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View Point
Hawaiian rights and the pursuit of self-determination are in dire straits with Governor Cayetano's announcement that he will appoint eight Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees to replace the sitting trustees in light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Rice vs. Cayetano. Governor wants
control of OHAThe governor is unilaterally taking away the rights of Hawaiians to self-governance by denying them the sole right to cast a ballot in OHA trustee elections.
He is seizing this opportunity, in which Hawaiians as a whole are vulnerable, to grant political favors by appointing new trustees, proving once again that his hasty decision-making is not aligned with the will of the Hawaiian people.
It was through this election process that Hawaiians had some form of self-determination. Now, it appears to rest in Cayetano's hands.
The truth is that the governor is champing at the bit to seize OHA's $350 million portfolio. The governor's effort to remove the sitting trustees is tantamount to the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy more than a century ago.
This is not 1893; the state cannot repeat its maltreatment of Hawaiians. This arbitrary action will cause greater tension among Hawaiians and the state, and cause widespread civil disobedience.
Nowhere in the high court's ruling did it say that the current trustees are holding office illegally. The governor does not have a legal obligation to replace the trustees, which begs the question as to his true motives for this aggressive move.
One could reasonably assume that if the Supreme Court wanted to say that the trustees were illegally elected, they would have had the authority to do so. What the ruling did say, however, is that OHA cannot restrict anyone from voting in an OHA election. As this decision comes from the highest court in America, the state must comply.
I take comfort in the fact that the court only looked at the 15th Amendment when deciding this case. OHA's programs and projects will remain intact. The agency will continue its mission to better the conditions of the Hawaiian people, as it has for more than two decades.
Make no mistake that a press release from our senior senator, Daniel Inouye, signals an inside plan between himself and the governor that began back in October 1999, when the Rice case was heard in Washington, D.C.
Their plan was to destroy OHA from within, by allowing the governor to now proclaim, "Because the OHA board is dysfunctional, I must appoint new trustees."
This is nothing more than a plan to take over the trust assets and to control movement by this office. The governor does not want Hawaiians to move forward to control our own entitlements and destiny.
This is a wake-up call to all Hawaiians that we must stand together against the political powers that have held us down since 1959 when statehood occurred.
While in Washington, Department of Interior representatives and Supreme Court justices asked us, "Why has Congress not taken action to codify what the state has done in its creation of OHA?"
Inouye has been in Washington for more than 30 years and served as chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, and is now its vice chairman. While in office, he has done much for Native Americans. But he has not put forward a sincere effort to try and obtain political status for the natives of his own state.
Hawaiians must stand up and be counted. Those who believe in justice must ask questions, rather than step back and take what is handed down from those who wield the powerful political wand.
Rowena M.N. Akana was elected OHA trustee-at-large
in an election now ruled invalid by the U.S. Supreme Court.