Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 19, Number 11, 1 November 2002 — How can we build a nation when we have negative leaders? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

How can we build a nation when we have negative leaders?

In the last issue of Ka Wai Ola o OHA , Trustees Apoliona and Machado combined their eolumn to write a fictional pieee on me to influeuce votes against me in the up~coming election. Judging from that article, I am certain you are clever enough to see through it. While I consider it to be petty and a waste of euergy, I do believe you, the beneficiaries, are entitled to hear the truth. The truth is that from that article our readem should have a veiy good idea of what kind of trustees they have been while sem ing on this Board — full of neg~ ativity, criticizing the hard work and efforts of othem while contributing nothing. How ean we build a nation with negative leadershipl The negotiating team that they spoke about worked very hard to try and resolve the Heely case. What we presented to the Board was an offer that we could begin serious

neg otiating with. Trustees Apoliona and MIachado, along with three others no longer on this Board, voted to end all negotiations with the State leaving OHA's fate to be decided by the Hawai'i Supreme Court. On Sept. 12, 2001, the Hawai'i Supreme Court ruled that Act 304 was flawed and referred the Act back to the legislature. The resultof that decision has meant zero revenues for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs since July 2001 . For the fi rst time in 22 years, OHA has no ineome from whieh to draw to provide funding for existing and new programs and operations. The trust corpus in now at a dismal $244 million with no guidance from the budget chair since Febmary. We are now dipping into the trust to fund all programs and operations. With the stock market in a down~ ward spiral since November 2000, and OHA losing mueh of the corpus in the market, it is amazing to me that just when you think things are terrible and they couldn't get any

worse, we fmd oumelves with a leadership that has taken absolutely no action to remedy either situation. Adding to this already grave prob~ lem is the fact that OHA along with other Hawaiian Trusts, continue to be challeuged in our legal system. I find it extremely sad and in very bad taste that Apoliona and MIachado waste precious time writing negative things and tearing down the hard work of others instead of concentrating on critical issues facing OHA. How ean we build a nation with negative leadership? I look forward to the elections in the hope that we will have new

faces on the OHA Board that will bring new and positVe enargy to give us all hope for the future. OHA is the only Hawaiian public trust leftthat all Hawaiians are beneficiaries of. We must, at all cost, keep that in mind, and work togeth~ er to overcome the 'alamihi crab syndrome that is always present among us. Let us keep our eyes on the prize and keep our focus. We must settle the ceded lands claims so that we will have a land base to build our nation upon. The 1 .4 million acres of ceded lands that are inclusive of the DHHL 250,000 acres is what we must look at in totality. We must not settle only for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. To do this would mean the rest of the Hawaiian community would be left without a land base. Finally, we must have recognition for all Hawaiians, not just for a few. VIālama pono! ■

We must have recognition for ALL Ha waiians, not just for a few.

Rowena Akana Trustee, At-large