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The people have spoken, so where's the change? |
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 04 May 2010 |
The people have spoken, so where's the change?
Staff Writer
Posted: 05/02/2010
The Navajo people in late 2009 voted in a referendum that sent a clear message: A majority of voters wanted the Navajo Council reduced from 88 members to 24.
That should have marked the end of the story right there, but as often tends to be the case with the Window Rock government, nothing is ever as simple as it should be.
Until two weeks ago and despite the vote, the Navajo Election Administration still was accepting applications for the current 88-member council. A judge has issued a restraining order to stop this, but none of the preliminary work to establish the 24-member council is done.
Meanwhile, President Joe Shirley Jr. and the council continue to snipe back and forth at each other.
Both sides are to blame for the attitude of hostility that has evolved between the legislative and executive branches, but the council has taken it to new heights. Since Navajo Attorney General Louis Denetsosise will not go along with their attempts to remove Shirley from power, they have started passing laws granting their own legislative counsel new authority to appoint special prosecutors and judges.
Keep in mind that all of this is to pursue charges of wrongdoing against Shirley that the attorney general has found to be insufficient, and charges that the council itself refuses to make public.
This has graduated from petty bickering into a full-blown constitutional crisis.
Almost every action the council has taken since the very beginning of this ordeal
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has seemed like a desperate attempt to hold onto power in the face of impending irrelevance. It is difficult to imagine an argument against enacting a plan that the Navajo people directly voted for, which only serves to make the council's attempts seem even more pathetic.
The referendum results should be the first and last word on the size of the council. Either the referendum's edict is carried out properly, or the Navajo government becomes an illegal institution operating without the authority of the people it claims to govern.
There is no room for debate.
http://www.daily-times.com/farmington-opinion/ci_15001264 |
