Why We Are As Good As Anybody

There was a time in the earlier years of statehood when I felt we finally had achieved the right balance between free enterprise and respect for equal opportunity for Hawaii’s diverse people. This was the principle of equal opportunity at work in the best sense.

With the acceleration of national and international business influences in Hawaii, I fear that our hard-won gains may be eroding. While data does not exist to support such a contention, it is obvious there are more and more businesses and businessmen in Hawaii who know little about the social and political environment in which they are working.

Indeed, most of the mass media, to give but one example, is being run by people who have lived here briefly and are likely to soon be reassigned elsewhere. Such being the case, I believe we should learn how to talk about our social and business climate in the same conversation. Business should be challenged to engage in a constant learning process about Hawaii's history and people.

We can begin by identifying mutual self-interest. Obviously, Hawaii’s population needs business leadership that is concerned for the long-range well being of the population, as well as Hawaii’s unique environment. Just as obviously, business has a stake in strong, healthy communities.

We further need to embrace the idea that what works well in another community may not work well in ours. Our way of achieving may be different from how other communities achieve.

Our community has valuable traditions. We have a unique story to tell, but our combined narratives need to be nurtured in a world that is trending toward sameness. We should look inside ourselves and ask what we really want to be, not what we are being told to be.

We in Hawaii value our aloha spirit, our diversity and our active participation in the American system. But these positive feelings do battle with what my political mentor, John A. Burns, called a subtle and totally unwarranted sense of inferiority. Perhaps this feeling derived from our plantation past, and from the fact that we are often told indirectly that Hawaii may be quaint, but it is a backwater, where nothing much of importance happens. After a while there is some tendency to believe it.

Self-awareness takes on greater urgency in the era of economic globalization, when everyone is being pressured to fit into a free-market system. We cannot be afraid to go our own way, even if we encounter criticism. For example, as a result of our strong land-use controls, as well as workplace and tax reforms, we have faced a barrage of criticism from the American business press, ranging from The Wall Street Journal to Forbes magazine. We have been described as antibusiness and a “tax hell,” walled off by a Bamboo Curtain.

At the meanest level of intrusion are the lingering dynamics of colonialism and racism. As individuals, each of us is limited until we are ready to acknowledge that we may be different. Each of us is unique. Each of us has his or her own background. To be what and who we really are is the best way to unleash the contribution that each person is capable of making. As a result of being treated with respect, as an equal among equals, we can feel comfortable. We can feel good about ourselves and feel charitably toward others.

As governor I made it part of my job to affirm Hawaii’s diversity. Whenever I went to a cultural observance, I could see the pride in people’s eyes. My message was, “We’re special. We are as good as any people anywhere. We can achieve as much as anyone.”

My mother was an immigrant to Hawaii from southern Japan. I proudly introduced her to visitors high and low, including the Queen of England and the Emperor of Japan. I included my teenage children in affairs of state. It was a way of saying, “Welcome to the family table of Hawaii. This is who we are.”

George R. Ariyoshi, chairman and cofounder of Convergence CT and Cellular Bioengineering, is the former president of Prince Resorts Hawaii Inc. He is active in international business circles, particularly in Asia. An attorney by profession, Ariyoshi served in elective office in Hawaii from 1954 to 1986. He served as governor of Hawaii from 1973 to 1986 and was the first Japanese American to be elected governor in the United States.

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