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Editorials
Monday, January 29, 2001State, city should
get their roles straightThe issue: Governor Cayetano and Mayor Harris made proposals that mix up the rules of state and city government.
GOVERNOR Cayetano's State of the State address and Mayor Harris' State of the City address illustrate the mixed-up condition of government here.
The governor talked about his plans for developing state land in Kakaako makai of Ala Moana Boulevard. The plans include a world-class aquarium, a new home for the University of Hawaii School of Medicine and the state Health Department, a science education center and buildings for private industry high-tech research.
He also wants to replace the Ala Wai Golf Course with a counterpart of New York's Central Park, moving the golf course elsewhere.
The mayor talked about establishing an industrial park for high-tech companies on city land in Manana in Pearl City and attracting high-tech companies to Kapolei. He also announced plans to redevelop the blighted area around the Hawaii Convention Center.
There are good ideas in these proposals -- although moving the golf course is not a good idea -- but the roles of state and city government are scrambled. There is a lot of overlapping and duplication -- in other words, waste.
A major aquarium would be a glorious asset for Honolulu. But if an aquarium is to be built, it should be done by the city, not the state, just as the convention center and Aloha Stadium should have been city projects. In other communities, that's what such facilities are.
But the state government owns the land where the aquarium would be built, and the state has more financial resources than the city and the power to override city decisions, so it does a job the city should be doing and preempts the city government's authority to plan Honolulu's future.
That's also what happened in Kakaako, where the state, back in the Ariyoshi administration, took over planning the district's redevelopment as a way to spite former Mayor Frank Fasi, who was feuding with the Democratic Party establishment.
Cayetano's plan for the Ala Wai Golf Course is another example of state interference with city prerogatives, based on the fact that the golf course sits on state land.
Municipal golf courses and city parks should be matters for the city government, not the state. The governor's plan to move the most heavily used golf course in the country not only is misconceived but also is an abuse of state power. What business is it of the governor's to decide where parks and golf courses should be located?
In fact, the state should get out of the park business altogether and turn over all state parks to the county governments. There is no reason to have dual systems of state and county parks. Similarly, separate state and city maintenance of streets and highways should be consolidated.
MEANWHILE Harris wants the city to get into promoting economic development, a role the state has been playing for decades. This sounds good, but there is a large potential for duplication of effort. Do we want state and city government trying to attract the same or similar businesses, with the confusion that is likely to result?
Complaining about duplication of functions by city, state -- and federal -- government has been going on for decades. The latest speeches by the governor and mayor show that little or nothing has changed.
Dissident writer has
Hong Kong worried
CHINA took over Hong Kong from Britain in 1997 under a pledge to refrain from interfering with its democratic, capitalist system for 50 years. There have been no dramatic changes since, but an erosion of freedom is apparent under the Beijing-appointed chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa.
The latest incident concerns an impending visit by an exiled Chinese writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature last year. Many of his works are banned in mainland China.
The writer, Gao Xingjian, once burned his writings to keep them from falling into the wrong hands during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. He spent five years doing hard labor in a Chinese prison.
Gao fled China in 1987 and renounced his Communist Party membership after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. He has vowed never to return to mainland China. He now lives in Paris.
Xu Simin, Hong Kong's representative to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a powerful mainland advisory body, said, "There is no reason to object to him if he is coming here to talk about writing, but if he would accuse the Chinese government of oppressing him, that would be wrong."
Gao's visit follows a meeting in Hong Kong of the Falun Gong sect, which is banned in China. The Hong Kong authorities tried to get the group to avoid controversy, but its leaders used the meeting to denounce China's suppression of their movement.
Gao disavows any political interests. But the Associated Press reported that the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong government has backed off from a statement made by its director that he would be invited to a local literary festival.
In contrast to its brutal suppression of dissent in China proper, the Beijing regime has been more subtle in its relations with Hong Kong. But the message comes through that there are limits to China's tolerance of criticism in Hong Kong, regardless of the guarantees of free speech and press.
Those limits are likely to narrow as Beijing places more officials in key positions in the Hong Kong government.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
Frank Bridgewater, Acting Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
