Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 16, Number 4, 1 ʻApelila 1999 — Are some of us more equal than others? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Are some of us more equal than others?

N FEBRUARY, I wrote about my reluctance to use this eolumn to air OHA's dirty linen. In that same arhcle, I concluded, however, that if I don't use this eolumn to tell you what is happening at OHA, 1 really have no other way to effectively do that. So I wrote about the travel restrictions Chair Akana imposed on Trustee Machado, how they hamper her abihty to serve as an OHA trustee and how they diminish and limit benefits to a segment of the Native Hawaiian

community. What I did not write is the fact that while Machado's travel requests are repeatedly denied, the other neighbor island trustees travel with no problem at all. In March, I used my eolumn to tell you about being dumped from the Negotiations Committee by Akana and her cronies and how my ouster had nothing to do with my performance but everything to do with Akana's attitude and effort to restrict my abihty to serve those who elected me to office. Today, I write about two deplorable Akana actions, whieh further restrict my abihty to perform and broaden the gap this woman has tom in OHA and its board. For several years now I have been under medical care for serious ailments, but I have eonūnued to function at a highly effec-

tive level. My doctor has advised OHA, in writing, that my medieal condition requires that I have assistance in traveling. Other trustees have similar requirements. OHA's long-standing practice is to support this need by

allowing for a kāko'o to assist the tmstee. The kāko'o usually is a member of the tmstee's family, someone who is particularly cognizant and supportive of the tmstee's medical condition (i.e„ a spouse or adult children or grandchildren). Akana, however, recently denied my request for a kāko'o. In anheipahon of pending weeklong meetings on Kaua'i, Akana's chief of staff informed my aide that Rowena would approve anyone except my eldest daughter. No ke aha ? While Akana denies my request for my daughter, who is the only family member available to travel with me, Trastee Keale travels regularly to OHA meetings with his kāko'o of ehoiee - his wife. Eaeh year OHA receives permits from the State whieh allow free parking for official business in downtown Honolulu, at the University of Hawai'i and at the Honolulu Intemational Airport.

Chair Akana received those permits in January and distributed them to the Administrator and eaeh tmstee except Apohona, DeSoto and Machado. We leamed about this discriminatory treatment only a few days ago, got no satisfaction from Akana or her staff and were forced to spend considerable time working with the state Department of Transportation to get the matter resolved. It is ironic - no, it is really tragic - that while Akana writes and talks about faimess and equality and the need for Hawaiians to work together, she works dihgently to undermine the efforts of three tmstees who want and deserve nothing more than equal treatment. It becomes more and more difficult, but we persevere. He onipa'a ka 'oia'i'o. ■ *

TRUSTEE MESSAGES

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