Groups oppose
Ha Hawaii’s convention

By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

A coalition of native Hawaiian groups opposed to a planned Native Hawaiian Convention by the nonprofit group Ha Hawaii says the process will do more harm than good for Hawaiians.

Members of the Kupono Coalition this morning said Ha Hawaii's plan to hold a convention disregards the results of the 1996 Native Hawaiian Vote, in which only 22,294 out of 81,507 voted in favor of a plan to elect delegates to a convention.

The rest either voted "no" or made a conscious decision not to participate in the vote, said coalition spokeswoman Vicky Holt-Takamine.

"These voters did not reject sovereignty, they rejected the only option on the ballot -- the HSEC/Ha Hawaii Native Hawaiian Convention," Holt-Takamine said today.

Today is the deadline for Hawaiians to file as delegates for the convention and to register to vote in Jan. 17 elections to choose delegates.

Among the coalition's complaints is that the convention is tainted because it is part of a state process started by the Hawaiian Sovereignty Elections Process -- the predecessor to Ha Hawaii. Also, the law creating HSEC says nothing arising out of a Hawaiian convention can change any state law.

Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustee Mililani Trask, governor of the sovereignty group Ka Lahui Hawaii, claims Ha Hawaii is a part of an overall strategic plan by the state Democratic Party that will ultimately give control of Hawaiian resources to a select few.

Retired lawyer William Ko'omealani Amona, in a statement today, said his family protests the "unwarranted and arrogant assumption" of Ha Hawaii to create a sovereign government.

Amona believes Ha Hawaii has no intention of providing Hawaiians with the full measure of self-determination and self-government, based on international law.

"Our ohana received ballots and did not vote because it was a 'state' process, just as what Ha Hawaii is doing now," he said.

The coalition is urging all Hawaiians to boycott the Ha Hawaii election in January and instead join the group at Iolani Palace for a "Sovereignty Sunday" event that day.

It also supports a Hawaiian summit being scheduled next spring that will be inclusive of all Hawaiian people and groups, said coalition member Kinau Boyd Kamalii.

Kamalii said Hawaiians are being used as pawns by the Democratic Party.

She said sovereignty will only come when all Hawaiians decide their future themselves.

"This to me is an inappropriate action," Kamalii said of Ha Hawaii's efforts.