Given how thoroughly the issue has been covered, Glenn Emanuel’s broadside against the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) is ridiculous (“OHA can’t cry swindle if its gamble didn’t pay off,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, May 8). The ban on residential development came from legislative action, and legislative action can repeal it.
That’s the democratic process — a process that is being subverted by House Speaker Scott Saiki, who is coddling Kakaako residents like Emanuel. People who nabbed their piece of paradise now don’t want to share it with anyone, let alone working and middle-class Hawaii residents in workforce and affordable housing units.
Hakuone is for all local families of all ethnicities, as Emanuel correctly asserts.
Seeking the residential repeal and funds to address undisclosed neglect, and collecting unpaid public land trust funds, is not “gambling.” It’s making our case in the hopes that government leaders will give OHA a fair hearing. Saiki has so far refused to do so, for reasons that he continues to conceal.
Kawika Trask
Liliha
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