Dr. Ngee Pong Chang:
This is the workshop on Asian Americans in Government. The issue that one is addressing here, is why are there so few Asian Americans in government circles and how do we encourage more participation among the Asian American population at large to try to gain a voice inside the government. Because when a policy is an issue, it’s is already too late, in some instances. But if there is a voice in the government while they’re still considering, then maybe you can have Asian American input in the formulation of the policies.
So today’s panel is a very distinguished panel. We have, starting from my left, Mr. Fred Teng, who is President of the OCA, a large national organization, but he is President of the OCA New York Chapter. And he’s also a former candidate for New York City Council in Chinatown. So I’d like to introduce the members and then we’ll go on.
So next we have Ms. Jenny Lam Low, who is a Manager in the Commercial Lending and Investing Department of J.P. Morgan Chase Community Development Group, a Vice Chair of the Chinese American Planning Council. She is the first Chinese American to be elected to be the Democratic District Leader in the Chinatown/Lower East Side Area. She is currently a Vice Chair of the New York State Democratic Committee.
To her right is Angelica Tang, who already spoke this morning, but she is gracious enough to stay for the afternoon workshop to answer further questions that we had based upon her inspiring speech this morning. She herself is a participant in the Bush Government as a Representative of Secretary to Elaine Chow, in the U.S. Department of Labor in Region II. She is a Chief Intergovernmental and Constituency liaison in the region. Before joining the US Department of Law, Ms. Tang was a Cabinet Official under the administration of Mayor Rudolf Giuliani, appointed to head the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and Language Services.
And to her right is Ernesto Malave, Jr. He is the Assistant Director of the CUNY Internship Program. It’s not an ordinary internship program, it’s an internship program in government and public affairs and he’s wondering how come not that many Asian Americans are interested in internships.
So anyway, that’s the focus of our panel discussion. And I would like to ask each of the panelists to speak from 5-7 minutes each so as to leave time for questions. And I’ll start with Fred.
Fred Teng:
Thank you. Five to seven minutes is a very short time to talk about getting involved with government. Angie Tang’s issue I think is the best example of how to get into government. I think serving in government is sometimes very different from the countries where our parents or ancestors come from. It is not a cushy job. It is not about privileges. It is not a job about entitlement. It is about serving and getting lower paid. It is about being under more scrutiny. And it is about sacrifice. If you want to know about getting involved in this job, it is not about holding a sign and going ‘rah, rah, rah’ at a political rally, and then the next day you’re going to get a political job. It doesn’t work that way because if a president or governor is elected, they want to find the best and brightest people to serve the government. And if you talk about fundraising, buying a $500 ticket to a fundraiser doesn’t get you a political job either. If you want to raise money, you’re talking about $100,000, $500,000, maybe a million dollars. You talk about really big money and you have to work really hard to do so.
In fact, on the federal level, I bought this book. I don’t know if any of you are interested, this Plum Book and it lists every single federal job there is and the different levels of jobs. Some of them require certifications. Others do not require certifications. You need to know the jobs. These jobs are very specific and there are specific work that needs to be done.
There’s no training period. As soon as you get on, tomorrow you are expected to do the work. There’s also a lot of disclosure forms. They carry a whole lot of history – every country you have traveled to, especially in the Asian community. Sometimes it is divided by foreign council and so forth. They want to know what meetings you have held, what has been discussed, and all the finances need to be disclosed.
But on the other hand, I have seen a lot of people who have really done great work. Especially in the current administration, there are over 72 Asians appointed by President Bush already. The numbers are increasing. With President Bush, Sr., he appointed 168 Asians to his government in four year. President Clinton appointed 250, but in 8 years. And currently, just over a year, there are 72, including two cabinet members, which is historic – both Secretary Chow and Secretary Norman Moneta are cabinet members and they’re Asian. And at the sub-cabinet level, again there are record numbers. These people are doing work. It’s great to have Asian affairs and liaisons and so forth, but the current administration, they’re doing functional jobs. And I think the success is really right now with the current appointees, even though this 72 is just the beginning.
