Ðằng Vân

Point of View

The fact that the first hopeful woman democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton shed tears in the aftermath of her loss at the Iowa primary to rival Barack Obama (January 7^th), and on the eve of the New Hampshire primary (January 8^th), has been commented on, analyzed and even psycho-analyzed in various circles all over the world.

Hillary cried because, as an individual candidate for office, she felt powerless in her most vulnerable moment. She cried because the American body politic has given the American people the absolute power to decide who shall govern them, for a fixed term of 4 years, as their president and commander-in-chief. Her sense of powerlessness is evidence of the awesome power of her people.

Karen Breslau of Newsweek Web Exclusive (Jan 7, 2008) succinctly reported on these now famous tears: 

"This is one of the most important elections we'll ever face," Clinton continued after a long pause, her cracking voice barely audible at times over the clicking shutters. "So as tired as I am and as difficult as it is to keep up what I try to do on the road, like occasionally exercise, trying to eat right—it's tough when the easiest thing is pizza." There were a few sympathetic chuckles and nods from her female compatriots. At this point Clinton, struggling for composure, delivered what may become the sound bite of her campaign. "I just believe…" She had to pause again, then went on. "…so strongly in who we are as a nation. I'm going to do everything I can to make my case, and then the voters get to decide."

By contrast, neither Vietnamese paramount leader General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nong Duc Manh, neither State President Nguyen Minh Triet nor Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has ever felt the need to cry. The absence of their tears is certainly not due to their virility or toughness in any shape or form. It was rather due to their insolence vis-a-vis the Vietnamese people whom they take for granted and thoroughly despise. Such insolence, hypocrisy and outright disregard for the human and civil rights of the people, whom they profess to love and serve, springs from the absolute power granted to the CPV, by article 4 of a bizarre constitution, over all aspects of the state and civil society in Vietnam, not for any fixed term, but for eternity.

Under such constitution, they set up mock elections in which CPV candidates are the only ones standing for office. They rule with an iron fist and crush all opposition without pity. Their members are free to appropriate state property and assets with impunity. The army, police and judiciary are in their pockets. Compared to Nazi Germany, they are a hundred times more evil. The idea that this triumvirate could shed tears in an election is beyond their imagination.

Yet, ironically, the American people have a much lesser need for tears from Hillary or from any of their other political leaders than their Vietnamese counterpart would from their respective leaders.

The day a CPV leader shed his genuine tears from a genuine sense of powerlessness, in the context of a free and fair election, will be a day of joy and celebration for a proud Vietnamese nation. Democracy would have triumphed and dignity would have been restored to the people.

Meanwhile, all we could do, for now, in the face of dictatorship and tyranny, is to borrow Hillary’s tears so as to contrast them with the callousness of Nong Duc Manh, Nguyen Minh Triet and Nguyen Tan Dung for the whole of the community of free nations of the world to see.

Hillary cried but resumed courage and battled ahead so that the American people could be free. Nong Duc Manh, Nguyen Minh Triet and Nguyen Tan Dung never cried but would never have the courage to face the true verdict of their people in a free and fair election. As a political leader, Hillary’s tears are thus a sign of courage and her Vietnamese counterparts’ absence of tears is a sign of despicable cowardice. This triumvirate of Manh, Triet and Dung may not cry, but the entire Vietnamese nation does instead.

Ðằng Vân

19 January 2008