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Hawaii Superferry Meeting: Mob Rule on Kauai?
By Malia Zimmerman, HawaiiReporter.com
Hawaii Superferry sits idle at Pier 19 while the case regarding an injunction for Maui and a pending environmental assessment is left up to the courts.
LIHUE, KAUAI: "You've been warned." That was the message from hundreds of volatile protesters who crammed into the Kauai War Memorial Convention Center on September 20 to tell Governor Linda Lingle, First Deputy Attorney General Lisa Ginoza, Department of Transportation Director Barry Fukunaga, Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste, and U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Sally Brice-O'Hara, that they don't want the Hawaii Superferry landing on Kauai and will use any means necessary to prevent it.
What is it about the $100 million state-of-the-art high speed inter-island Superferry that protesters find so frightening that they are willing to "lay down their lives" to keep it off their island? Dozens of protesters waited hours for a chance at the microphone to lay out their long list of gripes.
Some said the Hawaii Superferry should be out of business altogether because it will kill turtles, dolphins and whales. This even though the company employs "whale spotters", is equipped with sonar to detect sea life from a far distance, and has the ability to stop and turn quickly.
The protesters claimed there is a secret conspiracy by the U.S. Military and Superferry officials to transport military equipment and personnel between the islands.
Former Kauai Mayor Joanne Yukimura, now a Kauai council member, incited the audience by making unfounded accusations against the Governor, Superferry operators and the military and demanding the ferry be stopped.
Elected Kauai state representatives did nothing to halt the disrespect of the governor.
Several of the protesters were more fearful of the people from Oahu than of the Superferry itself. They said Oahu residents will bring traffic, trash, illegal drugs, pollution and crime. (Some argued Oahu residents would come to steal their fish, their limu (seaweed), opihi (shell fish) and their maile lei.) Other protesters were at the hearing to complain not about the Hawaii Superferry but about their lives in general.
Unified against the ferry, they booed and hissed, made threats against the governor. They shouted "liar, liar, liar!" throughout her responses and accused her of being "on the take" for accepting a political contribution from the Hawaii Superferry during her 2006 run for governor.
Though about one-fourth of the 1,100 plus people in attendance were in favor of the Hawaii Superferry, they mostly remained silent, intimidated by the aggressive mob.
The governor called the September 20th town meeting on Kauai to explain why the local, state and federal government cannot - and will not - prevent the Hawaii Superferry from resuming operations between Oahu and Kauai. She put the protesters on notice that there will be severe consequences for those who interfere in the ferry's operations to Kauai.
The warning came after the ferry's operations were interrupted in late August by some times violent protesters, some who threatened to use their kids as human shields, who paddled surboards, kayaks and canoes in front of the ferry as it tried to enter the harbor. The first and only time the ferry docked, Oahu families driving their cars off the ferry were targeted while protesters flattened their tires and banged on their cars. After two days of chaos in Nawiliwili Harbor, the governor and U.S. Coast Guard asked the Superferry to hold off traveling to Kauai until the government agencies could develop a plan to ensure everyone's safety.
The governor gave the go-ahead as of September 26, but Superferry operators say they will delay. All parties await an unrelated Maui court ruling that will determine whether the Superferry can transport passengers between Oahu and Maui while an Environmental Assessment (recently mandated by the Hawaii Supreme Court) is completed.
The state continues to get negative media coverage around the world. Economists say this conflict sends a message to the world that Hawaii's business climate is so unstable, that multi-million dollar businesses can be shut down by a handful of protesters.
SBH President Sam Slom, an economist and state Senator, warns that this is Hawaii's economic "tipping point." He says "if the ferry goes, so goes Hawaii's economy."
In addition to the negative press, if the Hawaii Superferry fails, taxpayers will be left covering $40 million in state bonds used to repair the harbors for the Superferry's use.
Ironically, there was yet another twist on September 24 - one the "environmentalists" won't like.The U.S. Coast Guard cutter, Kukui, which was supposed to set sail for the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to pick up thousands of tons of ocean debris, has postponed its trip indefinitely because it may be called in the next few weeks to protect the Superferry passengers from the protesters.
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