We want to bring more people to the administration. I think that, I’ve seen in the last administration, what happened is they didn’t want any more Asians to come in. Right now, they want to welcome more Asians, especially the young ones just graduating from college to join the Administration so that in the future they can really rise up to high ranks. And again, I’ve not held any positions, but I really appreciate those of my friends who are in government right now. They do great work. Anyway, I think my time is up.
Dr. Ngee Pong Chang:
And for record, to transcribe you, what book?
Fred Teng:
Ok, the book is called, Policy and Supporting Positions. It’s published by the Committee of Governmental Affairs of the United States Senate. This book is published every two years, so all the names you see will be the Clinton Appointees because they’re published every two years. In it, it lists every single department there is.
Also, if you want to know who are appointed by the president, you can go the Brooking Institute, it’s called. www.appointee.org, and you will have a run down of every of the 400 or so appointees, when they were announced, when they were nominated, when they were confirmed. And you can look up the Asian names so you can know what the records are and understand then what these positions are.
I think you can also buy the Plum Book from Brooking website.
Dr. Ngee Pong Chang:
Now, on to Jenny.
Jenny Lam Low:
Good afternoon. It’s good to see so many familiar faces, a few that I know. I’m sure what I have to share with you today is not unfamiliar to many of you, because I’m here to talk about how you get involved with local politics. I guess in government there are many ways to participate. Fred had mentioned one way – to be employed by the government. And that is one way. Other ways to get involved with the government are by working with local elected officials that may have a lot of influence over what your communities will look like, what kinds of services you will get.
What I’m going to share with you today is how you get involved with local politics and work with local elected officials. The way that I’ve been working in the community is strictly by volunteering. I have a day job. But sometimes the volunteering seems to be taking over. But it’s all worthwhile. Regardless of what political party you are affiliated with or you feel comfortable with, there are always ways you can get involved with local politics.
One of the ways is by working with a local political club. I’m just going to talk about the truth. I’m a Democratic party member and District Leader, so I’ll use it as an example of how you can get involved, but I’m sure Fred or someone else who is more familiar with the Republican party can tell you pretty much similar activities that happen on the local level.
Within the party, often times you hear the political machine. What is the machine? It’s really the local club made up of the things they call the machine. And what it is, is people who are in the community, they share the same interests of what they want to get from their elected officials. And by knowing what the community wants and what they want as a resident and a constituent of an elected official, they voice their opinion. And how do you voice your opinion and what is one way to be effective in voicing your opinion?
Besides knowing what the community represents is by supporting candidates who share the same view as you. And one of the effective ways to do that is, you could be part of a local club. And a local club will naturally look to endorse candidates of their party. But there’s a lot of work going on. Endorsing is not just so and so club endorses so and so to be a candidate of whatever. The endorsement comes with a lot of hard work behind it. Those of you who have worked on campaigns know what that means.
Very basic things, in order for someone to be nominated as a candidate, or on the ballot as a candidate, the New York State Election Law, you have to be nominated by a registered voter of that party. And depending on the office that you’re looking to run, there is a minimum requirement of valid registered voters of that party that you have to get signatures for on that petition nominating that person. So this process is very arduous. It’s only a short period of time. There’s only about a month of time that you can gather signatures. You need to get enough support from your community depending on what you’re running for. Fred can share a lot about that. He’s a candidate himself. So that’s mostly how people can get involved in that process – as a volunteer or an activist working with a political club.
Or you can work on campaigns directly. You may share the interest of someone who is running for office, and get on their campaign and work on their behalf. And from there you can also learn quite a bit about the whole process.
One of the advantages of working with a club is you’re not just working with one candidate or one campaign. You work on many campaigns year after year. And you obviously get to meet with and get to know many of the elected officials who come to your club for support. And that’s when you can voice your issues with them and tell them the needs in your community, getting them to understand what’s happening. So many elected officials use these clubs to figure out what’s happening in the community. Of course they have their own staff and their own offices that they get information from, but that’s one of the avenues where they get information.
