I’M sure there are many voters who want to see OUR Senate working on behalf OF the People and FOR the People to get some form of Justice BY our Legislature. I’m also sure many voters know these Republicans and even some Democrats in the past don’t pay any real attention to the cries, yells and pleads OF the People, even when they are public in the newspaper. We actually have some great Democrat leaders who do listen now but we still have some old Republican Loyalists who don’t listen or even bother to read the newspaper because they are so caught-up in their OWN Loyalty Agendas instead of addressing the desired agendas OF & FOR the People. I can personally attest to this phenomenon in my experiences with members of the Legislature who didn’t know I had written about issues facing them and the People, which is why I was able to say I TOLD YOU SO on sooooo many occasions in the past. Politicians who don’t read the paper can’t claim they are listening to the People they work FOR nor can they claim to be in-touch with the People and their concerns as we don’t have polls or anything else that expresses the opinions and concerns OF the People.
Great politicians “keep their ears-close-to-the-ground” in order to stay on top of what the People want them to do as WE are their employer. But too many voters have conceded their RIGHT to take ownership in OUR Government and become FOLLOWERS of Politicians instead of being the BOSSES of OUR Government. The House’s Impeachment and the Senate Trial that is looming presents real opportunities FOR the People to determine which politicians are really OF & FOR the People. The majority, except of Republican Loyalists, in the House have already PROVED that they are driven BY the People’s desire for “oversight & justice” and now it’s on the Senate to PROVE themselves worthy of being representatives OF and FOR the People.
We the People have already spent over $104,000 on a mainland lawyer FOR the Governor to fight against justice FOR the People and having to testify which was really an act of defiance and a slap in the face by the Governor to his employers — the People. He is actually making the People pay to protect him from justice and getting away with it even though he has an attorney in his office — talk about “being-PLAYED-on” or should I say being “PREYED upon” as both scenarios are TRUE! The outcome of the Senate Trial will have a tremendous effect on the outcome of the elections as the People are truly sick & tired of “being played-on and treated like stupid prey for votes.” The Governor was literally telling the Senate “Don’t believe your eyes & ears about the Evidence in the House Impeachment and that he can somehow talk his way out of this based on TAYA evidence.” Will the Senate be OF and FOR the People with their trial or will they have to be removed BY the People they work FOR because they failed to do their job?
Calling the Governor to testify will literally be a “death-trap” and the only question is who will end up being caught in this trap the Governor is trying to set FOR the Senate, not for him nor justice. The Senate Trial has already reached heights far about “Party Loyalty” to the level of being about “Government OF, FOR & BY the People” which is really not a hard test for the Senate to pass. But the very fact that I have to write about this trial driven by the overwhelming concerns OF the People FOR Justice BY our Senate employees speaks volumes to the high level of intrepidness being felt by voters. The Senate and the Governor will both be on trial and for sure and WE the People will find justice even if WE have to find it for ourselves in the voting booth, “as no-one-knows where your pencil goes.” So, if the Senate, especially the Republicans, want to act like they didn’t read this or know the sentiment OF the thousands of voters who support what I’m saying in wanting to see REAL JUSTICE, then WE the People will have to just PROVE in November that “WE are not a Government of Torres Loyalists” but the CNMI’s Government is truly a government “OF, FOR and BY the People,” as WE the People are NOT stupid.
The writer is an Economist, Political Scientist, retired teacher, former CNMI Board of Education Member, James Madison Fellow (U.S. Constitutional Scholar), a Fulbright-Hays & Humanities Scholar who resides in Kagman III.
Ambrose Bennett
