Jade Buddha Controversy and The Mercury News

A recent article written by Bruce Newman of the Mercury News titled :" The Jade Buddha, symbol of peace and harmony, everywhere but in San Jose" depicted the conflict between Madison Nguyen, city official Mike Hannon, businessman Tron Do and the lawyer Michael Luu.

According to Newman, Michael Luu was jealous of Tron Do, a supporter of City Councilmember Madison Nguyen who had illegally allowed Nguyen to use his buidling as a campaign headquarters in the recent primary.  The reason is that Do had successsfully bid for the opportunity  to host the Jade Buddha while Michael Luu could not because Mike Hannon, the head of code enforcement for the city of San Jose shut down his building. 

According to the Buddhist Monk, Tien Lien, who is repsonsible for the Jade Buddha tour, she first approached Michael Luu and asked to use his building in October of 2009.  Michael Luu, was gracious enough to offer the building to her free of charge.   Earlier this year,  Mike Hannon, responding to complaints of Charlie Ly, a non-San Jose resident and a supporter of Madison Nguyen,  decided to shut down the building since it was not zoned for the gathering of 49 people or less. 

Tron Do then approached Monk Tien Lien to host the event for a fee to cover the cost of utility and maintenance..  The city record shows that  the 1980 Senter Road building as of date has no zoning permit for such large gathering.  There are not enough parking spaces and the building is not built to code to maintain safety for crowd expected to be in the thousands.  In an event where there will be thousands of people in a building that has no permit to hold such a large crowd, this zoning violation that can lead to undesirable consequences.

LSI believes that Mercury News has done a disservice to the community by implicating that Michael Luu was bidding to host the event for financial gain (which was totally untrue according to the Buddhist Monk) while ignoring the crux of the issue - the building is not suitable for such a large crowd and the fact why Mike Hannon ignores such zoning violation.  As responsible press and news reporting,  LSI thinks it is a tragedy when public concerns being ignored by city officials for the sake of politics.

Minh Duong Received Endorsement from Abel Maldonado

Minh Duong, candidate for San Jose city council D7,  recently received the endorsement from Lt. Governor Abel Maldonado (R). The following link recorded the event as Abel Maldonado was in town at the request of Assemblyman Van Tran (R) to help Tran raise money from businessmen in San Jose.  Tran is from southern California and running against Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez.   He is having difficulty tapping into his constituents in OC Little Saigon so he has been hitting the Bay Area for money.  It was his 6th visit in the last 3 months in the Bay Area. 

http://www.vietland.net/

Will Janet Nguyen Endorse Van Tran?

There are a lot of pressures from the Republican Party to have OC Supervisor Chair Janet Nguyen endorse Assemblyman Van Tran for his US congressional run against the incumbent Loretta Sanchez. Nguyen is undecided at the moment.


In a campaign where 40% of the electoral votes are in her district, Tran has a lot to gain with Nguyen supporting him. Even though he is fully aware of the situation but he still inexplicably has his henchmen attacking Janet Nguyen at every opportunity he has in the Vietnamese-American community.

Currently, his negative is very high within the Vietnamese-American community. They consider him as a selfish politician with an oversize ambition of, as the OC Register called it correctly, “being The Godfather of Vietnamese-American politics”. To the community, he is the product of special interest groups, especially of wealthy Chinese-American businessmen who has close tie with the Vietnamese government. The last 10 years, he has done a lot for the special interest groups while just provide lip-service to the Vietnamese-American community. His image took a beating when he and his gang blocked Nguyen's effort to build a pedestrian bridge across Bolsa Blvd. The bridge has been something that the community wanted for a long time to help alleviate the traffic jam in Little Saigon. He hurt his underlings’ campaigns against Nguyen when he sent out a letter on their behalf using his personal assemblyman letterhead urging the voters not to vote for Janet Nguyen because she is a communist sympathizer. The proof was that she accepted $500 donation from a person who has business in Vietnam. His hatred and despise for Janet Nguyen is so deep that he would do anything to destroy her political career.

The fact of the matter is that he could not raise money within his own Vietnamese-American constituents in Orange County. He has to rely on the Chinese-American businessmen in San Jose and Sacramento to help with his fund raising. He spent more time in San Jose and San Francisco with fund raising because his image is better there than within his own district.

Out of the potential 14,000 Vietnamese-American voters in D47, many would vote against him out of disdain for his scorched earth political tactics against Vietnamese-American politicians who are not in his fold. Of course, the voters also are afraid of his giant ego of being the “Godfather”.

Janet Nguyen is a smart and established politician and she has difficulty being Van Tran’s underlings. The rumor mill in Little Saigon told a story of how when she first ran for the supervisor seat, Van insisted that she paid him and his gang to be her consultants. When she refused, he vowed to destroy her political career. So far he fails but his scorched-earth campaign against her has put Nguyen over $200,000 in debt. In return, he manages to destroy the political careers of Trung Nguyen, Andy Quach and Diane Nguyen.

