Hawaii’s World
FOR years the Trask sisters alarmed me by seeming to refute the political truism that racist politics is no route to success in tolerant, multi-cultural Hawaii. Trask sisters’
alarmingly
racist tacticsNo ethnic group has a majority here. To win a statewide election, as for governor, requires substantial support within at least two of our major ethnic groups, often three. These are Caucasians, Japanese, Hawaiians and Filipinos. Our rainbow of governors reflects this. Each of these four groups has elected a governor to at least two terms since statehood in 1959.
Haunani and Mililani Trask have been overtly anti-haole and anti-Japanese in public preachments heard for years on their Olelo TV show, "First Friday." Under Haunani, the Hawaiian Studies Center at the University of Hawaii-Manoa seemed to reflect this.
Both have practiced ad hominem politics, vilifying their critics personally instead of directly addressing the issues the critics raise.
At last we know other Hawaiian leaders overwhelmingly reject such racism. The rallying-round to support Sen. Daniel K. Inouye after Mililani's racist outbursts against him is immensely reassuring to the majority of us who hope to see the future role of Hawaiians in the state of Hawaii worked out democratically and peacefully.
That means finding a solution that both the state Legislature and the U.S. Congress can accept. It will not happen until Hawaiians themselves can speak with a reasonably unified voice. Hawaiian reaction to the Trask-Inouye flap raises hope that progress will be won without resorting to strident racial polarization.
Before the recent flap, a thoughtful paper was presented to Honolulu's Social Science Association by Stuart K. Ho, a former Democratic leader in the Legislature, former University of Hawaii regent and chairman/president of Capital Investment of Hawaii Inc.
He deplored the fact that moderate Hawaiian leaders don't seem willing to step forward on the matter of Hawaiian self-determination and that "the ossified state of the ruling Democratic Party" is such that there is no elected official except Senator Inouye, who is not even a Hawaiian, who can broker a solution.
Ho added "...despite the snide remarks about his motives that periodically leak out of the camp of the militants."
"What makes him so important," Ho wrote, "is that no one else has the ability to bring federal money to the table if it is needed. If federal money is part of the solution, it's a good guess that the Treasury window slams for good on the issue after 2005, unless Mr. Inouye decides to forgo a well-earned retirement and seek re-election."
Inouye, now 75, will be 80 that year and has said this Senate term may be his last.
It now seems that the Trask criticism of Inouye has led other Hawaiians to rally round him and his strong pro-Hawaiian record. This is very hopeful.
The Hawaiian activist answer to calls that Hawaiians assimilate in America , as other minorities have done so remarkably well, is that the Hawaiian culture was overrun by immigrants coming to these shores whereas Europeans and Asians came to America by their own choice.
I find this persuasive in seeking special treatment --most persuasive of all when applied to 50 percent Hawaiians rather than the thousands with very low percentage points of Hawaiian blood.
The majority-blood ancestors of the latter are part of the problem. Senior U.S. District Judge Samuel P. King, who is 3/16ths Hawaiian, thinks Hawaiian homestead organizations might be the best nucleus for consensus-building. Homesteaders by law must be 50 percenters.
A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.