On May 01, 1998, a group of 11 life-long 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 Vietnamese Communist Party 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).

Even though the letter has been well-circulated in the Vietnamese underground press, most readers are still impressed by the authors' bravery by declaring their names and addresses at the end of the letter. Their collective action now affects 11 families and many of their friends and acquaintances.

Following are excerpts of the main sections of this letter.

Hanoi, May 01, 1998

Subject:

To carry out Directive 14 of the Politburo, issued on May 15, 1998, and other Orders since May 01, 1998, [we propose] the following comrades should lead the way in declaring their properties and income as examples for the Capital and the nation to follow:

- Comrade Pham The Duyet, Standing Member of the VIII Politburo, Member of the X National Assembly representing Hai Duong province.
- Comrade Dinh Hanh, Standing Member of the Hanoi Party Committee, Vice-Chairman of the City People's Committee, Member of the X National Assembly representing Soc Son district.

Respectfully sent to:
- Comrade Le Kha Phieu, Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party, and other comrades of the VIII Politburo,
- Comrade Phan Van Khai, Prime Minister of the Government
- Comrade Le Xuan Tung, Secretary of Hanoi Party Committee
- Comrade Hoang Van Nghien, Standing Member of Hanoi Party Committee, Chairman of Hanoi City People's Committee.

Also respectfully sent to:
- Comrade Tran Duc Luong, President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
- Comrade Nong Duc Manh, Chairman of the X National Assembly
- Comrade Director of the Supreme People's Inspectorate
- Comrade Inspector-General of the Government
- Uncle Pham Van Dong, former Adviser of the Party

Dear Comrades,

We, the Veterans, Senior Revolutionaries, and Families with Sacrificed Soldiers, who want to carry on the task of corruption elimination, started by our senior cadres, would like to bow our heads before the altar of comrades that sacrificed their lives on the line of duty while fighting against corruption. We also would like to express our sympathy and appreciation to anyone who are suffering like us because they dared to fight corruption and raise their voice in defense of the effort to reform and open the economy managed by the government in the direction of Socialism; [who are suffering] because they always struggle to defend the prestige and the absolute leadership of the Party, to maintain a moral nation and a fair and civilized society, and to protect people's legitimate interests. [For all that effort,] they have been beaten and incarcerated for no reasons; their houses destroyed; their salaries and bonuses cut or reduced; their names marred. And most painful for them is being disciplined and expelled by comrade Pham The Duyet's Party Committee !!!

Dear Comrades, we started with the implementation of Decision 240 against corruption, which the National Assembly confirmed as "the national problem of internal invasion", and continued till the end of the terms of the VII Party Congress and the XI Hanoi City Party Conference. Like people in Thai Binh, Hanoi residents steadfastly and continuously tried to overcome the barriers set forth by the administrative offices, to seek out, and send many documents directly to the leaders of the Party and the Government at the Central Offices and in Hanoi. [These documents describe] the incidents and individuals in power who had been corrupted and had taken advantages of the loopholes in the government management and "the Party's indecisiveness and procrastination" to confuse the system [for their benefit]. They used gangsters to pressure others. They intentionally violated the laws, allocated land illegally, sold public land, annexed pieces of land from sites with historical, cultural, or religious value, even other citizens' land. They built houses arbitrarily, even within the safety clearance area of the Yen Phu and Nhat Tan dikes. They took and sold land already slotted for national projects and pocketed the proceeds !

At times, when the revenge pressure from the corruption force were too much to bear, we requested to meet directly with comrades of the Politburo, uncle Pham Van Dong, comrade Pham The Duyet, comrade Le Xuan Tung, comrade Hoang Van Nghien to report the situation along with evidence of corruption committed.

Dear Comrades, throughout the period from 1991 to this day (the term of comrade Pham The Duyet as Secretary of the XI Hanoi Party Committee) all of the letters, petitions, and complaints sent to higher levels were "thanked and filed away" or sent back to the district or local level for resolution! Some of these cases reached conclusion, not due to the decisiveness of the Standing Board of the City's Party Committee, but because of people's insistence on a legal judgment. In general, however, most of the sentences were just suspended ones. Some of the cases required prison terms but the City "pretended not to know" so the convicted could get away without serving time.

