By Zaldy Dandan
Variety Editor

REPRESENTATIVE Taman’s legislative initiative that proposes the abolition of the municipal councils remains pending in the House probably because the rest of his colleagues are too scared in this election year to do the right thing and do away with an entity whose pointless existence costs this bankrupt government at least $1 million a year. Lawmakers are willing to increase your taxes by cutting your rebates while giving another tax break to the dying garment industry, which does not pay the BGRT, but they won’t even allow you to decide on an important cost-cutting proposal. It’s also probably because they believe you will ratify Candy Taman’s H.L.I. 15-15.
But at least Speaker Babauta is challenging the Saipan council’s “authority” to pass ordinances. The suffering people of Saipan are already subjected to the mostly bad laws being passed by the Legislature and the island’s legislative delegation. They don’t need another lawmaking entity, particularly one that has only three members. (Just imagine how easy it is for a majority bloc of two council members to inflict harebrained revenue-raising measures and new fees on businesses and ordinary taxpayers so that the council can afford to hire more “consultants” and other staffers.)
The people also don’t need a government entity to tell them that they have to form a neighborhood watch — as stated in the “ordinance” passed by the council — to prevent and deter criminal activities in their community. The entire point of a neighborhood watch is for ordinary citizens to organize themselves and work with law enforcement.
The CNMI’s problem is big government. And the mentality that there should be a government solution for all our problems — like telling us that we have to watch our own neighborhood and teenagers should not get pregnant, for crying out loud — is one of the main reasons why this government is bloated, wasteful and broke.
Ambrose Bennett, bless his heart, is a passionate and committed citizen of this commonwealth who cares deeply for its well-being. But his arguments for the empowerment of the councils, like those of the part-time legislature proponents, are based on abstractions that fly in the face of CNMI realities.
Ambrose wants clearly defined roles for the state- and local government levels in the CNMI like those established in the U.S. states. Hence, in the CNMI, the “state-level” entities are the governor’s office and the Legislature while the “local government” is the mayor’s office and the municipal council. Ambrose wants the governor and the Legislature to tackle state-wide, i.e., CNMI-wide, concerns and issues, and leave “local,” i.e., municipal, affairs to the mayors and councils. That’s how it works in the U.S. states.
Here’s the problem. The smallest state, in terms of population, is Wyoming with over 500,000 people. Its land area is 97,100 sq. miles. The CNMI, in contrast, has 70,000 people, more than half of whom are foreigners — that is, non-voters. The commonwealth’s total land area is 176.5 sq. miles. Saipan, which is about the size of the city of San Francisco, is about 12.5 miles long and 5.5 miles wide with a total land area of 46.5 sq. miles.
Not surprisingly, when the commonwealth began its existence in Jan. 1978, the mayor of Saipan, the seat of the CNMI government, found himself increasingly marginalized because the governor and the island’s legislative delegation were, and still are, tasked to propose and enact policies affecting the people here. The boundaries of “state” and “local” levels of government blurred and disappeared because the island has such a small community. Saipan lawmakers have to worry about immigration and wage hike issues AND providing tents and tables to their constituents. They have to pass the government’s budget while helping voters who need money for their CUC and cable TV bills.
Will allowing the three council members to pass more local laws improve anything in a small community whose lawmakers are already introducing hundreds of bills a year?
The mayor of Saipan is now a virtual figurehead. His main job, I think, is to chaperone exchange students to Japan or South Korea. The mayors of Tinian and Rota, on the other hand, can still act as mayors because of their islands’ distance from Saipan.
Will allowing the Saipan mayor to sign municipal ordinances solve anything in a small community where the governor already signs an average of 100 laws a year?
There will probably come a time when the CNMI people will clamor for more clearly defined roles of their state- and local-level governments. But right now their main problem is too much government with too many redundant entities whose existence is a burden on the already suffering people of the commonwealth.
Ambrose says there is a need to recall the intent of the American system of government. He’s right. What he didn’t mention though is the basic idea behind the political structure created by the American Founding Fathers: a LIMITED government with a system of restraints against its natural tendency to expand.
The CNMI, now more than ever, needs less not more government.

Send feedback to zdtion@lycos.com