News Release – Office of Rep. Mele Carroll
January 29, 2009 - For immediate release
Legislative Hawaiian Caucus meets with Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Kupu‘āina Coalition about moratorium goals
Honolulu. Office of Hawaiian Affairs leadership spoke with members of the Legislative Hawaiian Caucus at a Kūkākūkā meeting on Thursday, January 29 about strategies in protecting “ceded lands” currently in dispute.
Chair of the OHA Board of Trustees Haunani Apoliona, Administrator Clyde Namu‘o, Trustees Oz Stender, and Robert Lindsey advised the Caucus to urge other lawmakers to back a single moratorium bill and to move it through legislation quickly.
“For the legislative action to be the most effective is to have a bill passed before February 25,” Namu‘o said of the date on which the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on whether or not the 1993 Apology Resolution by Congress stripped the State of its right to sell “ceded lands.” “We’re at the point where we no more time to quibble over which version [of the moratorium bill to go with].”
Rep. Mele Carroll, Chair of the Legislative Hawaiian Caucus, asked the OHA members for their opinion on how they feel that legislators should proceed forward in the coming month regarding the support of the moratorium legislation on “ceded lands.”
Namu‘o said that the public needs to be educated on the issue of “ceded lands” and let their representatives know where they stand.
“People need to realize that this is absolutely one of the most serious issues to affect our people in a long, long time,” Namu‘o said. “Gov. Lingle needs to hear that not only the Hawai‘i community is upset over this bill, but the broader community as well.”
While Gov. Linda Lingle has not stated any plans to sell “ceded lands,” to have the U.S. Supreme Court to comment on Native Hawaiian claims to those lands is the worst thing to happen, when the State and Native Hawaiians are currently in a process of reconciliation, Namu‘o explained.
“I think the important thing right now is the legislation,” Rep. Mele Carroll said. “Kupu‘āina and ‘Iliu‘okalani Coalitions are out there right now working really hard to educate the public. But we all need to communicate.”
Apoliona agreed: “The common ground of the moratorium, let’s all get on board on that.”
Members of Kupu‘āina Coalition (who organized StopSellingCededLands.com) presented counterarguments to what was stated by Attorney General Mark Bennett at a previous Legislative Hawaiian Caucus meeting. Bennett had said that a legislated moratorium would bring lawsuits against the State, hamper the government’s ability to generate finance, and that having the federal government settle a State issue was the moral thing to do. The Coalition and the OHA members both stated that the Attorney General’s arguments were misleading the public.
“We thank you [The Legislative Hawaiian Caucus] for moving forward and rising against the fear that potential litigation would come forward,” Kupu‘āina Coalition member Derek Kauanoe said.
Kauanoe told the Caucus that legal disputes will come to the State even if the Attorney General and the Governor win their case in the U.S. Supreme Court. He also quoted the Attorney General as agreeing that the issue of “ceded lands” should be resolved in the political arena, not in the courts.
It seems as if the Attorney General and Gov. Lingle want to do away with the unique laws that shape Hawai‘i,” Coalition member Hoku Price said. “It is up to the legislators … to recognize and not challenge the rights of the first people of Hawai‘i.”
Coalition member Jocelyn Doane also told the Caucus that a moratorium would not prevent the State from making money and that licenses, permits, and other economic uses of the land would carry on in the same way that it has.
“This issue is not one that pits the Native Hawaiian community against the non-Native Hawaiian community,” Doane said. “Hawaiians have a special relationship with the land, and so does the rest of the community.”
The Legislative Hawaiian Caucus is composed of 28 members for the 2009 session, the largest membership it has ever had: Rep. Mele Carroll (Chair), Sen. J. Kalani English (Vice-Chair), Sen. Clayton Hee, Sen. Brickwood Galuteria, Sen. Michelle Kidani, Sen. Norman Sakamoto, Sen. Suzanne Chun-Oakland, Rep. Karen Awana, Rep. Pono Chong, Rep. Faye Hanohano, Rep. Hermina Morita, Rep. Roland Sagum III, Rep. James Kunane Tokioka, Rep. Chris Lee, Rep. Maile Shimabukuro, Rep. Sharon E. Har, Rep. Lyla B. Berg, Rep. Angus McKelvey, Rep. Joe Bertram, Rep. Joey Manahan, Rep. Cindy Evans, Rep. Cindy Evans, Rep. Tom Brower, Rep. Jessica Wooley, Rep. Lynn Finnegan, Rep. Scott Saiki, Rep. Sylvia Luke, Rep. Della Au Bellatti, and Rep. Gene Ward.
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Posts
Again complete disengenuousness when Coalition member Jocelyn Doane said, "This issue is not one that pits the Native Hawaiian community against the non-Native Hawaiian community,” Doane said. “Hawaiians have a special relationship with the land, and so does the rest of the community.”
ReplyDeleteThis is all part of the over all sovereignty movement which is a race-based movement. The majority of the Hawaiians who support the movement refuse to acknowledge the fact that in 1893 the citizens of the Kingdom of Hawaii were not entirely of the "Hawaiian" race and that these non-Hawaiian citizens lost their kingdom, lost their land, as well. There were many Orientals and Caucasians who gave up citizenship in their former countries and swore their allegiance to the monarchy and the Kingdom of Hawaii. What about these folks? They cannot attend Kamehameha Schools; they cannot participate in the benefit rendered by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs or Hawaiian Homes Land. How is this fair and just? How is it that of the present day descendents of the kingdom’s citizenry, only the ethnic “Hawaiians” (more correctly Tahitians) will get to enjoy the benefits of sovereignty? The Hawaiians have taken what is a political issue and turned it into a racial one and that is just plain wrong. The fundamental defect in the righteousness and validity of the Hawaiian Sovereignty cause is that it takes what is in fact a political issue and turns it into a racial one. Until that flaw is rectified, the cause is doomed to failure not only in achieving its goals but in being legitimate and credible.
Doane said Hawaiians and the rest of the community has a special relationship with the land. Two communities have a relationship, not just Hawaiians. So, how is this a race-based movement genius?
ReplyDeleteYou're mixing up "sovereignty" issues with state law issues. Why can't you get it?
Because it's only the Hawaiians and a few patronizing non-Hawaiians attempting to act "PC" who are protesting the State's actions. When Doane added, "...and so does the rest of the community." She was merely trying to sound inclusive when she actually means to exclude all but NH's. That is why she's disingenuous and racist.
ReplyDelete