GaPpiE and F-16,
Thank you for sharing such insightful information. I would like to throw in what I know as well so we all can get a clear picture of the situation. I will not go into lengthy detail but just the basic fact.
1. As the result of multiple new years a decade ago, Col. Youa True Vang stepped in, put his assets on the line as collateral, and took the lead to run the new year to pay off the debts. The decision was once the debts are paid off then they were going to discuss for the best solution to maintain the new year.
2. The new year debts were fully paid off by 2006. For the NY 2006-07, they voted Col. Youa True out. I remember Col. Youa True was very disappointed and upset that on Dec. 26, 2006 he went on stage during the opening, in front of the distinguish guests, and tried to make his point but was prompted by General Vang Pao by "that's enough". Col. Youa True's vision was to hand over the new year to the 18 Clan organization who was to represent the Hmong people and provide the new year for it's people. Unfortunately, they voted him out with the endorsement of General Vang Pao so Col. Youa True were left with disappointment . Sadly, the newly elected 18 Clan Council president, Lo Thao, did not serve for the best interest of the organization as he took it into a political approach and got in trouble. As a failure of the 18 clan’s leadership, the transfer of handler of the new year had been put on hold. For fact though, 18 clan did asked HINY for contribution to their organization so they would have a budget to operate. Finally, it came down to the point that General Vang Pao had also been endorsing and informing community leaders that he was going to restructure the 18 clan organization to have true elected representative s and resourceful individuals to run the organization, and will transfer the new year host to 18 clan so it will truly resemble and representing the Hmong people.
3. As far as the meeting on July 17th goes, I do not know if neither of you were there unless if GaPpiE could validate that he was there but I was there. That meeting was to bring the elected clan representative s together to elect the new president of 18 clan council. General Vang Pao was there along with two Supreme Council for the 18 clan organization – Col. Ly TouPao and Mr. Wangshur Vang (aka Dr. Vang Shur). Again, the purpose of the meeting was to elect a new president. For certain, not all 18 clan representative s attended but there were enough reps there to meet the quorum. As they went into discussion about electing the new president, disagreement arose between General Vang Pao and the 18 clan. General Vang Pao wanted to hand pick a president to sit in and lead the 18 clan council with all the 18 clan elected representative under his hand pick president. The 18 clan council and its presiding supreme councils disagreed, and argued that the president should be among the 18 elected clan reps who they would nominate among themselves then run an election to elect the president. As tension grew they ended the meeting without any result. Following, the two supreme council and the present 18 clan representative s got together again and elected their own president. Under the governing rule of the 18 clan bylaw, as long as there is a quorum and with supreme council’s present, they can elect the new officers – which they did.
4. Now, with the new body of 18 clan, they wanted HINY to hand over the new year event so they could serve and represent the Hmong people but there appear no compliance from anyone. Therefore, UHI are going to host its own new year to compete with HINY and let the Hmong community decided which one they will attend. HISTORY DOES REPEAT ITSELF FOR SURE.
CONCLUSION:
HINY - From a concern Hmong-American citizen’s standpoint, leaders of HINY has not been doing a good job of the new year. It’s no longer a “Hmong New Year Celebration” but more like a “Annual Hmong Flea Market celebration”. I know for a fact that every year the profit gain from this event is over $300,000.00. I have not seen a single penny gone toward scholarship, community contributions nor anything that benefit the Hmong-American. From what I’ve observed, following each new year the president, director and their buddies would make at least 3-5 trips to Laos, Thailand and China, claiming it’s all “business purposes”.
UHI – It’s the most appropriate way to let an organization who represent the Hmong to host the new year for the Hmong people. I support such idea. I do understand that UHI needs to have a budget to operate also. My main concern is will these people live up to the name of the Hmong people and truly serve the Hmong people’s interest rather than their own. I’ve seen all the time that when there are no $$$ people will speak from the bottom of their heart. As soon as $$$ are in the picture, these leaders’ visions suddenly disappeared and we all repeated our ugly history again.
GVP – I hold nothing against GVP. I respect him for his leadership, courage and vision. What I am disappointed to see is he still trying to live up to his pride too much not realizing that he’s old and should only serve as an umbrella for the Hmong people. He has great vision for the Hmong people. His speeches are uplifting and moving but when it comes down to business, especially when it involves $$$, he tends to wanted people who are under his control to take charge. Look at some of the past record – Lao Family of Santa Ana, Vang Pao Foundation, Lao Veterans of America v SGU, and now, HINY v UHI. A lot of Hmong sacrificed their time, their resources, family and effort to rally to free him. Three months later, he endorsed his son Cha Vang and leveraged the community for a lot of $$$ to pocket Cha by declaring that he would return to Laos – turned out a failure proposal plan.
MY TAKE – $$$ seems to be the only thing that all these people are so desperate into the new year in Fresno. I guess this is also true to most of the major Hmong new years in America.
In the past 8 years I’ve repeatedly told and encouraged GVP and other Hmong leaders to reach out to younger Hmong-Americans who have the education, dedication, resources, and ability to operate, maintain and secure a successful future for the Hmong-American community. I’ve told them I know a lot of young talented Hmong out there who are dedicated and passionate to help make a difference for the betterment of our community but they just need to be reached. These leaders turned a deaf ear on my recommendation s. In closing, unless GVP and these self prayers are willing to let go of their hats to realized this is the 21th century that leadership needs to be pass on, and allow a new generation of true leadership to run and provide such Hmong events of our people, I will just stick to my everyday life, worry only about my job, my family, my friends and my caring beloved Hmong brothers and sisters, and will not waste time dealing with this dictated leadership and corruption that has been dividing our Hmong people in the past 35 years since we were kicked out of Laos.
Thank you for taking the time to read. I could have just ignore this threat but decided that there are true dedicated Hmong individuals out there who would like to know the fact and would want to make a difference to better our Hmong-American lives too.
Topic: Fresno Hmong International New Year drama (Read 7047 times)