watch how you dispose of the rights of the majority you represent in our legislative chambers. Si Yuus Maase`!