His Majesty Edmund K. Silva, Jr.

Nou Ke Akua Ke Aupuni O Hawaii

September 9, 2015
To:

The Honorable David Y. Ige

Governor, State of Hawaii
Executive Chambers, State Capitol
415 Beretania
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
FAX: (808) 586-0006

Info:

Pelekikena Barack H. Obama

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
United Nations Headquarters
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, New York 10017
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001
Judge Derrick K. Watson
Federal Courthouse
300 Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

c.c.:

Protectors of the Mountain

Mauna a Wkea Vigil Site
(Hand Delivery)

Ka Puuhonua O Na Wahi Pana O Hawaii Nei

kingdomofhawaii.info
hmkingdomofhawaii@gmail.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bilateral_treaties_signed_by_the_Kingdom_of_Hawaii
The United Nations Charter provides the rest of the authority to do it. (An autonomous independent sovereign nation-state contemplated
under Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States requiring the state as a person of international law
possessing the four qualifications of (a) a permanent population, (b) a defined territory, c) government;
and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states.)

Page 2

Frank Kamealoha Anuumealani Nobriga

Tahuna of the Temple of Lono
c/o Lanny Sinkin
P. O. Box 944
Hilo, Hawaii 96721
lanny.sinkin@gmail.com
Suzanne Case
Chairperson
State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources
1151 Punchbowl
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
dlnr@hawaii.gov
Kekoa Kaluhiwa
First Deputy
State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources
1151 Punchbowl
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
dlnr@hawaii.gov
Stephanie Nagata
Office of Mauna Kea Management
640 No. Aohk
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
omkm@hawaii.edu
Donald Don Straney
Office of the Chancellor
University of Hawaii
Portable Building 20
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
dstraney@hawaii.edu

Ka Puuhonua O Na Wahi Pana O Hawaii Nei

Nou Ke Akua Ke Aupuni O Hawaii
kingdomofhawaii.info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bilateral_treaties_signed_by_the_Kingdom_of_Hawaii
The United Nations Charter provides the rest of the authority to do it. An autonomous independent sovereign nation-state contemplated under
Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States requiring the state as a person of international law possessing the
four qualifications of (a) a permanent population, (b) a defined territory, c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other
states.

Page 3

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs

560 Nimitz Highway, Suite 200
Honolulu, Hawaii 96817
info@oha.org
Mayor Billy Kenoi
Hawai'i County Building
25 Aupuni St.
Hilo, Hawai'i 96720
cohmayor@co.hawaii.hi.us
President David Lassner
Office of the President
University of Hawai`i
2444 Dole Street, Bachman 202
Honolulu, Hawai`i 96822
david.lassner@hawaii.edu
Chief of Police Harry S. Kubojiri
349 Kapiolani Street
Hilo Hawaii 96720
hcpdone@hawaiicounty.gov
Douglas Chin
Hawaii Attorney General
425 King Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
FAX: (808) 586-1239
hawaiiag@hawaii.gov
Mitch Roth
Hawaii County Prosecuting Attorney
655 Kilauea Avenue
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
hilopros@co.hawaii.hi.us

Ka Puuhonua O Na Wahi Pana O Hawaii Nei

Nou Ke Akua Ke Aupuni O Hawaii
kingdomofhawaii.info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bilateral_treaties_signed_by_the_Kingdom_of_Hawaii
The United Nations Charter provides the rest of the authority to do it. An autonomous independent sovereign nation-state contemplated under
Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States requiring the state as a person of international law possessing the
four qualifications of (a) a permanent population, (b) a defined territory, c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other
states.

Page 4

Kalani Flores
P0 Box 6918
Kamuela, Hawaii 96743
ekflores@hawaiiantel.net
Professor Williamson Chang
<wbchang@hawaii.edu>
Douglas Ing
Attorney for Thirty Meter Telescope
Watanabe Ing
999 Bishop Street, 23rd Floor
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
wikinfo@wik.com
Subject: The Rule of Law Trumps the Resort to Violence.
Dear Governor Ige:
You are such a disappointment. The controversy that erupted around the proposed Thirty Meter
Telescope on sacred Mauna a Wkea raised profound issues calling for the highest leadership
response. Instead, you have resorted to official violence by continuing to pursue meaningless and
illegal arrests of the Protectors of the Mountain.
Your motives are transparent. On Thursday, August 27, the Hawaii Supreme Court heard oral
argument in a case that challenges the permit granted by the Board of Land and Natural Resources
to the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna a Wkea.
The issue that seemed to be of most interest to the Court was the procedure followed by the Board
of Land and Natural Resources in granting the permit. In a highly unusual, if not unique, process,
the Board voted to grant the permit application and then scheduled a contested case in which
evidence would be heard on whether the permit should be granted.
Not surprisingly, the Justices found this procedure to raise serious questions of due process, e.g. the
right of those contesting the permit to be heard before any decision was made.

