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Editor’s Note: Keli’i Akina is a candidate in the Nov. 8 general election runoff for Trustee At Large for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. He faces incumbent Haunani Apoliona, who has accepted our invitation to reply to this post. We will publish that response as soon as we receive it.

The Department of Interior has recently announced a procedure for the creation of a federally recognized Native Hawaiian governing entity. In response, Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chair Robert Lindsey has reiterated the supportive position held by long-term OHA trustees, including Haunani Apoliona, who have authorized the spending of tens of millions of dollars on the Akaka Bill and other failed attempts to gain federal recognition.

The trustees are on record as having spent more than $33 million on the Akaka Bill and additional millions on other failed programs such as the Native Hawaiian Roll and Nai Aupuni.

Over the course of two decades, these OHA trustees have lavishly spent Hawaiian Trust funds on federal recognition knowing full well that the majority of Native Hawaiian people have not wanted them to do so.  Based on data from their own surveys, the trustees have known that native Hawaiians have overwhelmingly wanted these funds to be spent on meeting the real needs of Hawaiians for housing, jobs, education and healthcare.

Hawaiians feel it is both a tragedy and a scandal that OHA trustees have spent millions on political governance schemes instead of helping the 27,000 individuals on the Hawaiian Homelands waiting list to get homes.

Chairman Lindsey, perhaps inadvertently, revealed the fact that the trustees have known of the low priority Native Hawaiians give to federal recognition when he positioned himself for re-election in the primary and general election voter guides published by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs newspaper, Ka Wai Ola.

There, Lindsey says, “Our lahui (i.e., the native Hawaiian people/nation), when surveyed in 1978 (OHA’s founding) and recently, have made it clear: ‘bread and butter’ issues (education, health, housing, and jobs) are what’s important to them. It wants OHA to focus on these issues. In 2016 the majority of respondents see nation-building as a bottom of the barrel issue. OHA must refocus, reboot and rethink its basic priorities if it is to be in alignment with the wishes of our people.”

Hawaiians feel it is a tragedy and a scandal that OHA trustees have spent millions on political governance schemes instead of helping the 27,000 on the Hawaiian Homelands waiting list get homes.

Haunani Apoliona, also seeking re-election, said in the same voter guides, “As a current OHA Trustee I am committed to OHA’s majority-approved position. However, as a (future) re-elected trustee I am committed to OHA’s refining existing strategies consistent with additional input we seek from the majority of Native Hawaiians.”

Apparently, the incumbent trustees realize that to get re-elected, they must downplay the fact that they have ignored native Hawaiians and wasted precious funds on a federal recognition scheme that native Hawaiians reject.

Could we say that they speak with forked tongues?

Trustee Rowena Akana encourages the voting public to hold the OHA trustees accountable when she states in her Ka Wai Ola column, “So this election, seek change and elect new blood! Elect New People! Electing the same Trustees will not bring any meaningful change to OHA!”