Washington Post: October 2, 2000

Growing Population Confronts Bias

By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer

Chanrithy Uong keeps a yellowing newspaper clip on his office bulletin board at Lowell High School. In it, John Silber, the former Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate and firebrand chancellor of Boston University says, "There has got to be a welfare magnet going on. . . . Why should Lowell be the Cambodian capital of America?"

The article seems an oddly bitter memento for Uong, whose sunny disposition and touching personal story speak to the sweet promise of America. Uong, 41, lost two brothers to Cambodia's murderous Khmer Rouge before fleeing to the United States in 1981. He eventually earned a master's degree, became a guidance counselor and last year won election to the city council by forging a multiracial coalition.

"I keep that there as a reminder that even someone at Silber's level will be so blatant with their bias," he said.

Uong calls Silber's statement typical of the misguided fears that often confront Asian Americans. Even as they achieve economic and academic success that exemplifies the best of the nation's immigrant tradition, Uong and others feel they are often treated like outsiders in their new land.

That view has only been sharpened by the case of Wen Ho Lee, the 60-year-old Taiwanese American scientist who was held in jail for nine months without bail after he was charged in a 59-count federal indictment with stealing nuclear secrets. Lee was released last month after pleading guilty to a single felony count of mishandling information at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, an outcome that only intensified criticism that Lee was a criminal suspect largely because of his ethnicity.

Asian American activists across the country have made the Lee case a rallying cry in their efforts to draw more members of their fast-growing community into the political process. Community groups are intensifying voter registration and education efforts and are reaching out with new urgency.

In places such as Lowell, those efforts are translating into more vocal concern that the city government is not responsive to the fast-growing Asian American population, which comprises one-third of the city population but is often left feeling that it is not seen as central to the community.

For many Asian American leaders across the country, the Lee case echoes the 1996 political fundraising scandal, which prompted the Democratic National Committee to return $3 million because of suspicions that it was raised from foreigners, which is illegal.

Several people connected to the controversy, including political fundraiser and former Commerce Department official John Huang, were convicted of illegal fundraising activities. Still, the controversy angered many Asian Americans who feel the scandal was overblown in a way that called into question the patriotism of Asian Americans.

"Both of these cases appeal to America's prejudice against Asia," said J.D. Hokoyama, president of Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics Inc., a research and policy organization based in Los Angeles. "Many people in this country make no distinction between Asians and Asian Americans. And that is the core of the problem."

Motivated by the fundraising scandal of 1996, a national coalition of Asian American leaders formed a political action committee that has set out to maximize the political leverage of Asian Americans, who historically split their votes almost evenly between Democrats and Republicans. The organization, called the 80-20 Initiative, because of its goal of getting 80 percent of Asian American voters to support one of the presidential candidates, has forged a political agenda that has drawn broad support and national attention.

"This entire Wen Ho Lee situation is generating a lot of feeling that we should all be politically active," said S.B. Woo, a former lieutenant governor of Delaware and a founder of 80-20, which recently endorsed Democrat Al Gore for president. "The case is helping the various Asian American communities to unite. Obviously, we come from many different ethnic backgrounds, but we know the mainstream population views us as one."

Certainly, Asian Americans face significant hurdles in marshaling their community into a potent political force. While the nation's estimated 11.2 million Asian Americans make up 4 percent of the U.S. population, 80 percent of their voting age population is foreign-born. Many are discouraged from participating by language and cultural barriers, as well as the fact that some are from countries where government was seen as an oppressive force.

Consequently, only about half of Asian American citizens who are eligible to vote are registered, said Paul Watanabe, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

Now, he sees that political apathy slowly abating. "There is a kind of universal outrage over the treatment of Wen Ho Lee," Watanabe said. "It is not partisan in any way. But it is fueling greater activism."

Here in Lowell, a former garment manufacturing center now riding atop a wave of high-tech jobs, the Asian American population has exploded in the past 20 years, growing to more than 30,000. Lowell boasts the second-largest number of Cambodian Americans in the United States, behind only Long Beach, Calif.

Despite the numbers, the community was politically dormant for years, silently absorbing episodes of anti-Asian violence, resistance to accommodating non-English speaking children in schools and a lack of recognition for their success in bringing commerce and vitality to some of the city's worst neighborhoods.

But Uong's successful campaign for city council last year touched off a relative outpouring: Voter registration among Asian Americans here doubled, and now many people feel empowered to voice complaints that they have long harbored.

"In the United States, there is still discrimination. They pick on Wen Ho Lee because he is Asian," said Sokhan Yang, taking a break in his small restaurant near downtown. "We have to be careful here in Lowell. The police, the health inspectors, I don't think they treat us the same. Asian people have made this a better place. We make business, bring new festivals. But we don't get credit for that."

Ratha Paul Yem, executive director of the Cambodian American League of Lowell and publisher of a monthly Cambodian community newspaper, said the political fundraising scandal and Lee case are "agitating people to work harder."

"Many people have probably heard about these scandals a little bit," Yem said. "But the thing is that many leaders are making the connections for people between those things, and their local struggles. We do that to build self-sufficiency, and that includes political involvement."

Volak Nuon, who with her husband owns a restaurant here, said that, until recently, she saw no need to get involved in politics. She was simply too busy trying to make a living. Although she says she was dismayed by the Lee case, she says she pays little attention to national events. But Uong's candidacy prompted her to register and vote for the first time last year.

"Now, a lot of people are voting. I vote," she said, looking over her shoulder as she hurried off to serve a customer. "I'm going to vote. November."