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Land Rights Protest: CPV’s Achilles’ Heel |
Ðằng Vân
Point of View
Despite the fact that the Land Rights protest by dispossessed peasants lasting 27 days has been effectively dispersed by state police by force, all will not be quiet for the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) from now on.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. It happened at the No.2 Office of the National Congress. The number of protesters was relatively modest at 2,000. But considering the nature of the totalitarian rule of the CPV, coupled with the fact that these included peasants from numerous provinces from all over the nation (18 provinces and 6 Ho Chi Minh City districts) such as: Tây Ninh, Sài Gòn, Cần Thơ, Cà Mau, Đồng Tháp, Bạc Liêu, Sóc Trăng, Bình Thuận, Long An, Kiên Giang, Lâm Đồng, Đồng Nai, Tiền Giang, An Giang, Vĩnh Long, Bến Tre, Trà Vinh, Tây Ninh, Bình Dương, this was no mean achievement
The protest lasted from 22 June 2007 to 18 July 2007 under the leadership of a courageous woman by the name of Cao Que Hoa. Her name will, no doubt, go down in history as a deserving heroin of the people of Vietnam.
There has been no political regime in the history of the Far East worse than communist tyranny. During the two thousands years of feudalistic and monarchical rules preceding modern times, the people had been helpless. Feudal lords and monarchs were not there to listen to the plights of their complaints. But at least these harsh rulers forthrightly proclaimed that they ruled in accordance with the will of Heaven. They did not pretend to govern in the name of the people. They did not organize bogus elections in which the people had the right only to vote for candidates pre-selected by them. They did not give republican or democratic labels to their regimes such as “The Socialist Republic of Vietnam- Independence-Freedom-Happiness”, “The People’s Republic of China” or “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”.
In other words, they were dictators but they had a modicum of respect for the people they ruled.
Not so with dictators of the communist species. These are not only the harshest but also the most hypocritical. Take the case of the leaders of the CPV and their role in the current issue of land rights in Vietnam for instance.
Land is a fundamental issue in Vietnamese traditional society. Until modern times, approximately 80% of Vietnamese lived off the land. Except for the rich landlords, most Vietnamese peasants owned a modest rice-field on which they worked and depended to sustain themselves and their families. The CPV had told them a pack of blatant lies in order to mobilize their support in their crucial fight against the French colonial rulers prior to 1954, and again in their struggle to win the war in the South prior to 1975. This pack of lies was: the French colonial administration was part of an international capitalist conspiracy to steal from the poor peasants to enrich the capitalists, including the rich land owners. The Puppet Saigon regime was also a tool of Capitalist America with similar designs. Once the CPV had won power in the whole nation, land would be taken from the rich and given to the poor. The CPV would be forever the party of the poor and dispossessed peasants of the motherland. The peasants listened and the CPV won the Vietnam War.
But the CPV turned out to be worse than the French colonialists and indeed worse than the former American puppets in Saigon. They took land from the peasants and effectively gave them to or enrich their members.
What actually had happened was:
As early as 1975, Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiao-Ping realized the futility of socialism, gave it up all but in name and opened a new era of economic reforms in China, while hanging on doggedly to political power. In Vietnam, leaders of the CPV lacked such vision and remained loyal to socialism and its citadel: the Soviet Union. However, in the mid 80’s, Gorbachev initiated glasnost and perestroika. The CPV had no alternative but to follow suit in the footsteps of its teacher. But a few years later, the Soviet Union and the entire Communist bloc in Eastern Europe collapsed. The CPV promptly adopted the Chinese model of economic liberalism on the one hand and political dictatorship on the other. In effect, both the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the CPV had become reincarnations of their worst nemesis: National Socialist Parties (Nazism) of the most orthodox types. This is indeed what would become of any communist party deprived of its Marxist ideology.
As far as the situation in Vietnam is concerned, thanks to the skills and intellect of the Vietnamese people, investment of capital from the 3 million strong Diaspora whose members had escaped Communist tyranny several decades earlier, the investment in technical know-how from such Diaspora, its economy has advanced by leaps and bounds. The only reason Vietnam is still behind Thailand, Malaysia economically is because of the endemic corruption, lack of transparency and maladministration of the CPV. Had it not been for the CPV, Vietnam as a nation would not be much behind South Korea or Taiwan.
With a booming economy and a consumer society of 84 millions, towns and cities prospered in the whole nation. The demand for land for urbanization and industrialization knows no bounds.
But Vietnam is still a one-party dictatorship. As such the constitution is not worth the paper on which it is written.
Article 23 of the 1992 constitution clearly reads:
“The lawful property of individuals and organizations shall not be nationalized.
In cases made absolutely necessary by reason of national defense, security and the national interest, the State can make a forcible purchase of or can requisition pieces of property of individuals or organizations against compensation, taking into account current market prices.
The formalities of the forcible purchase or requisition shall be determined by law. “
But under the dictatorship of the CPV, the courts are tools of the CPV, the judges are appointed by the CPV, the state police are card carrying members of the CPV and above all, the lands confiscated by the government either serve the purpose of enriching members of the CPV or are given direct to members of the CPV. The concepts of “rule of law” or “anti-constitutionalism” do not exist in the vocabulary of the CPV. What hope do these poor peasants have when confronted with the state security police and communist mandarins?
These poor peasants lost their lands and compensations are either non-existent or completely inadequate. There are no independent courts for them to approach for remedy or redress. The constitution is only for show. The CPV owns everything, including their lands.
On the 26th day of the protest (17 July) , the peasants were visited by the Most Venerable Patriarch Thich Quang Do and what he said absolutely summarized the plight not only of the Vietnamese peasants, but of the whole nation:
“I come here to inquire about your health, to share in your suffering, shame. The reason is the United Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation is also a victim of the regime like you…
Our congregation has made complaints in the last 30 years. There have been thousands of written complaints to date, but they have not replied to even one, they have resolved none. They treat the people like trash. For that reason our congregation is in the same boat as the people with their plights today. We are here to share in this suffering. We hope this situation will not last long in this nation.
We must demand a pluralist regime, a multi-party regime representing the whole 80 million citizens. One party will not be able to resolve anything for 80 million people…
Each of us shall contribute our share. We must continue to demand until we succeed our freedom, human rights and justice”.
These words of wisdom, from one of the most respected religious leaders in Vietnam, effectively hit the nail on the head. The CPV may be reluctant to accept what he said. But he stood for these peasants with their plights. He stood for the true aspirations of a whole nation. He stood for humankind of the 21st century. It is in the interests not only of Vietnam as a nation, but also in the interests of the CPV itself, if it wants to salvage whatever little reputation it has left, within the heart of our nation, to listen and listen hard.
Time is running out for the CPV.
Ðằng Vân
21 Jully 2007