Tiem Dong (Part 11)

Story

PART 11.

Eventually, my whole family determined to leave the country sooner or later but in a safe way. We still had hope because our first daughter fled the country by boat in 1983 and then resettled in Australia in May 1984. She lodged all necessary papers with the Australian Government to sponsor us (her parents, two sisters and two brothers). She told us that her application was in process and very promising.

I would like to tell something about our eldest daughter, Ai Ngoc Thi Dong. In 1979, she finished year 12 with honours. She brilliantly passed the examination for admission to the Saigon Polytechnic University but her admittance was denied by political discrimination: she was the daughter of a South Vietnamese officer. Realising that she could not live without a future under such a regime, she determined to leave the country by boat, praying that God would save her life. There were three failed attempts by her to escape. One attempt failed as group of small boats trying to board the big boat being shot at by the local river patrol police, resulting in the death of one of her friends. Another attempt failed when the big boat was detected by a coastal patrol group. The patrol group opened fire and hit a man in his 40s seated by her side. The man who had just been released from a RE-EDUCATION CAMP died in his wife\’s arms under the dawn after all the defectors were brought on the beach. Everybody was arrested and imprisoned for some time. After that, her mother told her to give up the dangerous adventure and she also wanted to quit her fleeing plan but months later, she insisted her mother to let her go again and this time she successfully reached the freedom shore of Malaysia.

Through the help of the United Nations High Commission of Refugees, she was interviewed and accepted by the Australian Delegates. She left Malaysia Refugee Camp and arrived in Melbourne in May 1984. She started her study on Bachelor of Technology (Computing Studies) at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and graduated in 1988.

Under the sponsorship of Ai, my family of six members were granted visas to Australia. That was so wonderful! We left behind everything including our worthy properties : house, car, assets É and for the first time put our feet on the promising land on the 20th of November 1990. Upon arrival, I decided to send all my four children back to high schools to study at year 11 or year 12 level even though they all successfully finished year 12 in Vietnam before. Three of them also graduated from Computing courses at the University of Canberra and now are working in the Public Service. We are very happy to settle in Canberra, the capital of Australia.

I applied for Computing Course and Library Course and were accepted for both courses through interviews. I finally chose the Library Course because it lasted only two years while the Computing Course took four years. I needed job as early as possible to support my family. I finished my study on time and got a job at the National Library of Australia since the 15th of February 1993 at the age of sixty. I enjoyed working in the biggest library of Australia and I was proud of that. I retired in 2006, at the age of seventy-three, after thirteen years working.

Many thanks to Australia, we were rejected by our mother country under the Communist regime but Australia opened wide arms to receive us. We found our lives safe here. I forever escaped from the haunting nightmares of being recaptured and detained in the hard labour camp covered up under a beautiful name ‘re-education camp’.

As any mainstream Australians, we had opportunities to study, get jobs and use social services that were denied to us in Vietnam by political discrimination. All my children and I succeeded in studies at bachelor degrees, graduated and had jobs. We never forget that we are Vietnamese Australians, but I always remind my children that ‘If you couldn\’t do something best to Australia, don\’t do anything bad’.

Tiem Si Dong

Palmerston, ACT 2913

< Back to the Stories