All’s not quiet on the San Jose front

With an agreement for private property owners on Story Road to erect a “Welcome to Little Saigon” sign, San Jose’s embattled Mayor Chuck Reed and Vietnamese-American Councilwoman Madison Nguyen defused an acrimonious campaign waged against them personally. Read more here.

But the political battles in the South Bay’s community of 96,000 Viet people are far from over . The battle line simply moves away from Reed and Nguyen (that sound you hear is the two of them saying “phew!”) and on to somewhere else.

The first place the battle is waging, is over a planned banquet to celebrate the future “Welcome to Little Saigon” sign. The banquet is co-organized by Viet Bao San Jose newspaper and Newland TV, two Vietnamese-language media outlets headed by the same person, Hanh Duong.

Scheduled for March 29, the banquet costs $25 per person. Attendees would receive a commemorative DVD with footages of the protests.

That did not sit well with some people, particularly with the person many consider the hero of the Little Saigon fight — Ly Tong. From his hospital bed (read why he’s in the hospital here and here), Ly Tong gave a video interview with Viet Nam Nhat Bao newspaper and objected to the banquet. He said any such celebration, and presumably any revenue from it, should be held by the protest organizers. The group calls itself the San Jose Voters for Democracy; Ly Tong is on its task force for public support, and Viet Nam Nhat Bao is one of its most ardent supporters.

Hanh Duong’s first reaction was a lengthy explanation saying the entry cost barely covers the expense of the DVD, the food, and the entertainment.

By Friday March 21, however, Hanh Duong relented and renamed his banquet “San Jose the days and nights of history” – giving up on claiming anything related to “Little Saigon.”

Another controversy, however, involves Ly Tong himself.

In the same videotaped interview (watch it here, in Vietnamese), the man who just a week ago was willing to die for a street sign, said that his hospital and medical bills are being paid for by Dr. Ngai Xuan Nguyen.

(That’s what Ly Tong said. The Bolsavik contacted Dr. Nguyen for confirmation, but he declined, citing patient confidentiality.)

Explaining why he’d accept the financial aid from Dr. Nguyen, Ly Tong said:

“They did this to me, so they have to pay to fix me up. They have to repair the damages. If the Viet Cong were giving me money, I’d take it too, but I won’t do what they want.”

What’s that? Ly Tong willing to take money from the commies? What??

Anyway, what’s wrong with receiving help from Dr. Ngai Xuan Nguyen (photo, right), a well-known democracy activist who was invited to meet with Dick Cheney a few days before Vietnam’s president arrived at the White House?

Apparently because Dr. Nguyen signed off on the “Our Voice” open letter (see the entry right before this one, here – his signature is no. 5), claiming the “Little Saigon” protesters do not represent the Viet community.