The courts have sided with the people and their decision speaks volumes about the principle of a government of, for and by the people.
How could someone who works for the people think that they could PUBLICLY declare keeping something a secret from the people they work for — duh?
Like many people in the community I had no doubt that Tina would win because she was fighting on “principles” which is what I teach my government students.
In Rep. Sablan’s own words “the principles of justice, democracy, and honest government have prevailed.”
Way to go Tina! Job well done!
But I will share this with you just to give you an example of the power of the principles Tina was fighting for and why it was easy to predict in this newspaper that she would win.
At one time in each school year I will tell my government students that the principles of American government are just as right and powerful as the Ten Commandments.
I will get that strange stare from students because they couldn’t make the connection like some of you may be doing right now.
But I go on to explain that there is no argument against “thou shall not kill” and equally so there is no argument against “equality and all men being created equal” and then they get it.
You can do this simple comparison with virtually all the core values and principles of America which is why we have the best government to date in the history of the world — the core values and principles of America.
So as you can see it is the principles that Tina was invoking that made her successful.
We are a nation of laws and like any country America has its share of bad people but it is people like Tina and millions of other good Americans that truly make America live up to its creed that makes our country so great- its what we stand for and not who we are.
Now we all know the governor has been “contemptuous” to the people and the Legislature by using CNMI funds when both houses of the Legislature, who represent the people, formally asked him in a resolution not to pursue the lawsuit.
There are also questions that still need answering like how much additional money was paid to other people and how much was spent on travel.
I personally think, hope and pray that Rep. Sablan will also follow the audit trail and look deeper into the “source” of the money that went into the governor’s fund.
We (the people) need to know if funds were put into the account from other sources that are not apart of the CNMI government — I don’t have to tell people with common sense how important it is for us to know.
With so much secrecy and defiance to comply with the Legislature we must look under EVERY rock.
Rep. Sablan has proven that “one person can make a difference” in our democracy.
She started as a concerned citizen and if she keeps it up she may very well be governor one day.
I have said on many occasions to my students and in my letters to the editor that there were only two keys given to us by the founders of America for a successful government, informed and active citizens.
These keys must also be used together as one is no good without the other.
Thanks to Rep. Sablan we (the people) will now be informed about the details of the lawsuit and it will be up to us (the people) to be active in this election to hold the governor accountable and to demonstrate our approval or disapproval of what the governor was obviously hiding from the people who hired him and can fire him.
One people one direction for open, accountable and effective leadership
AMBROSE M. BENNETT
Kagman, Saipan
