THE SAIGONESE UNDER FIERCE PERSECUTION
The urgent news from Vietnam is of a nationwide campaign by the state security forces to snatch anyone involved with the newsletter "Nguoi Saigon" (The Saigonese). Even reading this paper is now a crime and will be severely punished.
For more than two years, the underground readership in Vietnam has come to know and love the newsletter Saigonese. Using the southern dialect and the tone of the working class in a sidewalk cafe, the author(s) humorously, sometimes sarcastically, reveal surprisingly accurate secrets of the Vietnamese Communist Party and its past and present leaders. Detail accounts of treacherous and immoral records of various Vietnamese communist leaders, along with names of dead and living witnesses, have been made known to the public for the first time. Current political moves within the Party Politburo itself appear on the Saigonese before the rest of the foreign and official domestic press catches up weeks later.
It is widely believed that the Saigonese staff includes a number of current and former high-ranking Party cadres. The Party expectedly has tried to stamp out the paper since its start. In the last three months, the Standing Board of the Politburo has joined the effort to hunt down this paper and threatened to punish any Party member involved with this publication.
After enduring constant dangers to circulate 27 issues, the Saigonese staff is now forced to temporarily disperse to evade the current manhunt.
Following is the translation of the Party's order to top Party bodies in Hanoi and other major cities regarding the Saigonese.
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Vietnamese Communist Party
Central Committee Office
No. 998-CV/VPTU
Hanoi, November 1, 1996
To:
- Party Committees in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Quang Nam-Da
Nang, Thua Thien-Hue.
- The Central Committee on Ideology and Culture, the Central Committee
on Organization, the Central Committee on Training, the Central Committee
on Internal Political Security, the Central Committee on Inspection, the
Central Committee on Internal Administration.
- Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Culture and Information,
the Post and Telegraph Agency.
In the recent past, the documents, titled "The Saigonese", have appeared in many places. These illegal documents contain very reactionary contents. They distort and assault Party and State policies; and make false accusations against a number of Party leaders. Their aim is to divide the Party ranks and to instigate opposition against our Party and our regime.
Their ploy of distribution is to use fax machines to send these documents to a number of our military units, state agencies, schools, etc. Many of these offices have reported and turned in these documents to the authority for appropriate actions.
The Standing Board of the Politburo asks of you, comrades, to:
- Educate cadres and Party members to heighten their vigilance. Immediately upon discovering this document as well as other reactionary documents, they must submit these documents to Public Security agencies. They must not read, pass on, duplicate, distribute these documents; they must not allow the detrimental effect of these documents to spread out.
- Try to uncover and deal seriously with anyone that intentionally keeps, duplicates, or illegally distributes these reactionary documents.
Per order of the Standing Board of the Politburo, you, comrades, are now informed.
Office Director
Phan Dien (Signed)