......

In short, negative incidents took place in Capital Hanoi quite often, very substantially, and very seriously. They exist in all realms: economy, politics, cultural and social activities, cadres organization, and security. We documented and sounded the alarm timely on each incident, and on each of these "domestic betrayers". For years, we have sent these documents to various levels of authorities. They must weigh hundreds of kilograms. Stacking up, the column of the documents must be as high as a 5, 6-years-old child. We still keep copies of these papers. If the Politburo wants them as references to identify the properties and income of the corrupted officials in Hanoi, starting with comrades Pham The Duyet and Dinh Hanh, we are ready to provide.

Dear Comrades, fighting corruption is, indeed, difficult and strenuous. At times and in certain places, it was deadly ! Despite our evidence, which was widely and enthusiastically supported by the people, if we brought up these incidents at the Party cell meetings before being instructed by the Party leadership to do so, we quickly got criticized by the Party Committee under comrade Pham The Duyet as undisciplined and causing internal conflicts ! And then came disaster ! We were immediately harassed psychologically and threatened of revenge ! All of us have been threatened. Some of our comrades were forced to sell hundreds of square meters of their yards to these officials. Other comrades' houses were repeatedly vandalized as warnings. Some comrades were sought out and expelled from the Party. It was comrade Pham The Duyet who signed the expulsion papers based on recommendation from the same corrupted local Party Committees. Seeing such consequences, people were really afraid and Party members withdrew back to silence. We tried to appeal these decisions for a long time without result and gave up at least for now. ...... Dear Comrades, even though the new laws only exist on paper at this point, we, along with the people, already have our hearts warmed up with hope. We feel the relief of the breeze after a long humid summer day. With such hope, we realize our obligation to help the Party and the Government wherever needed. Everyone, particularly families with their land and properties being robbed, are looking forward to the day these laws take effect to stop the "domestic betrayers" from defacing our Party everywhere. Dear Comrades, we hope that the Party Central [Committee] will help the Standing Board of Hanoi's Party Committee first of all. They need to seriously review their errors in personnel management that have spoiled rows of cadres in Hanoi. Following are some concrete cases: 1. The case of Duong Ngoc Do, "expert" in violating ordinances regarding the Yen Phu and Nhat Tan dikes, and taking land in Ba Dinh district [for personal use]. People detested him and other Party members refused to elect him to the position of Secretary of the district Party Committee. Comrade Pham The Duyet and the Standing Board of the City Party Committee, however, directly protected, kept and assigned him to the current position of Chairman of the Ba Dinh district People's Committee.

2. The case of Do Thanh Con, Member of the Leading Board of the City's Party Committee and Secretary of the Tu Liem district's Party Committee. He was charged by the people of being deeply involved in corruption. (Like the two previously dismissed Chairmen the this district's People Committee: Ngo Van Nau and Nguyen Quy Loc). Even cadres from the Offices of the district Party Committee and People's Committee have been documented [for corruption]. Many internal conflicts [with local people] have arisen but the Standing Board of the City Party Committee has continued covering up for him; even allowed him to organize a mid-term conference at Nghia Do to bring Cao Van Le, a thug and corrupted Public Security station chief who beat even public servants while doing their duties, into the City Party Committee.

3. The case of Ngo Van Ngoc, who abuses power for corruption to the level of devils' skill. People strongly hated him but comrade Pham The Duyet and the Standing Board of the City Party Committee directly sponsored him at the district conference and assigned him to the Secretary of the Hai Ba Trung district to this day.

4. [The authorities of] a number of wards within the Thanh Tri district have, from 1990 to 1994, neglected their duty of managing the use of land and reporting their budgets. They violated the government regulation on the management of the state's properties. There are indications of crime committed. In many suburban wards, the laws are not carried out justly. Many criminals got away without being punished. Meanwhile, cadres and honest Party members who abide by the government's policies and the Party's laws, and fight against corrupted officials, were harassed and threatened.