So for those who are interested, I would strongly suggest that you work with a club that you feel comfortable with, while getting to know how the whole electoral process works. And that is important in maybe becoming a candidate one day yourself, or becoming an employee of the government. If you know how the electoral process works and if you’re appointed by someone who’s elected, at least you know how they got elected. So I guess I’ll just leave it like that and answer questions later on.
Dr. Ngee Pong Chang:
Thank you Jenny.
Angelica Tang:
I’ll pick up on our monitor’s introduction here, when he opened the session with a premise asking, how come there are so few Asian Americans in government. And I take prerogative that I’m the only one in government on the panel. And I have someone from the office of the governor, Oliver Tan here. He might want to add some comments later.
That there are a lot of sacrifices. And I don’t think it’s just for Asian Americans. The whole concept of serving in government or public service comes with a lot of sacrifices. The pay parity is one of them. Many of us take a pay cut to take on a new government job.
And I think with a lot of Asian American families who are first generation, your parents come here and they tell you go get a good education, go to Yale, and make a lot of money. So it’s hard if you tell them what you’re studying is public policy. And they really cannot grasp, many of our parents, what exactly that is. And it is a calling that is very difficult to make.
So I think what President Bush did in appointing a record number of Asian Americans, 72. But on the very highest cabinet level, the PA’s (Presidential Appointee’s), we have a record number of 17. President Nixon started with one. President Bush 41 with I think two. President Clinton maybe 57. So with 17, we have a record number of PA’s at the very highest level of government. And many are not in liaison positions. They’re in the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce and Department of Labor and many different cabinet agencies.
And it’s a good approach to start approaching young students. And they have to start in schools. They have to be educated and they have to start with inches in government, could be separate from political involvement. One could join government and work as a public servant and not be involved in politics at all. But I think in this country, we’re seeing a lot of challenges and barriers. Public service is not going to actively recruit. Our community does not normally have that kind of calling.
And that our president together with Chow, we started an initiative to take off during Asian heritage month. It’s a summit to advance Asian Americans who are already in federal government, to help them to apply for much higher jobs, like the senior executive service, which is the highest of public service ranks. And how to overcome challenges as a manager, how to communicate better, how to write better. So this would be an annual event. As Secretary Chow said she wanted it to be an annual event. And these are just one of many other initiatives that I think would be a good example of good initiative programs to help understand and help advance Asian Americans and help remove barriers to public service.
Not to mention financial sacrifices, there are a lot of personal liberties that one have to give in to the federal government. Some who have top clearance have sworn to protect our country by not giving away any classified information. There is very stringent training on how to handle and communicate information. And this is just one of the many requirements that are required.
If you have the calling and are interested, there are certainly many ways that you can get involved. But I think learning about public service from even a non-political point of view is important.
Ernesto Malave Jr.:
Good afternoon everyone. As Dr. Chang mentioned, my name is Ernesto Malave Jr. I’m the Assistant Director for the Edward T. Robowski Internship Program in Government and Public Affairs at the City University of New York. We’re based actually out of the graduate center on 34th Street and 5th Avenue. We’re what used to be the [Oakman] department store (a long time ago) across the street from the Empire State Building, in case you ever want to stop by and check out the Graduate College.
I’m really grateful to be here because one of the things that is trying to get captured in this conference is the relevance of the events of September 11th to the Asian American community. One of the things that we saw in our own office was an increase of interest in public affairs and in government. And one of the tings that we’re looking at now is that because really, a lot of the roles of pubic servants became so much more prominent in trying to decide how Lower Manhattan is going to redevelop and trying to decide how environmental issues are going to impact the citizens of those areas and beyond, that many of the decisions that normally most people put aside as something the government usually deals with became very much a part of our own everyday lives. It was in the news, it was in the front page everyday – people not wanting to take their kids to high school or to elementary school because the air quality was bad. That became something personal.
So one of the things that showed through all of these events was that government is not something that is on a higher level or on a level that we cannot reach as people, but rather it is something that belongs to us and functions for us. So with that, one of the things that’s happened is that more people have become interested in trying to be a part of that decision making. And that rather than simply being somebody who watches it happen on the news, be someone who makes it happen.
