The CNMI’s elected officials who oppose Interior’s recommendation claim to speak on behalf of their constituents. Well, then, put it on the November ballot and let’s see if what they say is true. Surely CNMI officials can consult CNMI voters directly and democratically through a referendum.
In his testimony before the Bordallo panel on May 18, the governor correctly pointed out that based on Section 6(g) of the federalization law, Interior’s report to Congress was supposed to have been made in consultation with the CNMI. But he failed to mention that he refused to be consulted because he knew what the recommendation would be. In any case, he did tell the panel about his “plan to discuss with the CNMI Legislature whether a referendum be prepared on this subject for consideration of the commonwealth’s voters” this November.
I say go for it.
Whether the U.S. Congress will act on Interior’s recommendation is, of course, up to the U.S. lawmakers, but that doesn’t prevent CNMI officials from wanting to hear the voice of the people who put them in office.
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Advocates of the indigenous people like to point out that CNMI voters can’t participate in U.S. presidential elections. That’s true, but only because the U.S. president is elected by the states and not the people. This is why Chamorros and Carolinians who have moved to any of the 50 states or the District of Columbia and have become registered voters there can cast their ballots in a presidential election. Likewise, statesiders who now reside in the CNMI and in other territories and have chosen to be registered voters of these islands cannot vote in a presidential election.
The U.S. is a union of states, and the drafters of its constitution had no idea that over 100 years later, their nation would acquire faraway islands with small populations.
Still, the U.S. granted the people of these islands U.S. citizenship, and although they don’t pay federal income tax, their commonwealth receives millions of dollars in federal assistance each year. Over 70 percent of NMI voters, moreover, overwhelmingly ratified the Covenant which made these islands part of the U.S. The feds, for the most part, have deferred to the wishes of the local people regarding local matters. Hence, Article 12 and the temporary exemption from federal minimum wage and immigration law which could only be extended to the islands “in the manner and to the extent made applicable to them by the Congress by law after termination of the Trusteeship Agreement.”
When the federalization law was still a bill, the U.S. House conducted a hearing on island and there were consultations with CNMI leaders. A provision for a non-voting delegate was included in the measure and the controversial non-immigrant status for guest workers was deleted due to the opposition of the CNMI and Guam.
I see no reason why the U.S. Congress would not, once again, listen to the concerns of the local people of the CNMI, this time regarding Interior’s recommendation.
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In defending its combative stance regarding federalization issues, the Fitial administration says the states, too, have been suing the feds. But the CNMI is not a state. It’s a small territory with one delegate to Congress who only votes in committees. A state, in contrast, has voting members in both houses of Congress. It has electoral votes. States have more political clout in the nation’s capital. This is why territories tend to stick together in D.C. and avoid antagonizing any of the two major parties in the U.S. But in the 1990s, the CNMI decided to cast its lot with the U.S. Republicans by hiring GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff — a move enthusiastically supported by the current governor…even though it doomed local control over immigration.
The governor, alas, persists in his non-productive and costly “confrontation” with the feds by deploying rhetoric and even political retreads from the TT era.
Consistent failure has, so far, not deterred the governor from his misguided course. When will CNMI voters finally tell him, “Enough already; it’s time to move forward”?
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