Free Hawai`i

AKAKA BILL HEARINGS IN HAWAI`I CALLED FOR

Honolulu Star-Bulletin - February 25, 2010

Gov. Linda Lingle's reversal of her long-standing support for the Akaka Bill indicates how fundamentally the Hawaiian sovereignty measure has changed over the course of this Congressional session.

Any future attempts to pass the measure -- assuming the current bill dies in the Senate, as is now predicted even by many supporters -- should include full public hearings in Hawaii to explain why the 2010 version is so different from the versions that have preceded it since 2000.

The measure, which would grant federal recognition to native Hawaiians, has been approved three times by the House since then, but never by the Senate....

"...This structure will, in my opinion, promote divisiveness and litigation, rather than negotiation and resolution," the governor said. "I do not believe such a structure, of two completely different sets of rules -- one for 'governmental' activities of the native Hawaiian governing entity and its officers and employees, and one for everyone else -- makes sense for Hawaii."

Hawaiian nationalists also oppose the bill, albeit for different reasons. They say native Hawaiians who support it are being duped into relinquishing their inherent sovereignty as descendants of the independent Hawaiian kingdom overthrown by U.S. interests. To them, federal recognition is a land grab disguised as recompense.

That the opposition includes such diverse points of view is further evidence that the Akaka Bill needs a full airing before rising again.