Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 6, 1 June 1990 — Baltic Independence (Sovereignty) [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Baltic Independence (Sovereignty)

By Clarence F. T. Ching Trustee, O'ahu

It is sometimes scary, sometimes surprising and sometimes wonderful when something I have been following, observing, supporting morally and hoping for, happens. Such a something is happening in the tiny

Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Although things had been brewing there for a long time, little did I realize what momentousand significant things could take plaee swiftly if peoples become of one mind in philosophy and action. When hundreds of thousands of individuals become unified they become unstoppable in their political pursuits. It was with great interest and hope that I observed the re-emerging sovereignty of those countries as eaeh declared its independence. It eame quickly. Similar to the kinds of intricate developments that go on within a ehieken egg, when the shell cracks, the ehiek hatches. The eollective frustration and hope, pent up over those many years, finally bursts out and a nation is reborn. The subject of my eolumn in the Nov. 1987 issue of this newspaper was "Stand Up and Be Counted." 1 cited three examples of people who were in situations similar to us Hawaiians and the things they were doing to further their cause. I could not forecast the decisive events of the last eouple of months as I wrote the following about the people of the Baltics: "For nearly five decades now, the people of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia (the Baltics) have been waging a quiet war against the Russians. "The situation started on Aug. 23, 1939, when Kremlin leader Joseph Stalin and German fuehrer Adolf Hitler entered into a non-aggression pact whieh incorporated the Baltics into the Soviet Union. "Since then, citizens of those countries have resisted their assimilation into the Soviet Union. Their hostility towards the Russians has been notorious. They have expressed their nationalistic feelings at every opportunity, both underground and in public. Although forbidden to do so, they persist in speaking their own language, singing

their own songs and keeping their own histories. "At noon on Aug. 23 of this year (1987), coordinated demonstrations took plaee in the capital cities of all three republics as the people defied poliee barricades to show their disdain for eontinued Soviet rule." But $omething happened this year. The Berlin Wall broke down. Romania and Czechoslovakia joined the action. The Balkans took center stage. There seems to be a definite move, however, away from communistic forms of government and towards democracy. Of the Baltics, Lithuania was the first to make its bold move. After removing the ruling Communists from power via the ballot box, it declared its independence from Moscow on March 11. Estonia pledged, on March 30, to join Lithuania in its drive to regain independence but set an unspecified transition period during whieh Soviet laws would remain in effect. On May 4, Latvia's parliament voted to secede from the USSR. The plot thickened as Russia took steps to reverse the moves of the Baltic countries. Soviet army activities escalated and a number of key offices were seized. Threats were made and uti!ities were diminished or shut down. The pressure was on. The nations-in-embryo, in searching for peaee and justice, begged other countries, including the U.S., for diplomatic recognition. President Bush, although under pressure from many congressional lawmakers and others, apparently to avoid damaging the present state of U.S.-Soviet relations, has sat on the fence and avoided giving these countries the recognition as nations that they clearly deserve. lt is my guess that a permanent independence will eventually eome to the Baltics. When that will happen, I don't know. The first steps toward that goal have been taken. To leave the happenings in Europe and to bring the situation closer to home, is there any relationship that the Baltic situation has with the plight of Hawaiians in good old Hawai'i Nei? It is possible that the courageous stand exhibited by the sovereignty-seeking Baltics could add fuel to the fire of Hawaiian activists who maintain a running monologue that Hawai'i should resume its role as an independent sovereign nation by somehow seceding from the Union.

Although the Soviet Union allows secession under certain conditions, the U.S. Constitution does not. Many legal scholars believe that statehood is an irreversible process. After all, one of the bases for the Civil War was to keep the Confederate States from leaving. However, as Hawaiians seek an acknowledgement of the illegal U.S. involvements of 1893 and a restoration of sovereignty of some kind, what ean we leam from the European experience? Among other things, an organized population that is willing to "hit the streets" in pursuit of a unified goal ean cause a major shift in political status. Poliheal unity in the voting booth is the other key. That we take steps to preserve and use our own language, sing our own songs and dance our own dances, malama our homes and sacred places, keep our own histories and respect eaeh other, ean provide the cultural foundation from whieh to launeh our nationhood. These activities ean eome about when a group goal is identified and when the group's leaders take their plaee and be recognized. With the leaders acting in concert and the group, with conscious awareness, following, unbelievable events ean take plaee. Realizing that I have greatly simplified the events of the last eouple of months within the ongoing history of mankind, it is my hope that, if anything, Hawaiians ean look at present developments and observe that others are transforming what seems to be the impossible into the possible. With our eommon goal of sovereignty in mind, and with competent leaders to lead the charge, we ean be optimistic and hopeful as we prepare to take our rightful plaee among the other free peoples of the world.