Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 8, 1 August 1993 — The Governor's Sovereignty Commission [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Governor's Sovereignty Commission

by Moanike'ala Akaka Trustee, Hawai'i There is mueh eoneem about the appointments to the group that will coordinate the Hawaiian constitutional convention, if the Hawaiian people decide there will be a convention. In the last legislature OHA

introduced HB 1992 to set up a process for the Hawaiian Congress. It called for Hawaiian delegates elected from eaeh district to eonvene a Hawaiian Congress next year, and put together a draft constitution for our Hawaiian

nation. This congress would then recess for three months while the delegates returned to their districts where they would share this document for input from our Hawaiian constituents. The congress would reconvene and the constitution would be redrafted with added input from our Hawaiian people. The Hawaiian people would then vote

on the constitution and pass it with a majority "yes" vote. If a majority voted against the document, the congress would reconvene to amend the constitution for another vote until it was passed by a majority. This process would have Hawaiians self-determining and setting up the framework for the Congress.

However, because OHA set up this process there was a backlash led by Ka Lāhui Hawai'i, who had put together a constitution of their own in 1987. Though I was a founding legislator of Ka Lāhui, we should not assume

that the document initiated by 100 of us self-appointed founders should automatically be the goveming document for the re-recog-nized Hawaiian nation. Any eonstitution, including Ka Lāhui's, as well formed as it may be, must pass a larger recognized constitutional convention. Because of the backlash on HB 1992, it was killed in the

Legislature and SB 1028 materialized at the end of the session. The laek of vision and foresight that created this backlash would allow the state to control our future as they have our past. It is like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson asking England to oversee the Declaration of Independence and Constitutional Convention of 1787. This is outrageous. Is it our Hawaiian nation or the state's? Also killed was a bill seeking to legitimize Ka Lāhui as the sovereign nation and heir to all Hawaiian resources. Instead, now we will have a Hawaiian Sovereignty Advisory Commission made of 19 members appointed by the governor from lists submitted by Hawaiian organizations. This commission will advise the state Legislature on format and procedures for speeial elections, size and composition of the convention, boundaries of districts and proposed convention dates. Their responsibility will also include voter registration, education and preparation for the convention. All will be under the Office of State

Planning; the convention could be held in 1995. Now, Ka Lāhui is boycotting the Sovereignty Advisory Commission because it is gover-nor-appointed to advise the state Legislature, who will then advise us natives. As an OHA trustee, I agree with Ka Lāhui's stand against the way this commission is being set up by the state. Are commissioners appointed by the governor because he is Hawaiian? If he

was non-Hawaiian, would he appoint our Hawaiian sovereignty commissioners? OHA trustees were elected by Hawaiians to serve Hawaiians. The governor of this state was

elected to represent all the residents of this state, though he should be sensitive to Hawaiian justice. It is the Hawaiian people that should determine the make-up and process of the Hawaiian sovereign nation, not the governor, Legislature or OSP. At times we Hawaiians lash out, hurting instead of helping ourselves, exactly the case with SB 1028 whieh passed into law without the govemor's signature. The state has no right dictating and manipulating the process for our Hawaiian nation. This is a Hawaiian affair; it is self-deter-mination in a real democracy. This bill, SB 1028, should be recommitted and killed in the special summer legislative session. In its stead, OHA's original version, HB 1 992, should also be recommitted and passed into law. Otherwise we head into rough waters! Mālama pono. Ua mau ke ea o ka 'āina i ka pono.

Any constitution, including Ka Lāhui's, as well formed as it may be, must pass a larger recognized constitutional convention.