I would like to present the facts about the “Little Saigon” issue that you and many readers here did not understand. On August 15 2007 at the Tully library, Madison said to her constituents that only those people and businesses within the 1000-ft radius of the area to be named can vote for the name of the business district. The stakeholders’ choice will be the choice that the city will honor. She instructed the RDA survey which is the public opinion survey sent out with 7 names to be voted. On Oct 10 2007, the survey returned with “Little Saigon” to be first place and was the stakeholders’ choice. “Saigon Business District” was last place. Madison and 7 council voted on “Saigon business District”. This is undemocratic. Following is the transcript words for words of what she said to her constituents at the Tully library.

“We hear a lot about “Little Saigon” tonight. Which is fine, we’re not object to that, no one’s object to that, I am not object to that. But what you need to understand is the protocol that’s going to take place after tonight’s meeting. Right? When we proposed a business district here, in the city of San Jose, we have a process that we go through. The people who are doing business on Story road right now, THE MERCHANTS, AND THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE WITHIN ONE THOUSAND FEET OF THIS AREA, WILL HAVE THE BIGGEST INPUT, IN REGARDS TO WHAT THE NAME WILL BE. NOW, EVEN IF ALL OF YOU, LET’S SAY A HUNDRED PERCENT OF YOU INCLUDING MYSELF, LIKE THE NAME LITTLE SAIGON. RIGHT? BUT SINCE WE DON’T LIVE THERE, WE LIVE ABOUT THREE OR FOUR MILES DOWN, OUR INPUT IS NOT GOING TO MAKE THAT MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE.

I want to be frank with you so that you’re not surprised at how the process is going to work, and what the turnout’s going to be like. So, in the next couple months, what we’re going to do is we’re going to canvass the area again, pass out the names that are suggested today, and, in the next few weeks, we’re going to solicit names from the businesses on Story road, to see what the names are.

Let’s say we come up with four names. Vietnamese Business District, Vietnamese-American Business District, Little Saigon, and Saigon Town, we’re going to take those four names, we’re going to pass it out to all the merchants who are being impacted by this project. THAT MEANS THAT THE MERCHANTS AND THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE WITHIN THE AREA, THEY WILL GET TO VOTE. Because at the end of the day, we live in a democratic society. Everyone has a voice, we have freedom of speech. SO THOSE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO GIVE US THE NAME. IT’S THE FAIREST WAY ON HOW WE’RE GOING TO ACHIEVE THIS RESOLUTION. So, I just want to be very frank with you, and this is probably the only opportunity that I have, to explain how the process works.”

Before the council’s vote night November 20,2007 Mayor Chuck Reed, Vice Mayor Dave Cortese, Council members Sam Liccardo and Judy Chirco with Madison signed on the memo to vote for “Saigon Business District’. Council member Forrest Williams on the Vietnam Liberty Television admitted that he promised Madison to support her on whatever name it might be for the business district made Madison’s manipulation the council to vote for “Saigon Business District” qualified for violating the Brown Act. Being caught to have the potential to be violating with the Brown Act, Madison and the Mayor rescinded the vote on February 11, 2008. On this memorandum rules:2-13-08 item: G2, they cited because of Integrity and Fairness of the concepts to our democracy they wanted to bring this naming issue to citywide election to vote. We all know that the purpose of bringing this naiming to the citywide election is to kill the name for good. At the same time on the same memorandum and on section 5, Madison and Mayor Chuck Reed directed staff to draft a Council policy that outlines a process to officially name areas/districts of the city that is modeled on the Council policy for changing street names and provides that proposals to name business districts must come from an organization representing the business in the district.

These facts from what Madison said at the Tully library that the FAIREST WAY only for people and businesses within 1000-ft radius from the area to be named could vote. Then being caught with the Brown act violation she wanted to bring it out to citywide election to vote and she said it is the TRUEST FORM OF DEMOCRACY on the Mercury news February 12, 2008. And now she is in the work to draft another policy to limit only organization representing the businesses in the district can vote. Readers please explain to me what kind of democracy is this? And what kind of representative system is this?

After terminating those that deemed negative to their regime, the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) becomes Red Capitalists and have a lot of money.

They confiscated the assets, and properties of the well to do of South Vietnamese people. They pushed these people out to the dangerous seas to die after robbing them or herded them to the new economic zone to survive in uninhabitable condition. My family was in this situation when they had a campaign to eliminate the capitalists from the South of Vietnam. They ransacked and confiscated our home and herded us to the new economic zone, fortunately we managed to escape instead. The VCP becomes very rich and one of the most corrupted people on earth. They take all chances to squeeze money from people. There are briberies on all levels of government and society. They steal and loot the country’s resources. They sell Vietnamese innocent children and naïve young girls to become sex slaves for foreigners in Vietnam and abroad. They destroyed the moralities of the Vietnamese society which prides itself on honesty and self-esteem. They go on with their unending greed by confiscated lands from the elderly peasants and poor farmers. They sided with foreign investors to exploit the Vietnamese laborers for their profit. They confiscated foreign monetary aids for their own use and build shoddy constructions harming innocent civilians. They sell medical supplies aided by foreign countries to the market for their taking. The whole population is under their totalitarian web from which the Vietnamese people are unable to escape with their own power. Here in America, The VCP uses this blood money to play capitalistic activities, manipulate politics and to control the Vietnamese-Americans.

