Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 9, 1 Kepakemapa 1993 — UH professor speaks out for individual sovereignty, property rights [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

UH professor speaks out for individual sovereignty, property rights

by Patrick Johnston Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness: familiar words to most Americans but seldom spoken by today's sovereignty advocates who would rather put the United States and its pnneiples behind them in their pursuit of nationhood. One Hawaiian not afraid to

voice support for these principles is I Rubellite Johnson. A staunch advocate of private property rights, Johnson believes the American form of government, with its emphasis on the property rights of the individual, should be a

model for the creation of any Hawaiian nation and that sovereignty advocates have not properly addressed issues central to the American constitution. "The present (sovereignty) movement does not respect private property rights," Johnson said in a recent lecture at

Kuykendall Hall on the UHMānoa campus. Current models for sovereignty, according to Johnson, offer a collectivist type society, similar to that found in Native Amenean tribes on the mainland, where the needs of the individual are sacrificed to the needs of the many and property rights are denied.

Because a significant portion ef a future Hawaiian nation would likely be made up of Hawaiian home lands, now held in trust by the state and leased to Hawaiians, Johnson believes a Hawaiian I government would simply eonīinue the

state leasing policy, mirroring the collectivist communities of Native American reservations, and perpetuating the landless conditions of native Hawaiians. "If land is transferred to a Hawaiian government then nothing will change," she explained. "The lands will go to

another government gang." Johnson would prefer to see Hawaiians given the ehanee to own their land like they were at the time of the Great Mahele when Kamehameha III gave Hawaiians the opportunity to

buy land from the crown. To see this happen Johnson suggests the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act be amended to allow Hawaiians, after living on a homestead at least one generation, the option to purchase the land in a fee-simple arrangement. "We don't need a sovereign tribe," she argued. "We need the rights of a sovereign individual."

Contrary to the opinion of many in the Hawai'i sovereignty movement, Johnson supports Kamehameha III's privatization of Hawaiian lands in the Great Mahele, arguing that the policy was progressive and a step toward democracy. "The introduction of American ideals broke up the absolute power of the kings and changed the old system." Johnson's opinion ean be at least partly attributed to her being a direct descendant of Kamehameha III and her belief that she has elaim to some of his lands. Some of her eoneem with the sovereignty movement is that they will ignore these claims. Under the present system, she ean take her claims to court and

have them properly examined. "The U.S. govemment cannot forfeit our right to own property unless we don't pay our taxes. ... We have the right to resist the government if it takes land without just compensation. ... Sovereignty advocates have not said how they will offer similar rights." Johnson gains most of the philosophical inspiration for her beliefs from Thomas Jefferson, another property rights advocate and supporter of individual freedoms. She does not think anyone in the present-day sovereignty movement has Jefferson's vision nor is eapahle of providing the leadership necessary to bring all the different Hawaiian groups together.

"If land is transferred to a Hawaiian government then nothing will change. The lands will go to another government gang."

Rubellite Johnson