Editorials
Wednesday, January 21, 1998HAWAIIAN activists are all worked up about Rep. Ed Case's proposal to merge the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. They're threatening to demonstrate against Case's bill in Waikiki and the airport. If they tell the tourists to go home they'll only be hurting Hawaiians who work in the visitor industry, plus OHA and DHHL, which depend on state funding. Merging OHA, DHHL might make sense
In any event, demonstrating won't be necessary. They have the legislators intimidated already. Case may be the only member of the Legislature who is willing to defy the wrath of the Hawaiian activists. His proposal has no chance.
However, introduction of the bill serves the purpose of bringing the issue to the public's attention and perhaps getting people to think about it. The Hawaiian activists claim that they alone should decide these issues - including the biggest one, sovereignty - but they're wrong. All the residents of the state would be affected. Any change would have to be ratified by the voters, either directly or through their elected representatives.
Moreover, the debate over sovereignty has thus far failed to produce a consensus in the Hawaiian community. A unified position on sovereignty may be years away at best.
There is sound reasoning behind Case's proposal, but because it comes from a non-Hawaiian it has been rejected out of hand by the activists. OHA and DHHL have been subjected to withering criticism in the past. They might function more effectively under the proposed reorganization.
Fortunately, Case says he knows he is the lightning rod for criticism and is willing to accept that role in the hope that eventually people will calm down and discuss the issue rationally. Unfortunately, that time has yet to come.
INDONESIA'S President Suharto has decided to seek a seventh five-year term in the March election. With Suharto's victory all but certain in the tightly controlled process, that decision does not give Indonesia the fresh leadership it needs to dig itself out of the current economic abyss. Suharto's decision
An army general, Suharto seized power in the wake of the 1965 abortive communist coup and never relinquished it. But he is now 76 and appears to be in poor health. With Indonesia caught in the wave of collapsing markets that has swept East Asia, the country badly needs a younger, more vigorous leader who is not identified with the discredited policies and corruption of the past. Instead of stepping down, however, Suharto was quoted by the head of the ruling Golkar party as agreeing to accept the nomination.
Indonesian markets, which had plunged after Suharto appeared to be trying to back out of commitments to reform the economy that had been made to the International Monetary Fund, turned upward last week after Suharto accepted the IMF's conditions. But those gains could be nullified by fear of disorder.
The current turmoil should have been a signal to Suharto to step aside in favor of a personally selected successor. Because he apparently hasn't, the speculation turns to his choice of a vice presidential candidate who might succeed him, possibly as early as the Golkar party's next convention, in August. Although opposition candidates may be fielded in the March election, their chances of victory are remote.
More than 30 years ago, as a much younger army commander, Suharto stepped into a chaotic situation and restored order. He should have recognized that today's conditions require a new leader, such as he once was but is no more. But it may not be too late for him to change his mind.
THREE giant companies have launched a major offensive in the high-stakes war in cyberspace, forming a consortium to pave an information highway that will accommodate speeds that most people today can neither afford nor imagine. By Christmas, the consortium hopes to have on store shelves computer modems and software that will allow World Wide Web images to appear almost instantly across a telephone line still open for voice calls. Race in cyberspace
The move is the latest in a battle between telephone companies and cable companies over Internet access. The consortium is comprised of Compaq Computer Corp., the world's largest maker of personal computers; Intel Corp., the largest manufacturer of microprocessors, the brains of personal computers, and Microsoft Corp., the largest maker of software that makes up a computer's operating system. They have teamed up with GTE Corp. and four of the five Bell telephone companies to set technical standards for accessing the Internet.
Consortium officials say the products would allow computer users to plug into a normal phone line and remain connected to the Internet at all times without having to dial a service provider and without interrupting ordinary voice telephone usage. The speed of the service could lead to video approaching television quality.
Such service already is available from cable companies, including Oceanic Cablevision in some parts of Oahu. However, only about 100,000 people in the country have signed up for cable modems and the service is available to only 10 percent of homes.
The success of the consortium's plan may rely on the assumption increasingly held by electrical engineers that standard copper telephone wires can handle the bits of information required for Internet access through new technology known as digital subscriber line. The technology has been under development for years but has lacked the agreement on technical standards now set by the consortium and the phone companies.
The good news for consumers is that both the phone companies and the cable companies appear poised for fierce competition. These struggles hopefully will continue far into the future.
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