If she decides to endorse Van Tran and he wins, he will guarantee to put her in her place and will continue to destroy her political career. To Van Tran, there is only one top dog in the Vietnamese-American community. He already recruits two people to run against her in 2012.

Janet Nguyen already has granted him a favor by not supporting Quang Pham in the primary. The main reason Pham dropped out of the race was because he knew without her support, he would not win the primary.

So what Janet Nguyen to do? To sleep with her nemesis and prays that he will spare her if he wins or to stay out the race altogether. The lesson that she has learned about politics is that a promise today means nothing tomorrow and politics is personal. It is whoever in power will make or break her. And Van Tran has vowed publicly to teach her a lesson. It is just a matter of time for him to succeed.

Jade Budha for Universal Peace Tour in San Jose

This coming Wednesday, the Jade Budha for Universal Peace is making its debut in San Jose and is scheduled to be  in town for public viewing until  October 1.  This is part of a 2 years long tour to promote the statue as well as to raise funding for its permanent home in Bendigo, Australia.  Almost 10 ft high, this is the supposedly the largest buddha statue carved out of quality gemstone.   The Jade Budha statue will be exhibited at 1980 Senter Road.   The ceremony as well as fund raising events for the next two weeks are expected to draw thousands of people.  The main ceremony will be held on Saturday, Sept. 18 with Councilmember Madison Nguyen to be the guest of honor.

At a press conference recently to promote the Jade Budha tour, questions were asked by local newspapers including the Viet Tribune about the location and the logistics of the exhibition.  The questions were mundane enough but the responses from the organizer were surprisingly very defensive.

The organizer of the event reiterated that they have permission from San Jose officials to stage the ceremony and exhibit at 1980 Senter Road despite the fact the building has no zoning permit for such an event where there would be thousands of people attending.  How about parking? The question was raised since the building has no more than 50 parking spaces

 Everybody who has been followed the Jade Budha tour  in the Vietnamese-American community in San Jose knows the controversies about the upcoming event.  There were questions about the financial transparency of the tour including fraudulant promotion for profit by people who the organizers recently denounced.  The Jade Budha was origninal planned to be at a building on 10th street.  The monks had approached the owner of the building on the 10th street and he agreed to have the event held there free of charge.  However, Mike Hannon,  the head of San Jose code enforcement, decided to shut down the building for not having the right zoning permit to hold event for more than 49 people. 

And conspiracy theorists in the community also noted that the building on 1980 Senter Road is owned by Tron Do of Vien Thao Media.  Tron Do is a close friend and strong supporter of Madison Nguyen.  His other building on 545 Parrott St (Just a block away) has been Madison Nguyen's campaign headquarters even though they have no zoning permit for such activity.  Mike Hannon has been slow in shutting down the operation on 545 Parrrot St. even though complaints have been filed against Tron Do for allowing  Madison Nguyen using the building illegally.

The monks who brought the Jade Budha  are from San Diego and they are relying on the local promoters and organizers in San Jose to host the event.  They are unlucky to be caught in the spotlight caused by local promoters.

Madison Nguyen, Van Tran & David Duong

If there is a kingmaker in Vietnamese-American politics, David Duong and his brother Victor Duong fit the description.  The brothers live in Oakland and are owners of Califonria Waste Solutions, the recycle company that has major contract with San Jose City.  They started their business as a subcontractor for Norcal Waste Systems. Then using their political connections through generous political contributions and the Norcal controversy with former Mayor Gonzales, they out bid Norcal for the lucrative San Jose contract. 

Their recycling business took off and they then expanded to Vietnam with a lucrative contract signed personally by the former Prime Minister Phan van Khai.   They also own many commercial properties in Oakland, San Jose, Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) and even a travel agency (VMC Travel). 

They are famous for have an amazing ability to raise money for politicians within their Chinese business connection.   Councilmember Pete Constant saw it first hand last year when he attended a cozy fund raising event the brothers put together in San Jose for State Assemblyman Van Tran (R) who is running for US Congress against Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D) in southern California.   Within 2 hours, they raised over $42,000.  Of course,  Pete Constant missed the second half of the event when Van Tran and the two brothers afterward went to a private fund raising party hosted by Tang Lap, the owner of Grand Century Mall.

State Assemblyman Van Tran has such high negatives in his own district within the Vietnamese-American community that he hardly could raise any money in Orange County.    Over 1/3 of the money that he has raised so far came from the Bay Area (mostly from the connections of David and Victor Duong) and Sacramento.    The largest newspaper in Orange County, the OC Register,  often calls him the "Godfather" and his political cohort - The Gang of Seven.  This is to reflect the powerful political machine and influence he used to have in Orange County. 

With Van Tran needing more money,  the brothers this Tuesday (Sept. 14) will co-host another fund raising event for Van in San Jose - the admission  is $1,000 per plate. 