We also saw some of that with the elections last year. As a matter of fact, September 11th was also the day of the primary election, which was one of the most heated times in an election season in a very long time because so many city council people were moving along because of term limits. So we have a lot of movement within local neighborhoods. We have more candidates than ever before, so more people also participated on that level than ever before.
As was mentioned before, it is hard work and it’s not something to be taken lightly, but the opportunities that can come from that are great.
Now with that being said, I wanted to discuss some of the programs that the City University offers for the students through our Internship Program. And really what we try to do is have programs that allow students opportunities at all levels of governments. Our largest program really is the New York City Internship Program. The New York City Internship Program has about 300 students every year, over the two semesters,who participate in internships in legislative offices and judicial offices, CBO’s (Community-Based Organizations), political clubs, all types of public affairs related offices. And basically what that does is it supplements the seminar that goes along with that internship. The students at primarily the ten senior colleges have the opportunity to participate in an internship, but also take a seminar with a professor. Here at Baruch, the Professor’s name is Susan Tannenbaum and she’s based out of the Political Science Department and each of the senior colleges has one person that is our campus faculty coordinator and arranges for the internships to happen.
In addition, there’s also a New York State Assembly and Senate Program, which has both undergraduate and graduate programs for internship opportunities. Now both of those are run by the state and have a stipend. You actually get to go up to Albany and stay there for the semester. And in the addition to the money that they give you so you can pay your rent up there, CUNY will also kick in a stipend to supplement that – another $1500. And it doesn’t sound like much here, but in Albany, it will get you by, believe me.
The other program that is actually underway right now is the CUNY-Washington Internship Program. That one is actually based out of Washington D.C. And students actually go to Washington for eight weeks. They will intern with someone, either on Capital Hill, or they will go to one of the non-governmental associations there, and they will work for those people for eight weeks, day-in day-out, full time. The housing is paid for. CUNY picks up the tab on all your housing costs. And in addition to that you have the stipend, but also our director for the program goes there once a week, every week, to do a seminar. And what we do is we have distinguished speakers come and speak to the students in reference to things that are going on up in our capital.
Now some of the other efforts that are happening also. A little more difficult to get into are the Urban Fellows Program of New York City and the Government Scholars Program of New York City – Both very, very difficult programs to get into, but what we do is we try to facilitate the effort. We make the phone calls for you. We want CUNY students there and we try to get that to happen. Now in addition to that, one of the things that we’re doing, and this directly goes to what you were saying about getting people to get that calling. We try to excite people so they realize that they have that calling.
One of the things we’re trying to put together now, and it probably will happen by the end of the year, is a model city council for high school students, in collaboration with the College Now Program that’s with City University of New York and the Board of Ed. So even high school students are going to get the opportunity to pretend that they are city council people for one semester and debate a bill in the City Council Chamber. And that’s something that we at some point might even look for help with from the City University students.
So why do this? Why take an internship? Why not just take a class, call it a day, get my degree, and move on? Well there are a lot of things that have to be known about internships. One, it’s trained. A place does not hire you until they have trained you. And more and more places do not want to pay you while they’re training you. They want you to learn what you need to learn before they give you a paycheck. So those six months that you spend in that office are going to be spent with them teaching you what you need to know to get a job, but also with you learning what you need to know to go somewhere else if you want to. Credit, you get school credit for this. Most campuses will give you anywhere between 3 and 6 credits. Some of the New York State programs for the Assembly and Senate and for the Washington Program, you can even arrange for independent studies and get up to four credits.
And how much of that would go toward your major? That you would have to figure out with the coordinator.
Participation. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. We cannot complain as CUNY students that tuition is going up if we have never written a letter or spoken to someone about why it’s going up and why you don’t want it to go up. This is an incredible opportunity to get in there in a facilitated way and start working those things that you want to be a part of.
Networks. This conference, political clubs, community based organizations. All of those build networks.
One of the things that I haven’t mentioned about the Program, is the Model New York State Senate Session which is actually done by the Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force of the New York State Legislature. Now we do a model senate and coordinate it for the Task Force and the City University and State University. And that’s something that came out of them building a large network and trying to create that social capital and trying to create those future leaders through that program. So that hopefully one day you’ll also be able to say, I’ve been at that conference and we started a new organization and we wanted to start a new program. And it’s going to be for that purpose or job.
