Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 13, Number 8, 1 August 1996 — Your silence is your greatest enemy [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Your silence is your greatest enemy

by the Rev. Moses K. Keale, Sr. Trustee, Kaua'i and Ni'ihau

There are three fundamental and pressing aspects of any trust - the secur-

ing of the trust assets, investment of trust assets to ensure the trust's eonūnuum and the deliverance of benefits to the beneficiary. The last aspect of the trust is what the trust is really all about. It gives purpose and function for the trust' s existence. A trust, any trast, is created for the beneficiary. In this case the trast was created for

the betterment of the conditions of the native Hawaiian. And how do we determine whether a trast is fulfilling its mission? We take an inventory of the needs of the beneficiary versus the impact of trust dollars and Droerams towards those

needs. It comes as no great surprise to anyone except the politicians that Hawaiians face the worst housing problems of any ethnic group in Hawai'i or this nation. It comes as no great surprise that Hawaiians have the worst health record of any ethnic group in Hawai'i. And it is no great surprise that Hawaiians faced a terrible substance and physical abuse problem. Hawaiian employment and education statistics proelaim a major problem for all Hawaiians. So if we know what the problems are, then should we not have programs that address these problems? The answer, of course, is a resounding YES! So what is OHA doing with its millions of dollars?

What is OHA doing with its constitutional mandate and enabling legislation towards advocacy for the Hawaiians? I have always maintained that education is the key to the long term

solution to eaeh of these problems. If you give a child a sound educational foundation, he or she will have many, many choices in the road to a successful and fruitful life. So it was with great conviction that I led the charge toward the creation of the OHA Education Foundation. The concept was quickly adopt-

ed and funded only to be monkeyed and toyed with by individual trastees for their own political purposes and agendas. Promised funding was withheld on ridiculous grounds. The excellent. highly skilled board of directors

were stymied, stifled and restricted by narrow minded, micro-manag-ing trastees. The foundation was never intended to be an arm of OHA's dictates. It was meant to be independent and free to function as those educators on the board of directors saw fit. But, like most projects of OHA, it fell

prey to power and control rather than be directed by the mandates of the beneficiaries' needs for the betterment of their eonditions. Then we eome to housing! Where are the housing programs to address this major and insatiable need? We have small programs scattered throughout the state for self-help housing. These are good programs but on such a small scale that it pales versus the needs. Our well published OHA Hawaiian Homes Loan program is a flop by my standards. Very few loans have been made and very few houses built with this money. Who qualifies? What good is creating a program whieh does not filter down to the people in need? Rather than continuing to proclaim our problems, listing the shortfalls as a laundry list, let me just say that this Board has failed to address the needs, failed to give proper directions, failed to inspire leader-

ship in these major areas, failed to be the proper advocate and failed to live up to our responsibilities. Yes, we have a trust. Yes, we have money. But when you compcire the money with measured impact on the beneficiary, we fall so far short of accomplishing the mission of OHA whieh is to better the eonditions of the Hawaiian and native Hawaiian that it makes me cringe with anger and frastration. I blame myself in not being effective, but you too must take some of the responsibility. Your silence is your greatest enemy. Your silence makes il possible for your elected trustees to ignore your needs and accomplish their personcil goals. It is said "to make a loud noise unto the Lord that he may hear your petitions." This applies to all of us, all the time!