Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 9, 1 September 1989 — The OHA Global Plan [ARTICLE]

The OHA Global Plan

By Clarence F. T. Ching Trustee, O'ahu The average person on the street, without the benefit of extensive expianation, intending to observe and interpret the workings of OHA and its different programs and campaigns, is usually left very confused. Because the media continues to treat the different, and seemingly unrelated, items involoving OHA in isolation it is difficult to gain an integrated perspective of the whole picture. There was "Ho'olako — The year of the Hawaiian" in 1987. Then in January 1988, some 50,000 Hawaiians and Hawaiians-at-heart gathered at Aloha Staduim and celebrated "Ho'olokahi." Getting together for singing and dancing at the stadium was not enough. Many felt that Ho'olokahi should have gone further. Some say it should have been more poliheal. Others say we should have flexed our poliheal muscle. History will probably interpret Ho'olokahi to have been a showing of poliheal potential indeed. It was also a hme of getting together to feel how it is to be with our 'ohana and with other of the same mind. It was a time for joy, happiness and tears. A time to share feelings and pride. A hme to be Hawaiian. Do you remember the feelings of that day? Wonderful wasn't it? Those feelings, properly applied, will sustain us in the sacred quest of our idenhty as a people. Not only will we sing an dance and prachce other aspects of our culture, we will make dc cisions about our future. Some refer to one of these aspects as self-deter-minahon, others eall it sovereignty. Bther way, it boils down to deciding for ourselves who we are and what role we want to play in Hawai'i our homeland and with the rest of the world. In early 1988, trustees Frenchy DeSoto, Moanikeala Akaka, Manu Kahaialii, Rod Burgess (chair) and I (vice-chair) met as OHA's Ad Hoe Committee on Ceded Lands Entitlements. We formulated an integrated strategy to bring the entire Hawaiian community together as a united people. This strategy later became known as the Global Plan or, in Hawaiian terminology, "1 Luna A'e (Moving Upward). We hoped that the minor differences between factions could be set aside so that we, as Hawaiians, could put out total energies into solving the big problems. We were willing to give up on some of the minor battles so that we could win the war. As one of the initial strategies of the Global Plan, the committee decided that the time was right to establish a "single definition." A referendum by mail was chosen as the vehicle. We felt that the "blood quantum" had been put in plaee by the sugar interests to gain their ends and frustrate ours. We felt that by unifying all Hawaiiansundera single definition the political advantage of all Hawaiians standing together wuld put us in the best position to attain our goals. Although OHA took a position to eonhnue protection of the interests of the more-than-50 percent Hawaiians, negative criticsm about the procedures and results of the referendum proliferated. The Hawaii state legislature decided to erase all doubt onee and for all by providing money for OHA-registered Hawaiians to go to the p>olls at the end of this year, or the beginning of next, to vote again on whether we wanted to be one integrated people or not. In the meanhme, another part of the Global Plan got into action. The continuing negotiations to settle the issue of back rents owed by the state to OHA from the Ceded Lands Trust have been taking plaee between the govemor's office and the newly-created OHA Standing Committee on

Native Hawaiian Status and Entitlements (the committee). The committee was the successor of the Ad Hoe Committee on Entitlements. Further clarification of present and future ineome should also be a product of these talks. It is hoped that a negotiated package would go to the legislature in early 1990 for ratification. If a settlement is not concluded in a timely way the so-called Hawaiian Right-to-Sue Law may be utilized to settle the problem in court. It would require, among other things, a full accounting, by the state, of all moneys and lands of the Trust. In carrying out another part of the Global Plan, the committee has just approved a draft of OHA's "Blueprint." The Blueprint document sets up the rationale for, and proposescomprehensive legislation to settle the issues of Hawaiian sovereignty and land claims at the federal level. The Blueprint is scheduled for public release on Sept. 2, Queen Lili'uokalani's birthday. After a series of informational meetings and extensive public hearings throughout the state, and after input from the Hawaiian community and others, the Blueprint will be finalized. The Blueprint will form the basis for legislative effort in congress to secure self-gov-emanee and a land base for Hawaiians. Not only does the blueprint address our federal land, water, oeean, native rights and other claims, it would set up a Constitutional Convention whose purpose, among other, would be to provide a mechanism for Hawaiians to choose a sovereign entity from among the different models. Initiated by Hawaiians in the 1978 Hawai'i State Constitutional Convention; ratified by the voters of the State of Hawai'i its board of trusteeselected by Hawaiians; OHA presently exercises a degree of sovereign powers. OHA is already in operation as the agency that represents Hawaiians; preservers and protects Hawaiian entitlements and rights; acts a conduit for money for Hawaiian programs; and is designated as the receptacle for reparations as one of its mandates. OHA should be seriously considered to be the sovereign entity. (See "On Sovereignty" by this author in the March 1989 issue of Ka Wai Ola O OHA.) To add to OHA's options at the federal level, there is the possibility the State of Hawai'i could lend its support by proposing federal recognition of OHA as the entity responsible for addressing all Hawaian issues and, indeed, to be the sovereign entity. "Operation 'Ohana," OHA's enrollment program, announced by Govemor John Waihee on July 27, is another part of the Global Plan. All Hawaiians, regardless of age or plaee of residence, are included. The eommon benefits of Project 'Ohana and the Single Definition, working together, may well result in uniting Hawaiians worldwide and enabling us to further our goals by speaking with a single voice made up of definite numbers. If we expect to take our claims to Washington via the Blueprint or any other strategy, we will need the additional support of the islands' arid mainland's non-Hawaiians too. We will need the support of friendly people all over the world. TTiis encompasses a very important category where OHA needs to direct more of its efforts. We need a device to reach the hundreds of thousands of American tourists and others who eome here in search of Hawaiian culture but who go home remembering only the honky-tonk circus of Waikiki. Every one of those visitors and their contacts could serve as roving ambassadors of the true Hawai'i. they could materially influence their congressmen in support of pro-Hawaiian federal legislation. Although OHA has begun to reach out to other indigenous groups, OHA needs to eonhnue to

strengthen the relations already formed. OHA must eonhnue to form new alliances and relationships with our cousins to the south, minorities of the United States and with the rest of the world. There are many other sympathetic entities and special interest groups out there that we could interest in assisting our search for justice. Hearings, such as those called by Senator Inouye last month aimed at Hawaiian Homes' problems, will hopefully begin to zero in on some of the issues that the federal and state governments should have been addressing all along. Although the state has finally begun to address the costs of administering the Hawaiian Homes' programs and to provide infrastructure to the homesteads, mueh more should be expected from the federal government whieh has, so far, defaulted on substantially all of its obvious responsibilities under the Hawaiian Homes Act. With the expected resources resulting from the successful completion of the Global Plan, fuil-scale programs in eeonomie and social development, health and welfare, education and historic and eultural preservation ean begin. These are important programs to plan for and work towards. All of these will help to guarantee that Hawaiians will be substantial players in shaping an directing Hawaii's 21st century, and for all time.