Gov prioritizes
informational
campaign on bill

Gov. Linda Lingle plans to spend August educating Hawaii citizens on the benefits of the native Hawaiian recognition bill, which might secure its first debate and vote in the U.S. Senate next month, she said yesterday.

An action that could force discussion on the so-called Akaka Bill is scheduled to be taken by the Senate on Sept. 6, leaving backers and opponents of the bill a little more than a month to garner support for their positions.

Sixty senators must approve a cloture motion to force 30 hours of debate on the bill followed by an immediate vote.

The bill would also need to pass the House and be signed by the president to become law.

Until then, Lingle, who has lobbied for its passage in Washington, D.C., said she would make it a priority to explain the bill's importance to the state in every upcoming public appearance she makes.

"People don't really understand that much about it," Lingle said, calling the 60 votes needed a "high threshold."

"They sort of hear that headlined and really haven't had the time to understand it or be informed about it," Lingle said. "It doesn't give them one new acre; it doesn't give them one more dollar. It will help us to defend our existing programs which were being challenged and ... give Hawaiians final authority and responsibility over their own lands and resources."

U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, has been pushing for a floor vote on the bill for the past two weeks after nearly six years of trying to get it to the Senate floor. It would grant native Hawaiians the same rights of self-government enjoyed by American Indians and native Alaskans.

But a number of native Hawaiian groups have challenged the bill, saying it is an attempt to legitimize the United States' overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom on Jan. 17, 1893.

Ikaika Hussey, a political science graduate student with the Hui Pu coalition, a native Hawaiian group that opposes the bill, said those who understand what is at stake want self-determination, not to be treated as an American Indian tribe.

"Hawaii deserves a full decolonization process under international law," said Hussey. "We've been fighting this for 112 years. It's a very long war ... and we are committed to it. We know that our ancestors fought this same fight."

The group outlined their concerns about the bill on Sunday during an annual event to remember a five-month occupation of the islands by British military forces on July 31, 1843.

Lingle blamed the bill's opponents for misinforming the public with false assumptions of what the bill would do, such as create a separate government or open the door to legal gambling in Hawaii.

Akaka will be in the islands during the month-long congressional summer recess but will take no vacation from pushing the bill, said his spokeswoman, Donalyn Dela Cruz.