Difference between revisions of "2007-11-14 OHA Fact Check"

Revision as of 20:53, 14 November 2007

Following a series of devastating public hearings held by the Hawaii Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which exposed the fraudulent nature of both the basis and promise of the Akaka Bill, OHA produced a "corrections" report disputing the facts and arguments put forward by various experts in their testimony. Please enjoy these corrections to their "corrections".

1840 Constitution

OHA tries to whitewash the explicit assertion of the 1840 Hawaiian Kingdom Constitution statement that all people are "of one blood" by criticizing the Kingdom as being a mere pawn to Western interests.

At the time of the 1840 constitution, foreign interests put intense pressure on the monarchy to produce a Western-style constitution in order to secure their land holdings. - OHA's "Correcting the Record" 2007

The ideas of land reform and a Western-style constitution were important goals for all Hawaiians, regardless of their ancestry or heritage. The alternative, of maintaining a despotic monarchy with no land rights for anyone cannot be romanticized in any reasonable way.

Simple equality

In the Executive Summary of OHA's "Corrections", they speak of "indigenous peoples' civil and human rights" but apparently do not acknowledge the existence of these rights as applying to people who are not "indigenous". This apparent disconnect between understanding the idea of equality and civil rights drives throughout their entire polemic. Fastening on to a buzz-word marketing term "Restorative Justice", they demand that their neighbors and cousins of the present be solely responsible for some nebulous "restoration", regardless of the fact that they share the vast majority of their ancestry with their fellow, non-restoration eligible cousins. In a desperate attempt to reframe their victimhood status, the OHA report states:

With Native Hawaiian history as a backdrop, the Report shows that Native Hawaiians are asserting human rights as well as civil rights - not simply the right to be equal but to self-determination; not a right to entitlements but to restoration; not a right to special treatment but to reconnect spiritually with land and culture; not a right to simple equality but to a form of self-governance.

What of the self-determination of their cousins? Or the right of restoration to the Asians deprived of the vote by race in 1887? Or the right of all the people of Hawaii, regardless of race, to have spiritual connections with the land and culture of their ancestors and birth? What of the right of self-governance for other races and ethnicities?

The frightening thing is that these protestations of victimhood and innocence are said with full sincerity - these people truly believe that asking for more than equality is their right by blood, their right simply because of their race.

Attack the messenger

In their introduction, they complain about the 2006 USCCR report which recommended the following:

The Commission recommends against passage of the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2005 (S. 147) as reported out of committee on May 16, 2005, or any other legislation that would discriminate on the basis of race or national origin and further subdivide the American people into discrete subgroups accorded varying degrees of privilege.

Instead of addressing the issues raised by the report, OHA instead attacks the messengers, characterizing the people who testified before the USCCR as "anti-Hawaiian and anti-civil rights advocates". This simply does not pass the snicker test. When arguing for equality is somehow "anti-civil rights", one loses all credibility.

Keeping the deck stacked

After decades of control by extremists, OHA laments the end to a stacked deck, objecting to the following regulation for the selection criteria of committee members:

(b) No person is to be denied an opportunity to serve on a State Advisory Committee because of race, age, sex, religion, national origin, or disability. The Commisssion shall encourage membership on the State Advisory Committee to be broadly diverse.

Yes, you read that right. They objected to the idea that membership on any State Advisory Committee be open to anyone, regardless of their race, age, sex, religion, national origin, or disability. They flat out argue that State Advisory Committee members should be denied the opportunity to serve simply because of their personal demographics.

Historical errors?

In the section titled "Accurate Native Hawaiian History: The Lasting Harms of Western Encroachment and the U.S. Aided Overthrow", OHA flounders hopelessly with the factual record. Let's go over a few of these "accurate" observations:

Attorney William Burgess further claimed that the United States took no lands from Hawaiians at the time of the overthrow or the 1898 annexation.

All OHA has to do is identify a single parcel of private land that was taken by the United States in either 1893, or in 1898. Apparently, they are unable to give us a single example.

Calling the report inaccurate and flawed, Commissioners Yaki and Melendez voted against the recommendation.

Let's also not forget that Mr. Yaki himself stated, "I cannot possibly be impartial when it comes to this issue [the Akaka Bill]". Mr. Yaki also asserted that his grandfather was from the "island[sic] of Hana" during one hearing on the issue - apparently unaware that Hana is a city on the island of Maui.

"Enactment of this federal policy codifies United States recognition of the special legal and political relationship with Native Hawaiians as it has done previously with American Indians and Alaska Natives." - Haunani Apoliona

Except of course, that no American Indian or Alaska Native group has ever been recognized solely because of a single drop of blood. Were we to force open the tribal rolls to everyone who had even the slightest racial connection to pre-western contact peoples of the Americas, and institute race-based governments for them, that would be equivalent to what Ms. Apoliona asks for here.

