Rectification Letter

Rectification Letter

I undersigned Venerable Nguyen Thanh Liem, a member of The Vietnamese Cao Dai Congress in Northern California hereby rectifies the following occurrence:

Earlier, Dr Nguyen Xuan Ngai had rendered me a visit and asked me to sign a petition to the City of San Jose to name the business district on Story Rd between Freeway 101 and Senter Rd as NEW SAIGON BUSINESS DISTRICT. I have signed the petition under the pretension that the proposed name is the unique one with Saigon, an icon I always treasure as a remembrance of our former capital Saigon, which name has been stripped by Vietnamese Communists.

Subsequently, I have learned through the media on the news pertaining to the establishment of the business district as well as its proposed naming that New Saigon is not the only one that carries Saigon with it. Furthermore, New Saigon is also used by communist officials to name a new township being developed at the outskirts of Saigon, the town they had erased its name in 1975. The New Saigon township is being built on confiscated land and demolished homes of defenseless people by the corruptive communist officials to enrich themselves. By mistakenly signing on the petition for the name of New Saigon, I feel regretful and furthermore feel ashamed considering the facts that tens of thousands of “Dan Oan” (Unjustly treated People) are helplessly calling on the communist officials for the return of their familial and ancestral homes and paddy fields to no avail.

In addition, I just learned that Dr Nguyen Xuan Ngai had recently supported communist Vietnam to become a non permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, an act that contradicts the stand of most Vietnamese refugees around the world.

Whereas Little Saigon is a name that the majority of the Vietnamese Americans in Northern California and around the world wishes to choose as a symbol for the Vietnamese overseas:

I would like to put forward this rectification:

I, Nguyen Thanh Liem, declare that I am withdrawing my name from the petition signed in support of NEW SAIGON previously. Simultaneously, I strongly support LITTLE SAIGON because this naming along with the heritage flag with three red stripes on a yellow background are the symbols for the fight for Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights of the Vietnamese living abroad and in Vietnam.

San Jose, the 12th of October, 2007



Venerable Nguyen Thanh Liem (signed)