[Vnbiz] Fwd: Chuc Mung Nam Moi from Kieu Linh

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Dear CACC,

This message from vnbizer Kieu Linh contains an article she writes for
the Mercury News on an issue important to the free expression and democratic
representation in the Vietnamese American community.  Thanks Kieu Linh for
raising your voive on such on important issue.  Happy New Year, sister.

Hoanh

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kieu Linh Caroline Valverde <cafephile at yahoo.com>
Date: Feb 10, 2008 2:10 AM
Subject: Chuc Mung Nam Moi from Kieu Linh

Dear Family and Friends!

I wish for everyone good health, love, happiness,
success and good fortune in the year of the Rat.

Many of us have worked together to improve the
conditions of and plan for the future of our
community. This New Year I spoke up against one issue
that has at times slowed down our progress,
red-bating. My op-ed piece on this matter appeared in
the San Jose Mercury News the first of the year,
February 7, 2008.
http://www.mercurynews.com//ci_8193816

Many of you have already spoken up against tyranny or
lived free despite the dark cloud of oppression that
has loomed over our community. This is yet another
opportunity to unite and take back our voices.

Please keep me posted of your thoughts.

Warmest regards,
Kieu Linh
_________


Nguyen takes stand against tyranny
By Kieu Linh Caroline Valverde
Article Launched: 02/07/2008 02:05:49 AM PST
http://www.mercurynews.com//ci_8193816

This Vietnamese New Year, Tet, has ushered in an
international debate over the naming of a small
business district in San Jose. The media have
portrayed this debate largely as a politically charged
ethnic dispute between a majority of the
Vietnamese-American community, who want to name the
area "Little Saigon," and a young councilwoman,
Madison Nguyen, who in an act of compromise with her
constituents won the support of the majority of her
fellow council members to name the commercial area the
Saigon Business District. Proponents of "Little
Saigon" assert that their preference is the only way
to represent Vietnamese overseas and their experiences
as refugees fleeing a communist-controlled Vietnam.
They have labeled Nguyen a communist because of her
actions.

The media have made a firestorm of this debate by
fanning old flames of staunch anti-communism within
our community. Communists are rare among the million
and a half persons of Vietnamese descent in the United
States; virtually all are anti-communist. Even those
who support Vietnam generally take issue with its
totalitarian, one-party system and its human rights
abuses. Nguyen, a boat person who worked in the fields
of central California before entering graduate school,
is no more communist than any member of the community
she has come to represent.

The media's thirst for sensationalism has led them to
persistently highlight a small portion of the
Vietnamese-American community who give voice to Cold
War rhetoric. Like the United States as a whole, the
Vietnamese-American community represents diverse
experiences, identities and historical viewpoints
informed by different periods of arrival in the United
States, ages upon arrival, methods of departure and
educational levels. Since 2000, for example, voter
registration in the community is about evenly split
between Democrats and Republicans. Our political
beliefs range from strongly conservative to fervently
socialist, with a large majority hovering somewhere in
between.

Why, then, must the media continue to focus on images
of rabid anti-communists? It is titillating to cover a
group that seems to be caught in a time capsule, but
the sensationalizing of the "Little Saigon" protesters
has helped polarize an otherwise seemingly unified
community. Those with alternative views or even
ambivalence about the naming issue have effectively
been silenced.

Understanding this phenomenon requires recognition
that anti-communism remains at the core of
Vietnamese-American cultural and political ideology.
We all know explicitly and implicitly the importance
of maintaining a strong stance against communism in
Vietnam. But there is much dissent in our diverse
community. Many of us visit our families in Vietnam,
work on humanitarian projects, have business dealings
there or consume cultural products.

Such strong connections to the "home country" are
common knowledge and practice in the community but are
seldom voiced publicly. Historical precedence helps
explain this self-censorship. Until recently, any form
of connection with Vietnam, including visits with
family, was seen as traitorous. In the 1970s and '80s,
journalists who supported the communist regime or
appeared sympathetic were threatened or even targeted
for assassination. After the United States normalized
relations with Vietnam in the mid-1990s, ethnic
businesses selling cultural products imported from
Vietnam or flights back to the "home country" started
falling victim to threats, protests or even arson.
Even now the most effective way to silence an opponent
is to label him or her a "communist."

Why doesn't Councilwoman Nguyen simply acquiesce and
add the single word "little" to the business district
name? Doing so could change the course of this
divisive issue and re-establish peace in our
community. But the answer is this: There comes a time
when the silent majority needs to speak up against the
status quo. Nguyen appears steadfast, as if she is
drawing a line in the sand, refusing to capitulate to
one vocal group when she was elected to represent her
entire community. For Vietnamese-Americans, her
courage could mean a shift from the tyranny of the few
that has so long plagued our community.

Ultimately, this issue is not about communism or love
of the motherland, but rather about the struggle of
the Vietnamese-American community to find true
representation and an authentic voice that allows for
the diversity of our community. Many of us see
ourselves as Americans, and our third generation is
nearing voting age. There is no longer an essential
contradiction between being anti-communist and
visiting relatives in Vietnam annually; as many as
160,000 visited this Tet season alone. With Nguyen's
bold stand, the line has been drawn. The rest of the
community must now listen to this clarion call for
action and claim the voice it deserves.

KIEU LINH CAROLINE VALVERDE grew up in San Jose and is
an assistant professor of Asian American Studies at
the University of California, Davis. She wrote this
article for the Mercury News.


-- 
Tran Dinh Hoanh, Esq., LLB, JD
Washington DC
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