Con Con Discussed at Native Hawaiian Convention
Lt. Governor Aiona addressed the 7th Annual Native Hawaiian Convention, where he explained the importance of becoming informed about the opportunity of Hawai`i citizens to hold their first constitutional convention in three decades.
“Whether you are for it or against it, all of you have a responsibility to inform yourselves and your families about the change a constitutional convention could bring to Hawai‘i,” Lt. Governor Aiona told the group in a keynote speech at the Hawai‘i Convention Center. “This is not an issue to be played from the sidelines.”
According to state law, blank ballots will count as “no” votes, so even if people don’t intend to vote on the con con questions, their ballots will be counted, Lt. Governor Aiona said. “That is why it is so important to make sure you have all the information available to make a well-informed decision.”
The Lt. Governor added that at the last constitutional convention in 1978, the Hawaiian community realized a number of significant advancements. “We adopted `Olelo Hawai‘i (Native Hawaiian) as an official language of our state,” he said. “We created the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and empowered it to serve the Hawaiian people. We established that a portion of ceded land revenue must be used for the benefit of the Hawaiian people. And we established important protections for our land and water resources.”
The people of Hawai‘i instituted the changes they wanted to see in government before and they can do it again, Lt. Governor Aiona said.
- Learn more about a Hawai`i Constitutional Convention.
