Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 00, Number 1, 1 Iune 1982 — TRUSTEES MAKING GOOD MOVE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TRUSTEES MAKING GOOD MOVE

By Jerry Burris

Reprinted with the permission of ihe Honolulu Advertiser from The Sunday Advertiser, section G-2, July 4, 1982

The decision by several members of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) board of trustees to run for the state Legislature is a natural progression. Their move recognizes certain fundamental facts about the nature of political power in this state. The distribution of political power, in fact, was one of the reasons OHA was created. This agency was designed to work for Hawaiians — to help them reclaim their plaee in Island tyFor a trustee to jump from OH A into the more general world of state legislative politics is no betrayal. In fact, if OHA service gives trustees the confidence to make that transition, then the organization has taken a fundamental step toward achieving its goals. What the trustees and supporters of OH A have eome to realize is that their goals cannot be accomplished in a poliiieal vacuum. They must have the political support and backing of the general community. In practical terms, this translates into a friendly reception in the legislative power pit. OHA's first efforts to get more money and program support out of the state House and Senate met with limited success. You ean have all the aloha in the world from the general community and the deepest of convictions. But unless you ean sway a majority of 25 senators and 5 1 representatives, it means little. That has to be part of the reason a number of trustees want to get into legislative politics. It would be a mistake, however, to seethe candidacy of a Frenchy DeSoto or Malama Solomon simply as an at-

tempt to elect a "legislator from OHA." If they make it, certainly they'll remember OHA's needs and goals. But they will have a mueh broader constituency to represent as well. They will be drawn into the general problems and issues of the state. That too, is part and parcel of what OHA hopes to accomplish. Those who have made their move into elective politics are not "using" OHA for their political ambitions. They are growing from it. They exemplify what OHA hopes to accomplish. At hear, however, the move from OHA to legislative politics is plain recognition of a fundamental fact of political power. In any structure, there is one dominant seat of power. That seat of power ean be moved. It ean be convinced to broaden its constituency. And it is always in competition with other power centers for dominance. The city and state, with theirarguments over home rule, show that competition for political authority is an ongoing thing. Yet the example of the city and state illustrate clearly that power is never willingly shared on an equal basis. One side or the other will always have the upper hand. The nature of political power is not sharing; it is accumulation. The move toward legislative politics by the OHA trustees is open recognition that, insofar as their issues are vconcerned, true power rests at the state Legislature.

OFFICE OF HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS 567 So. King Street USUP0STAGE Honolulu, Hawaii 9681S U b- ,J|D Honolulu, Hawaii Permit No. 298

Mrs. A. Frenchy De Solo

Dr. A. Leiomalama Solomon

Mr. Peter K. Apo

Mr. Roy L. Benham