Editorials
Wednesday, April 11, 2001
Standing tall
is best way to
negotiate with
China
The issue: Officials of the Bush administration
say they see little maneuvering room in
the diplomatic standoff with the
Chinese over the release of the
American air crew.
PRESS REPORTS from Washington suggest that President Bush is losing his nerve and has begun preparing the American public and Congress for a weakening of its heretofore firm stance with China about returning the 21 men and three women detained in China. If the president persists, he will cause serious damage to U.S. interests in Asia, not to say his political standing at home.Bush administration officials told The New York Times yesterday that they have few weapons with which to threaten the Chinese and force the return of the crew that made an emergency landing on Hainan 10 days ago after a Chinese jet fighter collided with their EP-3 intelligence plane.
After reviewing options, one official told the Times, "It became clear how little room for maneuver either side has." Anyone who has spent any time in Washington will recognize an official leak with a purpose, either to prepare the public for unpleasant news or to float a trial balloon to see who shoots at it. Since Congress is out of town on recess, the first alternative seems the more likely.
In public, what the Bush officials say appears reasonable and conciliatory. In private, that position is nonsense. The United States has a wide range of options with which to press the Chinese, and the administration should not be shy about applying them. They include everything from sending Chinese students packing from the United States to applying trade sanctions to opposing China's bid to host the 2008 Olympic games to canceling a planned presidential visit next fall.
If the president caves in to the Chinese, recent polls in the United States suggest that he will suffer a stinging backlash. He can expect to be whipped from the left by Democrats seeking political advantage, excoriated from the right for being a wimp and scorned by a public aroused by vitriolic Chinese propaganda.
The president and his advisers should also keep in mind the 24 men and women who raised their right hands and swore to defend the Constitution with their lives. From all accounts, they have acquitted themselves with courage, skill and honor. Whatever the president decides, those warriors should be able to march home with their heads high and their shoulders back.
SCOLDED FOR their secretive behavior, leaders of the Legislature have agreed to open budget worksheets to the public but seem mystified about how it can be done through modern technology. The cumbersome process they suggest is so far behind the times that, if adopted, it would make their motives suspect. Lawmakers should put
budget worksheets onlineThe issue: State legislative leaders have
agreed to allow public access to
state budget worksheets, but are
reluctant to put them online.Charles Djou, a freshman Republican member of the House Finance Committee, complained last week that he was allowed to look at worksheets only in the committee room with a committee staff member present and could not make notes or copies. Djou's aide was not allowed to read them. GOP Sen. Fred Hemmings made the same complaint about the worksheets being cloaked by the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
Ways and Means Chairman Brian Taniguchi and House Speaker Calvin Say agreed to open the budget worksheets to the public and allow people to make copies at their own expense. Djou called the move "progress toward open government." It shouldn't stop there.
Taniguchi says he will try to have the entire document posted on the Internet, presumably on the Legislature's Web site (http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/). However, Say contends that putting it on the Web would be too expensive.
Since the worksheets are created by computer, Say's caution makes no sense. Legislative computer technicians could convert the worksheets to a portable document format -- pdf in computer shorthand -- to post on the Web site. "They could do it in a heartbeat," says Blaine Fergerstrom, the Star-Bulletin's Webmaster. "To save it as a pdf and allow people to download and read it on their own computers wouldn't take anything at all."
House Majority Leader Marcus Oshiro says he has misgivings about "public confusion" from online worksheets "that may be days or weeks or even hours old." That is easily remedied: Make sure the worksheets are made as current as possible, say, daily, and put a date and time on them.
More to the point, Oshiro says in a press release the worksheets have been "treated in the same light as personal observations by individual lawmakers -- for preliminary discussion purposes only. I have a concern that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle will be reluctant to discuss their personal views for fear of it being used against them in public. This could have a chilling effect on the general public discourse so vital in a healthy democracy."
Our view is that democracy is made healthier by increased public access to the legislative process. If legislators fear public scrutiny of their personal views, they should get out of politics.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, President
John Flanagan, publisher and editor in chief 529-4748; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.com The Honolulu Star-Bulletin (USPS 249460) is published daily by
Oahu Publications at 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813.
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