Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 1, 1 January 2010 — Congress holds the future of Hawaiians in its hands [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Congress holds the future of Hawaiians in its hands

Aloha kakou a pau loa, H a p p y New Year to you all and may 2010 be a prosperous and rewarding year for our people and the people of our state. We have again worked diligently for the 10th year in a row to secure passage of the Akaka Bill but continue to face obstacles in the wording and details of the bill. This bill is not even 50

pages long but has still not passed. I cannot help but wonder about the l,000-page bills being passed

by Congress after a month or two of deliberations and just how many problems may be included in so many hidden passages. The Akaka Bill has been reviewed, modified, redone, changed and deliberated in committee and on the floor ad nauseam and still languishes somewhere in the halls of Congress. What's up with that? Now, on the verge of passage, changes in the

bill made without the knowledge of OHA and not in accordance with our position have surfaced in Washing-

ton, D.C., whieh threaten to again impede passage. Amazing how we keep shooting ourselves in the foot. As you all know by now, OHA has sought to move toward passage of the bill against the objections of groups and individuals, such as Grass Roots Hawai'i, who oppose the bill on grounds of racial discrimination by Hawaiians against all others, and also by those Hawaiians who oppose because they want only to heeome an independent nation outside the United States. These detractors, though at opposite ends of the spectrum, collaborate to defeat the bill in an unholy allianee whieh is meant to defeat any and all efforts to allow Hawaiians to get a handle on their own concerns and

needs as a people and to secure for future generations our identity and voice in our own affairs. Without the protection that bill will afford to Hawaiians from legal extermination, as a people we will not be long identified as "Hawaiians," the indigenous people of Hawai'i, but will heeome "Hawaiians" along with all the other residents of Hawai'i. As such we will be assimilated by virtue of court order and disappear into the melting pot of our society thus losing all current recognition of our status as the native people of our 'āina with inherent rights to govern ourselves. Other races and nationalities will continue to have connection to their homelands whereas Hawaiians will have no homeland, at least not one distinguishable from the plaee where we and others reside. The likelihood of OHA prevailing in court will be zero and our opponents will be able to achieve their goal of eliminating any distinction of Hawaiians as the indigenous people of Hawai'i from others. The term Native Hawaiian will be stricken fromthe law books and also any laws granting any benefits that are now in plaee as with education, health, housing, employment, etc. The State of Hawai'i will be sad-

dled with replacing these benefits or ignoring them and Hawaiians will suffer the consequences. The economy of Hawai'i will lose the government benefits currently provided. Tourism and business will face the consequences of the loss of the face of Hawai'i, its native people. Hawaiians will suffer the loss of benefits, whieh have been applied to helping them lift themselves up and achieving a degree of success in their own land. Any protection against charges of racial discrimination will evaporate and institutions such as Kamehameha Schools and the royal trusts, whieh support Hawaiians, will face a serious threat of closure for policies preferring Hawaiians over all others. The future of an entire people rests in the hands of Congress and so long as we continue to stumble over our own discontents and make demands that only fuel the movement against all Hawaiians, we have a problem. I doubt that unity ean be achieved in view of the disparate views on federal recognition, and so let us hope that OHA will nevertheless prevail in protecting the future of our people via a bill that will address our needs while benefiting all the people of our state. ■

Būyd P. Mūssman TrustEE, Maui