Appearing with more than 100 supporters at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs offices Monday, OHA Chief Executive Officer Kamana‘opono Crabbe didn’t back down in his flap with OHA trustees over the letter he sent to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry asking for a legal opinion on whether the Hawaiian kingdom still exists as an independent nation under international law.
"I continue to believe my decision to send the letter was in the best interest of OHA and the beneficiaries we serve," Crabbe said at a news conference trustee Chairwoman Colette Machado had asked him to cancel. "I stand behind this decision and accept full responsibility for it."
In his May 5 letter, Crabbe said he would ask the trustees to refrain from pursuing a Native Hawaiian governing entity while awaiting a State Department legal opinion. He cited what he described as a growing body of evidence suggesting the Hawaiian kingdom still exists under international law and the possibility that OHA staff members may be open to criminal liability in the agency’s current path in support of state-sanctioned nation building.
After learning about the letter Friday while on business in Washington, OHA trustees voted unanimously to fire off another letter to Kerry rescinding Crabbe’s letter, explaining that it doesn’t reflect the position of the board.
However, trustee Dan Ahuna sent a letter to Kerry on Saturday asking that his name be removed from the board’s follow-up letter, and Maui trustee Carmen Hulu Lindsey asked the same Monday. In his letter, Ahuna said Crabbe was merely carrying out his fiduciary authority as OHA’s chief executive.
On Monday, Crabbe told reporters he met with Machado before making his letter public and was under the impression she had given him her blessing.
"Unfortunately, it is now apparent that we walked away from that meeting with a misunderstanding and misinformation," he said.
But Machado issued a statement Monday afternoon saying she checked with the State Department and the record indicates the letter was received there Thursday — one day before she met with Crabbe.
"Dr. Crabbe did not consult with me before sending his letter, nor did I give him my blessings to proceed," she said in the statement.
In a phone call Monday, Machado said Crabbe had plenty of opportunity to tell all five trustees about the letter on their five-day trip to Washington or to inform the full board at its May 1 meeting. Instead, she said, he asked her to stay after a trustee breakfast Friday and then handed the letter only to her.
"I was caught off guard," Machado recalled. "I reserved my composure. I didn’t want to get into a scrap with him."
Machado described her reaction to the letter as "dumbfounded and stunned" because it appeared to undercut OHA’s policy of working toward nation building.
OHA trustees have approved the allocation of $3.9 million for the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission’s Kana‘iolowalu project, which has enrolled more than 125,000 names ready to help in the creation of a native government.
In an email to the OHA community Sunday, Machado called Crabbe’s move a "breach of aloha and respect" and said that while the CEO brought up some important questions, there are better avenues to have them addressed.
"I believe that the action pursued by (Crabbe) demonstrates a lack of respect for the over 125,000 Native Hawaiians who registered to participate in the process," Machado wrote.
In another email to Crabbe, she asked him to cancel his Monday morning news conference. But he replied that he would move forward to provide "clarity."
Despite Crabbe’s continued defiance, Machado said Monday she is recommending that Crabbe and the board engage in hooponopono, the Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness, in hopes of smoothing things over. Machado said the hooponopono session is expected to take place behind closed doors in executive session at the board’s meeting Monday on Maui.
At OHA’s Nimitz Highway headquarters, Crabbe walked into his press conference with scores of supporters, including University of Hawaii professor Jon Osorio, UH law professor Williamson Chang, Native Hawaiian psychologist Keawe‘aimoku Kaholokula and Molokai activist Walter Ritte.
Crabbe told reporters he’s often called upon to make tough and controversial decisions in his role as CEO and was merely trying to ensure that OHA policies were implemented with "due diligence" and "a minimization of risk" to the agency.
"I take this responsibility very, very seriously," he said.
In a prepared statement, he said experts and Native Hawaiian community members continue to raise concerns and questions about the nation-building process in the context of international law.
"Such concerns have led our community to request more time in the nation-rebuilding process to have questions — such as I raised with Secretary Kerry — fully explored and shared with our people so that they can make well-informed decisions throughout the process," he said.
Crabbe said he didn’t believe his actions would undermine nation-building efforts.
"Currently the board proposed a policy, and we’ll continue to move forward. The board took a position. My role is to implement that position, we are moving forward," he said.
Despite the conflict, he added, "I am certain that the board and I stand firmly together in our commitment to do all that we appropriately can to re-establish a Hawaiian nation."
After the news conference, UH assistant professor Kamanamaikalani Beamer said an online petition supporting Crabbe and his letter has collected more than 1,100 signatures. The petition is linked from the hawaiiankingdom.org blog.
"We simply want to support formal facilitative leadership," Beamer said. "We feel that Dr. Crabbe has embodied that and brought us to a place we can get answers and move forward as a lahui (nation)."
