Asia-Pacific forum puts us on map

By John Griffin

It was an inspiring St. Patrick's Day sight — Gov. Linda Lingle and University of Hawai'i President Evan Dobelle seated side by side, sometimes chatting like friends.

IHARA

FOX

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Some might have viewed the occasion as a hopeful sign that the testy relations between two of Hawai'i's most important people have somehow evolved into a welcome detente. One can hope so.

But at the least, I saw that luncheon scene as a testimonial to the prestige of the co-sponsoring Pacific and Asian Affairs Council, which is observing its 50th anniversary as a vital Hawai'i organization.

The council is a nonpartisan educational institution for public- and private-school children, community-college students and adults interested in international affairs.

As such, it is as important in today's information age as it was in earlier years. In fact, those years stretch well beyond 50.

What today is the council got its start as the Institute of Pacific Relations in the 1920s, when Hawai'i spawned several major pan-Pacific organizations. The institute, founded in 1925, developed a major international network of more than a dozen national councils, and the Hawai'i branch had school programs. But the institute fell victim to the early 1950s witch-hunts over "who lost China" to the communists.

In 1954, the Hawai'i organization decided to make a fresh start. It took the name Pacific and Asian Affairs Council and focused on international understanding in Hawai'i.

Today, Hawai'i has a variety of organizations dealing in foreign affairs, including the federally financed East-West Center, the Asia-Pacific Security Center and such private groups as Pacific Forum/CSIS and the Japan-America Society.

But for a number of crucial years, the council was virtually the only game in town on Asia-Pacific matters, aside from the underrated role of the University of Hawai'i.

Alumni of its high-school programs include such notables as state Sen. Les Ihara, state Rep. Galen Fox, former Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono, AIG Hawai'i president Robin Campaniano, Roosevelt High School principal Dennis Hokama, Tax Foundation of Hawai'i head Lowell Kalapa, attorney Colbert Matsumoto and international lawyer Gerald Sumida, a former council board chairman who will receive this year's distinguished alumnus award. Roland Lagareta, now chairman of the East-West Center's board of governors, ran the council's high-school program from 1969 to 1977 and is one of its vice presidents.

One of the council's achievements has been surviving a half-century of ups and downs, program adjustments, life-threatening financial struggles, state budget problems and pressures from left and right during the Cold War and turbulent 1960s.

I believe the secrets of that survival include several outstanding executive directors (mostly women) and community leaders and other outstanding people who have served on the board of governors.

Today, the council, which operates with a staff of five under executive director Lisa Maruyama, is said to be in its best financial shape ever.

It gets money from state government for its educational programs, the State Department for helping distinguished international visitors, foundations, corporations and its 400 individual and family members.

It has what some call a symbiotic relationship with UH and its School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies (SHAPS) and the East-West Center, from which it rents office space in Burns Hall.

Some other points about current council programs:

• Its highly praised high-school program, which has included 70,000 students in after-school clubs over 50 years, is much smaller than in earlier days, in part because it's harder to get busy teachers to serve as advisers, in part because students now have so many other extra-curricular activities.

But the council has started running after-school classes in world affairs where students earn credits and teachers are paid. Participants are often at-risk youth who have been failing social studies.

With donations from several outstanding Hawai'i residents, the council also runs scholarship programs for students interested in international affairs. Other donations, notably from the Freeman Foundation, sponsor student travel to Asia.

• Community-college programs, which have served a reported 80,000 students, date back to 1993, when the council took over functions of the now- defunct Pacific Rim Foundation, such as public events, lectures and cultural performances.

• The council also serves as the Hawai'i branch of the national World Affairs Council. As such, it frequently sponsors luncheons and other speaker forums, seminars and conferences. The Lingle speech on St. Patrick's Day, co-sponsored with SHAPS, was such an event.

• The State Department's International Visitor Program, which brings foreign leaders to this country, is coordinated in Hawai'i by the council. It provides meetings and other people-to-people contacts for more than 100 such visitors a year.

There is more, such as roles for community volunteers, college-credit internships and a summer program for high-school interns.

At 50, the council is in a bracket with many aging baby boomers — mature, but with some exciting and often-activist years behind them; still playing key roles in the community, yet also looking ahead to how Hawai'i fits into a changing world.

The council will hold a big 50th anniversary dinner Friday night, and soon the organization will be changing presidents. Veteran international attorney Frank Boas, who has served for six years, is stepping aside in favor of Kenji Sumida, who twice served with honor as interim president of the East-West Center. Banker Warren Luke is board chairman.

Still, like many community organizations, the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council's older general membership is fading, and not always being replaced with younger people.

Its alumni base seems somewhat like that of the University of Hawai'i — vast, but not organized enough, and perhaps preoccupied with other concerns. Several council veterans say the high-school program is the heart of the organization. They also wonder how well that heart will keep beating in this new century.

The council still plays a vital role in a Hawai'i that often tends to be too insular.

More than a half-century later, it is still ahead of its time.

John Griffin is former editor of The Advertiser's editorial pages and a frequent contributor.