“Congress elected, the party members must obey”
At the press conference, after the closing session of the 13 National Congress of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), in the morning of February 1, Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong thanked the press for congratulating his re-election to the position of the party’s General Secretary.
General Secretary Trong shared at a press conference on February 1 that he requested retirement due to his age and poor health. However, the Congress elected him, and as a party member, so he had to obey.
Mr. Trong emphasized that “I am just an individual. Doing well or not is the works of a group of people.” Mr. Trong further affirmed that “I will try my best.”
Journalist Vo Van Tao, on the evening of February 1, from Nha Trang told RFA that Mr. Trong’s share of his election for the third term was “unreasonable excuses and not convinced.”
“Regarding cadre’s work, as Mr. Trong is the General Secretary, he must directly take care of the party’s personnel work. Organizational work is always done by the head of the Party Committee at every level to find candidates for leadership roles and provide them training for needed skills. Before Trong became the party’s chief, he had two terms leading the National Assembly, which means that Mr. Trong had been a Politburo member for a long time, so he was no stranger to the staff under his command. Then why the party does not find capable to replace him when he is off? Now, if he explains that because the Party Congress has confidence in him, it means that his comrades are not trusted. I think that’s very bad.”
Explaining what Mr. Trong thinks that the good results can be from collective works, not individual ones, journalist Vo Van Tao commented that this is more evidence that Mr. Trong’s re-election is even more unreasonable.
“Secondly, commenting from another angle, assuming Mr. Trong temporarily considered the most prestigious person in the party, then Trong’s role is not too big that the party cannot work without him. All know that in the past when Ho Chi Minh was still the party’s chairman, he was more trusted than others in terms of prestige and talent. However, when Ho Chi Minh died in 1969, the fight for national reunification was still successful and ended on April 30, 1975. He died but the communists successfully led and won the Vietnam War. Therefore, I think that Mr. Trong’s stay is unreasonable and that explanation is not convincing.”
Professor Nguyen Dinh Cong, a Vietnamese observer and closely watched the 13th Party Congress, on the same evening of February 1 told RFA that he was quite surprised to receive the information that Mr. Trong remains his post of General Secretary for the third term because there was a violation of the party’s Charter.
“Because I thought that the party has to change it’s Charter first which would let Mr. Trong become General Secretary. Surprisingly, the party did not change its Charter and it still elected Mr. Trong as General Secretary as usual. That is a violation of the party’s rules. Mr. Trong can continue to be General Secretary after the party’s Charter changed with the removal of a sentence in Article 17 which states that ‘the general secretary cannot have more than two terms.’ However, people have not changed this charter but still elected Mr. Trong to be General Secretary. I do not understand what delegates talk about this move. I noticed something very strange.”
Opinions of journalist Vo Van Tao and professor Nguyen Dinh Cong partly reflect the views of some people working in the state apparatus and activities in the Communist Party’s organization that RFA has the opportunity to exchange.
However, we also recognize that many people in Vietnam expressed their support for General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to continue his role in the third term.
Teacher Tran Ba Thien, a resident of Saigon, stated why he supported General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s re-election.
“It is because I see that Mr. Trong is very effective against corruption. During the period of many years of development, everyone sees that corruption is harming the country. However, having an active leader in fighting corruption and being as effective as Trong does, Trong is a man that the country needs. Second, when the US-China trade war breaks out, Vietnam has a bright new opportunity. Vietnam needs a lot of amendments in its economic system and legal system in order to receive foreign investment and integrate with the world. Therefore, I think that the new opportunity to have a dedicated person like Mr. Trong will be more necessary than a radical because the radical will be in a hurry and easily push the country into dangerous situations. As for a loyalist like Mr. Trong, I think he will be sober enough to promptly stop and steer the boat of the country out of the difficulties.”
If Mr. Trong cannot continue, who will replace it?
Radio RFA noted the two organizations of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and the Committee to Protect the Rights of the Vietnamese (VCHR) on February 1 disseminated announcements that the 13th Party Congress strengthened totalitarian rule, and political persecution and human rights abuse likely continue in Vietnam in the next five years.
In the last days of January, when the congress had yet elected the party’s leader, lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, from Germany, told RFA that in the case of Nguyen Phu Trong, he gets re-elected and Minister of Public Security To Lam gains more power, Vietnam’s democracy movement will face more difficulties with the higher risks of activists being arrested and imprisoned.
“Certainly from the regime there is no change in the next five years. Because the open police policy still exists and is more open in Vietnamese society. ”
Lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, a democracy activist who was expelled to Germany by Hanoi in June 2018, also said that if Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong continued in office during the third term, Mr. Trong would control the society a more tightened way to find a successor and a safer transfer of power between now and mid-term 13.
However, journalist Vo Van Tao argues that it is difficult to predict who is the “brightest” figure to be elected to replace Mr. Trong if the worst situation occurs when Mr. Trong cannot continue due to his health conditions.
“According to my opinion, it is clear that the current Politburo personnel, I find it very sloppy. There are characters that no one would expect to enter the Politburo.”
Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh, the son of former President Tran Duc Luong, was named by journalist Vo Van Tao as a typical case.
“Mr. Tran Tuan Anh has many scandals, especially taking advantage of state vehicles in the case of using a public car to take his wife upstairs to pick up his wife, causing public dissatisfaction. I think if he is a person with integrity, or in a country with transparency and civilization, Mr. Tran Tuan Anh must immediately resign or be dismissed immediately. Everyone thought that Mr. Tran Tuan Anh could not enter the Party Central Committee this period, but it turned out that he could not only enter the Party Central Committee but also the Politburo. Or Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc himself is the Prime Minister, but during the years of Mr. Phuc’s term, the online community sees him as a clown. Mr. Phuc went to every place to speak flattering. Vietnamese people have a very simple saying that “those who know nothing but often talk about many things.” Phuc continues to remain in the Politburo even though he was too old for the prescribed age. Mr. Phuc is also in ‘special cases’ about human resources.”
Journalist Vo Van Tao asserted that those who follow the political situation in Vietnam can determine that “Appointment is not based on one’s capacity but lobbying or a consensus between political fractions.” Therefore, who might be chosen to replace Trong remains unknown.
According to Professor Nguyen Dinh Cong, whether Mr. Trong or any other figure in the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam held the position of General Secretary, but still loyal to Marxism-Leninism, the situation of Vietnam country still “tragic,” because it’s an anti-scientific and anti-democratic.
“That is, the Communist Party of Vietnam still follows the old path. Mr. Trong declared clearly that he ‘must persevere in Marx-Lenin’ and ‘persevere in the direction of socialism.’ Then we cannot do anything.”
In that atmosphere, lawyer Vu Duc Khanh, a Vietnam observer from Canada, on January 26, in an interview with RFA, expressed that he wished General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong would be re-elected to the position that Mr. Trong desired. Lawyer Vu Duc Khanh also hoped that Nguyen Phu Trong would be the last Vietnamese communist, like Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia, to develop the process of liberalization and democratization in Vietnam.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
