MikeLigalig.com

PIEDMONT, CA — Senator Barack Obama is set to break away from the conventional campaign trail and give equal priority to winning the votes of Asian American-Pacific Islander groups, including the Filipino community.

The strategy will build on Obama’s ties to Asian culture, a fact that the prospective presidential candidate has been faulted for not highlighting as much as his having a Caucasian mother.

“Not too many people are aware that Barack had an Indonesian stepfather and has an Indonesian American stepsister living in Hawaii,” said Wilma Chan on Saturday, September 22, during the initial strategizing meeting of Northern California’s Asians for Obama movement held at her residence in this city.

Chan was a three-term member of the California Assembly, representing the 16th district that includes Alameda, Oakland, and Piedmont. She served as majority leaders from 2002-2004, the first woman and first Asian American to hold the position.

The gathering also became the forum for announcing the appointment of Chan as advisory council leader in charge of Obama’s Northern California campaign. Present were members of the various teams working the Bay Area districts, cities and towns, and neighborhoods.

“Barack Obama’s closeness to Asians is rooted in Hawaii where he was born and spent a good 18 years living amid the islands’ cultural and ethnic diversity,” team leader Wayne Nishioka added.

Obama was born to Barack Obama, Sr., a Kenyan immigrant in Indonesia, and Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas. His parents met while they were attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The couple divorced when he was 2 years old.

Later, his mother married Lolo Soetoro from Indonesia by whom she had a daughter, Maya. The family then moved to Jakarta in 1967, where Obama attended local schools. He later returned to Honolulu to continue his studies until 1979, when he moved to the mainland.

According to Chan, Obama is anchoring his campaign on the need for change.

“I am convinced that change will come from the grassroots – the various ethnic groups in the country, including Asian Americans, which form a backbone of California’s social and economic life,” Chan said.

“With that and given the exposure of his cultural diversity, Obama is the most viable candidate,” another Bay Area campaign leader, Michael Lee, pointed out. “His integrity, above all, is unquestionable.”

Chan took the lead in mapping out strategies to promote Obama’s candidacy to Asian Americans in Northern California. First in the list is saturating the communities with multi-lingual information about his roots and ties to Asian culture.

At the same time, the group conceded, there is a need to unite all Asians – Chinese, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Koreans, Indians, etc. – and get them to identify with key issues that Obama feels very strongly about.

These include his position on immigration and all-out support for family reunification, as well as for transition bi-lingual education.

In addition to producing position papers in various Asian languages, Chan said, more public and press events will be held as the campaign moves on.

On October 2, for instance, mini rallies will be held across Northern California to mark the anniversary of Obama’s declaration of his opposition to the Iraq War. Then on October 20, a National Walk-for-Change Day will be held.

Chan expressed her excitement over the massiveness and purposefulness of the campaign program targeted at the grassroots, specifically Asian Americans.

A political campaign veteran of 20 years, Chan recalled that the last time a similar target-specific program was launched was during the candidacy of the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

While Jackson had a lot of Asians in his team, she said, he did not, however, have the same solid Asian American constituency that Obama has built and counts upon.

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