Profile
Hawaii's Destiny Is In The Pacific
Hawaii’s new governor has signaled that she is open to reestablishing close ties with U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands. In an exclusive interview with Hawaii Business, a sister publication to Pacific Magazine, Linda Lingle said Hawaii must play a larger role in the Asia-Pacific region.
 |
|
|
“I do think we play an important role because Hawaii’s destiny, in my opinion, does lie in the Asia-Pacific part of the world,” Lingle said.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
An indication of her emerging ties to the region was the presence of two U.S. territorial governors at her December 2nd inaugural ceremony in Honolulu. In attendance were Gov. Juan Babauta of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas and Guam’s Gov.-elect Felix Camacho. Both territorial governors are Republicans, as is Lingle. In fact, she’s the first Republican Party governor in Hawaii in 40 years.
“I had a good opportunity to meet with (Camacho) ... at the National Governors Association meeting,” Lingle said. “And Gov. Camacho is very intent on working closely, saying he’s always seen Hawaii as—what did he call it?—a ‘big brother’ to them, helping on issues important there.”
Hawaii’s new governor, a former mayor of Maui county, also said she’d consider having Hawaii rejoin the Pacific Basin Development Council, a Honolulu-based group that included American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas, along with Hawaii. PBDC, as it was better known, all but shut down after Hawaii’s last governor, Ben Cayetano, halted financial support for the organization. PBDC was designed to help the territories coordinate federal initiatives in the U.S. insular Pacific territories.
“Because our destiny is there, Hawaii, being both a part of America and being a Pacific Island part of America, means we will play an important role there,” Lingle said.
Looking broader, Lingle also said she wants to play a more active role with the East-West Center, a federally-funded graduate education and research institution adjacent to the University of Hawaii-Manoa. Lingle noted that she’s a friend of Pat Harrison, the assistant secretary of state who oversees the East-West Center.
“She’s a former co-chairman of the Republican National Committee,” Lingle said of Harrison. Lingle is a former chairman of the Hawaii Republican Party. “I think this is going to give Hawaii a unique opportunity for hope for additional focus from the Department of State on the East-West Center.”
Closer to home, the new governor also said she will monitor the problems some Pacific Island governments are having paying their medical referral bills at Hawaii hospitals. The unpaid invoices, in some cases, amount to millions of dollars.
“I’ve had two discussions with the (federal) deputy secretary of health and human services, Claud Allen, at the national level, to talk about these issues,” Lingle said of the problem. “He’s someone I’m very close with; he understands this is an important issue.
“Our doctors and our hospitals are committed to care for people regardless of their ability to pay and so on. But if it gets to the point where it starts to impact their ability to provide services to the people of Hawaii, and if the federal government expects us to make sure that care is available, I think they should help us financially,” Lingle said.
Lingle stunned Hawaii’s Democratic Party last November when she easily beat former Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono for the state’s chief executive post. Lingle’s margin of victory was about 17,000 votes.
She’s the first Republican to serve as Hawaii governor since 1962, and is the first woman to serve in the position. The last woman to lead Hawaii was Queen Liliuokalani, Hawaii’s last monarch. She lost her throne in 1893 when American planters led an overthrow of the monarchy and established a republic a year later. The republic was in place until 1900, when Hawaii became a U.S. territory. It became a state in 1959.
