Civil rights panel picks prompt debate

The advisory board's selections include Akaka Bill opponents

Opponents of a bill to grant federal recognition to native Hawaiians were appointed yesterday to an advisory board to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, raising concerns for the bill's supporters.

Among the 17 members appointed to the Hawaii State Advisory Panel are attorneys William Burgess and Paul Sullivan, both of whom have written extensively against the so-called Akaka Bill. Also selected was James Kuroiwa Jr., who joined taxpayers in a lawsuit challenging state funding of Hawaiian programs.

"I am concerned that the group does not appear to reflect the position of the majority of the people of Hawaii on one of the most important issues facing our state, namely the Akaka Bill," U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono wrote in an e-mail.

The new panel, which has seven Democrats and Republicans and three independent members who will serve two-year terms, was approved in a 6-2 vote by the eight-member U.S. Civil Rights Commission. The commission is made up of four Republicans appointed by President Bush's administration and four others picked by Congress.

Burgess and Sullivan said that including members who analyze and challenge the civil rights implications of legislation like the Akaka Bill will only help make the committee stronger.

"I hope that's going to be a balanced advisory council. That's what we really need," said Burgess, who contends the bill would illegally create a separate, race-based government in the islands. "They are afraid to have the Constitution of the United States applied to the state of Hawaii."

The bill, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka for the past seven years and officially called the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, made headway in May, gaining approval by the House Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. It has not yet reached the full Senate.

In a report last year, the Civil Rights Commission said the measure would "discriminate on the basis of race or national origin, and further subdivide the American people into discrete subgroups accorded varying degrees of privilege." The Bush administration quoted the document to reject the bill.

Michael Yaki, a San Francisco attorney who sits on the Civil Rights Commission, said yesterday's vote "reflects the rightward shift" of the group "under the present administration."

"I'm extremely disappointed that the commission has chosen to have a committee that does not even believe in the basic sovereign rights of native Hawaiians," said Yaki, a Democrat.

Amy Agbayani, an Akaka Bill proponent also selected to the Hawaii panel, said there will be "a wide range of differences amongst us."

"It is a difference of opinion, but it is an important, large difference in terms of our philosophy and our ideas of what is historically correct and also what we should do to move forward in terms of justice," said Agbayani, director of the Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity Office at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.