Tet Festival a Casualty of Political Feud, Observers Say

WESTMINSTER — In its 17-year history in Westminster, the Tet Festival has often been mired in one controversy or another.

Past disharmony over the event celebrating the lunar new year, which falls on Feb. 7 and is the most important cultural and religious holiday for the Vietnamese, almost always stemmed from squabbles or personality conflicts among community leaders.

So when Mayor Frank Fry Jr. last week canceled this year’s celebration citing a lack of time to organize it, community watchers were surprised that political jealousies within the Vietnamese community hadn’t caused its demise.

Rather, they said, the Little Saigon Tet Festival was a casualty of a political feud between the newly elected Fry--who canceled the event without a public meeting--and Councilman Tony Lam.

During the November election, Lam campaigned for Fry’s opponent, Charmayne Bohman. After his victory, one of Fry’s first acts was to vote with the 3-2 majority to move the already-planned festival off Bolsa Avenue, an action vehemently opposed by Lam.

By moving the festival from the major street that traverses the heart of the tourist district of Little Saigon to a school and later to the Civic Center, Lam and others argued, the City Council effectively unraveled plans already set in motion.

Then, in what many community leaders said was a public insult to Lam, Fry proposed that the city hire an official liaison between the City Council and the Vietnamese community. Lam, the first Vietnamese American elected to public office in the country, has informally acted as the liaison since coming into office four years ago.

“After the election, there was so much chaos, distrust and division between the two sides,” said Peter Nguyen, the mayor’s preferred candidate for the liaison post and the man Fry put in charge of planning the celebration after Lam bowed out in protest. “That is one of the major reasons that affected” the cancellation.

Fry declined to discuss the issue, saying only, “I don’t want to get into this.”

Two other Tet festivals--in Huntington Beach and Garden Grove--and a Westminster street parade are planned for Orange County, home to the largest Vietnamese population outside Southeast Asia, so the community will not be without a celebration.

But what makes the cancellation of the Westminster event significant, some said, is that this is the first year since the festival was launched in 1980 that it is not being held in the Little Saigon area.

“The community loses much because a custom has been lost,” said Yen Do, publisher of Nguoi Viet Daily, the largest Vietnamese-language newspaper in the country.

To be sure, the political rivalry wasn’t the only reason for nixing the event. Lack of time and organization by the committee headed by Nguyen definitely played a major role. So did the fact that some council members did not wholeheartedly support the celebration because of past controversies.

Last year, a group of Vietnamese-American merchants on Bolsa unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit to have the festival moved because, they asserted, they lost business during the three days that parts of the street were closed. Also, nearby residents have grumbled about traffic and noise.

But such complaints have been around for 17 years, when the festival, which has drawn tens of thousands of tourists to the city every year, was launched.

“This year, Fry somehow put himself in the middle of this, and he made the mathematical formula more complicated,” Do said.

Van Tran, a Westminster attorney who has volunteered in many Vietnamese community events and who said he has discussed with both Fry and Lam the enmity between them, described the current state of their relationship as “a bad situation.”

“There was some bad blood between the two . . . and both sides were approaching this Tet Festival from a political angle, and it’s unfortunate that a cultural event--a sacred event--of the Vietnamese Americans has turned into politics like this,” Tran said. “There were some raw nerves rubbed and there just wasn’t enough time to heal.”

The rift may last awhile longer, Do and others said, especially since following Fry’s victory, he went onto a Vietnamese-language radio station to tell listeners that he--and not Lam--represents them.

Van Vo, producer for the station’s Living in America show, recalled that Fry “said that as mayor, he represents the Vietnamese community in Westminster and not Lam, who is just a councilman.”

Then, last month, Fry proposed that the city hire a liaison, preferably Nguyen, to act as a go-between for officials and the Vietnamese community, an idea that has been approved and may be finalized by the City Council this month.

The proposal “is a political payback,” alleged Lam, alluding to the fact that Nguyen worked as a volunteer in Fry’s campaign. “There’s no reason to pay someone $20,000, $30,000 for a position which I’ve done voluntarily for four years.”

Lam said he doesn’t have the solution for ironing out the differences between the two men.

Nguyen said Lam has spurned Fry’s efforts to extend an olive branch. “The election is over; let’s just shake hands and work together for the community,” he said.

Lam admitted that Fry later apologized for words said in the heat of campaigning. “But then, he turned around and canceled the Tet Festival without even holding a meeting,” Lam said. “He just decided to cancel it himself.”

With such hostility between the two elected officials, common ground must somehow be reached, many said, or the city, which for years has actively sought to promote Little Saigon as a tourist district, and the entire Vietnamese community, will suffer.

“With this [Tet Festival] issue, the city has lost the prestige of hosting a nationally known event,” Do said. “The community has also lost because it has become a victim of miscalculations and egos and power play.”