Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 10, 1 October 2014 — LOPRESTI, MATTHEW DEMOCRAT [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LOPRESTI, MATTHEW DEMOCRAT

Q1. It is unclear to me that a State House Rep has very mueh, if any authority to dictate what

OHA does or does not do with its property. Naturally, the same rules and restrictions for development apply to all parties, especially with the ever-increasing importance of city planning with less and less available space for development. In general, please know that I feel it is culturally insensitive and historically

problematic for a non-native Hawaiian politician to tell the Native Hawaiian people what they ean or cannot, should or should not do. I support their right to self-determination and will do my best to represent their will within in the State government. Q2. I feel it would be eulturally insensitive for me, a non-Hawaiian, to comment on specifics other than to say that I believe it is the right thing to do to support Native Hawaiian people's right to self-determi-nation.