Unfortunately, I was dead wrong.
For the past decade, repeatedly, we had never said for anyone to be sacrificial lambs or, for us average citizens, be served on a silver platter. Like everyone else, I envisioned the CNMI to flourish once again and to see a boost in morale on people’s faces. Just a little wishful comfort after years of sour politics; sadly, it is still happening.
The folks on the hill still have not closed the books of the past. We seem to have our depressive state circling and circling without cease. I asked, “What is needed for this current lawmaking body to reach a consensus?”
Really, this is not a time of political rivalry. People’s lives and welfare is at stake. A thousand jobs lost equates to 4,000 in a family of 4, or more, without bare necessities. By comparison, a legislator’s suspended months’ worth of salary is just chunk change (hardly a dent in deep-pockets!), compared to the countless many who live paycheck to paycheck.
Why did the legislators have to work on the fiscal budget expeditiously at “zero hour?” This could have all been prevented and business will be as usual if they had just acted on it months before. Like any other lawman, the attitude is typical of most, if not all. The so-called I don’t care attitude, which I have already adjusted to, is still a norm, no matter who is on board. When it’s campaign season time, we saw diction and articulateness in an aspirant’s personal form, but to what cost? It’s the usual rubbish and rhetoric, past and present aspiring lawmaking lies.
Then, whenever there is a newly elected official of my choosing is on board, I thought to myself that this individual will rule with an iron fist and will deliver the word of the people. Willing to throw the book at anyone who thinks that questionable topics would not benefit the underprivileged.
I was still dead wrong.
We were sold time and time again to the devil’s game. Same ol’ “politricks” in the good ol’ Marianas.
Why can’t they walk the talk? Why did they run for office? Respect? Having your name engraved on a plaque? A name for themselves? What? Where is the promise they said they would uphold?
Surely, this is politricks at its finest form. As weariness starts to set in our minds and the future of the CNMI is in peril, more than ever, we deeply are in need of a potential bailout solution that, of course, it is just a figment of my imagination.
If this is reality, then what would be the 2012 fiscal budget? The government must concede that the system is broken and go back to the drawing board and start all over. The experts are not from pricey firms off-island, but the intelligent minds who offer simple solutions that don’t even work for the government.
I think it is time to exercise our constitutional rights and impeach these incompetent high-rollers. But even with impeachment, nothing but silence in the chambers. Who will vote who off? Maybe there’s a need of a popular initiative to change the present law.
Remember, a weak lawmaking body always constitutes to a weak government. How much more can we tolerate this type of harsh punishment being imposed on the innocents? Where do we see ourselves 10 years from today?
If this could all be a dream.
VINCE G. CABRERA
Chalan Piao, Saipan
