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Date Posted: 00:42:36 02/20/08 Wed
Akaka Bill is Back
What Crimes Did Native Hawaiians Commit to 'Deserve' Being Condemned to Live Under Corrupt Tribal Politicians and Their Cronies?
By Andrew Walden, 5/16/2006 12:15:16 PM
The Akaka Bill is back, scheduled for debate on the floor of the U.S. Senate in early June. Bill sponsor, U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka says, “This is about establishing parity for Hawaii's indigenous peoples in federal policies.”
Native Hawaiians may want to consider whether “parity” with American Indians is desirable. Are Native Hawaiians to be “privileged” -- or held back -- by the Akaka Bill? Native American Indian reservations are not exactly a great model of success -- they are often characterized by poverty and corruption, often with dictatorial rule by entrenched tribal power elites and little possibility of appeal to outside oversight.
Some say that is precisely why Hawaii’s political elite are almost unanimously lined up behind the Akaka Bill. Anti-Akaka activist Ken Conklin, calls the bill “racist” and argues: “The (Akaka) bill would allow a few thousand people….(t)he fat-cats who run the big Hawaiian institutions, plus their employees and institutionalized dependents …to create a "tribe" and get federal recognition as speaking on behalf of all 401,000 Hawaiians.”
The Akaka Bill does not aim to resolve the numerous practical issues facing a new Hawaiian government. Instead it establishes an electoral framework by which these issues can be decided by native Hawaiians in negotiation with the federal and state government. Only those who register with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ (OHA) Kau Inoa signup program will be eligible to participate.
According to OHA, only 42,000 have registered with Kau Inoa as of December, 2005. This is only 10.5 percent of all Native Hawaiians. If the Akaka Bill passes, the Kau Inoa signers would become the electorate which determines the fate of the 401,000.
Efforts to pass the Akaka Bill will be hampered by the negative recommendation of the US Civil Rights Commission which voted 5 to 2 against Senate passage of “the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2005, or any other legislation that would discriminate on the basis of race or national origin and further subdivide the American people into discrete subgroups accorded varying degrees of privilege."
An audacious polling effort during last year’s Senate Committee debate on the Akaka Bill, calling every single household in Hawaii, and gaining responses from 39,000 of the total 280,000 households, showed strong opposition to passage of the Akaka Bill S147/HR 309. The poll was commissioned by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.
Polling was conducted by FEC Research between June 29 and July 10, 2005. When asked, “Do you want Congress to approve the Akaka Bill?” only 33.2 percent of responding registered voters answered “yes,” 66.8 percent said “no.”
The result from 2,993 respondents identifying themselves as Native Hawaiians is that only 52.5 percent support the Akaka Bill while 47.5 percent oppose it.
Since politicians chase votes, and the Akaka Bill seems to be unpopular with voters, why is there nearly unanimous support for the Akaka Bill for Hawaii’s political class? Why would “fat cats” want a tribal government for Hawaiians?
Contrary to popular opinion, Indian reservations have a history in Hawaii. An Oct. 12, 1999, article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin describes the efforts of Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate (KSBE) trustees in 1995 to evade oversight of the corrupt doings which were soon to be exposed as the “Broken trust” scandal. The Trustees’ self-serving investments caused losses of $264,090,257 in 1994 alone. To avoid scrutiny, they considered moving KSBE corporate headquarters out of Hawaii to the windswept plains of the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian reservation in South Dakota.
“In an apparent attempt to circumvent state and federal oversight, the Bishop Estate paid Washington D.C.-based (law firm) Verner Liipfert Bernhard McPherson and Hand more than $200,000 to look into moving the estate's legal domicile, or corporate address, to the mainland, sources said.
“Verner Liipfert, whose local office is headed by former Gov. John Waihee, identified the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation as the top relocation prospect after reviewing the legislative, tax and judicial environments of 48 mainland states and Alaska.
“The study was part of a broader effort by the former board members to lobby against federal legislation limiting trustee compensation and to convert the tax-exempt Bishop Estate to a for-profit corporation.” The KSBE trustees’ efforts are also described in "The Cheating of America" by Charles Lewis and Bill Allison of The Center for Public Integrity. They quote former Hawai`i Attorney General Margery Bronster explaining KSBE’s actions: "Their main motivation was to avoid oversight from the State Attorney General and the IRS."
