Governor vows safety for APEC dignitaries

In about a month, the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit will convene in Honolulu, taxing government resources like never before.

The summit brings together heads of state from 21 nations, along with their entourages. As many as 20,000 government business leaders, family members and friends are expected for the event.

About 2,000 members of various media outlets will cover the event.

And a conference such as this — bringing together world leaders and business interests — should be expected to draw an unknown number of protesters.

The massive gathering creates significant security concerns — for the safety of attendees, for those who wish to voice an opposing viewpoint and for local residents as official motorcades make their way to and around Waikiki and Ko Olina.

Amid that backdrop, Gov. Neil Abercrombie remains confident the state can pull off the conference with no major problems, although with some inconvenience.

Planning for security, Abercrombie says, has been "a model of cooperation and good will."

Security has been coordinated among numerous federal, state and county departments, including the Secret Service, Department of Defense, National Guard and others.

"There’s been very little in the way of negotiations and a whole lot in the way of collaboration and organization that follows from that kind of attitude," Abercrombie said. "I have complete and total confidence in that."

Security will be strict.

The City Council has given the Honolulu Police Department approval to install 34 video cameras for overt monitoring of activities on the street. Police say the cameras supplement existing traffic cameras and provide greater visibility to help police monitor the motorcades of the visiting dignitaries.

In the water, the Coast Guard has identified four security zones off the south and west sides of Oahu from which it wants to ban swimmers, surfers and boaters during the APEC conference. The proposal is being taken out for public comment through Oct. 17.

Some flight restrictions on private aircraft also are expected for at least two days of the conference, which runs from Nov. 8 to 13.

Security is in place to protect visiting dignitaries but also to manage any potential protests.

ALTHOUGH THE BID to host the conference in Honolulu was made by his predecessor, Abercrombie has fully supported the effort and President Barack Obama’s decision to hold it in Hawaii.

He said Hawaii can show the world that people of different ethnicities, nationalities, and social, economic and cultural backgrounds can work and live together.

"When you see people actually living that way and acting in that manner I think it’s a very, very powerful message and one that I think we’ll be able to deliver again and again," he said.

As for those who oppose the conference, Abercrombie, once an ardent protester himself during the Vietnam War, said demonstrations will not be silenced, but that security of public officials will be paramount.

"We’re dealing with serious issues having to do with potential terrorism and the security of elected officials from other nations," he said. "That has little or nothing to do with someone’s right under the First Amendment to petition the government for redress of grievances, or to express a point of view.

"That is not in question, that’s not going to be inhibited in any way. But physical confrontation that could result in the jeopardizing of safety of officials — or anybody coming from other countries — is not going to be (tolerated) in the least, I can assure you that."

Opposing voices to the APEC summit are expected.

During the Asian Development Bank’s conference at the Hawai’i Convention Center in 2001, the state planned for as many as 5,000 protesters. About 500 turned out and there were no arrests.

Already, a group known as Occupy Honolulu — based on the Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York calling for change in the U.S. financial system — is organizing in Hawaii and comparing the APEC leaders to the corporations opposed by the Wall Street group.

"APEC/Wall Street: Both working for the 1 percent," the group World Can’t Wait Honolulu says on its website. "Same Enemy — Same Fight!"

The group says the APEC member economies use "free trade" as a code term to advance policies giving "imperialist powers and multinational corporations the ‘right’ to go into oppressed countries and take out whatever they want."

"The main problem with APEC is that the interests that they serve are the interests of big business," said Nandita Sharma, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. "I really think that is contrary to the interest of most everyone else."

She counters the view taken by many in government that the APEC conference will provide a needed boost to the state’s economy, with positives far outweighing the negatives.

"I think that making a blanket statement, in the way that the government is, that this is an economic benefit to Hawaii is absolutely not paying attention to all the people of Hawaii who are actually going to be harmed by the kinds of policies that APEC leaders are promoting," she said.

She cited small farmers as an example, arguing that APEC supports large-scale agricultural practices that would be detrimental to such farms, some of which are likely to be in Hawaii.

"For Abercrombie to say that APEC is a net benefit for Hawaii it’s absolutely just a lie because for very important sectors of the economy in Hawaii it’s actually going to be devastating," she said.