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Editorials
Wednesday, August 30, 2000
OHA trustees given
reprieve by courtThe issue: The state Supreme Court has ruled that Governor Cayetano cannot replace Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees until he successfully challenges in court their authority to hold office.
FIVE months after being asked to clarify the status of Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees chosen in elections later ruled to be unconstitutional, the state Supreme Court has issued what amounts to little more than procedural guidance to Governor Cayetano. The high court's inexplicably delayed response probably leaves too little time to assure a constitutionally stable OHA board following this year's election.
Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February that the Hawaiians-only provision in OHA elections violated the constitutional ban on racial discrimination in voting rights, Cayetano said he would appoint eight interim trustees to replace those who had been elected invalidly. (A ninth trustee already had been appointed by Cayetano to fill a vacancy.) Four seats are up for election this year. The others' terms expire in 2002.
In late March, Cayetano and OHA jointly asked the state Supreme Court whether the governor had the authority to replace trustees who came to office as a result of elections that had been invalidated by the Rice vs. Cayetano decision. The state Attorney General's Office took the position that the federal high court's decision in the Rice case created vacancies and that the governor had the authority to fill them on an interim basis.
The court has now ruled it is not as simple as that. In a process derived from old English law, it said the governor must challenge in court the authority by which the trustees now claim to hold office in view of the Rice decision. In other words, the vacancies don't occur until the court determines that the trustees lack authority to remain in office.
The ruling removes any doubt about the legality of decisions made by the current trustees. The eight "de facto" trustees are empowered to make decisions, the court said. That clarification at least, is welcome -- but not the delay in issuing the ruling.
Cayetano plans to follow up by having his lawyers file a new action following the Supreme Court's guidance, challenging the authority of the five trustees whose terms expire in 2002 to remain in office. The state judiciary should expedite the case to make up for its procrastination in issuing simple rules of procedure.
Office of Hawaiian Affairs
Hostages in Philippines
THE end of a foreign hostage saga in the Southern Philippines seems imminent with the release of six of the 12 remaining foreign hostages whom Muslim extremists had been holding for 18 weeks. But the success of the Abu Sayyaf rebels in obtaining millions of dollars in ransom is bound to encourage this and other groups to commit similar outrages.
In fact, the Abu Sayyaf rebels have already taken another hostage -- an American seized in Zamboanga on Mindanao island and taken to nearby Jolo island, where the rebels have their headquarters.
Morale among the Muslim rebels is believed to have soared with their success in dictating terms to several governments. Analysts fear a new wave of extremism that could threaten the stability of much of Southeast Asia.
The rebels now have the financial resources to build up their firepower and ability to strike beyond the borders of the Philippines. Commercial sea lanes linking Asia to Australia could be threatened.
The Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, regarded scornfully by the Philippine government as a ragtag group of bandits, seized 21 mostly foreign hostages from a Malaysian diving resort and spirited them across the Sulu Sea into their jungle hideouts in Jolo. Estimated to number a few hundred when they raided the Malaysian tourist resort, the rebel militia has since swelled to roughly 2,500 fighters.
The group claims to be motivated by religious zeal and nationalism, but is much the smaller of two rebel Muslim groups. One danger is a potential linking up of Abu Sayyaf with the bigger separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which operates on the main southern island of Mindanao.
The hostage-taking caused concern in mainly Muslim Malaysia, which fears a spillover of religious extremism and crime from predominantly Muslim Indonesia and restive Muslim areas in the Philippines.
The role of Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi in the affair adds an intriguing touch. A Libyan diplomat negotiated the hostage release and Libya reportedly paid $1 million ransom for each hostage.
This has occurred while two Libyans are being tried for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, after Gadhafi agreed to surrender them for trial.
Both of these developments may indicate a desire by Gadhafi to attain a degree of international respectability after years of being treated as a pariah.
Whatever Gadhafi's motives may be, the payment of ransom in such huge amounts can only spur the militants to kidnap more people. In the impoverished islands of the Southern Philippines, there is no other way to make anything like so much money.
The results are not likely to be conducive to peace and order in the region -- or to attracting sorely needed foreign investors.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert 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