A lot of this is about a job. We’ve showed you the book. You have to know that all of these things can lead to a job if you work hard at it. One of the students, actually from your college…the professor called me, she needed an internship. She was actually Chinese, wanted badly to use her translation skills. Really wanted to work in a community-based internship, wanted to be able to provide translation services for the community. I immediately thought of Congresswoman Vasquez (she was my Congresswoman actually) and had her campus faculty coordinator call her office, hook them up, get an internship. After September 11th, the need and demand became so great for them to be able to communicate with the Chinese community, that she was hired full time. That’s how it happened. She did her internship, she impressed them. They impressed her. She got the job. And all that came from her wanting to get 3 or 4 credits off her campus and do an internship. So the opportunities are there and we can talk about more of that later. I’ll let go of the microphone.
Dr. Ngee Pong Chang:
Thank you. Are there any questions from the audience? Or anyone from the panel?
Audience Member:
Well about the internships…My question to Ernesto is, are your internships only open to CUNY students? And secondly, there are many representatives of different organizations here. If we were to recommend anybody, what’s a way to go about it?
And secondly, Jenny and Angelica… At the OCA convention, they were talking about having a national register or something like that – all the resumes of qualified candidates for different positions. I think the idea is a difficult one to implement, but it may not be a bad idea off the wall, so maybe you can comment on it. Because there are many positions that open and then close within two weeks. So you’ve got to be prepared and ready. And you need the names and resumes because by the time you publicize it, it’s going to be too late.
Angelica Tang:
I let Ernesto take the first part. I’ll take the second part about creating a job database. I think I’ve heard that a lot of people were worried about how that might create an impression of some kind of gatekeeper in the community. If you have to go through an organization, like OCA, which is a great group, or any group to get a job. So the president has always said that anyone…even myself when I was appointed, the first thing I had to do was to go on the internet and enter everything, even though I had already been appointed. But since I had not applied and attach my resume to the website, I had to do that. So that is the number one step that has to be done. The resume and any biographical information have to be entered on the website for OPM (the Office of Personal Management) to have a record. And then that would create a much better source of information than having a group kind of officially pass it on. Because then do you also post as a screening facility? That creates much more work I think for the individual.
Dr. Ngee Pong Chang:
Let’s say that you hear of some of job opportunities in the Bush Administration through your job contacts, how do you relay that message through the network. Maybe not in terms of a database, but would that be a conflict of interest? Would that be a conflict of your position?
Jenny Lam Low:
I’m not sure what you’re asking.
Dr. Ngee Pong Chang:
Let’s say that you heard, say in the policy council, that there’s going to be a new initiative that would create some new positions in the government, how could you let that word out to people so they can know and apply within that time frame?
Angelica Tang:
Well obviously the networking has to do with it. But the number one thing you need to do is enter your resume on the website in order for it to stay there. And then simultaneously be working with your network, like OCA. And a lot of jobs, like they said, that’s how they work. They open and then they’re already taken. You have to be informed and you have to have a network, like OCA and Jenny, and people in places that can help you get there. And within the administration, I have to say that qualifications count. No matter how many contacts you have. I would not have been appointed if I had not had my public policy expertise. I could not just go to a rally and hold a poster. I did my card, but I would not have been there. But I would not have been there if it weren’t for my career credentials.
Fred Teng:
I just want to add to that, in fact, right after the election, I was able to get network in CAPA, a bigger umbrella organization, including the OCA, the Korean American Coalition (KAC), the JACL, many organizations. And at that time the executive director suggested that that doesn’t work because the database is in the White House. You can go to the White House and go online and that is the database. But also think about your specialty. It is not any job that opens, it is a job that you are very, very well known for. Angie, she knows New York. She knows the whole policy issues. You have to be at the top in the area in order to go into the job. You cannot be number four or five. There is a lot of competition. There are a lot of people who want those jobs, and eventually it is how well you’re known for…I’ll give you an example.