Ka Puuhonua O Na Wahi Pana O Hawaii Nei

Nou Ke Akua Ke Aupuni O Hawaii
kingdomofhawaii.info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bilateral_treaties_signed_by_the_Kingdom_of_Hawaii
The United Nations Charter provides the rest of the authority to do it. An autonomous independent sovereign nation-state contemplated under
Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States requiring the state as a person of international law possessing the
four qualifications of (a) a permanent population, (b) a defined territory, c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other
states.

Page 5

One justice asked: Do you think due process would allow a court, for example, in a situation where
a plaintiff files a lawsuit, for the judge to say, Here is my judgment in favor of the plaintiff. We will
now have a trial? Another Justice observed: I was a trial judge a long time. I dont recall a case
where I decided a case before the trial.
The State tried to argue that the first decision made was only a preliminary decision and that the
second decision to grant the permit, made after the contested case hearing, was the only final action
of the agency.
There were some logical flaws in the State argument because the first permit has both positive
conditions that the project was free to fulfill and one negative condition no construction until
after the contested case that was supposedly an enforceable provision. If the first vote for the
permit was simply a preliminary step, then, if the project began construction before the contested
case, what would the BLNR do? Revoke a permit that they claim was not issued? Go to court to
enforce the stay on construction found in a permit that does not exist?
One Justice raised the question: What if the contested case had resulted in a decision by the hearing
officer that the permit should not be granted? For the Board to then deny the permit, the Board
would have to rescind the prior approval. To rescind a permit under the BLNR rules, the permit
holder would have to have violated the permit. A second decision by the agency not to grant the
permit would be an agency action, not a violation by the permit holder. There would, therefore, be
no legal basis for revoking the earlier permit. The Justice speculated that the Board might have to
go to court in that situation to ask a judge to rescind the permit that should never have been
granted in the first place.
Clearly the Justices were not buying the State argument that the Board insisting on voting approval
prior to the contested case satisfied constitutional, statutory, and regulatory requirements.
One of the most telling observations coming from the Justices was that the need to give the
appearance of impartiality and due process is important to the credibility of public agencies. There
is no question that granting the TMT permit before going through the quasi-judicial process of a
contested case, e.g. calling of witnesses, cross examination, submission of evidence, etc., gave the
appearance of a rigged process. The Justices duly noted that obvious appearance.
Given the tenor and substance of the Justices questions, the only reasonable conclusion is that the
Court is going to find the BLNR process to be constitutionally and legally unacceptable.

Ka Puuhonua O Na Wahi Pana O Hawaii Nei

Nou Ke Akua Ke Aupuni O Hawaii
kingdomofhawaii.info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bilateral_treaties_signed_by_the_Kingdom_of_Hawaii
The United Nations Charter provides the rest of the authority to do it. An autonomous independent sovereign nation-state contemplated under
Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States requiring the state as a person of international law possessing the
four qualifications of (a) a permanent population, (b) a defined territory, c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other
states.

Page 6

If the process is found to have violated the due process rights of opponents, the Court will declare
the permit invalid and/or require the BLNR to go through the process again. Either way, TMT will
basically have to start all over again. I would not be surprised to see them decide to pull the plug on
the Hawai`i location for their project.
Such a decision might depend on whether an alternate site will allow the military to achieve its
strategic objectives linked to the adaptive optics capacity of the TMT, which the military intends to
use for satellite targeting. We have no information to indicate that the alternate site is unacceptable
for that purpose, in part because the TMT refuses to acknowledge the military aspects of their
project.
The Attorney Generals Office and the Board of Land and Natural Resources had representatives
present at the oral argument. Perhaps your office did as well. Those present can confirm for you
everything I just said, unless they choose to mislead you about the nature of the oral argument.
Actually, your ordering further arrests after it became clear at the Supreme Court that the TMT is
doomed tells me that you understand very well what to expect from the Court. In an effort to
mitigate the political damage that an adverse ruling will cause to you and the other State actors
involved in the illegal granting of the permit and the subsequent disgraceful suppression of
peaceful opposition to the TMT, you now seek to create a gratuitous confrontation with me.
Your prayer is that I send the Kingdom Marshals to protect those conducting the 24 hour vigil on
the Mountain. You can then send DLNR enforcement agents or the National Guard to challenge my
Marshals and hope for escalation to violence. You can then misdirect public attention away from
your leadership failures and the bogus process conducted to give TMT their permit towards some
supposed threat posed by me.
Obviously, there is no need for me to send the Kingdom Marshals to the Mountain. The Protectors
of the Mountain have already won. Their win is not just legal. They remained in kapu aloha and
now have the support and love of people all over the world.
You, on the other hand, are still choosing to follow the bankrupt policies that produced the TMT
fiasco. Rather than rehabilitating your reputation, you have chosen to heap additional shame on
your own head.
I would not expect a decision from the Court for three or four months. The question, therefore,
remains as to what will happen in this interim period.

