Illustration: Xia Qing/Global Times

A bird's-eye view of Maui Island, Hawaii, will no longer offer a heavenly scenery but instead a scorched land similar to a battle field. After dozens of days of wildfire, the death toll has exceeded 110, with more than 380 people still missing. Grave losses of lives and damages have resulted in this being one of the deadliest wildfires in the past century, and the worst natural disaster Hawaii has ever faced.

One month has passed. As we pay our condolences to those deceased, it is still hard to believe that this happened in a state of the US, which always boasts that it offers the best to its people. With more digging into the cause of the Maui fire, evidence has shown that, a century and a half after the famous Gettysburg Address, a nation built to be "of the people, by the people and for the people" has decayed into one that is "off the people, buy the people, fool the people." 

Too far off the people 

Maybe because of the great distance between the Hawaiian islands and the US mainland, the well-being of the Hawaiian people has always been at the bottom of the agenda in Washington. Local governance has gone unchecked and not many resources have been directed toward the development of this part of the country. The poor response to the outbreak of the fire has made this sad truth even more evident: The outdoor alarm system failed to activate, and the 80 sirens on the island remained silent as people fled for their lives (or didn't even know that it was time to leave). When firefighters tried to extinguish the fire, they found the equipment was unable to supply water. 

The malfunction of the sirens has been reported many times to the local authority, yet no attention was drawn to the issue. The lack of water was partly due to a water rights dispute which was shelved for quite some days because of administrative negligence. Moreover, when local people called out for help and care, some politicians on the mainland simply did not want to spare their vacation time to respond and react. They were disconnected from the pain and unwilling to listen to the pleas of the people. This is because long ago they had cut themselves off from the people.

Continue to buy the people 

Several days after the fire died down, some media began spreading warning messages to local residents, reminding them to be alert to real-estate brokers approaching them to buy their burnt-out land at an extremely low price. It is looting, and it is nothing new to exploit the aboriginals. Predatory land grabs used to be so common and, in a sense, it is how Hawaii became the 50th state.

In the 1900s, American and European financiers, sugar cane plantation owners and descendants of missionaries bought large amounts of land from the aboriginal Hawaiian people for mere pennies. After American-backed insurrectionists overthrew the local Queen and set up a provisional government, the land of Hawaii was transferred to the US authority almost at almost no cost. A hundred years later, when Maui Island was spotted by developers and was built to be a Xanadu, the local people who used to be the real owners of the island only found the skyrocketing home prices no longer affordable. 

The warning from the media does not come from nowhere. It is quite likely that this time, predatory land grabbers will once again offer to buy up local properties, like vultures preying on their dying prey. 

Always fool the people

In some democracies, responsible officials usually resign to quell the anger of the affected people. There is no doubt that the disqualified individuals should step down. But is that all? A simple resignation cannot compensate for the significant losses in both human lives and in property. It will not answer the question why the disqualified were chosen to be on the position.

After Herman Andaya, administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), resigned as one of those accountable, will the mayor of Maui and the governor of Hawaii rest in peace? Their competence as chief administrators is questionable. Not just their response to the crisis, but also their previous governance record must be examined. It took little time for the public to find flaws: On Maui, the plea to improve firefighting facilities has been made for several years as another fire had already struck this place in 2018 and the same problems had been exposed. Since then, nothing was done and the county's statement lied that "this (the non-response) has never happened before." 

Why the US electoral system always produces politically-crooked liars or cheaters to take power is beyond our knowledge. Any government that claims to be established upon the will of the people should at least respect the will of the people and safeguard the right of the people. When a disaster of this magnitude occurs in a country, shouldn't its top officials respond immediately and stay vigilant to the situation at all times? And isn't it the local government's duty to enhance disaster resilience and ensure effective response capabilities? Standing on the piles of votes from their supporters who are credulous about their manifesto, those politicians need to work for the people instead of fooling around.

Having said all this, could we conclude that those shining lines in the Gettysburg Address have faded and those who are off the people, buying the people and fooling the people are taking power? No comment.

The author is a commentator on internationals affairs, writing regularly for Xinhua News, Global Times, China Daily, CGTN etc. He can be reached at xinping604@gmail.com.