Right now [Jet Chow] is Assistant to the Secretary of Colin Powell in charge of AIDS and HIV. He is the highest ranking person in this country, State Department wide, in charge of that issue. And he was working on this issue back and forth for many, many years. This guy, while he is working in Congress, he flies to Northwestern every weekend to get his MBA degree on top of his many Doctorate Degrees.
But these are really the best people. But on the other hand, there are also the opportunities. [Chi Tran Chi], the Ambassador to the United Nations, he was a cab driver in New York City. His parents and family were all killed in Cambodia. He came here by himself and he was driving cabs. He went to Columbia and then worked for President Bush Sr. in the White House. And now he is ambassador. He said nowadays, the joke was when he comes with the President in a Motorcade everybody was waving to him with all five fingers, whereas when he was a cab driver, they waved with only one finger.
Ernesto Malave Jr.:
Alright, to the first question. Let me restate it… You wanted to know how a person would go about getting into an internship?
Audience Member:
Well the first question was do you have to be a CUNY student? You mentioned about certain credits. And we do know some high school students who are very interested in leadership in government, so maybe they shouldn’t have to wait until they become CUNY students. Second you mentioned it’s very competitive. And there are many organizations…if they want to make a recommendation, what’s the application.
Ernesto Malave Jr.:
Well basically as far as the program itself goes, the City University Program is specifically for CUNY students because you would need to be registered at one of the CUNY schools that have the program in order to participate. So that part of it is pretty clear-cut. You have to be a CUNY student.
That does not preclude you from doing internships though. I’m here to give you examples of internships that we give to CUNY students. This happens many times – students will go to a place and ask for an internship or try to get themselves a volunteer position at an office. In order for you to get the credits, you would need to be registered, because otherwise there’s no mechanism in order for us to grant the credits, unless you’re a student with the system. Otherwise the internship opportunities do exist for people who are not City University students.
For instance, one of the first things that John Liu did when he became a City Councilperson was to create an application for interns who wanted to be in his office working, so that you could fill out that internship application, apply, and it didn’t necessarily mean that you needed to be from CUNY to get that application in your hands. So there are opportunities out there. There are some, obviously, restrictions around who we can give credit to and who we cant.
Audience member:
I just have two questions. The first one probably goes to Jenny or Fred. If you have a full time job, how much time commitment typically is put toward this interest? So that’s the first question. Second question is for Angelica, I know we talked about this already, but how was your experience getting involved in this process?
Jenny Lam Low:
How much time should you spend? Sometimes I ask that to myself too. I’ve been doing this since I was a junior high school student. I was very lucky. I had a mentor. Her name was Virginia Keye. She was my junior high school teacher. She’s an activist and I just sort of tagged along and learned the ropes through volunteering.
But really the time you spend doing political stuff or volunteering for a community-based organization is really up to you and depends on what you want to get out of it. It’s not “oh, I’m this goody-goody person and just do good things.” It’s really doing things for your community, but learning something for yourself. And that really can take as much time as you can afford to give. But really you pick on something that you want to do and you enjoy. It’s not just doing volunteer work to get it on your resume. I don’t really believe in that.
Fred Teng:
Well you have to be crazy. Between the time you wake up and the time you sleep, you have a lot of time. It depends on how you use your time. You can always say I don’t have time, but it depends on who you want to use your time. You can always squeeze out time. If you want to run for office, I would say you have to go full time. I ran for office and I did that for 16 months. No job, I just did that. That’s just something you have to do.
On the other hand, if you want to get involved with local politics, like Jenny was talking about, it’s a machine. It is a machine. There is actually a machine there. Every ED (Election District) is a machine. Confucius Plaza is one machine. If you can run up and down Confucius Plaza, don’t even enroll in a political partiy, and you can convince the people to sway one way or the other, you’ll get so much attention from political leaders. If you say, “I can promise you that machine. Three hundred votes will come up on that machine.” If you promise and you deliver, you will get places.
You have to put out time, just like your hobbies or things that you do. I’m busy enough, but at 43, I decided to run the New York City Marathon, which took 16 weeks of training. You have to squeeze in that type of time to accomplish it, but in the end it’s the result, not what you do. The activity is great, but it’s the result that counts.
