Posted on: Wednesday, February 6, 2002

EDITORIAL
Cayetano should name new merger overseer

State Attorney General Earl Anzai has done the right, proper and obvious thing in removing himself from consideration of the proposed merger between Hawaiian and Aloha airlines because of his wife's lobbying activities on behalf of one of the airlines.

There is no inference here of anything unethical taking place, but rather quite the opposite. Anzai is taking special care to preserve public confidence in the process of evaluation of the merger.

Avoiding the appearance of conflict in this case, however, is not enough. As we've argued in the editorial above, the gravity of decisions involving approval of the merger and whether or not to regulate the merged entity have enormous implication for the well-being of the state's population.

The public expects and deserves more than a rubber-stamp approval for the merger. Turning the review over to a competent deputy attorney general would suffice in most cases, but not in this one.

Gov. Ben Cayetano should appoint a special, highly regarded figure as master to oversee the merger review, and to report back to him on how best to proceed.