Radio Free Asia, Vietnam Update
August 1, 2000
Washington, D.C. - Radio Free Asia (RFA) has obtained a letter written by Vietnamese senior statesman Le Gian criticizing the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) for condoning improper conduct by public security personnel.
The letter is dated May 31, 2000 and is addressed to the Politburo. Its author, Le Gian, 88, was one of the earliest members of the Indochinese Communist Party, which he joined five years before Vo Nguyen Giap and Pham Van Dong. When Ho Chi Minh formed the first independent government of Vietnam in 1945, Le Gian was given the mission of creating the first public security and intelligence network for the new state. As such, he is one of the few first-generation Vietnamese communists whose voice the leadership cannot afford to ignore.
Giving his address at No. 8 Nguyen Thuong Hien Street, Hanoi, Le Gian wrote that in preparing for the Ninth Party Congress scheduled for spring 2001, he hopes that the Politburo would "pay attention to promoting democracy, respect freedom of thought, be modest and sincere, and canvas as wide a spectrum of opinions as possible."
"In particular," he wrote, "[the Politburo] should invite intellectuals, who may not be Party members, to come and contribute their ideas repeatedly - and not just for the sake of appearance - and it should not be afraid of their different ideas. For we must say that our theoretical work in the last few years is still very narrow-minded, dogmatic, partisan, and backward, thus contributing nothing to strengthening the leadership of the Party."
He continued, "I learned recently that the Hanoi Public Security Force arrested the scientist [Nguyen] Thanh Giang and proceeded to restrict all his activities, including confiscating his computer and his photocopying machine, causing a very bad impression both inside and outside of Vietnam.
"Recently, also," he wrote, "the public security people of Lam Dong province [took] procedural first steps to charge the intellectual named Ha Si Phu, born Nguyen Sinh Tu, without any precise basis for such a move. Improper conduct like that is useless; it only contributes to severely damaging the Party's prestige both inside and outside of Vietnam.
"My suggestion is that the Central Committee on Internal Control get together with the Public Security Branch and the People's Organs of Control to stop at once illegalities as described above."
On the conduct of the courts, Le Gian also said that Party cadres are unhappy with the way the judiciary branch is operating.
"Why is it that [the judiciary branch] has not reached a correct conclusion to the 'Strange Trial' case of Hoan Kiem District in Hanoi? Public opinion was very critical of the attitude of Comrade Trinh Hong Duong when he was asked about this by the National Assembly delegates.
"Why is it that the Thang Long Water Pavilion case has not been tried and that it has been allowed to drag for years?
"Why is it that the execution of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hiep was allowed to proceed, involving a Canadian citizen which has impacted very negatively our relations with Canada?"
"Could it be," Le Gian concluded, "that this link - internal security and the judiciary - is at present the weakest link in the leadership of our Center?"
It should be noted that Le Gian did not feel it necessary to describe details of the cases cited because these are extremely well-known instances of corruption and mismanagement that in recent years have caused enormous damage to the prestige of the government in Hanoi. Nguyen Thi Hiep, for instance, was a Vietnamese-Canadian caught in a drug-running operation between Hanoi and Canada. She was given the death sentence but because the Canadian authorities suspected that she had been framed, they asked that Hanoi stay the execution. Despite promises to do so, Hanoi went ahead and executed her by firing squad. Ottawa cut off all aid and ministerial-level bilateral relations with Hanoi, freezing Vietnamese-Canadian relations at their lowest point in recent decades.
The Thang Long Water Pavilion scandal was a vast multi-million real estate scam involving over 200,000 square meters of choice land in the middle of Hanoi. The scandal implicated some of the top-ranking Party members in Hanoi and reached all the way to Politburo member Pham The Duyet, one of the most powerful figures in the country. Some of these cadres have been demoted recently, but no official conclusion has been reached by the court or made public to defuse rumors regarding this particular scandal.