Editorials
Thursday, March 19, 1998THE task force that Governor Cayetano put together last year and that framed the proposals he is pushing in the Legislature was dedicated to economic revitalization. Among the recommendations of the task force was an increase in spending on tourism promotion to $60 million a year. That made sense, because the state has a huge stake in tourism and promotion is vital to the industry's survival and prosperity. Aquaculture program
should be sparedYet Cayetano has recommended cancelation of funding for the state Aquaculture Development Program and 10 of the program's 11 positions. The program's annual budget is just $530,000.
In view of the state's difficulties in balancing its budget in these lean economic times, there is no doubt that government spending has to be cut. We support reductions in spending on programs that have proved ineffective.
But aquaculture, now a $39 million industry, is showing promise of furthering the economic revitalization the governor is plugging. Despite many setbacks since the 1960s, the industry has been growing at the rate of 10 percent a year for the last 10 years and could double again in five years.
Aquaculture operators credit the state program with providing valuable assistance in diagnosing diseases, finding sites and financing, marketing and dealing with regulations and permit requirements. Eliminating this program, with its modest cost, would set back the industry at a time when it is showing real promise. Since 1970 the state has invested nearly $30 million in aquaculture. This is no time to quit.
In time, the industry should be able to finance the program and take it off the state's hands, but that point hasn't yet been reached. C. Richard Fassler, economic development specialist in the program, commented that after many difficult years Hawaii has "one of the best, if not the top, program in the world for aquaculture development. I thought we'd get some kind of award as the best program of the year. Then I found ourselves out on our ear."
Supporters note that the governor recently said he wants Hawaii to be "the Silicon Valley of the plant and ocean world." Aquaculture is an important component of that vision. Eliminating half a million dollars in funding for the aquaculture program would be false economy and a contradiction of Cayetano's commitment to economic revitalization.
A Hindu nationalist party has taken office in India following recent elections. But the new prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee of the Bharatiya Janata Party, had to share the spotlight with yet another Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of the assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, was selected president of the Congress Party Saturday. Another Gandhi
The party has ruled India for all but five years since independence from Britain in 1947. Of those years of Congress Party governments, 38 have been under three members of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty -- Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter, Indira Gandhi, and her son, Rajiv. But the Congress Party's strength has waned following a series of scandals.
Sonia Gandhi, 51, had shunned politics after her husband's death in 1991 in a terrorist explosion but took an active part in the last election campaign although she was not a candidate. Her efforts did not bring victory but led to her assuming the party leadership.
Mrs. Gandhi offered support to the new government on constructive issues but vowed to oppose it "if they seek to undermine our democratic and secular foundations" -- a reference to the Bharatiya Janata Party's apparent bias against Muslims. Hindu-Muslim strife has plagued India for decades.
If the BJP fails to win support in Parliament, the Congress Party may be called upon to try to form a government. Rajiv's death was widely interpreted as the end of the Gandhi dynasty. But Sonia Gandhi's decision to enter politics might someday result in her becoming the fourth member of her adopted family to lead India, her adopted country.
MOST voters may be under the impression that their ballots in legislative races are cast for neighbors -- candidates who live in their districts. That's a reasonable assumption but not necessarily true. Under Hawaii law, politicians are allowed to run for seats representing districts other than where they live. Roving politicians
Candidates for public office in the South after the Civil War who arrived from the North were called carpetbaggers because they typically had no more property than could be carried in a carpetbag. Their counterparts in contemporary Hawaii are the district-shoppers. The law requires only that a candidate for a state House or Senate seat be a "qualified voter" in that district, which means that the candidate's "habitation is fixed" in that district, if only for the day of the election.
Generally, politicians look for districts with open seats or vulnerable incumbents to launch their candidacies. The practice has become so widespread that exposing someone running outside of the district where he or she actually resides is met with yawns. Common Cause Hawaii director Larry Meacham showed how ludicrous it can get by taking out nomination papers as a nonpartisan candidate for all 51 House and 13 Senate seats.
Bills under consideration in the Legislature would require that a candidate be registered to vote in the district he or she wishes to represent prior to filing nomination papers. Meacham believes a year-long residency should be required.
A year-long residency requirement seems extreme, but the further in advance that voter registration by candidates is required the less abuse is likely to occur.
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