Apoliona goes further, and starts citing the flawed and misinformed "Apology Resolution":

The wrong of the grossly undemocratic (some say unconstitutional) overthrow of our sovereign government by the show of military force;

Except, of course, that the sovereign government was a multi-racial government, and the overthrow was undertaken by local dissidents.

The wrong of appropriating, ceding (some say stealing) our native lands; and,

Except, of course, that the lands that were "ceded" were the public lands of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and upon statehood in 1959, those public lands were returned to the State of Hawaii for public use.

The wrong of depriving Hawaiians, an indigenous sovereign people, of rights to self-determination.

Except, of course, that the indigenous people of Hawaii determined by themselves to have a sovereign color-blind monarchy, open to people of any racial background, and since annexation in 1898 have enjoyed more expanded civil rights to suffrage and self-determination than ever before in the islands.

Trustee Mossman first explained that "Hawaiians share the same history, culture, spirit, traditions, language and heritage of self governance within their homeland for almost two thousand years.

Except for the fact that the original Marquesans only arrived around 800AD (1200 years ago), were not recognizably culturally "Hawaiian", and were invaded and displaced by Tahitians around 1000AD, who in around 1300AD cut off ties with other island nations and lived in isolation for only 400 years before Captain Cook arrived in 1778. Not to mention the fact that since 1778, Hawaiians of all races have shared a culture, spirit, traditions, language and heritage of self governance, together, regardless of blood. Apparently for Mr. Mossman, 400 years of isolation, under the despotic rule of ali'i and brutal kapu laws, is closer to his heart than the past 200 years of integration and growth of the culture of the people of Hawaii.

We changed our mind again

OHA quotes from Trustee Mossman, who states:

In 1893 the United States through its agent, John Stevens, collaborated and conspired with a tiny group of missionary descendants and businessmen to overthrow the lawful government of Hawaii. Hawaiians had no vote in the overthrow or annexation and in fact nearly unanimously opposed both...

Besides being drawn from the distorted and discredited Blount Report, Mossman's history fails to reveal that after annexation, Hawaiians had the majority vote, and nearly unanimously supported statehood. Given the chance to enjoy self-determination in the Territory of Hawaii, Native Hawaiians were active in the polls, powerful in the government and proud Americans. The deposed Queen herself, Liliuokalani, proudly flew the American flag from her house in downtown Honolulu. One can only hope that like his ancestors who embraced the promise of the ideals of the United States of Americas, after being at first viscerally opposed to them, Mossman may find a similar epiphany with time.

The language of colorblindness

In their rather colorful characterization of the testimony of Jere Krischel, OHA complains:

Krischel testified before the HISAC on September 5, 2007. He used the deceptive language of "colorblindness" backed by seductive and misleading historical arguments to frame his opposition to the NHGRA.

If arguing that we should not "divide ourselves by race, deny our brothers, sisters and cousins, and forsake the values which have made Hawaii into the special place that it is" is somehow "deceptive", how does one argue for equality? How else can you say, "we should treat people equally regardless of their race"? Why is that deceptive at all?

The real deception here is the idea that we must discriminate to be equal. The Orwellian nature of OHA's argument that DISCRIMINATION is EQUALITY is shown vividly here.

No homeland to lose?

Trustee Mossman is quoted by OHA stating:

"What homeland and culture do they have to lose? What language to they have to give up? They say 'Aloha For All' but only take and have none to give."

So according to OHA, those people who have lived in Hawaii for the past 200 years have no right to call it their homeland? They have no right to identify with the multi-cultural mix they have been a part of since the time of the Kingdom? What does he say to the people with caucasian ancestors who developed the Hawaiian alphabet and dictionaries, and preserved the language and culture of pre-contact Hawaii? What does he say to the foreigners who have taught celestial navigation once again to the people of Hawaii? The people of Hawaii have provided special racial benefits to people with pre-1778 immigrant ancestry in Hawaii since 1921 - but they have no aloha to give?

With this kind of rhetoric, the cycle of victimhood comes to a climax. Decades of special racial benefits have not placated a point of view which sees itself as owning a privileged position because of their race. Surely this can be seen as a direct refutation of the policy of appeasement, and demands an immediate end to the pernicious racial politics which have brought this kind of attitude to bear.

Mr. Mossman confuses government with culture - the two are not the same.

More blame to go around

In their attempt at rebuttal to the historical record explored and examined by testimony before the HISAC, OHA tried to re-frame the issue by claiming that the testimony turned "a blind eye to Hawaiian history and experience". OHA stated:

First, both failed to mention the intense pressure exerted by Westerners to wrest control of the Kingdom.

OHA seems to fail to mention the intense patriotism of many non-native Hawaiians in preserving the Kingdom, and the patriotic motives held by many non-native Hawaiians who saw the corruption of Kalakaua and Liliuokalani as a threat to all the people of Hawaii. Ken Conklin speaks of Gerrit Judd, a longtime advisor to the King, of American ancestry, who can be credited with restoring the sovereignty of the Hawaiian Kingdom after British Captain Paulet took over the Kingdom in 1843. OHA ignores the long and integral history of non-pre-1778 immigrants to the Hawaiian islands and the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Disenfranchised by race?

