Long Beach Mayor dismissed Sok An’s invitation

Socheata Has addressing the Long Beach City Council (Photo: Angkor Borey)
Arun Thach addressing the Long Beach City Council (Photo: Angkor Borey)
Paline Soth addressing the Long Beach City Council (Photo: Angkor Borey)
Navy Phim addressing the Long Beach City Council (Photo: Angkor Borey)
Frank and Ratana Lim addressing the Long Beach City Council (Photo: Angkor Borey)

04 March 2008
By Ly Diep
Excerpt from Angkor Borey – Khmer Voice Overseas
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

In the evening of 04 March 2008, at the meeting room of the Long Beach city council, under the presence of a group of about 30 Cambodian-Americans who oppose the presence of Mr. Sok An at the inauguration for the opening of Cambodia Town, Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster clearly indicated that his office did not issue any invitation letter to “anyone” in Cambodia to participate in any event taking place in Long Beach.

Mayor Bob Foster made this declaration after 5 community activists (Socheata Has, Arun Thach, Paline Soth, Navy Phim and Frank) addressed the city council about the displeasure of Long Beach Cambodian-Americans, as well as other Cambodians from all over the world, to the opportunistic use of “Cambodia Town,” which has just been officials recognized by the city of Long Beach on 03 July 2007, to serve to spread the political influence of the Hun Sen government, and in particular, to spread the influence of the Cambodian People Party (CPP) among various Cambodian communities overseas.

In the name of Cambodian-American activists who oppose Sok An, Ms. Socheata Has handed over a petition bearing more than 1,100 signatures to the city. Tonia Reyes Uranga, District 7 councilwoman, asked the question to the mayor about this invitation. Dee Andrews, District 6 council member, also asked: “If the mayor (did not issue the invitation), could it be that his deputy did?” (Dee Andrews wanted to point to Bonnie Lowenthal, District 1 city councilwoman and the deputy of the mayor. Everybody knows that she is a close friend of lawyer Evan Braude, a member of the Cambodian Town delegation who met with Sok An in Cambodia). Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal immediately answered that she did not invite such person.

Therefore, it is still unknown who was the person who actually made the invitation. However, Mayor Bob Foster promised that he will find the truth on the event that took place, as well as the misuse of his name (to make the invitation).

It should be noted that, during the Long Beach council meeting, I (Ly Diep) asked Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga to help arrange for a request for a city authorization to hold a demonstration against Mr. Sok An’s inauguration of Cambodia Town and his presence of the Cambodian New Year parade. She ordered one of her employees to take me to meet Mr. Phil T. Hester, Director of the Department of Park, Recreation & Marine. Mr. Hester told me that there was no problem, he will make the arrangement to issue this authorization to me.

Long Beach City is home to the largest group of Cambodian political refuges overseas since 1975, after Cambodia turned into a savage “Killing Fields” in the world at the end of the 20th Century. In addition to other surrounding cities, the number of Cambodian refugees amounts to more than 100,000. Along Anaheim Blvd, which divides Cambodia Town in two, there are several Cambodian shops and restaurants which attract customers from all over the place. If one were to drive along this street, one feels as if it is located inside a small Phnom Penh also.

The idea of forming “Cambodia Town” came in 2000 by Mr. Lee Bunny (Harrison Lee), a former Cambodian Air Force pilot, and 2-3 of his close friends. In 2001, Mr. Lee Bunny decided to hold a meeting to obtain the public opinion. The result of the meeting indicated overwhelmingly that the Cambodian community has reached a point where it wanted its own town, just like other nationalities (Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Japanese, etc…) who immigrated here. Chinatown, Little Saigon, Thai Town, Korean District, Little Tokyo all existed already, with the exception of Cambodia town. At the beginning, there was opinion exchange about the selection of the Cambodia Town name, a number of Cambodian people asked to choose the name Little Phnom Penh, but the majority asked to select Cambodian Town instead, as it stresses on the country rather than the capital.

We take this opportunity to thank and to praise Mr. Lee Bunny (Harrison Lee) who came up with this idea, and who put a lot of effort, such as going door to door with his wife, going store to store, to collect more than 4,000 signatures to form “Cambodia Town.”

