By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

It's been said so many times that it's become accepted as truth. Worse, it's become accepted as optimum. It is said to would-be politicians to get them to run for office. Once they're in office, the politicians repeat the line in speeches with even a measured dose of humility, as if it's a good thing:

"You don't have to understand the business of government to hold public office. That's what your staff is for. That's why it's important to hire good people. You just handle the speeches and sound bites. You just focus on getting elected and, once you're in, getting re-elected."

People who have little or no background or aptitude in business or law or public policy or management or planning or anything that has relevance to elected public service put their names on ballots believing that their good intentions make up for a lack of knowledge. They figure they'll play catch-up once they're in.

They do this because they are encouraged to do so every step of the way.

Who does the encouraging? Political star-makers, for sure. And party members who want to lock down offices with people who don't really have ideas of their own, people who will need to rely on others to tread through governmental rapids, people who are malleable.

But all the rest of us, we do the heavy lifting to perpetuate this. We allow it to happen when we don't bother do our homework before we cast a vote. We allow it to happen when we don't even bother to vote.

And pretty soon, the whole show is being run by the koken.

In Japanese kabuki theater tradition, stagehands called koken appear on stage with the actors. They move set pieces, bring in props, even help the actors with quick costume changes right on stage, right in front of the audiences. They're dressed in black so as to be unobtrusive, but there is no camouflaging their presence. It is more a matter of the audience learning to ignore the obvious.

Have we learned to ignore the obvious?

Of course, no one would dispute the importance of an elected official — say a state legislator — cultivating a strong support staff; but we don't elect the support staff. We elect the person who we believe can do the job, not the person we believe can hire faceless, nameless people to do the job for them. We elect the people we expect will do the acting. The support staff should be just that, support, and not the primary actors.

Who's moving the set pieces in our government? Who's dressing the actors? Are the stagehands whispering the lines into the politicians' ears? Are they writing the scripts?

As we head into this crucial election with so many seats up for grabs, let's vow to do some serious screening of the candidates. Let's do some tough auditions. Let's aim to end up with qualified leaders with abilities that are enhanced by great staff members, not empty actors who have to be propped up and moved around.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.