Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 9, Number 12, 1 December 1992 — PKO should have big role in island's restoration, KICC told [ARTICLE]

PKO should have big role in island's restoration, KICC told

Bowman III, OHA Chairman Clayton Hee said that, "for reasons of legal consistency and to avoid any precedents of federal interference," no eonditions should be placed on the eonveyance. "While it is understandable that some may wish an explicit Congressional prohibition of any future commercial use, we cannot endorse any encouragement of federal 'strings' being tied to the return of the island," according to Hee's testimony. "I do not always trust government. But I do trust the will and the ability of the Hawaiian people to protect Kaho'olawe. She will never be abused again." According to written testimony submitted by Gov. John Waihe'e, "The state exp)ects to aggressively negotiate with the federal Administration and Congress over the terms of eonveyance and the issue of resources. We cannot allow Kaho'olawe to be placed last on someone's wish list for funding. In these tough eeonomie times, we will have to go after the resources whieh will allow us to heal

the land. I am sure, that with the aid of Hawai'i's current team in Congress, this is a fight we ean win." Waihe'e's testimony also said his Administration will introduce a bill in the state Legislature that would "create a new management regime for Kaho'olawe and its surrounding waters" and "designate Kaho'olawe as a cultural reserve area in perpetuity." The bill would also allow for the protection of significant sites, oversee recovery projects, and establish a commission that would set criteria for permissible activities on Kaho'olawe and approve contracts for services associated with the island. The Commission heard testimony from 114 people, and also received additional written testimony. No testimony was given by the Navy or the U.S. Department of Defense. Commissioner James Kelly, one of the military's two representatives on the Commission, surmised that the laek of military testimony was a reflection of the announcement made in September by Pacific Command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Ken Patterson that the military didn't intend to oppose any return and would not seek joint use of the island. "I was not surprised that they didn't testify," Kelly said in an interview conducted after the hearings were complete. Kelly added that there didn't seem to be mueh opposition to the report by testifiers other than expressions of distrust with the state. But he didn't see the KICC recommending that the island be given to any other entity, because working out the terms of eonveyance to the state is the "basic precept under whieh the Commission operates."

"There are many proposals to amend that I ean safely guess are supported by the majority of the commissioners," said OHA trustee and KICC commissioner A. Frenchy DeSoto. She referred to housekeeping amendments such as inserting the word "traditional" in the language calling the island "a plaee for the practice of eontemporary Hawaiian culture and religion." She said the Commission would also take another look at the amount of funding budgeted for revitalization, and possibly increase funds for reforestation and for maintaining the surrounding waters. DeSoto was emphatic about whether the island should, as many testifiers suggested, be kept under federal control until it is cleaned up. "Never, never, never," she said, adding that the federal government has not treated Kaho'olawe with aloha during the 50 years it has eontrolled the island.

DeSoto said she too distrusts bureaucracies, but if there are problems with the island, it would be easier to deal with the state of Hawai'i than with the United States. "If we have it here, the people here ean fight the government," DeSoto said, adding that having a Hawaiian governor helps the cause. "Return this island first. My objective is to bring her home. Bring her home. We ean beef all the time. ... But it's us at home doing the fighting." DeSoto said it would be unwise to plaee conditions on the transfer. "If a condition is made and the state doesn't follow it, does it revert? ... You're not sovereign if you've got a condition," she said. Regarding suggestions that the island be given national monument status, DeSoto wondered whether that would allow for the practice of native culture, and hinted that if it were to become a monument it should belong not to the U.S. but to the Hawaiian nation, asking, "What nation we talking about?" KICC executive director H. Rodger Betts would not hazard a guess on what changes the commissioners will make to their findings and recommendations now that the public has been heard. They will study the transcripts and "see whether they will amend or modify or clarify or do nothing," he said. "I don't know what amendments there will be, or even if there will be any at all. ... But I expect there'll be some. But I think the commissioners are very serious about studying the testimony." Copies of the report may be obtained by phoning KICC on Maui at 242-7900.