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Should CPV leaders be sentenced |
Ðằng Vân
Point of View
Week Ending 27 May 2007
According to the current leadership of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), the Vietnamese people cannot be trusted with freedom to vote, because not only are they more stupid than peoples in advanced democratic nations the like of the USA, Australia and other Western nations, but they are even more stupid than the people in a new nation such as East Timor.
Because of this excessive stupidity, it is imperative for the CPV, through its front organization the so-called Fatherland Front, to authoritatively pre-select all candidates for election to the National Congress on 20 May 2007. Further 90% of candidates must come from the CPV (with about 3 million members) and 10% of candidates from the 81 million non-communist Vietnamese.
Apparently, according to the CPV (which has an embassy in Canberra), in an advanced democracy like Australia, its clever people deserve the right to be the ultimate boss. The CPV through its embassy must be aware that the current Liberal-National Coalition government under PM John Howard is in serious trouble. It is behind the Labor Party opposition in all major public opinion polls. It risks loosing the election by the end of this year in a land-slide. If this trend continued, as many as 46 of the 87 government seats could be wiped out. Even the PM John Howard, the treasurer Peter Costello and the Minister for Environment Malcolm Turnbull would be among 13 ministers to lose their seats (Sydney Morning Herald 28/5/07).
In the USA, President George W Bush and his Republican Party are in deep trouble too. They are running the very real risk of losing not only the presidency but several seats in both houses of Congress, and numerous governorships across the political landscape of the USA.
However, CPV leaders are unanimous in their opinion that the peoples of Australia and the USA may be boss, but not the people of Vietnam. In Vietnam the CPV fat leaders must be boss or all hell will break loose. Chaos and doom will follow if the people are given their democratic freedoms.
Alright, even if we concede to the CPV, for the sake of argument, that our people might be more stupid than their Australian or American counterparts, since their experience with democracy is much more recent in time.
But how about the people of East Timor, one might ask?
This new nation has been only recognized internationally as an independent state on 20 May 2002. Yet on 9 May 2007, only 11 days before that bizarre National Congress election in Vietnam, the people of East Timor had been able to participate in a presidential election, under international supervision. This election has been declared truly democratic in accordance with international standards.
According to Easttimorlegalinformation.org, observers from the Solidarity Observers Mission for East Timor (SOMET) monitored the second round of Timor-Leste’s presidential election on May 9. The non-partisan observers from seven countries included 10 international and 13 East Timorese observers. They were spread out across eight of Timor-Leste’s 13 districts, monitoring 59 polling stations.
81% of registered voters voted. The current PM Dr. Ramos-Horta won the presidency with 69% and the Speaker of the Parliament Mr. Francisco Guterrous lost with 39% of the votes.
Despite some technical errors, SOMET pronounced the election free and fair.
The people of such a new nation as East Timor are considered bright enough by their leaders to be given a free and fair vote to choose their political leaders. But the people of Vietnam are given article 4 of the Constitution by the CPV, granting permanent government to itself, and electoral laws that allow them to vote only for CPV candidates. In the circumstances one has the right to conclude that the Vietnamese people must be awfully stupid.
Vietnam as a nation has been founded more than 4,000 years before East Timor. Our people went through 1,000 years of Chinese domination. We fought a bitter war of independence from the Chinese 10 centuries ago. We fought a bitter war of independence against the French until 1954. The Vietnam War lasted from 1963 until 1975. Millions of lives had been lost in the name of independence and freedom. Yet what the Vietnamese people have now, in terms of political freedom and democracy is laughable compared to what any ordinary citizen of East Timor takes for granted.
Either the Vietnamese people are incredibly stupid or CPV’s leaders are so conservative, treacherous and idiotic that nothing short of a violent revolution by the people to topple them from their perches could restore dignity and self-respect to the Vietnamese people.
Once the CPV has been overthrown by people’s power, it would not be a bad idea for a duly constituted court of law to sentence State President Nguyen Minh Triet, PM Nguyen Tan Dung, CPV General Secretary Nong Duc Manh, Congress Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong and Police Minister Le Hong Anh to carrying and shining shoes for Dr. Ramos-Horta for say 10 years, so that they could learn how to treat their own people with respect and decency.
Ðằng Vân
29 May 2007