By Jerry Burris
Advertiser Editorial Editor

As each governor before her has learned, Linda Lingle will soon discover that the task of converting campaign promises into reality is far from easy.

What sometimes seems simple from the outside becomes terribly complex when viewed from the inside. At times, it is a case of good ideas becoming impossible because of legal or budget constraints.

At other times, the obstacle is a bureaucracy that has seen governors come and go and is not willing to bend for the present occupant of the fifth-floor office.

And sometimes, ideas that make good politics turn out not to be good policy.

That may be the case this time around with Lingle's determination to respond to the decades of frustration felt by Hawaiians who are waiting for their homestead awards.

While the state has done a much better job of getting Hawaiian Homes lands developed and awarded in recent years, the overall history of the homestead program has been shameful. People had died on the waiting list for homestead leases.

During the campaign, Lingle promised to distribute land to everyone on the waiting list within five years. That's a noble goal and one that won her more than a few Hawaiian votes.

But the devil here is in the details. If necessary, Lingle said, she'll distribute undeveloped land to those who want it.

"Saying that we don't have infrastructure (as an excuse) is showing that you have no understanding of the Hawaiian people's connection to land," Lingle said at a campaign forum. "They don't need urban-standard infrastructure. They need the land that they can go put a tent on if that's what they want to do. It is their land, and they should make that decision."

There is a lot of compassion in those words. But there may be less reality.

Former Gov. Ben Cayetano says he warned Lingle in a pre-inauguration meeting that this "get-them-on-the-land-no-matter-what" approach had been tried before, with less-than-happy results.

In the 1980s, then-Gov. George Ariyoshi made a similar promise, and 2,000 to 3,000 so-called "paper leases" on undeveloped land were issued. For many of those who got their leases, they proved worthless because a lack of infrastructure (roads, sewers, etc.) made the property unlivable.

The key will be to deliver land leases in a way that those who receive them can achieve the great American dream: A sound, secure home on one's own land.

Newly appointed Hawaiian Homes Director Micah Kane is smart, hard-working and committed to the dream implied by Lingle's five-year promise. It will take more than simply signing off on leases to make that dream a reality, however.

Success won't be measured by simply eliminating a waiting list. Success will be measured by finally keeping a promise made to Hawaiians more than eight decades ago.

Reach Jerry Burris through letters@honoluluadvertiser.com.