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What Kind of Beast is The Fatherland Front? |
Week Ending 24 December 2006
The Communist Regime electronic newspaper Lao Dong, on the eve of Christmas 2006, announced that on 23 December, the president of the Central Committee of the Fatherland Front Pham The Duyet had come to offer his congratulations to the leadership and clergy of the Hanoi arch-diocese. He further highly valued the invaluable works of the arch-diocese in providing leadership to its Catholic followers in their implementation of government policies, especially religious policies to contribute to the task of nation-building.
The question on the lips of readers is:
What is this Fatherland Front that enables its leader to represent the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), the Government of Vietnam and speak authoritatively on their behalf?
The answer lies with one of the most enduring tricks of Leninist political wizardry:
The creation of front organizations to masquerade the regime with a democratic veneer, stack them with Communist operatives and use their members as enforcers to do the dirty works for the Communist Party.
The Fatherland Front is thus such an umbrella “popular movement” officially comprising:
Under current congressional election laws, unless a candidate is nominated by the front, he/she has no right to stand for office. The front is to some extent, nominally charged with anti-corruption supervisory duties. This despite the fact that “on 1 May 1998, a group of lifelong communists and well-decorated cadres and veterans submitted a letter, which they called’ From the Hearts to Improve the Party’, asking the Politburo of the CPV to cleanse itself of corruption first. Evidence was presented against Pham The Duyet, a member of the Politburo, and Dinh Hanh, the Vice-Chairman of the Hanoi City People’s Committee (Deputy Mayor)” ( www.fva.org).
A Google search of the net would yield various interesting clues to what Duyet and the front do:
Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh presents flowers to Fatherland Front Central Committee President Pham The Duyet (2005)
Vice President Truong My Hoa and Chairman Pham The Duyet stand with honored labor heroes yesterday night in Hanoi (2004)
The President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, Pham The Duyet, sent a congratulatory letter to Catholics and Protestants (2006)
The President of the Fatherland Front Presidium, Pham The Duyet, spoke of the committees’ role building a law-governed State of the people (2003)
President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, Pham The Duyet, recalled the early days of the national war of resistance.
If the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) is the perfect tool of the VCP in molding Vietnamese society in its image, then Pham The Duyet is the ultimate enforcer for the CPV’s politburo.
He started quite early in his career as a “loyal valet” of Ho Chi Minh. During his career which spanned many generations, he now becomes the ideal running dog for Ho Chi Minh’s successor Nong Duc Manh and clique. Like most well-rewarded elderly servants he is more royalist than the king.
During the most recent debates on democratic reforms in Vietnam, he loudly opinioned words to the effect that since most non-communist parties and organizations had nothing to do with the anti-French independence war, they should not be rewarded with any share of political power whatsoever. As a loyal valet serving his master, he conveniently forgot the fact that all nationalist forces actively participated in the anti-French independence war until they were eliminated or pushed aside in true Leninist style by the CPV and had to take refuge in South Vietnam after 1954.
He also forgot that the CPV, like all other political parties, had a duty to fight for national independence selflessly, and that such action should not be the basis for claiming permanent political power, nor becoming an eternal burden on the Vietnamese people.
If there is any political figure that is truly despicable in contemporary politics in Vietnam, this figure would be Pham The Duyet.
He is a picture-perfect example of a loyal valet of Ho Chi Minh of yesterday and a glorified running dog of his successor of today. With him at the helm, woe to those who fight for religious freedom, political reforms, industrial laws reforms and multi-party democracy.
In particular double woe to those who intend to fight corruption in Vietnam, since being a corrupt figure himself, Pham The Duyet is ironically charged with overseeing the so-called anti-corruption effort of the CPV.
Ðằng Vân
25 December 2006