But the brothers are even more attentive with the local election of  Madison Nguyen.  David Duong has said publicly that he will help Madison Nguyen with everything he can.  So far, he has helped her raised over $20,000 with his friends in San Francisco, Oakland and other East Bay cities. 

David Duong and Victor Duong need her since they know that their San Jose contract always need a champion in City Hall just in case.   After all, they are financially in trouble with their investment in Vietnam as well as here in San Jose.   Even though they  have a cozy relationship with the highest ranking Vietnamese officials and they have received many state and city commendations and recognitions, their $50 million investment so far in Vietnam since 2004 has yielded a project that requires more money and delay to resolve land-use problems.    Here in the Bay Area,  they over expanded their operation and just like every other businesses, got hurt by the economic downturn.  Their bankers feel uneasy and they are worried that their credit rating might not be as solid as they would like it to be.  San Jose City  has credit rating requirements that contractors of municipal services have to meet in order to be considered for contractual bid.

So being a practical businessmen and don't really care about political ideology, they have approached the lawyer Michael Luu to see if they can contribute to Minh Duong's campaign $250 each.  This is to "buy insurance" as they told Michael Luu.    

We don't know if Minh Duong's campaign accept the donation or not.  However, everybody in the community knows that Michael Luu gave both State Assemblyman Van Tran and Victor Duong the finger at a recent fund raising event and told them either they are with Madison Nguyen or against her but don't play both candidates like their personal puppets.

Robert Sandoval, Madison Nguyen & Minh Duong Saga

At the press conference today at his campaign headquarters,  Minh Duong detailed what happened to his volunteers two weeks ago as they were walking in a District 7 neighborhood talking to people about the upcoming election.  The two volunteers were suddenly stopped by a black Honda Accord with 4 people inside.   Two big men (One Hispanic and one Asian) jumped out of the car and started to verbally and physically abuse the volunteers.   There were two witnesses who saw part of the assault and came forward with their recorded testimonies.   Minh Duong's campaign had filed complaints about the incidence to the SJPD and the San Jose City Election Commission.  One of the thugs who allegedly started the assault was identified by the volunteers as Robert Sandoval.   The case is under investigation by the SJPD.   

Meanwhile, the San Jose City Clerk stated that she will neither allow the complaint to go forward to  the San Jose City Election Commission nor  have the investigation initiated by the Election Commission.   LSI assumes that the San Jose Election Commission is under the control of the City of San Jose and reports to the San Jose City Clerk.

Meanwhile, Robert Sandoval can be heard on Madison Nguyen's Vietnamese radio show saying that he will sue Minh Duong and LSI for making up the story.   At the press conference,  Minh Duong's campaign stated that they will take further legal action against the identifed thugs to stop the blatant practice of voter intimidation by Nguyen's campaign.

Madison Nguyen, Robert Sandoval & Minh Duong

Robert Sandoval, the president of West Evergreen Neighborhood Association, is being investigated by both the San Jose Police Department and the San Jose City Election Commission for assaulting campaign volunteers of Minh Duong. 

On Thursday, August 26, in the early afternoon at a neighborhood near the Tropicana Mall,  two volunteers for the Minh Duong Campaign were accosted and verbally attacked by a volunteer from the Madison Nguyen Campaign, identified by the police as Robert Sandoval (photo ID). 

According to the volunteers, they were first stopped by a black Honda Accord with two Asian guys driving in the front seat.  Then a Hispanic man, who was later identified by two other witnesses, as Robert Sandoval, stepped out from the back seat and started threatened to beat the s... out of them if they don't leave the area.  He then pushed one volunteer to the ground.  As two witnesses saw the incidence, they approach the two volunteers and Sandoval sped away with his cohorts.  One of the volunteers had the presence of mind to write down the license plate.  Immediately following the incident, the Duong volunteers called and reported the incident to the candidate, Minh Duong. They then drove to the SJPD office and filed an incident report (Case #10-XXX-XX19) under 240 PC Assault and Battery. 

Robert Sandoval as the readers recall was the person that filed a complaint against Minh Duong for not filing his expense properly.  In his testimony to the Election Commission against Minh Duong, as reported by LSI last month -

....Robert Sandoval told the commission that he has been a supporter of Madison Nguyen for the last 6 years. When asked by Commissioner Shepard what prompted him to file the complaint, Sandoval gave a lengthy answer. According to him, he was surfing the Net and noticed a lawsuit brought by Ron Wong (President of ICG) against Minh Duong. Being a “concerned citizen”, he promptly brought it to the attention of City Clerk Lee Price to see if Minh Duong could be disqualified as a candidate not having good moral character. Next, he brought the case to the attention of Mayor Chuck Reed. Sandoval said that the Mayor thought the lawsuit has merit and recommended City Attorney Rick Doyle to file the complaint with the Election Commission to disqualify Minh Duong. Still according to Sandoval, he then filed the comnplaint and personally followed up with the lawyer, Mike Moye, who was responsible for the investigation on behalf of the Election Commission. His reason was to "assist so that the investigation can be successful”