TIME is running out for Hawaii to resolve the issues of injustice, reparations and self-determination regarding Native Hawaiians. As Rep. Ed Case, chairman of the Hawaiian Affairs Committee, contends, the state now is looking at a window of opportunity that has swung open and is likely to swing shut. Time is a factor
in Hawaiian issuesCase needed his own shelter during this legislative session when he proposed eliminating Hawaiian-oriented agencies such as OHA and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands in favor of a single Native Hawaiian Trust Corp. to manage all native resources.
Group after group of Native Hawaiians stood up to protest Case. At times the debate degenerated into name-calling and personal attacks.
Protesters said the issue is one that must be resolved first by Hawaiians. True enough, Case says, but while that debate goes on, things are changing here and across the Pacific. Case points to four factors demanding that this debate not be prolonged.
First, Hawaii's voting demographics are changing. Not as many new voters have deep roots in Hawaii with "an internal feeling about Native Hawaiian issues."
Also the federal government and the national debate are turning away from singling out specific groups for special treatment. The repeals of affirmative action policies at the state level prove that point, he says.
The third point is that our congressional delegation, which is supportive of Native Hawaiian issues, is not going to remain stable forever.
The final point is that after decades of protests and justifiable anger by Hawaiians at the resistance of the establishment to change, there now is a great willingness to move.
"In the last two years, the remaining 80 percent of the population has been saying 'OK,we are ready,' now you have got the rest of Hawaii ready to proceed and we are waiting for the native Hawaiian community," Case said.
Protests and nearly unanimous opposition caused Case to withdraw his proposal this week, but this is a debate that needs to be considered with some clear-eyed thought, not emotion.
The fact is that changes will not come only because of the decisions of Native Hawaiians. Some form of self-government, sovereignty or reparations will not be a decision made by just the Native Hawaiian portion of the population.
Justice for Hawaiians will come at the state level through the Legislature and on a federal level through Congress. Both institutions are bodies that operate on inclusion. They operate by consensus.
CASE warns, "One of the things missing in this whole debate is the degree to which the state and federal people and the people of Hawaii are going to be involved."
"We are going to have to amend the state Constitution, we are going to have to change state law, we are probably going to have to amend federal statutes, we are going to have to reach resolution with the federal government. That is missing from the discussion so far." To do that, Case says, we need to hear new voices from the Hawaiian community.
That silent majority, the Native Hawaiians who wrote Case in support of his ideas, have to stand and lead.
"When I ask: 'Will you lead?' they say it is hard. I don't think that will be acceptable. They have to rise to their own level of leadership," he says.
Failing to confront those responsibilities will only cause the window to close that much faster.