Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 7, 1 July 1994 — OHA exists to serve you [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA exists to serve you

by The Rev. Moses K. Keale, Sr. Trustee, Kaua'i & Ni'ihau This month's article is a change of paee for me. I hope you will enjoy it. 1 shail talk about the creature 1 eall OHA. and in doing so, we must separate OHA, the office and the trust, from OHA, the people who work for the office and the Trustees. As senior trustee, I find that the greatest

impediment our people have in viewing OHA is that they can't make that fine distinction between OHA — our trust and our advocate, defender of our rights as indigenous people, shield against those who would hurt us or those who would E mislead us — and OHA. the I people who run it, the I

employees and the policy makers. When I think of OHA, the prayer of St. Francis of Assissi comes to mind. It goes something like this, "Lord, make me an instrument of thy peaee. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is doubt, faith: where there is despair, hope: where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Oh divine master, grant that I may not so mueh seek to be eonsoled as to console: to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love ... " The spirit of this prayer is what OHA is supposed to be all about, but is OHA really that spirit to you? My heart is truly saddened because when 1 ask myself that question, my answer emphatically is "No!" Our leadership has not reflected the lesson of service. It instead has reflected polilieal ambitions. It has reflected attitude more appropriately described as a master to its subjects and the role wrongly reversed. When leadership denies information to a beneficiary or puts a price tag on that information, is this leadership? When leadership bends rules to get around the marginal merit of program expenditure, is

this leadership? When leadership manipulates process and procedure to expedite projects whieh would not hold up under nonmal scrutiny, is this leadership? When leadership conrpromises the agenda of our people, lbr the expediency of the agenda of others, is this leadership? When leadership misleads the people, saying one thing while doing another, is this leadership? When will all this end? When you demand accountability, when you stop

tolerating misinformation, broken promises and private agendas. OHA exists to protect you from bad government, from bad policies, from those who inhibit your ability to access services whieh would better your conditions. OHA exists to create and promote new

programs to resolve your problems. OHA exists to assist you in making proper decisions in designing the type of government you wish to see for our people. If you still have doubts about what OHA is, then I challenge you to eall or write to OHA and ask for copies of the law (Hawai'i Revised Statutes Chapter 10). Ask for copies of OHA's bylaws, policy and procedures, administrative and linaneial manual of guides, operalional policy. Then I chalienge you to ask the million-dollar question ... "Are you following those documents?" The answer may be uncomfortably startling. Try it, you may be truly surprised to find out the system designed for the last 14 years ean really work for you if the leadership abides by its own policies and regulations. I urge you to take up this challenge. I urge you to become a part of the program. I urge you to become informed. A i mana'o kekahi e lilo i po'okela i waena o 'oukou, e pono nō e lilo i kauā na 'oukou. Na ke Akua e mālama a e alaka'i iā kākou a pau.