So if you can say, well I talked to a lot of people in Confucius Plaza and asked them to vote for you, that’s good. But that’s not good enough. If you say, 300 votes are going to come your way Congressman so and so and that happens, Bang! That’s what’s happening. So think about the end result. So it could be a petition. Saying, don’t worry about this building, I’ll get all the petitions for you. And by the way, the petition if a person has already signed it, the second sheet doesn’t count. So if somebody already started it, your whole sheet wont count. But anyway…
Angelica Tang:
If anyone ever wants to run, you have to contact Fred. And I have a very similar story, almost identical to Jenny’s. And in fact, it’s actually how I met Jenny. In junior high school, we had the same teacher, Mrs. Keye. And to this day I cannot call her by her first name. I still call her Mrs. Keye. In the Chinese culture, you always respect your teachers, and she was a very good role model.
As you see, I’m not a democrat. And we don’t disagree on issues, but what I found when I became less politically involved but much more attached to policy and government policy issues, I was much more detached and disenchanted with the government that I was working for. I got very enticed by Mayor Giuliani’s platform and he recruited me to work for him. I think before then I was registered as an independent and was not really taking part actively.
But I think the key credit, she really brought a lot of students the opportunity get involved. And something like what John Liu is doing now is excellent, to have young people sought out when they’re really young, and this idea of empowerment. Not so much a party label. That comes later. I didn’t really have my ideology altogether until I was in my mid-20s and I think that was important.
And I think with all that training – we talk about motivation and education and all that, and then on top of that you can get that to a certain level all your contacts and all that and then you have to wait for luck. And if you remember the scene in the movie Castaway, do you remember how he got off the island? One day, the waves that come in brought this piece of plastic which he later used as a raft to get off the island.
This is how life is. It’s like serendipity. You can tell it’s kind of like you’re at the right place at the right time, but it’s really about chances and luck. You never know what life’s going to bring you.
Bill Tan:
My name is Bill Tan and I just wanted to make a comment about the program that Ernesto was describing for us. I came from a slightly different background. I was born in mainland China and I came here as a teenager. And China’s political record needs no more elaboration, despite some recent progresses. But as a teenager, my way of getting involved in the political process was through classroom teaching. And basically that involved rote memorization of government laws, statures, and statistics, i.e., basically propaganda.
And I just want to commend you on the effort you’re putting together for the youth in this country to get involved in the political process, not by rote memorization but by participation. And I hope that it can serve as a role model for other places, not just in the U.S., but around the world. And I would like to say that, if any of your interns are not appreciative enough of the effort you’re putting together to get them involved in the process., let them know about the experience of other people in other countries. Let them know and maybe that will help motivate them to move towards the ultimate goals of the internship program.
Fred Teng:
I want to add to it, I attended Baruch College here and my first encounter with political science was my political science course taken right here at Baruch College. In fact, my professor was so unconventional, he threw away We the Government as textbook. He introduced us to two textbooks. One was called Irony of Democracy and the other was called Ruling Elite, I think. And I really learned about politics, not in the conventional way that they teach you about the structure of government and so forth, but in understanding politics and so forth. Professor Law I think was his name. I wanted to add to it that I too, worked on Virginia Keye’s campaign. It was the first time I got involved. She was running against Merriam Freelander for district council and she lost in that one. Eventually I ran in that district (they later redistricted). After the Virginia Keye campaign I went to California to help [Tom Shay] who was running for city council. Both of them were Democrat. Later on I developed my political philosophy, I ran on the Republican line and I have been with the Republican Party.
Audience Member:
This is a question for Fred and Jenny, being that one is a Democrat and one a Republican. How much information do you share, because for example, I work in a law firm and working in the attorney’s office one is a councilman. One is a Republican and the other happens to be a Democrat, but they share information. They live in the same area and they attend the same functions. They’re both Catholics and they attend diner and stuff. How much do you mingle together and share information? Because I think that’s the only way it can be done. Because as pointed out before, three Asians ran for one district seat and you lost the votes because all the votes were split.
