GUEST COLUMN
A Victim of Southern Injustice
There is a growing national movement today among Filipino-Americans, and Americans alike, that is raging across the United States --- the clamor to bring justice to one of its citizens, Dr. Noel N. Chua, who was indicted for the death of one James Carter III, jailed for almost a year now in Camden, Georgia, and who had been denied bail and denied his day in court.
The objective of the initiative is "to seek for the truth and help grant justice to Dr. Noel N. Chua and to the family of James Carter III, not to prejudge the case." A fair justice system, the proper court, will determine Dr. Noel Chua's innocence or guilt, based on the preponderance and degree of evidence, beyond any reasonable doubt, not on the color of his skin or the shape of his eyes. What is just is for Dr. Noel Chua to be granted his day in court without more delays, and the due process of the law of the land that was denied him. We strongly believe in the doctrine that a person is presumed innocent until proven otherwise, that justice is color blind, and that justice delayed is justice denied.
This unfortunate miscarriage of the judicial process and insult to the justice system of Georgia, and that of the United States as a whole, will also test the wisdom, resolve and the unity of the Fil-Ams. Anyone one of us, Asians or Americans, could someday fall victim to this kind of deplorable injustice. Do we, today, have the wisdom, foresight, fortitude and will to protect ourselves and our fellowmen? Or, shall we simply close our eyes and allow injustice to prevail and trample upon our rights? What we sow today, we shall reap tomorrow.
Wherever we are, let's all join this movement and rally behind this great cause, fighting discrimination and prejudice with one strong and united voice, in the tradition of King Solomon, Dr. Jose Rizal, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King and countless other heroes, who gave up their lives for justice. Getting justice for Dr. Noel Chua is getting justice for all of us, Asians and Americans alike.
Paradoxically, the motto of the State of Georgia is "Wisdom, Justice and Moderation." As Perry Diaz of BALITA-USA stated in his article, where we obtained the title and some parts of the news story in Philippine News, "It is an irony that this kind of discrimination and prejudice is still much alive in the very birthplace of Dr. King, the great martyr of the civil rights movement in America."
This deplorable situation is indeed a farce, a travesty of justice, a grave insult to Dr. King and to the dignity of all honorable people. A great shame for Georgia and an embarrassment for the entire nation. (Philip S. Chua, M.D., a Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus in Northwest Indiana, is Chairman of Cardiovascular Surgery at Cebu Doctors University Hospital, and Vice-President for Far East of the Cardiovascular Hospitals of America, a hospital builder/developer based in Wichita, Kansas, and Past President of the Association of Philippine Physicians in America (APPA) and the Society of Philippine Surgeons in America (SPSA). His email address is scalpelpen@gmail.com)