{"id":3445,"date":"2018-03-12T03:41:35","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T03:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/?p=3445"},"modified":"2018-03-12T03:41:35","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T03:41:35","slug":"i-want-to-see-a-nepali-leader-in-the-future-assemblyman-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/2018\/03\/12\/i-want-to-see-a-nepali-leader-in-the-future-assemblyman-miller\/","title":{"rendered":"I want to see a Nepali leader in the future: Assemblyman Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael G. Miller represents the 38th Assembly District in Queens County, which includes the neighborhoods of Woodhaven, Ridgewood, Richmond Hill, Ozone Park and Glendale. TV journalist Kiran Marahatta asked him about his efforts to empower the South Asian community in his constituency in New York. Excerpts.\u00a0\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

You have been serving the community for nine and a half years. What are some of the major achievements of your tenure?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

So when I came to this job, I just wanted to help people. That was my main focus and we have done that. We made sure that constituent service, and the issues that come as the problem, we make sure that we work on it.\u00a0 We try very hard to accommodate everyone and take care of the need they have. We have done many things over the years. \u2026 Getting traffic lights put in, getting turn signals, stop signs, speed bombs; those are all big accomplishments because it helps the local community.<\/p>\n

Mike, kindly tell me about your interest in politics. So far as I know, before joining politics, you were a social worker. What inspired you to join politics?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I have grown up and never did politics. I volunteer my community. We volunteer the youth council, Greater Ridgewood Youth Council, helping children, tutoring at the school, help recreation, after-school program, community center, you know, it took a long time. I was there for 25 years. 20 years patrolling the street in the night to make sure everyone is safe. You are who are sleeping; we are patrolling the street. I am the member of Corona which is the organization to raise money and give it back to the community children. Those are the things we did in the community to get at this point.<\/p>\n

What was the major turning point you decided to run? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I wanted to run because three major community leaders came to me and said they wanted me to do this. \u201cYou could be the Assemblyman, all of the things you have done, this is goanna give you more power to be better and to get more work done,\u201d that\u2019s why I decided to run.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about the recent activities in Albany; you have proposed a bill for funding to build a community center in your district<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not proposal or resolution; we requested a funding, so that\u2019s the first step. And every time we meet and negotiate how we gonna get this money. As I mentioned to the community leaders, it\u2019s gonna take 4 or 5 years so we gonna get to that point, but you have to start somewhere and you have to fight for now.<\/p>\n

Which factor motivated you to do this?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

So, meeting a lot of Nepali people, community leaders from Ridgewood, their need for the community center, for me it was very important to try to help out and make that happen.<\/p>\n

Regarding the Nepali community, there are large numbers living in Ridgewood and surrounding areas, what is your analysis of them?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In life, in business, or in politics, you learn to read people. You learn to see what people are about. I have learned that Nepali is a good heart and good nature people and always wanna help. When people wanna help you make sure that we keep you and get you to help because you wanna do it; it\u2019s in your heart. You wanna help better the community you live in, better the group you belong to, and I saw that. I saw a lot of great people. I wanna make sure that we help them to make a better stand in the community.<\/p>\n

As an Assemblyman, do you have any specific program or strategies regarding South Asian community?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I introduced many bills over the years to help the South Asian Community; lots of them deal with translation; for example, we just introduced a bill to have DMV paperwork and application in the Nepali language. We have done a Panjabi and other languages may not have it. We have put bills so that hospital forms and stuff in Punjabi, Bengali. We work in Muslim community; make sure Hallal food is provided in our schools. Bills are important and we are keeping working to get them approved. It takes a lot of time because you have to get other people to agreement. That’s a big process.<\/p>\n

As you mentioned regarding DMV, what is the progress?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It was only put up to us a couple of weeks ago, we have introduced the bill. We had the bill written. We need a big push from the Nepali community in the Assembly to get lobbyists there to push. To make sure that they get on board; let’s sing on the bill; so more people we have signing on to the bill, so easier we can get move on it.<\/p>\n

So, what should the Nepali community do to make this happen?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We discussed the other day getting the member from Nepali community to write to their Assemblyman. They have to speak them to write to the Speaker, the main in-charge of the Assembly, to tell, hey, \u201cthis is an important bill.” If he gets great numbers of petitions or a great number of letters that he may say, “oh, I need to look deeper on to this.\u201d<\/p>\n

I believe this issue was disclosed last month at the inauguration ceremony of Himalayan Democratic Club. So, how long do we need to wait to pass the bill?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not something I can guess on. There is no specific time frame that when bills are introduced how long it will take before they will come to the floor. It matters about getting support from the Assembly and making leadership in the Assembly know about it so once we can get that all done it helps the boll to move on. We need the community involvement.<\/p>\n

Can you explain your plans to enhance the socio-economic life of South Asian Community? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We have done a lot of to build this making sure they have a prevailing wage, we have done a lot with minimum wage. We worked to raise that to $15 an hour which is a good number. We try to put things in the place when people come to us say, hey I need a help with this; we try to work out a plan. Not something that with specific people we work for all community.<\/p>\n

As an Assemblyman, do you have any policy to support people to start a small business?<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

We have done a lot at the Assembly for the small business. We have given tax credit so that you can hire more people. In certain areas, we have given a break for that minimum wage. We have done economic things in different areas and we work to figure out what’s best for a different community.<\/p>\n

South Asian Americans have little access to the US politics; do you have any specific strategies to get the involvement of South Asian Community?\u00a0<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

For that, you have to start somewhere, okay. So, Nepali community in Ridgewood has a Democratic club. My plan is to raise their involvement and one of them must be on the county committee, it’s an elected position. You help to shape the politics and who represent you and the things that you need in your community. That’s how you get involved. If you get involved in the political size, it elevates you. You can’t involve and wannabe president, it’s impossible.<\/p>\n

What is the significance of Himalayan Democratic Club?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Democratic is where you meet to foster democratic values in your community.\u00a0 That can help to get recognition and position so you come in to start the club. You might have about 50 people at the first meeting. The ideas to get people involved, build on them, the ideas about people in the political system. There are exciting things to do. You get signature, knocking the door. That helps elected officials. It helps the people that we want to get on the county committee. It’s a process, you have to enjoy it.<\/p>\n

Can South Asian Community expect anything more from you apart from the regular services?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The only thing that I want to do is to help people and so, as I go out to my community, my promises and support to them are to get everybody involve. Over the years, I worked with Latino Community, my promise was to get them involved into the political system. When positions opened up, I asked people to take a lead role, became a district leader, become state committeeman to get them to next level. Apart from Nepali, I have a great relationship with the Indian community, Sikh community because I don\u2019t go and ask anything, I go and ask, \u201cHow can I help you?\u201d Indian and Shik are at State level where I want to see a Nepali leader in the future.<\/p>\n

Watch the interview<\/strong>: \u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=1&v=rmxcbVIhCww<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael G. Miller represents the 38th Assembly District in Queens County, which includes the neighborhoods of Woodhaven, Ridgewood, Richmond Hill, Ozone Park and Glendale. TV journalist Kiran Marahatta asked him about his efforts to empower the South Asian community in his constituency in New York. Excerpts.\u00a0 You have been serving the community for nine and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,46],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3445"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3447,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3445\/revisions\/3447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}