To: Parade Committee, Mayor Bob Foster
Mayor Bob Foster
333 W. Ocean Blvd 14th Floor
Long Beach, CA 90802
Dear Mayor Foster:
We are writing to protest the appearance of Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An at this year's annual Long Beach Cambodian New Year Parade, to be scheduled in April.
For over a decade, Cambodia has been under the administration of Prime Minister Hun Sen, a government that has violated an incalculable multitude of human rights with impunity since 1997, so much so that they have simply ceased to meet with the latest United Nations rights envoy this past December. Cambodia has one of the most corrupt governments in the world today, ranked 162nd out of 180 nations according to Transparency International (180 being most corrupt). Mr. Sok An is the head of the Cambodian Council of Ministers and is that government's second in command.
We the undersigned, Cambodians and non-Cambodians alike, are deeply shocked and saddened that the right hand man of such a government has been invited to parade himself in an event purported to celebrate diversity, community, and personal freedom. How does one celebrate these values by welcoming the very figure that is a perpetrator against them? What community and freedom are our brothers and sisters celebrating in Cambodia, where Mr. Sok An and colleagues rule the people with forced evictions and rampant land grabs, where simple freedom of expression is met with incarceration and death?
In their press release on January 9, 2008, the committee that invited Mr. Sok An stated that they "believe in open dialogs and making changes through peaceful means as taught by Dr. Martin Luther King." That may be well and good but a parade is simply not an appropriate venue for having such dialog. While Dr. Martin Luther King met with opposition figures to create open dialog and further understanding, we cannot imagine he would have invited members of the Ku Klux Klan to participate in a parade celebrating the African-American community as a means of opening this dialog.
We implore your understanding and compassion in this matter and fervently hope you will rescind Mr. Sok An's unfortunate invitation.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned (Click here to sign the petition online)
For over a decade, Cambodia has been under the administration of Prime Minister Hun Sen, a government that has violated an incalculable multitude of human rights with impunity since 1997, so much so that they have simply ceased to meet with the latest United Nations rights envoy this past December. Cambodia has one of the most corrupt governments in the world today, ranked 162nd out of 180 nations according to Transparency International (180 being most corrupt). Mr. Sok An is the head of the Cambodian Council of Ministers and is that government's second in command.
We the undersigned, Cambodians and non-Cambodians alike, are deeply shocked and saddened that the right hand man of such a government has been invited to parade himself in an event purported to celebrate diversity, community, and personal freedom. How does one celebrate these values by welcoming the very figure that is a perpetrator against them? What community and freedom are our brothers and sisters celebrating in Cambodia, where Mr. Sok An and colleagues rule the people with forced evictions and rampant land grabs, where simple freedom of expression is met with incarceration and death?
In their press release on January 9, 2008, the committee that invited Mr. Sok An stated that they "believe in open dialogs and making changes through peaceful means as taught by Dr. Martin Luther King." That may be well and good but a parade is simply not an appropriate venue for having such dialog. While Dr. Martin Luther King met with opposition figures to create open dialog and further understanding, we cannot imagine he would have invited members of the Ku Klux Klan to participate in a parade celebrating the African-American community as a means of opening this dialog.
We implore your understanding and compassion in this matter and fervently hope you will rescind Mr. Sok An's unfortunate invitation.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned (Click here to sign the petition online)
9 comments:
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Keep on siging what ever you want. They don't care about your petition. They will do what ever they think they will do.
So enjoy doing your petition.
It takes a few to win the many! Please continue to promote your petition and concerns.
I actually have nothing to do with the above petition. But, according to your petition letter, which you people wrote to the mayor, was not an appropriate one. I suggest all of you Cambodian better look through the letter again and again in order to make sure that Cambodian benefits are not destroyed by this campaign. You are living in a modern society therefore I do hope you will have good ideas to improve your communities there. Do not just try to win each other. You should fight for improving not destroying. I personally do not oppose with whatever you are doing but I am concerning on Cambodian community benefits.
It is just constructive comment. Thanks.
Sok An has to rethink even some Lobster brain invited him to come to Long Beach Ca for Cambodia New Year.
If you guys are Sign and Comment like this I believe at the end Richer San,Sothear San and other Crook will be the big looser...
Good on you!
But take care. There are to many bad examples of events, happen after telling the own oppinion...
Let us show that we are mature.
We should let Sok An come and hear
him what he would say and we can
air our protest ( freedom of speech). If we refuse to hear, how
can we know? How can we reach each
other ? Friend or foe, we can not know the truth if we don't meet.
6:51PM I'm sorry"Bong" I disagree with your Ideas.
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