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Jack Myers, chairman and chief executive of the Myers Corporation, and Bob Dye, a former senior official in the Fasi administration, discussed Hawaii's political culture with host Randall Roth, examining in particular whether business leaders' reluctance to criticize government reflects rational self-protection or a broader dysfunction in civic life. Myers argued that Hawaii's business environment is suffocating for those who would speak out: because companies depend on government permits and approvals, open criticism risks retaliation that can devastate a business. He described instances in which outside investors were effectively told they would have to make political accommodations to operate in Hawaii, a dynamic he said discouraged outside capital. Dye agreed that a lack of leadership in both the public and private sectors was the defining problem, and argued for replacing the adversarial government-business relationship with a cooperative one, citing Ireland's sustained economic growth as a model. He also proposed limiting campaign contributions to registered voters as a way to reduce the influence of large donors. The standing question is whether Hawaii's political culture—in which contributing to all viable candidates and avoiding public criticism have become standard business practice—can change without decisive leadership on both sides.
Transcript
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Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