Fred Teng:
I want to comment on the three Asians, because I think that it’s a misnomer. You have to have enough Asians to run. But what about John Liu’s district? Why, should he have less Asians running? He won! Is it being there was less Asian running that he won? It was John Liu, F.O. Chang, Green, Terriance Park…there were more Asians running in John Liu’s district than in district one.
It is about the candidates. What your organization is like, what are your issues, who you get in touch with? And I really think it’s not about how many Asian were running. You should not have one Asian running per district, that’s not the way to go… In terms of party wise, I know Jenny, we served our CPC together, both as board members, we went on the Ti Hua Chang interviews… We want to help the community and we always ask people in both parties. It’s like going to anything. Here you have a choice. Find the people that fit your philosophy and do something. We need people on both sides. I think we do not share the party strategy with each other, but we would share the community issues of how we can go about, because we need both sides of the party to get things done.
Jenny Lam Low:
I think one of the reasons I became involved and continue to be involved is not that I was just tagging along a teacher who I like very much. It’s because I wanted to do something for the community. I became a democrat because I felt that some of the ideas and some of the elected officials who represent us shared my own view. So I became a Democrat.
Now I don think you have to be a Democrat or a Republican to be someone who cares for the community. Being involved in a political party sometimes helps you become more effective in bringing the needs of the community to the elected officials. In New York City, in my community, whether you like it or not, the democrats call the shots. If you want to get involved and you want your voice to be heard, you have to work with them.
The primary goal is really to help our community. So being a different party can actually bring more things to our community. So I think cooperating and getting what we need and voice our needs. It’s not a stop light or a traffic light. You still need that and you need to get to the person who can get you that.
Dr. Ngee Pong Chang:
One last question.
Diane Chen:
My name is Diane Chen, and I just have a question about coalition building among other minorities. One thing that was pointed out was that there was a Black/Hispanic caucus. Is there an Asian component to it? It seems like it is almost insular.
Dr. Ngee Pong Chang:
Very good question.
Fred Teng:
Ok, I have an opinion on this also. I think that people are looking at the 1990 census, they always say African, Hispanic, Asian. I think if you’re just looking at the Asian angle, we really stand alone as a community, because our numbers will never beat the African American or Hispanics. Many times I go to meetings and we’re always number three. Sometimes they would even leave us out. It would be Hispanic, African, White, and not even Asian. The Asian community is a smaller immigrant groups, like Irish, Italian, Jewish. They’re very small in numbers.
Do not think that the problems we encounter today are unique to Asians alone. When Irish were there, and they saw signs that said, “Irish need not apply”, they could not get a job. But they quietly worked on it and they secured the political power of this country. The Jewish group is half of the Asian population. But their voters turnout is double of that of Asian’s. Their voters turnout is 80%, yet they only have half as many people as the Asian polulation. Asians’ voter turn out is only 20%.
Well shame on us because we don’t vote. It’s not that we don’t have the power or the resources. Coalition building is fine. And I do not believe in ethnic based type of things. But I think that we have to serve our community whether we are Asian, Hispanic, African, White, whatever, we have to serve the entire community.
We’re not there being the candidate of the Chinese community and I think sometimes we rely on that too much. We say we must have an Asian candidate or an Asian has to win in this district. No, you have to be really good to serve that community and that’s really what it’s all about.
Dr. Ngee Pong Chang:
Well time is pressing on. I want to thank everybody and all the distinguished members of this panel for coming here to share their thoughts and it is clear that we have, as Asians, a long way yet to go. We may have 72 Asians in the Bush government, but we should not be looking at 72. There should be more.
And I hope that with this program for advancement of Asian Americans in government, that that will be one way in which the Bush government, and future governments, whether they be Democrat or Republican, that it will be a natural thing for Asians to be in positions, just like it’s very natural for Jews to be in high positions of power. It’s not because they are Jews, but it’s because they are qualified and because they have the right connections.
And what we should do is to be qualified and to have the right connections. And I hope that this conference today has served as a good way of networking so that people know each other and they can be networking to help all of us in this society. Thank you all for coming and God bless all.
Copyright (c) Asian American / Asian Research Institute (AAARI), 2002.
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