Consultation, consultation, consultation

I keep reading about the lack of consultation with the CNMI people by federal authorities and our delegate, Mr. Sablan, from the time he introduced a bill and the recommendation of the Department of the Interior to Congress to improve the status of foreign workers in the CNMI.

Now again, Delegate Sablan failed to call for public hearings and townhall meetings on the islands on his plan to support additional measures for pathway to U.S. citizenship for foreign workers such as S.744 and HR 15 to get input from the CNMI people. He named only four people who provided recommendations for and against improved status for foreign workers.

You see, Delegate Sablan conducted many, many townhall meetings in the past and has sharpened his speechmaking skills on other issues of lesser importance than the fate of the CNMI people and in particular the indigenous population. But he skillfully chooses to avoid meeting with his constituency on the issue of “pathway to US citizenship for foreign workers” because he knows and still cannot figure out how to respond to questions and concerns that are surfacing now in newspapers, TV, and occasions like weddings, wakes, family gatherings. People are concerned and many feel betrayed. I feel betrayed. In one forum, when confronted why he introduced a bill to improve the status of foreign workers, he tried to walk out of his own townhall meeting, not wanting to face the music and answer compelling questions, then he realized that he cannot walk out of his own townhall meeting without embarrassing himself.

When a public official is put into public office it is always advisable to consult with the people that put you in that office on each and every issue that affect their lives because they have ways to get rid of you. Not re-electing you is just one of several options to bring you down from your pedestal.

The other thing that Delegate Sablan got himself in this dilemma is that he and Gov. Inos really think that the indigenous people are insignificant and poses no danger to their political ambitions. Wrong! Gubernatorial candidate Heinz Hofschneider is smart enough not to get embroiled in this boiling issue of improved status for foreign workers. The silent majority might just give him the benefit of the doubt come election time. What I find interesting also is the fact that while Gov. Inos has expressed his support of Delegate Sablan’s re-election, the delegate has not uttered a word of support for IT. Interesting to wait and see who betrays who at the end of the day.