WESTMINSTER — They've held this only once before--a regionwide election for the presidency of the Vietnamese Community of Southern California--but they've definitely gotten more savvy.
During the first election two years ago for the leadership of the nonprofit social service organization that claims to represent the estimated 300,000 Vietnamese Americans in the Southland, organizers had a hard time getting the word out that there was an election and informing voters about the candidates.
The fact that only 5,000 people cast votes attested to their lack of success, some said.
But with the Jan. 21 election approaching, things have changed. There are five polling places from Orange County to the San Fernando Valley, compared with just one in Westminster in 1994.
The candidates are advertising in local Vietnamese-language publications and on radio stations. They're also getting their names mentioned and their photographs in the newspapers at every chance possible. Local political observers said they don't remember the candidates being as ubiquitous in 1994.
All this for a two-year term with no pay at an organization whose leadership in the community is questionable at best.
Still, the race has attracted interest in the community, if only because it matches two colorful emigres who have taken to sniping at each other to woo voters. (The election is open to Southern California Vietnamese Americans 18 and older.)
The election this year also is notable for public debates--significant, organizers said, because the Vietnamese have never held an election debate before, in the United States or Vietnam.
The emigre community is "still new at this democratic process," said Cat Tuong Ha, staff writer for the Nguoi Viet newspaper, the largest Vietnamese-language daily in the United States and co-sponsor of Wednesday's debate. "That there is a debate in which the candidates list what their party stands for shows how far we've come."
It also reveals how closely hewed to the past many Vietnamese Americans still are. To qualify, candidates must sign a statement that they oppose the Communist government in Vietnam and that they have never, nor do they intend to, return to the country.
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The two candidates in this year's election are the incumbent, Ban Binh Bui, and a newcomer on the Vietnamese American political scene, Ngoc Van Tran, a 49-year-old electronics technician. The major difference between the two is how they would run the organization if elected.
