At the hands of the Friends of Lanai, Lanai has been doing ritual seppuku. Now the word is that David Murdock, owner of Castle & Cooke, is putting Lanai up for sale. This is dire news for the people of Lanai.
Murdock bought Castle & Cooke in 1985. One of its assets is Lanai. Murdock thus owns 98 percent of Lanai and employs 700 out of a dwindled population of 2,500. If they fear for the future, they’re right.
Last summer, Murdock told Alberta de Jetley of Lanai Today that Lanai was the "poorest financial investment" he’d ever made. He said, "I can stay and sustain the animosity; I can sell off parts of the island, although it may not be easy to do; or, I can close it all down and leave." Things were already at crisis.
His decision is no surprise. See my article of Dec. 5, 2010, and my blog of Aug. 30, 2011. The article closed with: "The world waits to hear what the people of Lanai will do. Will they risk the end of the chapter, or will they make Lanai a shining example of clean energy? The right thing seems clear."
Actually, the people of Lanai have not done the right thing. They’ve allowed a minority group, the Friends of Lanai, to fill the media with protest against Murdock’s wind project. Big Wind is in irons, and the island is in mortal jeopardy, largely because the silent majority in Lanai hasn’t stood up for it.
While De Jetley and the unions have publicly supported Murdock, the rank and file has been quietly supportive, but not vocal, even in the face of the loud and bitter attacks the Friends have leveled against Murdock, making him an outcast on his own island and bringing him to the point of sale. It’s not fair.
Did they think Murdock would endure this treatment and continue to fund annual losses of more than $20 million? The Friends would rather see the community destroyed than support Murdock’s project, and regrettably the people of Lanai have not raised their voices to disagree.
Lanai could soon be sold to one buyer or broken up and sold in pieces. As owner, Murdock has the right to close it down, protest or not. The die is cast, and soon enough he’ll find a buyer or buyers, very likely multinationals, to take it off his hands. And if he doesn’t, his trustees and executors surely will.
"There seems to be this fantasy going on that someone like Murdock will come buy it," de Jetley said, "but there’s no one like Murdock." The new owner is not going to take losses to provide jobs or allow the gratuitous use of hunting and recreational areas. He’ll be in it for profit, not charity.
Lanai will fall into backwater. The hotels and businesses will shrink or close, and the jobs will disappear. The people will have to go elsewhere, selling their homes at fractional prices and leaving Lanai only to the affluent. Many will seek work on Oahu and see what renewables look like from the other side.
Lanai will go from a lost paradise to a ghost town, a monument to those who looked the gift horse in the mouth. Those who have assumed that Murdock would continue to take care of them will learn a harsh lesson. Too late, they will find that Lanai’s best friend has been Murdock himself.
Worse, the loss of Big Wind will sidetrack hopes for a statewide grid, where our islands can be connected and everyone can pay a level rate. Beyond a tragedy for Lanai, this will be further indicia of insular drift where some islands just go south. The sweet life on Lanai will be a memory, and we will all be the loser.
This is a time for the people of Lanai to stand up. More than ever, they need to tell Murdock that they’ve appreciated his benevolence and regret the abuse he has suffered. And they need to show the legislators who care about Lanai that they, not the so-called Friends, are the true and legitimate constituency.
The people of Lanai need to make it clear that they want to preserve their special community, that they support Murdock and agree that Lanai needs to embrace Big Wind to do that. They need to express an urgency and demand for action. At this point they need to do the right thing, and right away.
Jay Fidell, a longtime business lawyer, founded ThinkTech Hawaii, a digital media company that reports on Hawaii’s tech and energy sectors of the economy. Reach him at fidell@lava.net.
