Bolsavik.com

If one thing perplexes the Bolsavik, it’s why anyone would bother trying to recall San Jose Councilwoman Madison Nguyen. All politicians do something wrong and/or unpopular at one time or another, and only when they seriously piss someone off are they subject to recall (Gray Davis) or impeachment (Bill Clinton, unsuccessfully) or threat thereof (Richard Nixon).

So, was Madison’s opposition to the name “Little Saigon” that big of a deal that warrants a campaign to unseat her before her term is up?

Dr. Patrick Phu Le (Vietnamese: Lê Huu Phú) thinks so, and has said so on numerous occasions in newspaper columns. So on Sunday the Bolsavik contacted the man, who holds a Ph.D. from UC San Diego and is a realtor and owner and builder with Le Dynasty Construction, to really try to understand what the whole recall thing is all about.

According to Le (pictured standing, with Bryan Do also a recall proponent), the recall campaign has less to do with Madison’s opposition to the name Little Saigon, than with the reason behind that opposition. The opposition per se can be forgiven, the motivation cannot, said he to the Bolsavik by telephone.

Behind the whole thing, according to Le, is a man named Lap Tang. Tang owns the Grand Century Shopping Center on Story Road, right in the area of the naming controversy. (more…)

A San Jose group of former Vietnamese military was criticized for, get this, eating donated Lee’s Sandwiches.

This coming Thursday is the former South Vietnam’s Armed Forces Day. Many groups of former military men are planning events to commemorate the day (and yes, expect Van Tran and Janet Nguyen to make the rounds).

But, as anyone knows, putting together events costs money. So, you’ll need sponsors. And most Vietnamese-American businesses are only glad to help out people who had fought for the country.

One such group, the umbrella United Vietnamese Veterans of Northern California (Vietnamese: Lien hoi Cuu Quan nhan Bac Cali), is duly planning its ceremonies and received sponsorships.

One sponsor, disclosed in the group’s meeting minutes, is Lee’s Sandwiches, contributing 200 sandwiches and 100 bottles of water.

That brought the right-winger Take2Tango.com down on them, criticizing the group for consorting with a, well, traitor.

(more…)

Countering accusations of chumming with communists, OC Supervisor Janet Nguyen hit back last night with a mass email touting her own anti-communist credentials.

The top half of the email (pictured) are images of her in various anti-communist activities as well as portraits of her father and uncle, both of whom served as officers in the South Vietnamese military. It says that her uncle was killed when communists took over South Vietnam.

The bottom half answers in 5 points what she calls the “lies by other candidates and elected officials in Assemblyman Van Tran’s camp.” The Bolsavik is pretty sure this is the first time the Janet camp figures out to write in bullet points in Vietnamese.

Anyway, what’s interesting is the top half. It shows Janet at a protest against Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet in Dana Point (read here), at a protest against Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in New York City, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on human rights in Vietnam, and, in the center, protesting in support of the name “Little Saigon” in San Jose. (Read more here.)

What? Since when is it proper for a Southern California pol to join a protest on a local street-naming issue in Northern California?

But then again Viet politicians have always functioned on a different set of rules….

San Jose City Councilwoman Madison Nguyen (pictured) calls the efforts to recall her a “disruption” to the business of the city’s District 7, the San Jose Mercury News reports here. (The verb “chide” is the SJMN’s, the Bolsavik is just borrowing it.)

Madison Nguyen successfully spearheaded an effort to get the city to officially name an area of San Jose with a large number of Vietnamese businesses. It was the first time, ever, any ethnic group had achieved that with San Jose. When it comes time to actually choose a name, however, Madison went with “Saigon Business District” while others wanted “Little Saigon.”

What should have been a non-issue ballooned, with picketers camping out in front of City Hall, protests with thousands of participants, people calling Madison a communist sympathizer, and anti-communist activist Ly Tong staging a hunger strike.

Faced with a man willing to die for a street sign, the two sides arrived at a compromise: The city would allow a zoning deviance so that private property owners could, at their own cost and on their own property, put up signs saying “Welcome to Little Saigon.” The resolution to officially name the area was withdrawn.

(Read more about Ly Tong here and here. When the compromise was reached and the hunger strike ended, some of Ly Tong’s supporters turned on him. Read more here.)

The compromise did not end all opposition to Madison. Supporters of the “Little Saigon” name are continuing to try to have an election to recall her.

How did all this come about? Why such a tempest? Ah, one of these days the Bolsavik will tell you about a peson named Linda Nguyen and her father Son Nguyen….

That’s what the L.A. Times calls it in a story by My-Thuan Tran entitled “Vietnam echoes in a San Jose feud” - here.

Quote:

“Even business owners, reporters, and pop singers carefully tiptoe around inferences and innuendo that can cast a person as being soft on communism.

A misstep can launch vocal protests and accusations; reputations can be tarnished. Most bow to the pressure.

Madison Nguyen, however, has played her hand differently. She said she was willing to risk votes and upset constituents to exert her political independence.

It’s a risky gambit in places such as San Jose and Orange County, where Vietnamese American politicians rely on the ethnic community as their base and where the mood is colored by the loudest voices.”

To read more of the Bolsavik’s entries on this, click on the tag “Story Road.” Like this.

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.
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Below is the text of an open letter by a group in San Jose calling itself “Our Voice” and carrying 354 signatures.

Basically supporting San Jose City Councilwoman Madison Nguyen in the dispute over a group of protesters’ demand that a stretch of Story Road be named “Little Saigon.”

The letter is dated February 12, 2008, so why is the Bolsavik posting it now?

Good question. This letter is here as background information to better understand the next entry to be posted in a few hours.

Read more about the whole Little Saigon-in-San Jose issue here. And about why Ly Tong is in the hospital here, and here.

The open letter’s full text follows:
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This picture of men in suit and women in ao dai visiting Ly Tong in the hospital is making its way through Vietnamese political email lists. The Bolsavik got his through a sender named Vnnb1. Ly Tong is stable and recovering fine, thank you very much.

For background on this story, click the tag “story road” or click here and here.

Nguoi Viet daily newspaper and Viet Weekly are not the only Viet media outlets incurring the wrath of the masses.

Just coming through the Bolsavik’s inbox is a call by ”CSQG” to “continue protesting” the controversial Que Huong Media in San Jose for, according to Mr. (I’m assuming the sender is male) CSQG, “mocking the community and deriding hero Ly Tong.”

The protest has been called for 12 noon today.

Que Huong attracts protests all the time. If the Bolsavik had a nickel for every time someone pickets Que Huong Media, this blog would be studded with diamonds….

Ly Tong ate pho this morning, ending his hunger strike over the naming of San Jose’s Vietnamese area along Story Road.

A group of property owners on Story Road has agreed to place signs saying “Welcome to Little Saigon” on their sites, apprently satisfying Ly Tong’s demand that the area be called “Little Saigon”.

Read San Jose Mercury News story by Mark Gomez here.

Read the Bolsavik’s summary, previously posted, here.

An email making its way through the several Vietnamese online discussion groups proclaims: “Little Saigon - Great Victory” and “Hero Ly Tong - Mission Accomplished.”