Second trustee calls for halt on OHA nation-building
Peter Apo has joined Oswald Stender in urging his fellow trustees to pull OHA out of further nation-building efforts.
In a recent blog entry, Peter Apo wrote that “the core of OHA’s fiduciary duty, founded as a sacred trust for the benefit of Native Hawaiians and Hawaiians, is being threatened and undermined by the out of control distraction of nation building.” Apo proposes that OHA relinquish its role in nation-building, cancel the proposed ‘Aha and reduce the scope of activities at the Washington D.C. office.
His words echo those of trustee Oswald Stender who said, in January, that “there are other issues we should be working on rather than building this government that is not going to work.”
Neither trustee has condemned nation-building in and of itself, but both have drawn attention to the large sums of money that OHA has spent in that endeavor, concluding that the office should remove itself from the nation-building process and leave the question of self-determination to other organizations.
Apo writes, “What good would it be to have a nation if our people are broke, homeless, uneducated and disabled and our most revered Hawaiian institutions struggle to survive? By focusing on improving these conditions of existence, Hawaiians will be strengthened and can make informed choices to pursue whatever forms of nation on which they can agree independent of OHA.”
Grassroot Institute President Keli’i Akina released a statement in support of Apo and Stender saying, “We applaud the words of Trustees Peter Apo and Oswald Stender, especially their honesty and their ability to recognize the inherent problems in OHA’s nation-building process. We call upon the other Trustees to step up and take the reasonable and responsible action of cancelling OHA’s efforts to build a government-sponsored, race-based nation, and redirect their attention and funds to issues that will be more effective in addressing the needs of Native Hawaiians and our state.
“Grassroot Institute is on record pointing out the serious Constitutional and practical questions of a government agency attempting to establish a sovereign nation. We are deeply concerned that the Native Hawaiian Roll process has not served the real needs of the Hawaiian people and all citizens of the State of Hawaii,” continues Akina. “It is time to put an end to actions which divide Hawaii’s people and to start working together to unify and strengthen Hawaii.”