Hawaii's World

by A.A. Smyser

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Former Gov. John Waihee is 75 percent Hawaiian. His accomplishments verge on what once would have been considered politically impossible.

In 1978, as a neophyte Constitutional Convention delegate, he was a key figure in creating the Office of Hawaiian Affairs with an independent Hawaiians-only voter list, now over 70,000. It was something not even talked about before the convention but conceptualized by Waihee, "Frenchy" DeSoto, who chaired Hawaiian affairs, and a few others during the Con Con.

As the convention's unofficial majority leader, Waihee also pushed through constitutional amendments that (1) increase funding for the Hawaiian Homes program with a permanent 30 percent tithe on rentals from lands then in sugar even after they go out of sugar; (2) mandate separate state funding of Hawaiian Home Lands operations; (3) protect traditional and customary Hawaiian rights; (4) limit adverse possession, which had deprived some Hawaiians of land; (5) mandate public education on Hawaiian subjects; and (6) make Hawaiian an official language of the state. They were narrowly ratified.

Waihee climbed the political ladder to governor just eight years later at age 40. The Con Con was where, working mostly behind the scenes, he first showed his strong political skills.

As governor from 1986 to 1994 he:

• Negotiated a ceded land settlement covering lands of the overthrown monarchy that gave OHA $134.5 million in back rent and interest for the statehood years and assured OHA of a continuing income stream of more than $10 million a year from 20 percent of the ceded lands. This is on top of the 30 percent sugar land payment to Hawaiian Homes.
• "Made whole" the Hawaiian Home Lands program, which Congress had adopted in 1920 as Prince Kuhio's top legislative accomplishment. It was flawed in execution. Thousands of 50 percent Hawaiians have waited long years for homes. Waihee included good home sites in more than 17,000 state acres he gave to HHL to get it back above the 200,000 acres mentioned in the 1920 act. He negotiated a claims settlement, ratified by the Legislature after he left office, that gives Hawaiian Homes $30 million a year in cash or land equivalent for 20 years - a total of $600 million above its other revenues.
• Told the federal government it should match for the territorial years 1898-1959 the type of claims settlements the state has made for the statehood years. This is still pending in an unfavorable congressional climate.
• Won for individual Hawaiians the legal right to sue for breaches of trust in land. Thousands of claims are now being reviewed.
• Along with our congressional delegation, played a key role in transferring Kahoolawe, the former military target island, to a state reserve from which it may later be transfered to a sovereign Hawaiian entity.
• Supported a democratically conducted plebiscite among Hawaiians on the question of creating a sovereign Hawaiian entity. He says several organized Hawaiian groups including Ka Lahui, the largest, are urging a boycott of the plebiscite because they doubt they will be able to control the result. They want to build on constitutions they already have adopted.

More Thursday on his hopes for the future.