No Akaka Bill recommendation by civil rights panel

By OHA Public Information Office

A controversial local advisory panel to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights decided against taking a new position on the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2007, leaving intact the panel's support of the Akaka Bill.

The Hawaii State Advisory Committee voted 8-6 not to make a recommendation to the civil rights commission on the measure that is pending before Congress.

Voting to table further debate and deliberation on the Akaka Bill were HSAC members Amy Agbayani, Robert Alm, Daphne E. Barbee-Wooten, Jennifer Benck, Linda Colburn, Michelle Nalani Fujimori, Wayne Tanna and Jackie Young. Voting to continue debate were members H. William Burgess, Vernon Char, Rubellite Johnson, James Kuroiwa, Thomas MacDonald and Paul Sullivan. One member, Kheng See Ang, was absent from last month's proceedings at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

Critics of the panel have argued that the committee was “stacked” with Akaka Bill opponents who are seeking to dismantle Hawaiian programs.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs was pleased with the committee's vote taken during a meeting at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikīkī.

“As we have maintained for months, this Hawai'i committee was being positioned into making a decision through manipulation by majority members of the USCCR in Washington, D.C., and their staff director,” said Haunani Apoliona, chairperson of the Board of Trustees for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

HSAC opponents of the Akaka Bill argued that the panel should have taken a position.

“We now owe those folks some accountability,” member Paul Sullivan said.

OHA reviewed the 2006 USCCR decision, and documented its many flaws. OHA also reviewed the HSAC, whose members are appointed by the USCCR, and the local hearings that were held. All that is contained in a report titled: Correcting the Record: The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and Justice for Native Hawaiians. A copy of the OHA report is available on the OHA website at www.oha.org.

OHA alerted the public about irregularities in the USCCR selection process after none of the nine names OHA submitted were selected for placement on HSAC.