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Voices POWs Waiting for Apologies (in National News) API Advisory Commission Visits S.F. (in Bay Area News) Asian Food Markets in the Bay Area (in Business) Lampo Leong's Forces • Contemplation (in A&E) Reasons to Celebrate (in Opinion) The API Vote? Nonsense By Susan Au Allen There is dust in the air. The election is four months away. The candidates are talking policy, education, healthcare, social security, tax relief, Los Alamos, and now the death penalty. The voters are not yet focused but political organizers are busy. They want to steer voters their candidates’ way; and Asian American political organizers have joined the bandwagon. But there is a problem. Some Asian Americans have the funny idea that this ethnic group could be molded into one voting bloc in time for the election in November. Take the 80-20 Initiative as an example of group-think mentality. Using e-mail as a communication medium, 80-20 plans to mold Asian Americans from all political persuasions into a voting bloc so that at least 80 percent will vote for one candidate. 80-20 believes this Asian American voting bloc is particularly important in California, New York and Texas, which carry a substantial number of electoral votes and which have a high population of Asian Americans. 80-20 believes Asian Americans could be swing voters, and it wants to be the king maker. It claims to be bi-partisan and indeed recruited some prominent Republicans to give it the appearance of bi-partisanship. Let us take a closer look. First, 80-20 publicly endorsed former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, over the dismay of some who subscribed to the initiative. Apparently, there was no meaningful deliberation among those who subscribed to the initiative over who 80-20 should endorse. Neither did 80-20 disclose to the 150,000 e-mail addressees it says it has, how it arrived at the decision to endorse Bradley over the other candidates, Gore, McCain and Bush. That unilateral action by its leaders at the top wrangled some 80-20 supporters who thought it was bi-partisan and would be democratic in its own decision-making process. It did not happen. Second, 80-20 leader Democrat S.B. Woo, former Lt. Governor of Delaware, called for a boycott of the Bush campaign. He urged 80-20’s e-mail addressees to re-register as Democrats or independents and not to contribute to the Bush campaign, because the Bush campaign did not reply to its four-point demand. The four-point demand called for presidential candidates to vow to 1) hold hearings to validate discrimination against APIs; 2) prosecute workplace discrimination; 3) end the “glass ceiling” for API professional advancement; and 4) appoint APIs to policy-making positions in judicial and executive branches. 80-20 claimed that both Bradley and Vice President Al Gore had agreed to the demand. Senator John McCain did not agree to the demand, according to 80-20. Woo had an off-the-record meeting with Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson in an attempt to, let us guess, leverage his position as leader of a bi-partisan group that could make the king. But his e-mail activities since that meeting showed his real color. It is crystal clear that 80-20 is not a bi-partisan group and it should say so and operate honestly as a Democratic initiative. What it does is bait Asian Americans of all political persuasions under the guise of a bi-partisan initiative and then switch to a partisan move to endorse a Democrat, Gore. Third, 80-20 is built on the belief that all Asian Americans think alike. This belief treats Asian Americans like a herd, not individuals. It is an insult to the thinking man and woman. The reality is Asian Americans make up the most diverse ethnic group in the country, each with a unique history of immigration, and education, social, employment and economic experience. Not everyone wants to be validated as belonging to a class of certified victims of discrimination; not everyone is unhappy with the way our anti-discrimination laws are executed; and not everyone is interested in the “glass ceiling” phenomenon, or in judicial, executive or cabinet posts. Yet, these are the four points embodied in 80-20’s demand. The truth is more Asian Americans want a country led by a president they could respect and be proud to talk about with their children, their relatives and friends abroad; a president they could trust to tell the country about his policies on education, healthcare, social security, tax and national security; a president whose words they could believe, and not one who takes credit for inventing the Internet but claims no knowledge of computers when asked about he missing e-mails from his office. So in November, Asian Americans will take stock of the issues that most interest them and cast their votes for the candidate who they believe will bring honor and integrity to the nation’s highest office, and who they trust will implement the policies as he has promised during this campaign season. Some will vote Democrat, some independent and some Republican. There will not be an Asian American vote. They are thinking individuals. That’s why so many of them voted with their feet and came to the United States in the first place. Susan Au Allen is president of the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C. susanallen@uspaacc.org.