Activists must not dictate state's future
By Ken Conklin
Hawaiian activists fill our TV, radio and newspapers with propaganda. What'll it be — independence vs. Akaka bill?
Most Hawaiians reject both but fear to speak. Eighty percent of Hawai'i's people politely stay on the sidelines because they lack Hawaiian blood.
But a minority of a minority must not decide the future for everyone. Hawai'i is our homeland — for all who live here permanently, and especially all who were born and reared here. If someone barricades a street in front of his house letting only family pass through, the neighbors should complain.
Our governor, Legislature and congressional delegation aggressively push the Akaka bill. They want Hawaiian votes. They say it's righteous; but mostly, it's pork-barrel politics. More than 160 racially exclusionary programs funnel big bucks from Washington to Hawai'i, giving wealth and power to "connected" individuals and corporations. Unconstitutional? Racial balkanization? Don't worry. Our friends will be rich.
The Akaka bill would create a phony Indian tribe out of thin air — a racially defined government to make racially exclusionary programs look legal. Politicians pushing the Akaka bill are selling Hawai'i's soul for 30 pieces of silver. Splintering the rainbow will turn our aloha-filled pot of gold into a bucket of ashes.
Independence
Some activists want to "restore" Hawai'i as an independent nation. But that's a pipe dream. Few ethnic Hawaiians want that, and almost nobody else does. We're proud to be Americans.
Eighty percent of our population lacks Hawaiian blood. We correctly fear that under independence, we would lose political and economic rights. Some independence activists say sovereignty is about a nation and not a race. They say people of all ethnicities would be citizens. But probe more deeply. The activists say "indigenous" people (i.e., blood Hawaiians) have special rights superior to those of nonbloods. We second-class citizens would have voting and property rights restricted to limited topics and areas.
Blood Hawaiians never asserted racial supremacy or "indigenous rights" until "international law" experts recently gave them the idea. The sovereign kings of Hawai'i exercised self-determination on behalf of their people to establish a multiracial constitutional government. All persons born in the kingdom, regardless of ancestry, were fully equal with blood natives. But independence activists realize if that law remained in effect, blood natives would now be vastly outnumbered by Hawai'i-born natives lacking the magic blood. So the activists already scheme to exclude most non-blood natives from full citizenship in a revived nation. Professors of Hawaiian studies dishonor their ancestors' choices, saying nonbloods were never really part of the "lahui" and it was wrong to allow them full rights.
It is unconstitutional for government to give racially exclusionary benefits. It is also unconstitutional for government to convert a racial group into a phony Indian tribe. Ethnic Hawaiians are thoroughly assimilated, sharing neighborhoods, political and economic power, religion, culture and jobs. Throughout the 20th century, there was never a race-based tribal government for Hawaiians. And the 19th century Hawaiian Kingdom was multiracial, including many "chiefs" (appointed and elected government officials) who were not "Indians." The concept of "tribe" does not apply in Hawai'i.
If the Akaka bill passes Congress, 80 percent of Hawai'i's people will have absolutely no way to stop apartheid — no referendum is required. Even among the 20 percent who are ethnic Hawaiians, there is no referendum. There is not even a requirement for a minimum "quorum" of Native Hawaiians to create the tribe. If only a thousand Hawaiians enroll, they can make decisions for all 400,000 Hawaiians throughout the United States, dragging along all 1.2 million Hawai'i residents who must live with the consequences. Those who enroll get federal recognition and protection for race-based benefits. Those left out might be unable to get in later if the tribal council doesn't want them.
Propaganda corrected
Wrong: Native Hawaiians are a dying race. Right: In 1900 there were 40,000 Native Hawaiians; in 2000 there were 400,000 — a tenfold increase in the century of American sovereignty.
Wrong: Hawaiian culture will die unless Hawaiians get sovereignty. Right: In the past 30 years, without independence or a "tribe," there has been a powerful Hawaiian renaissance of music, hula, language, fishponds, taro, heiau, voyaging canoes, etc. Many nonbloods actively participate out of love, respect and pleasure.
