Demand accountability, transparency!

Please consider this observation from Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass as you ponder the workings and crisis (mis)management charades being imposed on you by the friendly folks at Government Central on Capital Hill. To wit: “If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary-wise, what it is it wouldn’t be, and what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”—Tweedledee and Tweedledum

With that thought provoking tautology to inform you, please also consider another small revelation: The CNMI economy is in trouble. Okay, so we already knew that. But it’s true, the economy is in the doldrums, right? No! Worse! Well then, the economy has fallen into general recession. Oh, no! Worse still! The truth is that we’re teetering on the brink of a dead-on, free fall depression, ladies and gentlemen! Of course, if you’re a creative thinker, our personal and public financial woes could all be viewed differently. It could be that there’s really nothing wrong with the CNMI economy that a little MORE recession wouldn’t fix. Yes, just a little more recession! What this economy may just need is a few more unemployed professional politicians. Feel free to pick your favorites and tell them that personally, too, if you like. This is a democratic society, after all, isn’t it? Your voice counts, doesn’t it? In reality, the urgent need to achieve an economic fix in the CNMI is not a joke and it’s not simple. Repairing the damage in progress and the damage done in previous years by previous administrations and by a succession of ineffectual (yes, Tweedledee and Tweedledum again) legislatures will be a Herculean undertaking. But it has to start in earnest. And it has to start NOW.

The nasty, bald, crying truth is that it’s later than you think and the clock is ticking loud and fast. The Commonwealth faces an outright economic meltdown (a China syndrome of many variations…and the pun IS intended) with potential collapse of critical services, including its public schools and its mainstay retirement system, if the present course of tweedledee-tweedledum (mis)management and top-tier malfeasance cannot be stemmed. Mark my words. Furloughs with ALL pay suspended for hundreds of your children’s teachers has already been voted by the Board of Education and will soon take effect. The CNMI Retirement Fund has disallowed processing of future retirement for hundreds, if not thousands, of qualified potential future retirees and will withhold ALL of their earned money from them because the government that was supposed to have paid its share of fund costs has abandoned them. These are facts.

To have a real beginning, and to have any chance of a turnaround that will stem a full economic collapse, we will need first to establish TRUE transparency in government at EVERY level. The men and women who hold the reins of power in the CNMI must be compelled to be thoroughly accountable, responsible, reasonable, ethical and honest. Above all, they must yield to your demand that they serve the interests of the entire public first rather than serving their own comfort, convenience, ambitions and egos, not to mention the well-shielded personal bottom lines of some. This hope is in the hands of a conscientious, vocal, adamant, activist public. It lies with you. It is your responsibility…OUR responsibility…to see that any self-absorbed and shameless politicos you identify in the Legislature and in the administration unlock the doors of covert maneuvering, that their feet are held to the fire, that their noses are held to the grindstone, that the light of public scrutiny shines intensely on them at all times and that their eyes are focused straight ahead on the real business of solving the CNMI’s social, political and economic woes instead of on pointless posturing and railing against imagined enemies with self-serving diversion and deception.

To meet OUR responsibility now, we must get behind House Resolution 16-9, the much needed item of public business just introduced by the honorable Independent Representative, Tina Sablan. And we must get behind it NOW! House Resolution 16-9, for those who care (as well as for those who don’t), will require, among other things, that the Legislature provide the people of the Commonwealth with full and fair notice of House sessions and committee meetings, and improved access to the public records of the Legislature. It’s a good start. It’s necessary. And it’s LONG overdue. If these notions haven’t captured your attention yet, maybe a look at the governor’s recent bid to become Emperor of the Marianas will open your eyes. Yes, the esteemed Governor has suggested, and will apparently be granted, re-implementation of austerity holidays; suspension of numerous formerly paid public holidays; reduction of payment to the Retirement Fund (Yeow!); 100 percent full reprogramming authority; suspension of certain funds; and permission for the executive branch to tap into unused public funds. Double yeow! And now that the Governor has his three new officials sworn onto the Public Utilities Commission, what might that mean for CUC? Well, while the governor is busy reprogramming YOUR money, and everybody else’s money, what are you willing to bet (most everything you have is already on the table, you know) that we’ll all still be reprogramming our own VCRs and alarm clocks after every power outage if the power comes back on?

Do your homework, ladies and gentlemen of the Commonwealth. Make your list. Tell your elected officials what to do. And if they deny, defy, refute or refuse you…then stand up and tell them where they can go. But tell them something! Demand responsibility and accountability. Or demand resignations, retirement, restitution, or recall. Do not settle for the same old [expletive deleted]. The stakes are high. Demand adoption of House Resolution 16-9, the transparency measure authored by Rep. Tina Sablan. You can make responsible, trustworthy, and accountable government mandatory by the pressure you exert and by the legislation and other measures YOU support.