At the official recognition of “Cambodia Town,” Mr. Lee Bunny became an Advisory Council member of the “Cambodian Town, Inc.” organization. In the past few weeks, he expressed his displeasure on the executive committee of “Cambodia Town, Inc.” which took action opposite to the original idea for the formation of Cambodia Town, and he resigned from his position as Advisory Council member of “Cambodia Town, Inc.” (In fact, among the 10 founding members of this organization, 8 have already resigned, and more recently, Mr. Phillip Thong, “Cambodia Town Inc.” first vice-chairman, also asked to resign from the board of directors also) because of internal dissension. According to Mr. Lee Bunny, the original idea for forming Cambodia Town was to push for the development of the Cambodian community in Long Beach, in terms of commercial and cultural developments, similar to other minority groups. There was no intention of pushing “Cambodia Town” into the political arena in any way shape and form.

In response to the article in the Downtown Gazettes

On Monday, February 25, 2008, the Downtown Gazettes published an article entitled, Controversy Surrounds Cambodian Parade

Below are 2 letters to the editor in response to it:

Dear Editor,

I want to thank you for including an article about the controversy over Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister’s Sok An appearance in the upcoming Cambodian New Year Parade. I would like to respond to a few of the comments in it. First is a comment by Heam that “Cam-CC has done its best to answer Phim’s questions and address her concerns.” After CAM-CC invited us to a closed-door meeting, my colleague sent an email asking that the meeting be open to the community and that a town hall meeting would be more appropriate. I also responded to the email on February 5 and asked three basic questions, 1) What organization and/or person issued the invitation? 2) If it is Sister Cities of Long Beach, who within that organization issued the invitation and what is the requirement and procedure for approval? 3) Was there a discussion within the Board of Cam-CC and the New Year Parade committee before the invitation was issued?

CAM-CC never responded to or acknowledged our emails and to date, has not answered those questions. For Heam to say that they have done their best is very sad indeed when their best is to ignore and pretend that it is only a handful of people who are creating this controversy.

The controversy over this invitation was raised by members of the community even before I knew about it and a petition was already being circulated before I posted the online petition. Beside myself and a group of my colleagues, there are many different Cambodian organizations, such as the Cambodian Veterans and the Killing Fields Memorial Center that are against it. Members from these organizations alone would surpass the few handfuls that Heam mentioned.

In addition, this invitation appears to be in direct violation of the parade committee’s own parade entry rules:

1. All entries should have a positive theme which respects diversity, is non-controversial, and does not advocate any political candidate.

Mr. Sok An’s participation in the parade (in an election year—2008 Cambodian elections) is the very definition of a political and controversial entry, as evidenced by the community response.

The delegation that went to Cambodia took it upon themselves to issue this invitation without discussing it with the community first even though the New Year Parade is a community event. There are board members within CAM-CC who are against this invitation and are embarrassed by it.

One of the objectives of CAM-CC as stated in their bylaws is (b) To provide community leadership through consensus building activities, needs assessments, and effective programming. There was no consensus with this invitation at the board level or at the community level.

After violating their own parade entry rules and their objectives, they continue to disregard the community by refusing to rectify it.

Sincerely,

Navy Phim

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Dear Editor,

Mr Heam side tracked the issue by stating “I don’t think he [Mr. Sok An] is a controversial figure.” It is the hast, unsound decision of the Cam-CC delegation to Phnom Penh to invite officials of a corrupt and oppressive government that stirs up the controversy within the Cambodian community in Long Beach.

I find it excruciating to read Heam’s statement “These are speculations of human right violations?” when there are over decades of reports on Cambodia from multitude of sources. I guess it is ignorance like Heam’s statement within the Cam-CC leadership that leads to controversy and division within the Cambodian community like the 2005 parade where Cam-CC unilaterally charged ahead with April 17 despite repeated warning from elder members of the community that it should be a mourning date to commemorate love one and fallen veterans. Now, like the April 17 date in 2005, the Cam-CC board still charged ahead with their unsound decisions without regard to the community.

Sincerely

Ratana Lim