Dr. David Keanu Sai

Keanu Sai

This past Monday, I appeared on the radio with Keanu Sai, for my job.  I was thankful to him for appearing because he had so much to share that I got to sit back and mostly listen to him.  Brickwood Galuteria and Kimo Kahoano seemed equally impressed with what Keanu had to share, too.

Many will remember him from his Perfect Title days or even as the Acting Minister of the Interior for the Hawaiian Kingdom Government which led him to appear before the Permanent Court of Arbitration.  I first met Keanu in college as a guest speaker in my Political Science classes, so I have always seen him not in those previous roles, but as Keanu Sai the academic.

The Dissertation

Keanu’s dissertation is entitled, “The American Occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom: Beginning the Transition from Occupied to Restored State” and he will be printing far more than the minimum two copies that are required by the UH Manoa Graduate Division.  I am quite certain it will be picked up by some college or university as a textbook for understanding international law and its relation to Hawaii’s current status.  Here’s how Keanu’s abstract describes his dissertation, which he successfully defended on November 6 to a standing room only crowd:

On January 17th 2007, U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka (D-Hawai`i) re-introduced a bill to grant tribal sovereignty to Native Hawaiians, similar to Native Americans. The difference, however, is that Native Hawaiians are citizens of an internationally recognized sovereign, but occupied State, whereas Native Americans are a dependent nation within the United States. Great Britain and France were the first to recognize Hawai`i’s sovereignty on November 28, 1843, and the United States on July 6, 1844. This dissertation re-frames the legal status of Hawai`i by employing legal and political theories that explain Hawaiian modernity since the 19th century to the present. As an alternative view of U.S. sovereignty exercised by virtue of the plenary power of Congress over indigenous peoples, this dissertation challenges the historiography’s assumptions about the history of law and politics in the Hawaiian Islands by providing an analysis of Hawaiian sovereignty under international law that clearly explicates Hawai`i’s prolonged occupation by the United States since the Spanish American War. In terms of law, this study looks at the origin and development of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a constitutional monarchy, the events that led to the illegal overthrow of its government, the prolonged occupation of its territory, and recent actions taken by Hawaiian subjects in forming an acting government to expose the prolonged occupation in order to impel the United States to comply with the international laws of occupation.

Reaction

My undergraduate adviser, Neal Milner, who also chaired Keanu’s dissertation committee, described him thusly:

If you agree with or “buy” his premise, Keanu is one of the smartest guys you’ve met.

That’s an interesting point because after going through all of Keanu’s writings and thoughts, it is rather difficult to find fault with his premise.  Perhaps it’s because he is so thorough, an offshoot of his military career days.  That, too, is interesting as Keanu is an excellent strategist and can relate things in military terms.  Basically, I’m saying that he’s not just an academic, he’s been on the front lines of life and death situations.

Keanu Sai, PhD

And with that training comes the ability to remain calm in dire situations, something that has served him well debating others and on his eight-year quest for a PhD. Congratulations, Dr. Sai! We are one Hawaiian closer to the 1,000 Native Hawaiian PhDs that Kamakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies has been asking us to envision for several years.

So if you see Keanu around, please call him “Dr. Sai” at least once; it’s not often that we get to address a Native Hawaiian as such.

Mahalo!

Tagged as: dissertation, hawaiian kingdom, keanu sai