"AKAKA BILL: MYTH OR REALITY ?"
Office of Hawaiian Affairs Television Show is Further Waste of Our Monies
With much aloha and all due respect to our Office of Hawaiian Affairs `ohana, we must denounce their poho, wasteful, squandering of our diminishing trust monies in futile support of the already defunct Akaka bill, aka The Native Hawaiian Reorganization Act. The drunken-sailor-spending must stop now.
"Akaka Bill: Myth or Reality?" (June 16, ’04) the impending hour-long, prime time TV propaganda platform, will attempt to perpetuate the “myth” that the bill is alive and well in Washington, DC. The “reality”, revealed during our recent visit to Capitol Hill, is that the Akaka bill, S.344, is deader than a doornail.
Koani Foundation directors traveled to DC last month, in conjunction with participation at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, for face-to-face meetings in numerous Congressional offices and the US Department of Justice. We successfully shared the huge opposition that exists to the bill at home in Hawai`i – and - we got more than we anticipated. Everyone aware of S.344, staffers for Senators Frist, McCain, Kyle, Domenici and many others, agreed there is absolutely no chance of passage this session.
Despite heavy propaganda to the contrary S.344 has not been heard on the Senate floor; the anonymous hold remains in place, will not be lifted and cannot be circumvented by any number of votes; Senator Frist has no intention of scheduling it if the hold were lifted; - and - Indian Affairs Chair Senator McCain, himself, does not support the bill.
Even some of our own Congressional staff people had to concede that little or nothing will be achieved during this pre-election session. To them, we repeated our continuing opposition to dysfunctional federal recognition. We also repeated our continuing dedication to working together, with the stakeholders, towards an appropriate governance form; one that we can support.
So why is OHA buying a prime-time hour on commercial TV to promote a dead issue? Is OHA desperately trying to justify the millions of dollars already shoveled down the “black hole” of federal recognition? Or, do they simply not know whereof they speak?
Kai’opua Fyfe,
Director
The Koani Foundation
