Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 9, Number 3, 1 March 1992 — Hana Hou [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hana Hou

By Louis Hao Trustee Moloka'i & Lana'i Here we go again!

OHA reorganized for a third time in 14 months — from four committees to seven committees, from seven committees to nine committees, and the latest, from nine eommittees back to seven committees. 1 have

been questioned as to why there have been three leadership changes in this regime when there are onk 10 rmnths left before the 1992 elections. Ai:-.o, a kupuna asked me, "What's going on in OHA?" What she was questioning was OHA's leadership regarding these changes. I responded by saying, "The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is no longer an agency without power and money." What I really meant was that OHA's ineome potential ean now be considered not only in the millions of dollars, but perhaps in the billions of dollars.

OHA is no longer just another state agency; it will become the revenue stream for additional Hawaiian programs, such as housing, home mortgage lending, scholarship programs, business loan programs, and health programs, to name a few. Also, there are banks, trust eompanies, investment companies, private industries and developers who are approaching OHA as a resource for joint ventureships in eeonomie development projects. These internal and external pressures are beginning to take their toll on trustees, as expectations and criticisms are mounting at an accelerated rate. What appears to be happening within OHA is that contenders for leadership are vying for positions whieh would give them control of the resources, or access to people who control the resources. This internal reshuffling may continue as long as trustees maintain overt and covert networking with influential organizations in the public and private sectors in an effort to satisfy their personal needs, such as increased status, or financial and political opportunities. At this point, leadership is critical. What

makes a leader? Aside from status and power, I believe the most important traits a leader should have are trustworthiness and credibility. It seems to me that trust is paramount. A leader must be open to sharing mana'o as opposed to being authoritative because being authoritative demands of others that they eomply on one hand, or rebel on the other. Neither are productive toward sound decision-making. Leadership responsibility is a!so vested in the remaining members of the board of trustees because a leader is only as good as those who have empowered him or her. OHA has struggled to overcome a negative image since its inception. The trustees have borne the brunt of unkind criticism while struggling for more than 1 1 years to keep abreast of state politics while functioning on only 2 percent of the ceded land revenue with whieh to administer to all Hawaiian programs. Why has OHA been expected to do so mueh with so little? Now we are on the verge of becoming solvent. So here we go again — restructuring! Hana Hou.