Editorials
Thursday, January 9, 1997
OHA election lawsuit proposal is outrageous
A proposal by two Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees defeated in their bid for re-election to drop their lawsuit against OHA in exchange for jobs has all the trappings of an attempted holdup. OHA Chairman Clayton Hee has frowned on the outrageous proposal, but OHA's arms remained raised as it nears a deadline to submit its budget proposal to the Legislature. State officials should end their paralysis and not allow the suit to further disrupt OHA's operation.
Moanike'ala Akaka and Samuel Kealoha contend in the suit that they were defeated because a number of eligible OHA voters were not given ballots by precinct officials. The state Supreme Court announced last month that it would issue a ruling in March. Chief elections officer Dwayne Yoshina, following the advice of Attorney General Margery Bronster, has declined to certify the elections results until that happens.
Kealoha and Akaka will gladly drop their suit if OHA hires them as consultants to play a part in budget decisions, help put out the agency's newsletter and head a task force investigating the very allegations in their lawsuit. Of course, OHA would have to pay them not only consultant fees and staff salaries but reimbursement for their legal fees.
In California, Bob Dornan, defeated in his bid for re-election to Congress, has launched a legal challenge to victor Loretta Sanchez, but that did not delay the reconvening of Congress on Tuesday. By the same token, the Akaka-Kealoha suit should not stand in the way of the OHA board carrying on its business. If state law somehow allows a legal challenge to election results to freeze a government agency's operation, then it needs changing badly.
Before Kealoha and Akaka made their proposal to work as paid consultants, Hee offered to allow them to take part in budget talks. In the absence of any court order, Hee should rescind that offer, seat their successors in a temporary capacity and get on with the work of preparing a budget proposal. If Kealoha and Akaka don't like it, let them sue.
North Korea's apology
NOBODY should nurse the illusion that North Korea has been stricken with remorse for landing infiltrators in South Korea by submarine last September. Pyongyang did indeed issue an apology, but with the utmost reluctance. It took 10 arm-twisting negotiating sessions over three weeks for U.S. officials to extract a satisfactory statement.
The apology eases tensions on the Korean peninsula, but the regime in Pyongyang remains unpredictable and dangerous. It seems too much to hope that real peace will break out in Korea anytime soon. In its dealings with North Korea, the Clinton administration must take care that it does not assist Pyongyang's efforts to undercut South Korea.
Hair-eating dolls
WE don't get it. A major toymaker is voluntarily removing a hair-eating Cabbage Patch doll from store shelves and offering $40 to parents who want to return the dolls. Yet the company, Mattel Inc., and the government's Consumer Product Safety Commission maintain that the dolls do not present a serious hazard.
It seems that the manufacturer and the commission are trying to get rid of a problem without admitting that one exists. Mattel tests its products, but this one slipped through and generated a lot of unwanted publicity. After this fiasco, we bet the testing department gets beefed up.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
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