OHA tries to downplay the history expounded upon by Jere Krischel regarding the 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii, which represented the only outright racial discrimination of suffrage in the history of the Hawaiian islands - against Asians. Citing the distorted and one-sided "Reconciliation at a Crossroads" put forth by the previous, imbalanced HISAC, OHA states:

In response to King Kalakaua's refusal to turn over exclusive use of Pearl Harbor, American and European sugar planters and business intersts - supported by an all-white 500-man militia - forced him to accept major changes in the govermental structure of the kingdom, effectively transferring key aspects of the monarch's political power.

Of course this makes Kalakaua seem principled, even heroic - except it's not true. The 1887 Constitution was imposed upon the corrupt Kalakaua on July 7, 1887. The Reform Party, on October 26, 1887, well after the new constitution was promulgated, advised in favor of extending the existing Reciprocity Treaty with the United States and including the lease of Pearl Harbor. Kalakaua's ministers encouraged him to accept, and he did on November 29, 1887. To somehow cast about the historical record, ignoring the actual ORDER of events, and portraying a corrupt monarch as some sort of hero is more than disingenuous.

Never mind the Aki opium scandal. Never mind the blatant corruption of Kalakaua, under the thumb of the notorious sugar planter Claus Spreckels. Never mind the "Minister of Everything", Walter Murray Gibson, who stole Lanai from the Mormons and brought racial demagoguery to Hawaiian politics. Never mind Kalakaua's ill-fated warship Kaimiloa, sent to Samoa to meddle in their politics. Put the blame entirely on the United States, regardless of the facts.

To quote from the iconic Hawaiian historian Ralph Kuykendall:

The petitions amounted to a detailed charge of incompetence, extravagance, and maladministration of the government by the king and his ministers. They cited the increasing burden of taxation, expansion of the public debt, and misapplication of funds contrary to statutory requirements; the king's interference in elections and his improper influence over the legislature; "the most unscrupulous attempts to arouse in the native mind a feeling of jealousy and hostility to foreigners"; "a perfectly criminal relaxation" of the laws relating to leprosy, thereby endangering the life and health of the people; a shameful neglect of roads, harbors and other public works. - The Hawaiian Kingdom 1874-1893, p 355

Never mind the "voluntary" immigrants

In a truly stunning show of callousness towards the injustices faced by immigrant plantation workers in the Kingdom and even Territory of Hawaii, OHA writes:

By highlighting discrimination against Asians and depicting other groups as equally victimized, Krischel attempted to shroud the unique historical injustice faced by Native Hawaiians and the need for rectification. Indeed, he ignored the "momentous difference between the harsh consequences of colonization for unwilling indigenous people and the experiences of voluntary immigration by ethnic groups seeking a better life."

So apparently, "voluntary" immigrants who were discriminated against in Hawaii should have no voice. Their suffering can never compare with "indigenous" suffering. This pernicious idea, that the quality of one's suffering is determined by blood rather than by the actual circumstances endured, dehumanizes all of the people of Hawaii. The idea of civil rights is that they are rights we all share, regardless of race. The idea of human rights is that they are rights we all share, regardless of race. To make the bold assertion that "rectification" is needed or deserving to people with a single drop of pre-1778 immigrant blood, and that the suffering of all other immigrant groups is insignificant in comparison is a chilling statement about what OHA believes about racial equality.

Convicted of misprision

In an odd paragraph, OHA quotes Jere Krischel, but then fails to rebut the accuracy of his statements. Krischel states:

The imprisonment of Queen Liliuokalani, instead of being known as a reaction to her involvement in the 1895 counter-revolution against [the] Republic of Hawaii, is blamed on the United States instead.

This particular line is referring to misstatements by Senator Inouye, who stated while supporting the inaccurate "Apology Resolution":

But in this case, the first thing they did was take over the palace, the only palace in the United States at this time, ran the legislature in the throne room, imprisoned the queen in her bedroom, desecrated the palace, something that we Americans have never done before or since. - Senator Inouye, October 27, 1993

First of all, in 1893, when the queen was deposed, Hawaii was not a part of the United States. Neither was it a part of the United States in 1895, when the queen was imprisoned after being convicted by the Republic of Hawaii. The United States did not desecrate Iolani Palace, nor did they run a legislature in the throne room, nor did they imprison the queen.

In response to this factual statement by Krischel, OHA writes:

In fact Queen Liliuokalani was arrested (with alleged knowledge of her supporters' attempt to restore the monarchy), tried by a military tribunal of the Republic of Hawaii, convicted of misprision of treason and imprisoned for eight months in Iolani Palace.

But that doesn't address anything at all regarding the mis-characterization commonly given that the United States imprisoned the Queen. In fact, it bolsters the case!