Currently, the most disheartening thing is their selling part of Vietnam land, the northern border, Spratly and Paracel islands to China. The patriotic Vietnamese students in Vietnam demonstrated against this horrendous invading and were harshly halted by the Vietnamese police. Frightfully while at the Chinese consulate, these Vietnamese police guarded safely the freedom of speech for the Chinese to say Spratly and Paracel islands are Chinese’s blood.

Facing the destruction of their motherland under the communist rule, being torn and in great pain by the sufferings of their own people in Vietnam, and their motherland being gradually lost to China, the majority of the oversea Vietnamese-Americans have a burning desire to have a free and democratic Vietnam surpassing anything else. This strong desire keeps enflaming a strong anti-communist sentiment in the Vietnamese- American community. The Heritage, Freedom, yellow flag with 3 red stripes of South Vietnam and the Little Saigon are the deep aspiration and statement of the oversea Vietnamese against the VCP, and the moral imperative that the Vietnamese-Americans must prevail.

I am posting the experiences of communism down here for the readers to understand how life under communism is about. These are all the facts and parts of them are painfully still existing in Vietnam. May be you were lucky and was shed away from these unhumane experiences but the majority of the Vietnamese endured these human sufferings far worse than war. Reading throught these experiences, I hope the readers will come to understand why “Little Saigon” means so much to the Vietnamese emigres.

THE FALL OF SAIGON AND COMMUNISM
By Julie Nguyen

After April 30, 1975 when the U.S. decided to abandon Vietnam, the South of Vietnam endured the human suffering on an unmatched level far worse than war. The Communist victors unemotionally crushed the people‘s basic human rights. Their apparatus are covered by lies and deception. It is very difficult for outsiders to imagine the tragedy that the South Vietnamese had to go through. Only those who have suffered under communism can fully grasp the true nature of the system.

The regime considers religious faith a product of superstitious and uncivilized people; therefore, justifying its policy to abolish organized religions. Right after April 1975, they began to suppress religious groups in the South, many died in confinement and in mysterious circumstance. Dignitaries and intellectuals at all levels have been persecuted and imprisoned. Many of them were released in such a weakened condition only to await their impending death. They intimidated religious followers to prevent them from attending services at churches and pagodas. They forced clergymen and civilians to clear the land and to dig irrigation canals. These suppressive moves have resulted in tragic consequences for all religions and civilians’ life. The Vietnamese Communists had purposely immersed in tears of those who still live and sat upon the graves of those who had perished in the so called re-education camps. Any Vietnamese citizen can be detained at any time, and the communist authorities at all levels from central government to province have the power to jail people whenever they wish. One should not think that communist only imprisoned soldiers and officials serving under the former Republic of Vietnam. After their victory, they detained all those including civilians deemed not positive for their rule. Authorities have confiscated and destroyed books and newspapers published in the South and forced their ideology into all aspect of life. There is only one source of knowledge and culture: The communist party’s newspapers, the party’s books, and the party’s directions which every citizen must study and obey. Many civilians’ house and property were confiscated and they were herded into resettlement in parched land by the name “new economics zones”. They controlled the amount of money each person had by periodically generating new currency and had them exchanged at their unfair rate. They shipped fresh rice to their communist alliances to pay back for the debts while rationed the people’s food portion with coarse barley that only animals could eat. The police could search any home day or nigh or harass anyone anytime anywhere they wished. People who stayed overnight in places other than their residence had to obtain government permission. They have to report to local authorities, giving their length of stay and nature of their business. Once a week, adults had to meet with their neighbors to study and discuss party’s directions and government policies; and to criticize or report on words or deeds by their neighbors or family members that might be negative to the regime. All letters received from overseas were censured, screened before being delivered to the addressee.

THE NEW LAND AND MOVING FORWARD

Living in such a suffocated atmosphere, where the mental and physical needs are in constant trauma and despair, and being torn with their tradition rooted in their land, the South Vietnamese risked their life to venture to the treacherous seas to escape life under communism.

Half of those escaped perished at seas or in jungles on their risky way to search for freedom. A large number of innocent young girls and women were raped by Thailand pirates or taken away by them and no one will ever know the fate of these pitiful human beings. For those who could make it to the shore and in the moment of their greatest need, Americans and many people in the world opened their hearts to welcome the Vietnamese into their land.

The Vietnamese émigrés have flourished everywhere they resided. They put their trauma deep in their soul to move forward and focus on building their new life and assimilate in their adopted country. They worked diligently night and day to support their family. They learned new language and skill to quickly adapt to the new environment. After 32 years, they have created many successful Vietnamese communities, businesses and greatly contributed to their new country. Their children thrive at school and mostly the second generation of the Vietnamese has fully assimilated and has difficulty speaking their mother language. They come to love their new country and to enjoy the human rights existing in their new land of democracy.

To be continued in the nex post

All that’s necessary is that someone has lived and experienced life under a representative democracy. Because it is in THAT context that this issue is being argued. It is 2008, not 1968. This is about a very small commercial district in San Jose, California. It is not about a past civil war in another land. This is about an American city council, about local Chambers of Commerce, and it’s about all the interests of all the different Americans who live, work, shop, and invest in that little commercial district.

It is NOT about communism.