COMMENTARY
Shameful day at Hale Mohalu
By David Polhemus
Advertiser Editorial Writer
Twenty years ago this morning, one of the darkest days since I've been working at The Advertiser, the last of the Hansen's disease patients were evicted from Hale Mohalu, and bulldozers immediately began knocking down the decrepit buildings.
The patients, Bernard Punikai'a and Clarence Naia, were carried to waiting paddy wagons. Sixteen of their supporters were arrested, too.
A state official years later called it a "day of infamy."
In the bizarre months before the eviction, Federal Judge Martin Pence had ruled the patients were wildly unreasonable in refusing to leave the sprawling Pearl City facility for cramped shared rooms in Leahi Hospital.
Gov. George Ariyoshi turned off the water to get the patients to leave, only to have Mayor Frank Fasi turn it back on.
Things are much better now for Punikai'a, Naia and the dwindling numbers of Hansen's patients, but the length of time it took for that to happen is an embarrassment.
A new Hale Mohalu opened in 1996 — 13 long years after the old site was bulldozed. It's now an affordable rental complex with more than 200 units for seniors and the disabled, including a few Hansen's patients.
A month ago we published a nice photo of Naia, enjoying boat day at Kalaupapa. A year ago last month, Punikai'a was honored on his 72nd birthday by Gov. Ben Cayetano for a lifetime of work on behalf of human rights, human dignity and the rights of Hansen's disease patients. That's a long way from being carried to a paddy wagon.
The new Hale Mohalu might never have been built without Punikai'a's persistence.
Today the patients and their supporters will celebrate a much brighter day, with a lu'au in Pearl City. We wish them much joy.
• • •
It was more like 25 years ago that I first met JoAnn Yukimura and Jeremy Harris on a cold, windswept Kaua'i beach. Then on the County Council, they were trying to stop development of a hotel at a place called Nukoli'i.
They won at first, but then the voters changed their minds and the hotel — a rather small one by today's standards — was built.
I was reminded of that encounter this past week in meeting three lawyers representing the plaintiffs in their successful lawsuit against Hokuli'a, a luxury residential resort on the Big Island. They lacked the consultants and PR clout that the developers had hired, but their seriousness of purpose was evident.
Land-use battles almost constitute a parallel history in Hawai'i, of course. I think Judge Ronald Ibarra's Hokuli'a ruling showed that county councils aren't ready to assume sole responsibility for preservation. We still need the Land Use Commission.
That said, however, no one could read "Land and Power in Hawai'i" without recognizing the LUC's role in keeping the "Old Boys Network" on top of post-statehood development.
Looking at the continually growing urban sprawl and horrendous traffic on O'ahu's 'Ewa Plain today, you have to wonder how much of it reflects an orderly planning process. Heaven knows, we could do better.
David Polhemus is an editorial writer at The Honolulu Advertiser. Reach him at dpolhemus@honoluluadvertiser.com.
