Consent of the Governed
One more important take-away from America’s 250th Celebration of the Declaration of Independence: The assertion that the “consent of the governed” was the fundamental principle for a legitimate government. The concept had been proposed by John Locke and by Rousseau, but it took the Declaration of Independence to place it squarely as the cornerstone for lawful governance.
In my 26 years of interacting with the international community as the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Hawaiian Kingdom I realized that this principle of has been embraced as the form governance by more than 90% of the nations of the world.
When King Kamehameha III changed Hawaii from an absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy in 1840, he incorporated the principle of “consent of the governed” by creating the legislative branch of government, particularly the House of Representatives to be elected by the people.
The United States’ usurpation of the Hawaiian Kingdom not only violated US laws, Hawaiian Kingdom laws and the Law of Nations, it violated the fundamental principle of consent of the governed (the people). Two of the most blatant instances in which the US violated consent were…
The Ku’e Petitions of 1897, by which 82% of the Hawaiian People emphatically rejected the scheme of annexation to the United States. At first it worked. But less than a year later, citing “military necessity”, the US bent their own laws and proclaimed Hawaii annexed.
The second was the Statehood Vote of 1959. This time the US used the United Nations process to conduct a decolonization referendum in which only US citizens voted, and thus manufactured “consent” for Statehood in the US.
The point is this noble principle of “consent of the governed” has been used for nefarious purposes as well as for good.
The United States’ manipulation of “consent” is what underpins its claim of legal dominion over and “possession” of the Hawaiian Islands. Yet, it has also admitted, especially through President Cleveland’s report to Congress in 1893 and President Clinton’s Apology in 1993, to the unlawful invasion and usurpation.
The good news is that the facts of our situation are no longer in the dark. In the year 2000, when I started telling foreign diplomats and UN workers our story and aspiration to Free Hawaii, they would say, “Wow that’s a very sad story, Good Luck!” (Meaning, “Freedom from the US? In your dreams!”).
Five or six years later as I kept meeting with them, they began to say, “Do you really think a Free Hawaii could happen?”
Then about eight years ago they started to say, “What do you think we can do to help?” We began to discuss actions they could take without endangering themselves, of course.
About a year ago as US foreign policy began to become more worrisome diplomats and international experts have been offering up concrete suggestions of what might be helpful to us! Those ideas are being developed and, hopefully, soon activated.
Aloha ʻĀina —
“Love of country is deep-seated in the breast of every Hawaiian, whatever his station.” — Queen Liliʻuokalani
Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono.
The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
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For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at 7 PM, the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53.
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Malama Pono,
Leon Siu
Hawaiian National
Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Hawaiian Kingdom (since 2001)
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