Hawaii's World
by A.A. Smyser
by A.A. Smyser
By building on a general sense in the community that Hawaiians have been wronged in their native land, he was able to win approval for positive ways to make amends. He won still more as governor. As outlined in my Tuesday column, his accomplishments are formidable.
The Hawaiian Homes program is becoming the vital entity it should have been since 1920.It has some new, better lands and money to develop them. Projects are being planned statewide, including Kapolei and Kona.
The prize and the biggest so far is Princess Kahanu Estates, named for the wife of Prince Kuhio, the "father" of the Hawaiian Homes program. Started under the Waihee administration, it now is near full occupancy of its 271 units at Lualualei. Kali Watson, Hawaiian Homes director for Gov. Ben Cayetano, thanks Waihee for providing him a strong base.
When Waihee and a few other Hawaiian leaders in 1978 conceived the then-revolutionary idea of Hawaiians electing their own leaders for an Office of Hawaiian Affairs, they did not think until later about merging the Hawaiian Homes lands program into it. They may have encountered strong resistance had they tried.
Waihee still thinks that the Hawaiian Homes program could be well-served with leaders elected by Hawaiians instead of appointed by the governor. He lauds Watson, however.
Waihee's vision of a future sovereign Hawaiian political entity includes an umbrella organization over both OHA and Hawaiian Homes with Kahoolawe and possible returned ceded lands from the monarchy placed under it, too.
It must be, he stresses, a structure that can co-exist happily with the rest of Hawaii's populace. He notes that we now operate with six political entities in Hawaii - the federal government, the state government and four county governments.
He sees the Hawaiian structure as a seventh political entity, comparable to a county. To breathe life into it will require new state laws and constitutional amendments approved by the larger community, plus congressional action. But it must first be created by the Hawaiian people themselves, Waihee says.
The new Hawaiian government can't be modeled on most American Indian nations, he says, because they have large, contiguous lands. In some respects it might compare most closely with the Cherokee nation, which has holdings spread throughout the Oklahoma City area. He thinks Hawaiians should study it but also study New Zealand Maori and other models.
He recognizes that blood quantum can be a divisive issue in creating a Hawaiian nation. Today, for instance, Hawaiian Homes help is limited to people with 50 percent Hawaiian blood, a fairly small fraction of the over 200,000-plus people, one-fifth of the state population, who have at least some Hawaiian blood.
Waihee is 75 percent Hawaiian but his children are only half that. He would leave the blood quantum decisions to a congress to form a Hawaiian nation. But he would like to see voting for that congress open to persons with even tiny Hawaiian blood quantums.
THIS is the basis used by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in creating a voter list of more than 70,000 to elect its trustees.
People like Daniel K. Inouye, a senior member of the U.S. Senate's Indian Affairs subcommittee, have been exceedingly helpful in forwarding Hawaiian causes and bringing millions of federal funds here to help support Hawaiian programs.
But Waihee stands out as the politician who has done the most to help Hawaiian people since Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole.
A major challenge for Hawaii in the years ahead will be to achieve his dream of a Hawaiian sovereign structure that can co-exist happily with the other 80 percent of Hawaii's multi-racial people. There may be major confrontations along the way,but the final product will need broad consensus support for Hawaii to have a happy, prosperous future.
"We can't afford to become another Bosnia," says Waihee.