Ka Puuhonua O Na Wahi Pana O Hawaii Nei

Nou Ke Akua Ke Aupuni O Hawaii
kingdomofhawaii.info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bilateral_treaties_signed_by_the_Kingdom_of_Hawaii
The United Nations Charter provides the rest of the authority to do it. An autonomous independent sovereign nation-state contemplated under
Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States requiring the state as a person of international law possessing the
four qualifications of (a) a permanent population, (b) a defined territory, c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other
states.

Page 7

As you know, on July 30th of this year, I circulated a proposal for an interim solution that would be
put in place until the Supreme Court rules. You did not respond to that proposal and refused to
meet with Alii Manao Nui (Chief Advocate) Lanny Sinkin to explore the reasonableness of that
proposal. The Protectors of the Mountain and the Kahuna of the Temple of Lono accepted the
proposal. I still believe that proposal is reasonable.
To repeat my earlier suggestion:
The Thirty Meter Telescope agrees to suspend any efforts to proceed with construction until such
time as the Supreme Court of Hawaii issues a ruling in the TMT case.
The State Board of Land and Natural Resources rescinds the emergency rules enacted for Mauna a
Wkea.
The State Board of Land and Natural Resources rescinds the delegation of sole authority to the
Chairperson to close John Burns Way/Mauna Kea Observatory Access Road.
The Office of Mauna Kea Management refrains from issuing any new rules governing spiritual
practices on the Mountain.
The Protectors of the Mountain remove their 24 hour spiritual vigil from the Mountain.
The Hawaii County Prosecutors Office dismisses with prejudice all charges filed against those
protecting the Mountain.
The Tahuna of the Temple of Lono agrees to suspend pursuit of the pending Federal lawsuit
addressing the TMT situation.
Those who have filed legal challenges to the DLNR rules agree to withdraw those challenges as
moot, once the rules are withdrawn.
Those who have filed requesting a contested hearing on the DLNR rules agree to withdraw their
petition as moot, once the rules are withdrawn.
It makes more sense to me to accept such a negotiated interim settlement rather than wasting a lot
of time and resources litigating, arresting, prosecuting, etc., only to have the Supreme Court ruling
make all such activity moot.

Ka Puuhonua O Na Wahi Pana O Hawaii Nei

Nou Ke Akua Ke Aupuni O Hawaii
kingdomofhawaii.info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bilateral_treaties_signed_by_the_Kingdom_of_Hawaii
The United Nations Charter provides the rest of the authority to do it. An autonomous independent sovereign nation-state contemplated under
Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States requiring the state as a person of international law possessing the
four qualifications of (a) a permanent population, (b) a defined territory, c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other
states.

Page 8

I assume that the key will be whether TMT will agree to suspend all efforts to construct the TMT
during the interim period. If they will, I see no reason for any other party to object to a resolution
built on that decision. After all, everything was quiet until TMT decided to jump the gun and begin
construction before the litigation was over. Returning to that status quo before that TMT decision
would remove the causes of the current controversy.
TMT knew before they picked the Mauna a Wkea site that such a choice would divide our
community. They chose to proceed anyway. The time has come for them to contribute to a
peaceful resolution of the controversy that they created.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
I echo my late friends words
I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a
thousand slights, a thousand indignities and a thousand unremembered moments produced in me
an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people. There was no
particular day on which I said, henceforth I will devote myself to the liberation of my people;
instead, I simply found myself doing so, and could not do otherwise. Nelson Mandela, Long
Walk to Freedom
Ua Mau ke Ea o ka Aina i ka Pono,

Edmund K. Silva, Jr.

Alii Nui Mi
cc:

Na Kupuna Council O Hawaii Nei ame Moku

Alii Manao Nui Lanny Sinkin
Minister of Foreign Affairs

Ka Puuhonua O Na Wahi Pana O Hawaii Nei

Nou Ke Akua Ke Aupuni O Hawaii
kingdomofhawaii.info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bilateral_treaties_signed_by_the_Kingdom_of_Hawaii
The United Nations Charter provides the rest of the authority to do it. An autonomous independent sovereign nation-state contemplated under
Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States requiring the state as a person of international law possessing the
four qualifications of (a) a permanent population, (b) a defined territory, c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other
states.