A lynch mob for the CUC board

I have been following the fiasco with the CUC board and it is clear to me that we now have a lynch mob asking for their hanging without any form of due process. The idea that the Legislature made a recommendation based on “suggestion and appearance” of corruption and collusion is disturbing, to say the least. How would any person want to be branded with corruption and collusion without any real “proof”? I’m sure the average person will say “it’s not fair” and they would be right.

No one ever said that maintaining and upholding the principles and values of America like “due process” was going to be easy and we should know this from the fact that everyone including the CUC board are innocent until proven guilty. Now the governor is facing a very difficult decision that I wouldn’t wish on anyone, not even a judge, especially when the case was never tried, with no real proof of guilt. We should all be wondering why there hasn’t been any indictments or anything formal brought against the board if there was so much collusion and corruption going on. The hearings in the Legislature do not constitute “due process” and only represents “due politics.” A political solution is not the judicial solution we need, want, and deserve.

I am not trying to say the board is innocent or guilty but I am saying we should want more solid evidence before hanging the entire board. Yes, there are some things that are very questionable but questionable means we need real answers, not “suggestions and appearances.” It also seems that no thought was given to the fact that some of the board members have other obligations and jobs that would be adversely affected by their removal for “collusion and corruption,” giving the appearance that they have been found guilty when they were never given an opportunity to defend themselves. In fact, the Legislature’s hearings were more of a “trial” of the board and the GPSM Co., where only one board member spoke but no proof was ever offered. I admire the Legislature for taking an interest in the matter but to issue a conviction recommendation was not right or fair to the board, GPSM and the governor who is now being asked to violate his fiduciary duty to the Constitution, the board members’ rights and plain old-common sense to be fair and objective.

All boards retain the “right” to go into executive session and just because a member of the Legislature was against the CUC board going into executive session they are now being charged with all kinds of wrongdoing based on no facts about what was said or done in the executive session. This is just one reason why “formal charges” need to be levied so that the records of the executive sessions can be made public. When I was on the PSS board there were many times we went into executive session because of the sensitivity of the matter and no one on the board, including myself, wanted the matter blown out of proportion by making it public.

I was once of those who previously complained about the CUC board long ago and I even tried recently to become a member but I am a person who seeks solutions and I do not carry grudges or a chip on my shoulder, which I could have easily done with this issue. I also wanted to put my two cents in because I know what is right and fair because a lynch mob never really solved any problems. So are we now going to change every board that goes into executive session because someone doesn’t like it? We are a nation of laws, principles, and values, not lynch mobs, and we should uphold all the attributes of our great nation regardless of the challenge.

Ambrose M. Bennett
Kagman, Saipan