Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 14, Number 12, 1 December 1997 — TIBET AND HAWAIĀI [ARTICLE]

TIBET AND HAWAIĀI

While the issue of Chinese oppression and genocide in Tibet sweeps the United States, few Americans are checking out the sovereignty issue hidden under their own cultural carpet. In 1893, a coalition of missionaries, merchants and industrialists, backed by the U.S. military, staged an armed insurrection against the legitimate govemment of Queen Lili'uokalani who agreed to step down to avoid violence but never relinquished the sovereignty of her realm. She in fact appealed to us, the future citizenss of the U.S. to make amends for this blatant act of racist imperialism. The Hawaiian people are still waiting. In 1993, the Clinton administration and the U.S. Congress apologized but made no move toward restoration or restitution. There are hereditary ali'i all over Hawai'i and every year eaeh island celebrates a royal court with pride. How different is this from the displaced court of the Dalai Lama? Lnterestingly, President Jiang made his first stop at Pearl Harbor, a base of planet-melt-ing nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines whieh leads Hawaiians to conclude that ridding their Kingdom of the U.S. military maehine will be an uphill battle on the scale of David vs. Goliath. Bee Llewellyn Evans via the lnternet Continued on page 4

Contlnued from page 2 Another parallel between Hawai'i and Tibet is that 1959, the same year that Hawai'i was fradulently incorporated into America, is the year in whieh Tibet was forcibly incorporated into China. To understand the total laek of legitimacy of the 1959 "plebiscite" by whieh Ameiiea claims Hawai'i chose to become a state, consider this parallel: If China were to hold a vote today, giving the choices for Tibet to 1) become a province of China or 2) remain an occupied teiritory, allowing their own military personnel (who now outnumber native Tibetans around the holy city of Llasa) to vote, but not allowing to vote any native Tibetan who refused to become a citizen of China. This would be considered blatantly fraudulent and and invalid in the intemational community, yet this is precisely what happened in Hawai'i in 1959. Scott via the lnternet

Letters cont.