Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 16, Number 5, 1 May 1999 — What's your real agenda, Mister Rice? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

What's your real agenda, Mister Rice?

ON MARCH 22, the United States Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the State of Hawai'i may limit by race, voters who elect OHA trustees. Harold Rice incorrectly presents the issue in Rice vs. Cayetano as whether the appellate court erred in holding that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution permit the adoption of an explicit racial classification that restricts the right to vote in statewide eleetions for state olficials. As the Ninth Circuit noted, restricting voter eligibility to Hawaiians cannot be understood without reference to what the

vote is for. The vote is for the limited purpose of electing trustees who have no general governmental powers. The restriction apphes only to a speeial election to elect OHA trustees. The federal district court eoncluded "that the requirements of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments are not violated because the restriction on the right to vote is not based upon race, but upon a recognition of the unique status of Native Hawaiians. This classification derives from the trust obligations owed and directed by Congress and the State of Hawai'i. Consequently, the legislation will be upheld if it ean be tied rationally to the fulfillment of the unique obligation to Native Hawaiians." From 1826, Hawai'i was an independent kingdom recognized by the United States. In 1893, the monarchy was illegally overthrown, as acknowledged in the 1993 Apology Resolution. The provisional government declared itself the Repubhc of Hawai'i and sought annexation.

In 1898, Congress accepted the cession of the sovereignty of Hawai'i and 1.8 million acres through the Newlands Resolution. In 1900, Congress passed the Organic Act, whieh provided a government for the Territory of Hawai'i. By 1920, the phght of the true inhabitants became desperate. Some scholars estimate that a pre-contact populahon of one milhon Hawaiians plummeted to 40,000. As Prince Kūhiō said: "The Hawahan race is passing,

and if conditions eonhnue to exist as they do today, this splendid race of people, my race, will pass from the face of this earth." Congress enacted the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (HHCA) to allow the remaining Native Hawahans to lease a small shver of theh former land. As a condition for admission into the Union of States in 1959, the United States requhed the new state to adopt the provisions of the HHCA, as part of the compact of admission and the state conshmhon. The Admission Act, Section 5(b) returned the lands ceded to the United States during annexation to Hawai'i in a pubhc trust. No benefits acmahy went to Native Hawahans unth 1978, when the state constimtion was amended to estabhsh OHA. Hawai'i created OHA as a means of fulfilling its inherited trust obhgarion. Pursuant to the conshmrion and stamtes, a board of trustees governs OHA. Trustees must be Hawaiian, and qualified voters must be Hawaiian. Consequently, voting in this eleehon is not improper, because

it is based on the pohheal stams of a native people. I truly believe that Hawaiians are doing a better job for Hawaiians than both the state and federal govemment. Although Mr. Rice says he has nothing against OFIA, he previously filed htigahon against the Bishop Estate to chahenge educational benefits for Hawahans, and against the YWCA for holding Hawaiian language classes. Perhaps this third-generation missionary descendent, with ancestors in the provisional government that overthrew our queen, has a different agenda ffom the one he states. On another note, Trustee DeSoto is not being entirely truthful in her last eolumn. I have never denied her the services of a kāko'o for travel. I refused one farruly member as her helper, because the person has repeatedly thieatened another trustee and myself with physieal violence. Nonetheless, I approved another family member to assist her. Aloha pumehana. ■

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