Most back Akaka bill: OHA poll
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Staff Writer
A significant majority of Hawai'i residents support federal recognition and the Akaka bill, according to a poll released yesterday by Ward Research Inc. that was paid for by the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
Those polled expressed broad support for giving Hawaiians federal recognition similar to what's granted to American Indians and Alaska Natives, the right of Hawaiians to govern themselves, the continuation of federally funded Hawaiian programs and protecting institutions such as Kamehameha Schools, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and OHA.
Support erodes to just over half, however, when there is mention of creating a new Hawaiian governing entity.
The disparate groups that oppose the Akaka bill and programs that give preference to Hawaiians, after seeing the poll, said the questions were misleading and did not go to the heart of the debate over federal recognition.
The Ward poll comes at a time of renewed interest in the Akaka bill, which has yet to have a vote before either the full House or Senate. A newly reconstituted Hawai'i advisory committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which is in the middle of holding a series of meetings locally on the Native Hawaiian federal recognition bill, has been criticized by Akaka bill supporters for being stacked with those who oppose it.
The 17-member advisory panel is holding a briefing and planning meeting at 2 p.m. today in the South Pacific Ballroom of the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
The Ward poll was conducted by telephone Aug. 15-27. It interviewed 380 residents state-wide and carries a statistical margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent. The key results:
"Clearly the poll demonstrates that those who challenge the Native Hawaiian Reorganization Act do not speak for the majority of Hawai'i residents, who believe that what is good for the indigenous population, Native Hawaiians, is good for all for Hawai'i," OHA trustees Chairwoman Haunani Apoliona said in a prepared release.
H. William Burgess, of the group Aloha For All, which says federal recognition discriminates against non-Hawaiians and opposes policies and programs that give preference to Hawaiians, said the poll is misleading.
The Akaka bill would give Hawaiians even more rights than Native Americans and Alaska Natives, he said. The poll "doesn't tell (the public) the main thing the Akaka bill does, that is to allow the creation of a separate government and giving away to that new government land, government authority, natural resources ... civil and criminal jurisdiction," Burgess said.
Supporters have responded to that charge by insisting that the state and federal governments would not give away anything drastic, but Burgess said that possibility should not be even be considered.
Ikaika Hussey, of Hui Pu, an umbrella organization of Hawaiian groups that oppose federal recognition on the grounds that it doesn't go far enough in addressing the wrongs against Hawaiians, said the debate between Akaka bill supporters and those like Burgess is too narrow.
"Self-determination includes all kinds of options, including the right to independence," Hussey said.
Like Burgess, Hussey said the poll questions were misleading.
In a June 2006 Hawai'i Poll conducted for The Advertiser by Ward, 63 percent of 602 registered voters sampled said "yes" when asked if a Hawaiian entity should be formally recognized by Congress as a distinct group similar to the special recognition given to American Indian tribes. That poll also showed only 48 percent of those responding agreed that "a sovereign Hawaiian nation or a Hawaiian government of some kind that would represent the Hawaiian people in their dealings with the state and federal government and would work for the betterment of the Hawaiian people" should be formed.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Correction: Sixty-four percent of those responding in a recent poll conducted by Ward Research Inc. for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs said “no” when asked if Native Hawaiians should not be given federal recognition because of race. A previous version of this story was incorrect.