Such protracted problem of corruption has affected the production capability of wards Yen So, Thanh Liet, Linh Nam, etc. where millions of square meters of farming land have been left unused. Many natural lakes, fish ponds, and low rice fields were filled up with soil ostensibly to grow industrial trees. The land, however, was not used for such purpose but later sold back and forth. At Vinh Tuy, for example, the ward People's Committee approved 625 exchanges of 73,932 square meters of land and collected a fee of 3 million dongs from each transaction as contribution to the infrastructure. The total amount collected was 963 million dongs. Other income from the land from [the beginning of] 1990 to second quarter of 1995 was more than 15,460 million dongs. None of these collections were permitted by the higher authorities. [Another example], the People's Committee of Thanh Tri district issued 72 land-use certificates to people from the City coming to Vinh Tuy to buy land for farming. It was written clearly in these certificates that the land was bought on credit. On September 05, 1996 the Court of Hanoi tried 14 cases of Red Certificates (the land-use permits) to collect a balance of 1.274 billion dongs for the State. The remaining 58 cases were assigned to the [authorities] of the Thanh Tri district for further enforcement. Almost 2 years have passed since and these cases remain unsolved.

After the Party's Eighth Congress, comrade Secretary General Le Kha Phieu signed Order 21 asking all branches and all levels to resolve piled-up cases in rural areas. The Prime Minister signed Order 979 asking all branches and all levels to resolve the remaining cases by the end of the first quarter of 1998. The three Party cells at ward Vinh Tuy were well aware of the local situation, these orders, and the demands from the ward Party Committee and district Thanh Tri's Party Committee of them to carry out such orders. Nevertheless, the Ward and the Standing Board of the district Party Committee still ordered others to hold the Local Party Conference first. [Members] of the party cells timely reported [this defiance] to the Central Committee and City Party Committee. Their reports, however, were sent back to the district for resolution. The result is a number of party-members were retaliated.

How long will it take before such method of working can solve the remaining problems and to build a robust society and prosperous people ?!

5. The case of To Huy Rua, who planted fake border posts when the section of highway 32 near the old propaganda training school was widened to trick families of cadres to move away. The extra land was then sold to families of our adversaries for profit

......

[To Huy Rua], though not elected [by local party cells], was included in the list of candidates and assigned to the VIII Central Committee. We know the Politburo has the privilege of making special endorsement, but we don't understand why it nominated such a treacherous party member who lacked character and proper perspectives but was full of mistakes, often accused of corruption, and prone to revenge. [With such assignment] how could the Party's and Government's machinery be cleansed and the "national tragedy and the internal betrayers" be stopped ? That is the very reason why the Party's and the Government's machinery are getting increasingly weaker every day !

We hope that the Politburo and the Standing Board of the City Party Committee will look deep into this matter and firmly define the identity and psyche of these corrupted-yet-powerful officials. They do not only fill their greedy bags but also continuously cover up and build up their networks, improve their method ever more sophisticated, and resist any anti-corruption attempts. They love to see the corruption [legal] cases being dragged out and eventually losing interest. They only give up their positions if there are lots of rewards and no investigation in exchange. They want to enjoy both the fame and the illegal spoils with their families.

We should also pay special attention to the mentality that "the Father sacrifices to build up the heritage for the Son". This is the most die-hard breed. They hold on to the end, never confess. Nothing can stop them but the laws and a determination [to enforce the laws].

.....

We are ready to help the Politburo if needed [in the investigation]. We still trust and thus will help comrade Le Xuan Tung, Secretary of Hanoi City Party Committee, if he wants ... to rise and order a cleanup of the entire party system to wash away the shame on the XI [City Party Committee] and Capital Hanoi.

......

From the wish to carry out the issued Orders, we petition the Politburo to start with comrade Pham The Duyet, and the Standing Board of Hanoi City Party Committee to start with comrade Dinh Hanh. Behind them will be the leaders at the district level and at essential offices of the City; then those leaders at the ward level that have been concluded [as corrupted] by inspectors. For any units that had received lots of complaints from people but have not been inspected, their leading cadres will have to go through the same process. After each of these task is done, we should summon cadres of three levels to announce the result as an example for the entire city and the country.

......