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin further points out:
“Gregg Bourland, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribal council … said there is good reason for an entity like the Bishop Estate to make inquiries about changing its domicile to the South Dakota reservation ... .
“Since the 1800s, the Cheyenne River Sioux have had a government-to-government relationship with the United States which allows them to operate their own police force, court system and legislative functions.
“Such a system may shield the trust from Hawaii Probate Court jurisdiction, although Bourland was unsure if the IRS would continue to oversee the trust.”
Such a move would have also shielded Bishop Estate from the investigations that state Attorney General Margery Bronster was forced to launch as "Broken Trust" revelations emerged in the press. According to Lewis and Allison the activities Bishop Estate trustees were attempting to shield included:
Giving themselves significant pay raises, even while programs at the school were being cut;
Investing in questionable ventures recommended by a trustee’s personal acquaintances, including an Internet directory of would-be-adult-film actors and casting agents;
Frequenting adult entertainment clubs and casinos using money from the charitable trust’s coffers, reportedly inviting state legislators on such trips; and
Lobbying Congress to defeat or alter legislation designed to give the IRS more authority to penalize their multi-million dollar compensation packages.
Lokelani Lindsey, the last of the five "Broken Trust" Bishop Estate trustees, was forced to resign Dec. 16, 1999. A few months later, in 2000, the first version of the bill that bears his name was introduced by Sen. Daniel Akaka. This is not just coincidence.
Over 100 Hawaii Democrat politicians have been charged, convicted and sentenced for campaign spending violations and other illegal political schemes since 1997. Many of these individuals remain active in Hawaii businesses and politics. They form a cadre of corrupt opportunity seekers. A tribal government is an opportunity for all of them. Tribal governments are conduits for billions of dollars in federal pork-barrel spending.
In addition to Kamehameha Schools, other institutions and corporations could be shielded from State and Federal oversight by a “tribal” government. Sandwich Isles Communications is a $500 million boondoggle run by cronies of Senator Clayton Hee (D-Kahuku), which provides high speed internet links to Hawaiian Homelands at a cost estimated at $93,000 per lot or $278,000 per actual connection. Those costs are paid by federal tax dollars.
The Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (NHLC), funded by OHA, is deeply involved in efforts to utilize Hawaiian claims to extort millions from developers and other businesses—including the Hokulia case.
Developers of Hokulia, a luxury subdivision on the Kona side of the Big Island, was forced to fork out $200 million in a March 14 agreement approved by Judge Ronald Ibarra in order to placate activists who fought against the development until the cash was paid.
On the day before the settlement was formalized by Ibarra, according to a Temporary Restraining Order taken out by his 76-year-old mother, Pansy Medeiros, Hokulia plaintiff Jim Medeiros Sr. stormed into a ho`oponopono family mediation meeting and declared: “`I `oki (divorce) from you Ma, I don’t need you f***ing b*****s anymore. I’m into the money now you f***ers.”
Legalized extortion destroys Hawaiian culture, rather than preserving it.
OHA Chief Counsel, Robert Klein was an associate justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court until he resigned on Feb. 1, 2000—just as the Akaka Bill was being drafted. He authored the PASH decision in 1995, which says, "western understandings of property law … are not universally applicable in Hawaii." The PASH decision forms the legal underpinnings for the Hokulia case and all similar efforts to extract money from developers.
NHLC is also part of efforts to demand payoffs from life science products derived from endemic Hawaii species.
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is preparing to become the “tribal governing entity” in a post-Akaka Hawaii. A sharply worded April, 2005 report, issued by State Auditor Marion M. Higa, states that, "OHA’s casual administration of its finances does not demonstrate respect for its fiduciary duty to all Hawaiians. Certain …trustee expenditures appear questionable… (OHA planning) ... has shortcomings and its goals are not being systematically brought to fruition." After 25 years of operation, the Audit says, "OHA continues to operate like a fledgling agency."
If this is how OHA operates while under State control, how would it operate when independent?
The title of a recent speech by Senator Akaka is, “Hawaiians Deserve Recognition from Federal Government.” One may ask: What crime did Hawaiians commit to ‘deserve’ being condemned to live under the thumb of corrupt tribal politicians and their cronies?
Andrew Walden is the publisher and editor of Hawaii Free Press, a Big Island-based newspaper. He can be reached via email at mailto:andrewwalden@email.com
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