Pushing back may lead to surprises in Little Saigon

While much of contemporary life in Orange County seems settled and mundane, Little Saigon is still working on itself. You’d expect nothing less from a community of immigrants that is just a touch over 30 years old and that sprang into existence on these shores after the Big Bang of a wrenching war that racked its homeland.

You’d think it might have huge identity issues. I don’t think it does, but one in particular seems to linger: how to handle the fervent anti-communist feelings that so many immigrants still harbor and that, from time to time, spill into the public sphere of what we call life in America.

With that slim background, let me take you to Moran Street, a cul-de-sac off Bolsa Avenue in the heart of Little Saigon in Westminster. For the last two months, a group of Vietnamese American protesters has taken on the Nguoi Viet Daily News, claiming the paper’s management hasn’t been properly attentive to anti-communist concerns.

Once, the safe play for the paper would have been to placate the protesters. Public or semi-public figures in Little Saigon have learned it can be foolhardy, or dangerous, to be seen opposing anyone espousing anti-communist elements.

This time around, however, the newspaper’s management has decided to take them on. It has filed a lawsuit against the protesters, claiming that they have harassed and threatened employees and potential customers of the paper, by both their presence and in-your-face confrontations. A judge in Orange County Superior Court could decide April 8 whether to let the case proceed.

What the paper is banking on is that Little Saigon denizens will not automatically side with protesters who claim to be protectors of their native country’s heritage.

The protest began when the paper published a photo, in a magazine it owns, of an artwork depicting a foot-spa bowl painted in the colors of the former South Vietnamese flag. The photo struck many in Little Saigon as disrespectful to the flag, although the artist said it was intended as a tribute to salon workers.

It sounds like an issue with a life span of about an hour. Not in Little Saigon, where it has emboldened the hardy protesters to challenge the newspaper’s influence in the community.

Nguoi Viet Editor Anh Do, on the job only since Feb. 1, says she and the publisher met with the protesters early on. The paper publicly apologized for the photo and offered refunds to any readers who were offended. The paper also fired two editors responsible for running it.

The paper took the actions, she says, because publishing the photo was a mistake. Since then, however, she’s grown suspicious of the protesters’ motives.

“The situation has stretched out for so long and the intensity of it is such,” she says, “that we’re led to believe that protesting the photo is a pretext. We view it as a fight against freedom of the press. They’re trying to control the content of all Vietnamese media in the free world, including our newspaper.”

Across the street, where a dozen or so protesters set up shop every day, they insist it’s nothing of the kind.

No doubt appreciating the irony of being accused of being anti-freedom, Ky Ngo says, “We are only exercising our freedom of speech. We respect freedom of expression and the press, but we have the right also to express our feelings.”

Alluding to the oppressive nature of the Communist government that now runs his homeland, Ngo says, “In Vietnam, they don’t have freedom of speech. They don’t have any kind of freedom. [Nguoi Viet has] the freedom to write whatever they want. We didn’t burn the building. We didn’t kill them. That’s why they’ve survived two months. In Vietnam, even if you protest peacefully and legally, they put people in jail. You cannot survive one day. Don’t put that hat on us that we’re like the communists. We’re freedom fighters. We came to the U.S. looking for freedom.”

Do says the anti-communism talk has, in essence, provided cover for protesters to act illegally.

She says that she has received death threats, that the paper has gotten bomb threats and that it will produce, if necessary, witnesses to testify about harassment outside the building.

Do questions who’s really behind the protests. “I view this as the communists trying to control our voice and our freedom of speech and of the press,” she says. “I feel they’re involved in a conspiracy to bring us down.”

Part of that stems from the protesters’ latest bit of ammunition: a 10-year-old photo showing Do’s late father, Yen Do -- the paper’s first publisher -- seated at a table with representatives of the Vietnamese government. Since her father didn’t have any photos of the meeting, Do asks, how did it wind up in the hands of professed anti-communists?

She theorizes that pro-communist factions may be manipulating the protesters.

That is intrigue at its best.

I ask Ngo about it, and he replies, “I don’t think we can answer a question like that at this time, sir.”

Is that a plot thickening?

Beats me, but Ngo, one of three protesters named in the suit, says the group’s demands are simple: a public hearing at which Little Saigon residents could question the paper’s management on the photo and other matters.

Do says the paper won’t submit to that. The protesters’ idea of a public hearing, she says, would be more like a tribunal in which the paper would stand accused and likely be subjected to a lengthy haranguing. She says she is confident the paper has the support of the majority of Little Saigon residents.

Perhaps you sense this issue could go round and round. Perhaps, but it fascinates me for what it says about the ongoing Vietnamese American experience.

Espousing strong anti-communism once was enough to carry the day in Little Saigon. Ngo and his fellow protesters still count on that.

Do hopes a silent majority exists that takes a broader view.

There may be no neutral witnesses, but in a city accustomed to impassioned political protests over Vietnamese politics, Westminster Police Department spokesman Dan Schoonmaker says, this one is different.

The newspaper’s opponents, he says, “are crossing the line, and it would appear that criminal acts are occurring.” The department is investigating some allegations, he says, but so far hasn’t sent reports to the district attorney.

Trong Doan, another protester named in the suit, says he’s done nothing illegal and isn’t worried about a court date. He’s done nothing but defend the South Vietnamese flag, he says.

“We came to a free country with an empty hand, carrying in our heart this flag. That is our property, so that means that whatever people are doing, we have always to protect this flag.”

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.