Hawaiians Demand Akaka Bill Hearings in Hawaii: Petition Shows Broad Anti-Akaka Bill Sentiment

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We are contacting you to make you aware of broad opposition to S.1011, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2009, otherwise known as the Akaka bill, throughout Hawai`i and to ask for your vote AGAINST this bill.

Regardless of what Hawai`i Senators Akaka and Inouye have told your office, the people of Hawai`i, including Native Hawaiians, do not support the Akaka bill and are demanding public hearings be held in Hawai`i before any vote occurs in Congress.

Over the years, poll after poll has shown the citizens of Hawai`i, both native and non-native to be overwhelmingly opposed to this bill.

Moreover an online anti-Akaka bill petition has garnered hundreds of signers from all political points of view, both of natives and non-natives.

A copy, with over eight hundred signatures is attached to this email. The petition can also be seen online at https://StopAkakaPetition.com

“We, the people of Hawai`i, declare our opposition to the 2010 version of the Akaka bill, and strongly object to being excluded from this legislative process,” stated Leon Siu representing the Koani Foundation, part of a coalition of Native Hawaiian groups.

“We have long been told that open, public debates in matters that affect the citizenry are part of the US democratic process. But it has not been so with the Akaka bill.”

“We, the people of Hawai`i, insist the US Senate Indian Affairs Committee hold public hearings on S.1011 in Hawai`i as soon as possible. We demand to be heard.”

The only time public hearings were held in Hawai`i on the bill was ten years ago.

At that hearing, people turned out in record numbers to oppose the legislation.

Since then, the only hearings held on the Akaka bill were in Washington, DC in the dead of winter, 5,000 miles from Hawai`i, and no opposing testimony from Hawaiians or anyone else was allowed.

Submitted by Leon Siu

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  1. Many thanks to Leon Siu, his colleagues in the Koani Foundation, and the thousands of Hawaiians of all races (both those with native ancestry and those without) who oppose the Akaka bill now and have opposed the bill throughout its ten year history in Congress. Special thanks to Mr. Siu for traveling to Washington to personally lobby against the bill during the Senate cloture activity in 2006. It’s important for Senators to see the faces of those who would supposedly benefit from the Akaka bill, who stand up to say “This bill would be harmful to us and we don’t want it.”

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