<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Hong Kong Standard Opinion</TITLE></HEAD> <center> <TABLE WIDTH=580 ALIGN=CENTER BORDER=0> <TR> <TD> <IMG SRC="/logoicon/opibannr.gif" BORDER=1> </TD> </TR> </TABLE> </CENTER> <HR> <H2> Lee at centre of new rights battle</H2>  <H5> By Charles Snyder in Washington </H5> <BODY>FOR the second time in little more than a year, the Asian-American community is battling the forces of the right wing over the appointment of the son of an impoverished immigrant from Guangzhou to be the US government's top enforcer of America's civil rights laws. <P> And, for the second time, the outcome is far from certain. <P> The man in both instances is Bill Lann Lee, and President Clinton is expected to nominate him soon to be the Assistant Attorney-General for Civil Rights, which would make Mr Lee one of the most powerful Asian Americans in government. <P> Mr Lee has been holding the position in an acting capacity for 14 months, having been named to the position in that status by President Clinton after the Senate failed to approve his full-fledged appointment in late 1997. Since he is only acting, Mr Lee can hold the position only temporarily, and must either step down soon, or be confirmed in the full position. <P> Already, even before Mr Clinton has said anything about the nomination, the battle lines are forming. And the vehemence of the language on both sides so far attests both the importance of the Assistant Attorney-General position and, to the Asian-Americans, the difficulty that anybody with a Chinese ancestry faces in getting to the highest ranks in Washington. <P> At a press conference this week, no less a leading right wing figure than Eward W Meese, President Reagan's Attorney-General, condemned Mr Lee and his record in the Department of Justice, in which Mr Lee has vigorously sought to advance the legal plight of minorities and women. <P> Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has already as much as predicted that his committee would reject Mr Lee again, as it did in 1997. Mr Hatch, one of the Senate's most staunch right-wingers, urged Mr Clinton this week to send up a ``confirmable candidate'' instead of Mr Lee. <P> Under the US Constitution, the Senate must ``advise and consent'' to major presidential appointments and the Judiciary committee gets the first shot at any Justice Department officials. Mr Hatch blocked Mr Lee's appointment in 1997, although it is not clear if he can prevail again this year, given the public opinion drubbing the Republican right-wing took for seeming mean-spirited in its partisan pursuit of the president's impeachment. <P> ``Opposition to Lee was ridiculous before, but the current attack is outrageous,'' said Daphne Kwok, the executive director of the Organisation of Chinese Americans, one of the groups in the forefront of Mr Lee's original nomination fight. <P> ``These are people who have long been opposed to civil rights and they don't like the fact that Lee has followed the law and done his job,'' she said. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart has said that Mr Lee ``has done an excellent job.'' <P> At a time when Washington is still confronted with criticising an upsurge in human rights violations in China and elsewhere, it is odd for American leaders to oppose a man whose efforts have been aimed at improving civil rights domestically. <P> <li><i> Charles Snyder is Hong Kong Standard's Washington correspondent.</i> <P> <TABLE BORDER=2 CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=1 ALIGN=CENTER> <TR> <TD> <A HREF="opinion.htm#5"><B>Opinion</B></A> </TD> </TR> </TABLE><P><TABLE WIDTH=580 BORDER=2 CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=1 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="/online/news/001/hongkong/hongkong.htm">Local</A></TD><TD ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="/online/news/001/asia/asia.htm">Asia/Pacific</A></TD><TD ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="/online/news/001/china/china.htm">China</A></TD><TD ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="/online/news/001/world/world.htm">International</A></TD><TD ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="/online/news/001/features/features.htm">Features</A></TD><TD ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="/online/news/001/opinion/opinion.htm">Opinion</A></TD><TD ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="/online/news/001/sport/sport.htm">Sport</A></TD></TR><TR><TD ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="/online/news/001/entertan/entertan.htm">Entertainment</A></TD><TD ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="/online/news/001/comics/comics.htm">Tiger's Eye</A></TD><TD ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="/online/finance/001/hksfin.htm">Business</A></TD><TD ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="/online/pcmarket/hkspc.htm">PCMarket</A></TD><TD ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="/online/job/hksjob.htm">JobMarket</A></TD><TD ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="/online/archive/hksarchv.htm">Archive</A></TD><TD ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="/contact.htm">Contacts</A></TD></TR></TABLE><P> </BODY> </HTML>