Musings: On the Table

With Secretary of State John Kerry being asked to weigh in on the legal status of the Hawaiian nation, will the U.S. finally address its hypocrisy in how it deals with independence movements in its own back yard?

I mean, just last week Kerry was denouncing a planned Ukraine independence referendum as “bogus” and said it would not be recognized by the West. Meanwhile, he hasn't said squat about the Hawaiian Roll Commission, a state-supported initiative that is busily registering folks to create a Hawaiian nation — a process that many independence activists have denounced as bogus.

But trustees for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a state entity that has bankrolled the Roll Commission and given it political and administrative support, want to keep sweeping the bigger question under the rug.

And that question is this: Is the Hawaiian nation still a sovereign entity, even though it's been claimed by the United States? If it is, what impact does that have on legislation like the Statehood Act and the bill that created the Roll Commission?

As has been widely reported, OHA Trustees quickly rescinded a letter that OHA CEO Kamana’opono Crabbe sent to Kerry, asking for a legal opinion on the sovereign status of Hawaii.

Crabbe, to his credit, did not back down, and instead defended his decision to seek the ruling as being in the best interest of the beneficiaries that OHA is supposed to serve. Kauai Trustee Dan Ahuna withdrew his initial support for the letter to rescind, and other Trustees are reportedly considering doing the same.

Though OHA Chair Colette Machado has tried to pass the huhu off as a “breach of aloha,” Crabbe's bold move has finally brought the core issue to the forefront. And one aspect of that makes OHA understandably skittish. As Crabbe identified it in his letter to Kerry:

“If the Hawaiian Kingdom continues to exist and the sole-executive agreements are binding on the United States, have the members of the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission, Trustees and staff of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs incurred criminal liability under international law?”

That is a question Machado most definitely does not want answered, seeing as how she and OHA have repeatedly aligned with the State of Hawaii and federal legislators who support the “nation within a nation model” laid out in the Akaka Bill. OHA also has given the Roll Commission office space and nearly $4 million in operating funds, with another $3 million allocated.

The Native Hawaiian Roll Commission was created by the state Legislature. Gov. Abercrombie, a staunch supporter of the Akaka Bill, signed it into law in 2011 as Act 195. It established a governor-appointed commission charged with determining just who is a Native Hawaiian. The goal was to create a roll of persons eligible to participate in a process that could lead to the formation of a self-governing entity. Since then, about 130,000 persons have been registered under the Kana`iolowalu process.

From the onset, however, Act 195 met resistance from those who objected to the state, which they view as illegal, creating the framework for a native governing entity. At the Commission's first meeting, Laulani Teale, an Oahu community activist and cultural peacemaker, testified:

“As you all must know, there are many who stand in very strong opposition to this process, just as many of us oppose federal recognition as a means to sovereignty. I believe that we all know that the strong-spirited warriors of the independence movement, like our kupuna before us, and many of whom have been fighting against the occupation and colonization of Hawaiʻi for decades, will not change their views, nor participate in a 'roll' under any circumstances. These are the front-line warriors whose voices and actions have brought us to where we are today. I think we all know that any form of nation built without these voices would simply not be pono.”

Former Gov. John Waihee, who heads the Commission, has dismissed concerns about undue state influence:

“It's not like the State of Hawaii's forming this government for us. What the government is doing is recognizing we are the indigenous people and giving us the opportunity, through the kindness of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, to have the means to go and do that, to ultimately form our own government.”

Commissioner Na`alehu Anthony previously told me the panel is basing its work on a premise shared by many Hawaiian nationals — that Hawaiians never relinquished their inherent sovereignty. It stems from the fact that Liliuokalani refused to give up her throne during America's illegal overthrow of the monarchy in 1893. As he noted:

"I think we're all on a similar path. It's just a question of how we get there."

But many are concerned that federal recognition is the one and only goal, which would extinguish long-held dreams of resurrecting an independent Hawaiian nation.

It seems reasonable and long overdue to ask Kerry to respond to the core question, seeing as how the U.S. takes positions on independence movements across the globe. Let the U.S. publicly and openly state its legal rationale for colonizing Hawaii, for all the world to see.

It's time to lay this issue on the table, regardless of whether Colette Machado or the OHA Trustees want to deal with it.