Hawaii’s World

By A.A. Smyser

Thursday, April 16, 1998

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Help wanted to fill
Hawaii leadership gap

IT is late to be saying this, but the need is urgent. If you care about Hawaii and feel a sense of purpose about helping us dig out of the economic hole we are in, seriously consider offering yourself as a candidate for public office this fall. The deadline is July 21.

We have a political leadership need that is great and getting greater.

We need people in office who want to do more than just fill a vacancy.

We need a sense of purpose to do such things as:

Shrink government.

Make government operations more transparent, with budgets results-oriented rather than input-oriented.

Have government spend smart -- invest its limited dollars where it will get the most bang for the buck.

Use government dollars, rules and regs to stimulate more taxable private enterprise in the public interest.

Shove government unions out of management, but honor their duty to protect their members.

Gradually reduce government fringe benefits that have grown out of all proportion to private sector ones, perhaps with changes affecting mostly new hires.

Cut excessive overhead in operations like the public school system. Move toward a very lean administration to set statewide standards and oversee them. Delegate more autonomy and money to school principals to run their schools as seems best. Take another look at privatization.

Try to work past the emotionalism in Hawaiian affairs issues toward solutions that are achievable and as fair as possible to all. Hawaiian activists are the most vital force in today's body politic.

Protect the environment, of course.

Protect the aloha spirit, of course.

Protect the disadvantaged in ways calculated to reduce long-term dependency.

A tall order? No taller than the Democrats had in 1954 and the early statehood years when they set out to make Hawaii a place of greater opportunity for all races and largely succeeded.

Former Gov. George Ariyoshi recalls that he was a very young lawyer in 1954, trying to build a private practice.

The Democratic Party's guru, John Burns, told him he was needed as a candidate to help implement the party's goals. Ariyoshi didn't want to run, but was arm-twisted into filing for the territorial House of Representatives at the 11th hour. He won, and went on to achievements he never dreamed of.

What made him different from many candidates today, he said, is that he ran with a sense of purpose. Too many people run today, he said, just because they see a vacancy. Missing is that deeply felt goal to improve Hawaii that moved him and other young Democrats in 1954.

Today we very badly need candidates itching to achieve goals like those mentioned above.

THEY could be in either of the big parties, or even in a third party -- but the best opportunities may lie with the Republicans, just because they have so many vacancies on their side of the ticket.

I have a physician friend who is quite pessimistic about anybody's ability to change the ways of his fellow physicians.

His advice is to educate the public to demand better services from them. Doctors will learn best, he says, when they find customers demanding more from them and turning elsewhere if they aren't satisfied.

Perhaps at the polls this fall we could educate some of our incumbents that way -- or replace them. At no time since statehood has the need been so great.

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A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.