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Religion: the Ogre of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) |
Ðằng Vân
Point of View
Week Ending 8 April 2007
Down the centuries, for credulous children across civilizations, the image of the ogre conjures up fear and trepidation powerful enough to bring the most stubborn of them to complete silence.
On 30 March 2007, the image of Catholic Father Nguyen Van Ly being dragged in front of the Thua Thien Hue People’s Court, yelling “Down with the Communist Party of Vietnam”, his golden mouth clumsily gagged by the bare hands of a prison security guard, was widely broadcast by all major international media agencies and on the information superhighway.
The effect was immediate: like a naughty child haunted by the legendary ogre, the whole propaganda machine of the CPV was completely paralyzed.
After all, what can the Politburo do to explain away such powerful evidence of their complete disregard for religious freedom, civil, human rights and due process, which has been encapsulated in such a powerful image?
Reactions from the free world were dismay and disappointment at CPV’s treatment of its own citizens.
On 5 April 07, Mr. Michael Marine, US Ambassador in Vietnam deplored:
“Today, regrettably, there are an increasing number of individuals in prison or under detention in Vietnam whose only crime was the peaceful expression of their views. Among them are journalist Nguyen Vu Binh, Attorney Le Thi Cong Nhan, Attorney Nguyen Van Dai, land rights activist Bui Kim Thanh, Attorney Le Quoc Quan and Catholic Priest Nguyen Van Ly. In fact Father Ly was just sentenced to eight years in prison, a punishment that is all the more baffling considering his crime was peacefully speaking out in favor of political change. For the sake of Vietnam’s further international integration and development, its government must release these and other individuals now. It must also take steps to revise and repeal laws so that the peaceful expression of one’s views-even if they are critical of the state-is no longer illegal…I believe that Vietnam will never achieve its full potential, nor truly meet its global aspirations, without strengthening the rule of law, tackling corruption, ensuring basic rights and freedoms of its citizens and opening its political system.”
Thank you, Mr. Ambassador, for the above words of wisdom, on behalf of the Vietnamese people.
But, the CPV current leadership is a spoiled child of Uncle Ho and to a significant extent, a spoiled child of American appeasement towards Communism.
While leaders of other nations would hang their heads in shame for much lesser crimes against their peoples, CPV leaders are oblivious to mere words from the USA. They believe that under the current administration, the American government has sacrificed the traditional idealism of its original founders for the sake of pragmatism and commercial interests. They believe that America has ceased to be the deserving leader of the free world, and that your words are nothing but empty rhetoric.
As a consequence on 6 April 07, their police unashamedly blocked the wives of dissidents Nguyen Vu Binh, Le Quoc Quan, Pham Hong Son, Nguyen Van Dai and mother of Le Thi Cong Nhan to attend a function at the premises of the US Embassy.
They further detained them at the local police station for questioning.
Then on 7 April 07, an article was published on VietnamNet by Minh Anh. It was titled with a glaring question “Should Vietnam-US Relations be Held Hostage to Certain Individuals?”
The article identified the individuals who hold such relations hostage as Catholic Father Nguyen Van Ly and US Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez
The article’s conclusions could be summarized by the following confident questions and answers by its author:
“President Bush, on his visit to Vietnam in November, who affirmed that Vietnam was an important trading partner, will answer No.”
“79 Senators and 212 members of Congress, who voted in favor of PNTR in December, will answer No.”
“American businesspeople, who are strongly represented in this market of 80 million people, will answer No.”
We can be reasonably sure that Minh Anh is the pen-name of a high ranking member of the CPV and his evaluation of US policy directions is squarely centered on the assumption that the CPV can impudently proceed to repress all dissidents the way it sees fit. The USA care too much about their commercial interests in Vietnam to allow any deterioration of this highly lucrative bilateral relation.
He was confident he could read the minds of President Bush, the majority of both Houses of Congress and the American Business Community. He was so confident that he spit it out right at the top of the article without due modesty.
And he might be right!
Under this administration, America is no longer the ogre of dictators of the world.
But thankfully, religion still is.
Vietnam has a population of 84 millions.
There are only 4 million members of the CPV. Most of them are demoralized and extremely corrupt. A significant proportion is completely disillusioned with the party and ready for change.
There are 7 million Catholics distributed evenly across all urban areas of Vietnam. They are highly educated and prosper in all fields of endeavor. The CPV’s treatment of their beloved Father Nguyen Van Ly will be reckoned with in due course.
There are 5 million Cao-Daiists whose population is concentrated in a few Central and Southern Provinces. Their leaders were betrayed and persecuted by the CPV during the long anti-French struggle. As a consequence they are extremely anti-communist and each of them, in their hearts, swears not to live under the same sky as their arch enemies.
There are 6 million Hoa Hao Buddhists whose population dominates certain provinces in South Vietnam. Their founder was assassinated by Ho Chi Minh. There is a blood debt that the CPV has yet to repay.
The balance of the population adhere one way or another to the triple religion of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. The way the CPV treats the Most Venerable Patriarchs Thich Quang Do and Thich Huyen Quang is clearly not designed to endear it to their Buddhist followers.
Thus, on balance, Father Ly’s cry:
“Down with the Communist Party of Vietnam”
represents not only a simple slogan, but a warning to the CPV, that its real ogre is around for the long haul, and one day, soon, the CPV will be devoured.
Religion, no longer the USA, is the real ogre of the CPV.
Ðằng Vân
9 April 2007