'We need a governor with a global vision'

By Bob Dye
Kailua-based historian and writer

The economic crisis Hawai'i was propelled into on Sept. 11 undoubtedly has changed voters' perceptions of what personal and professional qualities are needed in the person to lead the state through tough times ahead.

Gov. Ben Cayetano called in Hawai'i's business and political leaders to discuss the state's economy after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which have propelled the state into an economic crisis. Advertiser library photo • Sept. 19, 2001

"Experience and decisiveness," says David Heenan, a Campbell Estate trustee and co-author of "Co-Leaders: The Power of Great Partnerships."

"Because of the considerable economic drag," he says, "a major transformation of our economy is paramount." A former dean of the UH School of Business, Heenan says the new governor must have "a strong presence" in working with national and international leaders. They must realize how much Hawai'i has to offer the world.

"We need a governor with a global vision, as we always have," says Hawai'i Pacific University President Chatt Wright. He emphasizes that Hawai'i can be the "gathering place" for world leaders to elaborate positive international goals.

These thinkers are, of course, right. Henry Kissinger, as a Harvard professor of government, wrote in 1966: "Indeed it is characteristic of an age of turmoil that it produces so many immediate issues that little time is left to penetrate their deeper meaning. The most serious problem therefore becomes the need to acquire a sufficiently wide perspective so that the present does not overwhelm the future."

The idea to make Hawai'i a "gathering place" for world leaders is not a new one here. Following World War II, on Sept. 26, 1945, the Territory of Hawai'i applied to be the home of the United Nations.

Here are some excerpts from that application:

"These islands are the home of a people of varied racial lineage, long and widely known for the friendliness with which they live together. And here is also situated — Pearl Harbor. Therein would perpetually lie a dual reminder, first, of what mankind can achieve in amity between different races and nations and, second, what can befall without a check on ruthless power.

"Experience and decisiveness" are vital attributes in Hawai'i's next governor, David Heenan said. Advertiser library photo • 1999

"It is easy for people of all countries to feel at home in Hawai'i — its wide diversity of races and nationalities tends to make this true. No community has a richer tradition of racial tolerance. ... Here, then, is a community charged to a high degree with the spirit that must guide the world into permanent ways of peace."

What was true in 1945 remains true today. Hawai'i can indeed be the "gathering place" that Chatt Wright and David Heenan, and others before them, envision.

Our present governor has given public resources for the production of a failed but internationally distributed beach bunny and hunks TV series, and for an international beauty pageant.

The next governor can do better by naming Heenan and Wright co-chairmen of a task force charged with making Hawai'i a gathering place for international leaders to solve global problems.

But the biggest job ahead is to get a sufficient number of legislative candidates on ballots who are smart enough to solve the state's economic problems without destroying our environment.

Hawai'i can be a "gathering place" for world leaders to elaborate positive goals, Chatt Wright said. Advertiser library photo • July 31, 1998

Although some of them claim otherwise, politicians don't know what our economic future holds any more than voters do. With so many obvious uncertainties, all any of us can do is guess. And conjecture is always a mean problem to deal with. But it's possible.

Unfortunately today, in the past few legislative sessions, analysis of what we are seemed more entertaining to legislators than looking at where we should be going as a people. And all too often, study of a problem was used by them to buy time and salve consciences, rather than to learn anything useful to help us cope with a crisis of this scope.

As for planning ahead, for too long legislators have been content for bank economists and government bureaucrats to merely project the familiar into the future. The awful result is that information on which to base action in this unstable time is limited and mostly ambiguous.

Only in hindsight, of course, does the path to a solution become clear. So be it.

We must forecast and we must plan, "so that the present does not overwhelm the future."