Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 15, Number 2, 1 February 1998 — Leo ʻElole [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Leo ʻElole

TRUSTEE MESSAGES

ch airperson's m e s s a g e

More broken contracts? ĪHE WOLF is the same but the sheepskin has changed — again. In January, Representative Ed Case, chair of the House Committee on Hawaii Affairs, unveiled the 124-page. patronizing insult he calls the Native Hawaiian Autonomy Act. This proposed legislation would single-handedly wipe out the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. It would sweep OHA's portfolio, DHHL's homesteads and any other trust assets the state currently holds for Hawaiians into "one autonomous entity," a Native Hawaiian Trust Corporation run by 13 elected

trustees. There is a dangerous element of this proposed legislation. It attempts to use plenty of politically correct terms, such as "autonomy," that appeal to many. Yet it actually does the opposite by continuing to plaee our lands under the state's regulatory control as well as further reducing the state's constitutionally required and court-ordered obligation to Hawaiians. In other words, it breaks contracts with Hawaiians. A lengthy, almost sentimental section of this bill, titled "Findings," attributes the sad circum- 1 stances of the indigenous people of these islands to "wardship and dependence" that must be replaced with "self-sufficiency and self-determination." So far so good. We Hawaiians have always demanded self-sufficien-

cy and self-determination. But we are not about to walk away from the table before the state's court and constitutionally mandated responsibilities are fulFilled — whieh will provide us

with the true means for self-suf-ficiency. The real reason for our lawmakers' eoneem is buried a few paragraphs later. "It is the further purpose to bring closure to certain historic claims by native Hawaiians against the state," the bill says. Those historic claims are the rights, entitlements and benefits the Hawaiian people rightfully won from the state of Hawai'i and whieh the state, for years, chose to ignore. Make no mistake, the Native Hawaiian Autonomy Act report is yet another transparent attempt to break the contract negotiated between native Hawaiians and the state of Hawai'i. OHA opposes passage of this bill and 1 urge people who care about justice to actively oppose this bill with us. We ean not

accept legislation that disintegrates entitlements for future generations of Hawaiians, in terms of our culture, lands and historic rights. To organize our effort, we have initiated a Beneficiary Outreach Project that we eall BOP. Our original purpose, to prevent any more erosion of Hawaiian rights, benefits and entitlements, still applies, but, with the Native Hawaiian Autonomy Bill lurking at the legislature, our efforts have become more focused. We invite all people who seek justice to attend our community meetings so that we ean fight this abomination together. For meeting times and locations, eall us at 594-1888. The time for action is now. e

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