Wrong: Native Hawaiians are a poor and downtrodden people needing federal wardship to survive. Right: In Census 2000, almost 50 percent of ethnic Hawaiians had family incomes above $50,000, even though their average age was a youthful 25. Also, 13 percent had family incomes above $100,000. Government assistance should go to needy people without racial favoritism, not to wealthy people of a favored race. Indian tribes under federal wardship for more than a century still live in poverty and disease, and with early death.
Wrong: Native Hawaiian rights will be protected under the Akaka bill. Right: Tribal members have fewer rights on tribal lands than other U.S. citizens. Civil and criminal cases are handled in tribal courts under tribal law, with no recourse against corruption or influence by powerful families. Do Hawaiians really want personal and business affairs decided by Rowena Akana, Haunani Apoliona, Clayton Hee, Haunani-Kay Trask, or John Waihee (whichever one), under whatever rules they write?
Wrong: If the Akaka bill fails, then Native Hawaiians living on the homesteads will lose their homes when the Arakaki lawsuit succeeds. Right: Arakaki specifically seeks to allow homesteaders fee-simple ownership. No more racial restrictions on buying, selling or bequeathing homes. No more DHHL bureaucrats controlling homeowners like plantation lunas. Homeowners could buy their land on a sliding scale based on income, and $300 million liberated from OHA stock-market accounts might become available to help. One would hope no help would go to residents in Kalawahine Streamside Homeland (Punchbowl), with houses valued around $400,000.
Wrong: There's a federal trust relationship with Native Hawaiians. Right: Just because you kindly give a dollar to a beggar on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday does not obligate you to give another dollar on Thursday (let alone take him home and feed him forever).
Wrong: Native Hawaiians, and the general population, place high priority on sovereignty. Right: An Advertiser poll by Ward research found that Hawai'i's people in general, and ethnic Hawaiians in particular, would be most willing to pay higher taxes to improve education, healthcare and housing; but not for solving "Hawaiian" problems. A similar poll by OHA asked Hawaiians to rank the order of priorities for OHA's long-term plan; schools, healthcare, housing and cultural preservation ranked high, while sovereignty and nation-building were rock-bottom.
Wrong: Sovereignty would be good for business. Right: Tribal businesses on tribal lands are exempt from federal, state and county income, sales, excise and property taxes; and state or county laws governing environment, occupational safety, workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, union rights, discrimination, etc. Bribery and corruption are commonplace. Untaxed, unregulated tribal businesses compete against fully taxed and regulated businesses across the street, destroying them and lowering the state tax base. Meanwhile, state taxpayers still pay for roads, sewers, schools, welfare, etc. Lawsuits mushroom because of jurisdictional disputes, and some must be decided in tribal courts or federal courts. Remember that OHA thinks the ceded lands, or major parts of them, would become tribal lands, and they are scattered throughout Hawai'i. Also remember that Kamehameha Schools might seek to reincorporate under the tribal government to protect itself against racial discrimination lawsuits; it owns numerous large parcels of land, including Windward Mall and Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, where tribal businesses could operate untaxed and unregulated.
The best choice
Let's continue living together under a single sovereignty of the state of Hawai'i. We don't want a race-based, Akaka-bill government pulling us apart. Let's all live together as citizens of the United States. We don't want to be an independent nation. Let's practice aloha for all. Give government help to needy people of all races equally.
The craving for money, land and power is like drug addiction. Race-based government programs are bad for those addicted to them and bad for society as a whole. Let's stop it now. Kill the Akaka bill, and let the lawsuits stop the racist programs. Short-term, there may be pain. Some addicts will cry, beg for a "fix" and lash out angrily. Racially exclusionary institutions and "service providers" will die unless they open up to all. Their highly paid bureaucrats, strategic planners and legal consultants must find productive work elsewhere. It's time for our rainbow family to pull together instead of dreaming up new schemes for ripping ourselves apart.
Ken Conklin is a writer and researcher who ran unsuccessfully for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs board of trustees in the 2000 elections.
