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Recorded in November 1993, this episode examined claims of systematic political corruption and retaliation in Hawaii's state government. State Senator Richard Matsuura, then chairing a special Senate committee investigating government misconduct, described what he called total administrative control of the legislature by a small group of insiders—informally called a Council of Elders—who used committee appointments, contract awards, and pension arrangements to enforce loyalty and punish dissent. Matsuura said he had been stripped of committee chairmanships as punishment for pursuing the investigation, and reported receiving anonymous calls from constituents too afraid of retaliation to identify themselves. Bob Rees, an instructor of business and American studies at the University of Hawaii, agreed that a democratic oligarchy had emerged, attributing it to decades of single-party rule and the arbitrary exercise of government economic power. Both guests described the High Three pension arrangement—under which legislators appointed to high-paying state jobs saw their pensions increase dramatically—as a mechanism rewarding political compliance. Matsuura noted his committee was running out of funds and nearing closure. Whether Hawaii's entrenched political structures can be reformed from within is the question the episode raises.
Transcript
Read or download the full transcript (.txt). Speaker labels were assigned automatically and may contain errors.
Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
