AAA's Activism Undemocratic And Irresponsible

Our new ad hoc organization, Harvard-Radcliffe Asians for Fair Representation (HRAFR), was mentioned in Nara K. Ahn's March 16th article on the recent dissension among Asian students against the Asian American Association. We would like to thank Ahn for her excellent reporting and her accurate representation of our purpose. Still, we believe we should tell the Harvard community, both Asians and non-Asians alike, why we have decided to criticize the new leadership of AAA.

In an unexpected and unprecedented show of political bravado, the leadership of AAA committed the organization to strong positions and demands without consulting the members of the organization. By fist of the officers, AAA has sponsored the public condemnation of "the erroneous and racist" sentiments expressed by Professor Harvey C. Mansfield Jr., issued demands for the development of an ethnic studies requirement under the core curriculum, and called for an official investigation into the role of "institutionalized racism" at Harvard, among other things. We consider these actions--which were initiated and executed with neither general deliberation nor a democratic vote--unrepresentative and disdainful of the wide-ranging diversity of views among Asians at Harvard.

Furthermore, AAA's newly-elected co-presidents, Joan Cheng '95 and Haewon Hwang '95, write in their latest official newsletter that AAA "cannot just claim to represent the voice of Asian Americans" but that "our voice must be heard. "We were shocked to read this, especially when very member of the new AAA steering committee was elected by less than four percent of the Asian population at Harvard College. Neither do we believe there is just one Asian American voice. Thus it baffles us how any of the officers of AAA can claim to have the prerogative of making political decisions for the entire organization, let alone on behalf of all Asians at Harvard.

As the last AAA general meeting, we proposed an amendment to the AAA constitution requiring the steering committee to refer all political issues to the general membership for discussion and a formal vote. Specifically, our amendment requires every political motion to receive a two-thirds majority of a quorum of two-thirds of AAA's general membership in order to pass as an "official position" of AAA. We were reasonable enough, moreover, to include an "emergency powers" clause that grants the steering committee the discretion to issue public statements on behalf of AAA in response to news-breaking events--like Mans-field's comments--provided that the officers who issue such statements are held accountable to the general membership by means of a retroactive vote that may demand the public retraction of a hasty proclamation.

In response to our proposed amendment, the officers of AAA said they agreed with the "principle" of making AAA more representative while at the same time criticizing the "infeasibility" of our proposal due to the large size of AAA's membership. We wonder, however, how these officers can demand that we lower the "majority" required to pass a political motion any further (below the four-ninths threshold stipulated in our voting system) and still agree "in principle" to the concept of democratic representation.

In our respect for the diversity of opinion that exists among Asian Americans, our adherence to democratic principles, and our shared disdain for false advertising, we ask concerned members of Harvard College, both Asian and non-Asian, to join us in asking the leaders of AAA either to implement an honest system of democratic deliberation and voting or to change its misnomer of a name to something that more accurately conveys the un-representativeness of the organization. To put it bluntly, the leaders of AAA are outright wrong to think that they can engage in political activism without political responsibility. Daniel H. Choi '94   Larry K. Fan '94   Kenji Fujita '94   Alfred Lin '94   Leon S. Yen '93   Founding Members, HRAFR