Tuan Phung: Journey to a Free Land
Profilers: Malia Hotan, Josephine Onggowarsito, Joseph Domingot, Sebastian Basa, Lilly Duong
Introduction
Q: Could you please introduce yourself and tell us about your early life in Vietnam? (0:00 – 1:28)
I was born in Saigon in, no not in Saigon, in Hanoi in North Vietnam in 1948.
And I grew up in Saigon which is in south Vietnam because my family relocated to the south from the north. Hanoi is in the north and I was born in the north of the northern part of Vietnam.
But I, my family and I moved south to Saigon in 1954 when the country was divided into two parts. We moved to the south in 1954 and then I attended school there. I went to elementary school, secondary school and graduated from high school there.
Then I won won a scholarship to go overseas for my studies and I returned to Saigon in the late 1960’s and studied teaching at the University of Saigon in South Vietnam and I continued to do so until the day I fled my country for freedom in September 78’.
Part 1
Q: Why did you flee Vietnam? Did you face any challenges on your journey? (0:00 – 4:49)
We had no choice, we had to flee using an unseaworthy boat and then we had to travel across the the ocean to reach a destination of some sort. We didn’t even know which country we would arrive at okay we just fled, we just ran away from South Vietnam on board this unseaworthy boat.
Of course, that was very risky. Uh, one of the things I could still remember vividly in my mind is that we were traveling out there in the open sea, in the national water, and out there when you are out there you see no land at all. You just see the sky and then the huge body of water on which you float on your, your boat floats okay and and and and travels.
Uh, I still remember one day we were out there uh the boat was moving and there was a a couple of sharks, you know these huge big sharks in the ocean. They race alongside my boat so had any of us fall over and tumble into the open sea there, I would have been killed by one of these two sharks. That’s that’s a one of the dangers that that that we faced.
We knew that there were a lot of there were would be a lot of dangers and all kinds of dangers awaiting us out there in the open sea once we decided to flee the country but I had no choice. My choice was number one, stay there, live in a regime that I cannot accept it or live there and enjoy no freedom and live there and suffer from all the surroundings and the realities, unpleasant realities rob me in Vietnam for the rest of my life or flee the country hoping that I can arrive in a in a free land somewhere and start and and I could start enjoying freedom in my life or I could start again, live again in a in a free society enjoying different types of freedom or enjoying the basic rights, human rights of a person. That’s the choice, either stay there or flee for freedom. And I chose flee for freedom knowing that a lot of dangers would be waiting for me on my way on my during my journey to to freedom okay.
It it was scary, very scary. I wish nobody would have to ever have to take a journey like that, it was a high price to pay and uh no it it it it was very difficult for me to make the decision leaving behind my father, old father, my sister, and her husband, and young nephew, Thanh was at the time — the father of of of Malia — and was a baby at that time. Leaving them all behind, fleeing by myself, it was a a very difficult decision for me to make but I made the decision, and looking back I’m glad I made the decision. Looking back I realized I was lucky enough to be able to reach a free land, okay. And then finally we set up in Canada.
Part 2
Q: What was the adjustment in eventually settling in Canada like? How were you able to settle in? (0:00 – 4:33)
Well, I was when I was selected or picked by the Canadian government uh, and uh meaning they allow me to come to Canada for resettlement to start a new life. After the interview I had with them, they realized that I could speak both English and French so they said well in Canada, capital, the capital of Canada is Ottawa and Ottawa is where both English and French are spoken with the federal government there and their offices and everything there.
So they told me, “we think it will be good for you to resettle in Ottawa because here you can make use of both of your skills in English and French so we will resettle you in Ottawa. We will send you to Ottawa, the capital of the country and that’s where you’re going to resettle and restart your life in Canada.” So that’s how I was what I was so and and and what they did for me rather than me choosing a city in Canada to resettle, they resettled me in Ottawa for me.
As a matter of fact at that point in time if they had asked me which city or which part of Canada would you like to be resettled in, I would have had no idea because I didn’t know a lot about Canada. I didn’t know West Canada, East Canada, Central Canada, Canada is such a huge country. It’s way bigger than USA with so many provinces and cities, right, across the land and I had no knowledge at all about the different cities and parts of of Canada. So when they decided to send me to Ottawa, they they they resettled me in Ottawa, I did not choose to resettle in Ottawa, that’s how it happened.
So I, I came to Ottawa on, in early April 1979. And then I, after two weeks since my arrival, I started to work again in, to work in Canada to work in Canada. I started by accepting the job of a resettlement worker, a resettlement worker with, working for immigrant and refugees assisting agency in Ottawa so I was helping. I myself was a newcomer to Ottawa but then I was hired to help other newcomers coming to Ottawa from Vietnam because of my language skills so I started the first job I did was to work as an a settlement worker with serving these newcomers coming to Ottawa from Vietnam.
And then about a month after that, I found a teaching job at the community college in Ottawa so I wanted to go back to my teaching career so I applied for that. I went in and had a couple of interviews with them and then the dean accepted me as a teaching member of the college.
Part 3
Q: How did your family react to your decision to flee to Canada? Were they supportive of you? (0:00 – 4:49)
They had no idea that I would go to Canada because when I flee when I fled the country, I fled secretly and I didn’t share any with anybody my plan to flee the country because I knew that my father and my sister would have been terribly upset. Had I told them of my plan that I was going to try to flee to run away from South Vietnam, that would have upset them a great deal. So in order to avoid them from being so upset about about my fleeing the country, departing and leaving them behind, I didn’t even tell my father or my sister of my plan. I secretly fled the country.
So when I fled the country I didn’t know if I would reach a free a free land somewhere. I didn’t know that I would survive, I would have survived, but as I told you I took the risk and I slept and I didn’t know that I would arrive in Malaysia or arrive at the Pulau Bidong refugee camp. I had no idea, we just had the idea in our mind and our determination that we would flee from the homeland but where we would have ended, we had no idea.
So as I arrived in Malaysia, and when I was in Malaysia I was interviewed. Everybody, not just myself but all the new arrivals, newcomers, coming to the island to Pulau Bidong, we were interviewed by the United Nations High Commission for refugees. So they ask us about our personal life, information then they said okay at the end of the interview they said “we give you three choices, okay, you can indicate your three choices of the three countries where you would like to be resettled”. And they also said “we don’t guarantee that you would be resettled in any of these three countries but here we mainly give you the right to express your wishes, okay, of countries where you’ll be resettled”. So when they asked me to put down the names of three countries, well I put the name of three countries and among them, Canada.
At that time, I didn’t even know why Canada became one of my choices. It was, I think it was fate, it was fate. It was destiny that I would resettle and would live the rest of my life in Canada. So I didn’t know until that time that I would be going to Canada and therefore my father and my sister would not have had the chance to show their support for my decision to go to Canada or not because they didn’t know that I would be going to Canada.
They were upset, right, and they were very upset and they worried and they were anxious. They didn’t know that if I could succeed in running away from the country or not, or if I had or could have been arrested by the police, I could have been killed on my way out there into the open sea with all the dangers out there. They didn’t know what could have happened to me and of course, they were afraid that they would lose me.