Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 12, 1 December 1993 — I questioned the game [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

I questioned the game

by Rowena Akana, Trustee-at large Funny what happens when you don't play by the rules. Former state Senate President James Aki did not play the rules and was pulled from the game. This game is politics and its "rules" have little to do with Aki's alleged ethics violations,

whieh he may or may not have eommitted. His fault was the same as mine at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs - questioning the game itself. The new leader of the Senate, N o r m a n Miiueuehi,

promised to play ball: "Flexibility and compromise have always been in my political dictionary." news media reported him saying the day before Aki's ouster. The senators made their decisions in closed caucuses. The new leader seems to be the safe ehoiee: aligning yourself with the administration has always been politically correct. But what happens - and it always seems to happen - when

the ball is dropped? Blame those who aren't playing the game. I ean draw from my own expenenee for examples. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is, unfortunately, a fine mirror of the Senate's games. I was a vocal opponent of OHA's direction. In time, when I did not keep quiet, I was stripped

of my post as Vice Chair. A court ruled the first attempt illegal; the second attempt succeeded. Still. 1 kept on. So the OHA leadership decided to reorganize the committees of the office. Where the Senate called its action a move to

"create a level playing field," OHA called its actions a process to "streamline." Both were intended as neither. Well, you ask, so what? Is that not politics: some win and some lose? Perhaps. But this kind of politics is a game the public eannot win, and cannot afford to lose. Politics needs players who question the rules when the rules don't serve the public. When the state Legislature rec-

ognized the inevitability of Hawaiian sovereignty, it could not keep its hands off the process. Where there is land and money there is sure to be power. What self-respecting politician would avoid power? Certainly not those who silence others who question it. I fought the power and lost. James Aki fought the power and lost. We both now roam the sidelines of a playing field shaped by the winners of poliīieal games. The paying public is not getting mueh for the price of admission.

Though it fights for Hawaiians and their rights, OHA is ultimately beholden to the legislative power brokers. They eall the plays. If the Hawaiian people demand it, the 19-member Sovereignty Advisory Commission ean recommend to legislators that the Legislature stay out of the sovereignty "game." One look at the Senate will demonstrate that a new Hawaiian nation cannot benefit from too many similarities to the state govemment. There's a rusty eliehē that goes:

Them that has, gets. In our state govemment the politicians have. The public, especially Hawaiians, have not. The meetings of the sovereignty commission are a first step toward Hawaiians wielding power over a sovereign land. Unless you speak the same politicians will wield the same power - nothing will change. Let's not drop the ball; demand the game be played by better rules. Keep the Legislature out of Hawaiian affairs.