Why do we dare to ask the Party and Government to ask comrades Duyet and Hanh to declare their properties and income ? The reason is simple and responsible. We have plenty of evidence on these two comrades. Moreover, "Party members must lead so people will follow". "If the top is evil, the bottom has riot". [Discipline goes from the top down] and not in reverse ! Beside their responsibilities for the City's prolonged problems and mistakes, they also committed many personal violations. At this time, we just introduce a few and request the VII Politburo and the XII Standing Board of the City Party Committee look into the situation based on the following documents:

1. Conclusive report number 31, dated February 14, 1992, by the City's State Inspector with the attached list of 83 out of 92 people who were improperly given land in Nghia Do. The land has not been recovered.

2. Warning number 712 , dated May 15, 1995, by the People's Supreme Inspectorate with two supplements listing the illegally exchanged land and money that presented a great loss to the City and the State. Comrade Chairman of the City People Committee issued official response number 1382, dated June 09, 1996, to accept the wrongdoing and promise to correct the problems.

3. Conclusive report number 03, dated February 12, 1995, by the State Inspector General with the list of 25 people that built not according to the permits or without permits, and so violating the regulations to maintain a safety clearance along the dikes Yen Phu and Nhat Tan.

4. We also have the combined report from all districts and lower units, dated May 19, 1996, with a list of hundreds of cadres and party members that violated the laws, abused power for illegal activities and bribes.

With just these summary documents, we already see the City has lost a lot of land (millions and millions of square meters) and thousands of billions dongs in land sale and land taxes. We haven't told many other cases yet.

Those are the [shortcomings] in public responsibilities of comrades Pham The Duyet and Dinh Hanh. The condition of their private houses and lands is as follows:

A. Comrade Pham The Duyet:

1. Upon arriving in Hanoi, he was provided housing at the Labor Union Federation Housing Complex at Trung Tu ward.
2. After ascending to the Politburo, he moved to the current house at 64 Hang Bong Nhuom street.
3. He recently took another house at 26 Trai Gang street, Thanh Nhan ward, Hai Ba Trung district for his children.
4. He had another 2-stories tile-roof house built on an area of hundreds of square meter near Ba Mau Lake according to Decision number 03. The project is now left unfinished.
5. And so on.

[You should ask] where he got that much money for the construction and why the project was left unfinished.

B. Comrade Dinh Hanh:

1. He worked for the Finance Ministry and so was assigned to the Housing Complex at 12 Hang Than street.
2. He replaced comrade Truong Tung as Vice-Chairman of the City People's Committee; signed 37 land assignment decisions to people that were ineligible to receive; and took another house at 5 Trai Gang street, Hai Ba Trung district for his children.
3. He took a piece of land of 60 square meters at alley 12, Doi Can ward, Ba Dinh district to build a multi-stories house.
4. While making decision on land distribution in Gia Lam district, he bought cheap for himself 300 square meters of land in Lam Du, Bo De district.
5. And so on.

Dear Comrades, Hanoi, where all central offices of the Party and Government reside, must be the example for the whole nation. Like cadres and party members in Thai Binh, we have overcome many barriers and the Party's bureaucracy trying to access and alert cadres at central and local levels about the negative incidents with documents, photos, and even cassette tapes.

[Despite our efforts], for the last 8 years (with the VII Central Committee and the XI City Party Committee in place) Hanoi under comrade Pham The Duyet, who run the City on behalf of the Politburo, and under comrade Vo Van Kiet, who also is the Prime Minister, has witnessed so many earth shaking and morale destroying incidents:

[... a long list of corruption-related incidents ...]

We know "the truth hurts" but we know we have to make it known. Please accept and look into what we have to say.

.....

If you agree with us, we hope the comrades of the VIII Politburo will bring this issue to the current National Assembly and allow them time to discuss, or bring it to the V meeting of the Politburo.

We hope the VIII Politburo will approve our suggestion in this letter. From the lessons learned in Thai Binh province, in Tho Da Dong Anh, Hanoi, and particularly the still-hot lesson on declaration of officials' properties and income in Dac Lac province, [we should] ask comrade Pham The Duyet and Dinh Hanh to declare theirs first as examples for the entire city and the nation. Such action can only benefit the Party on many fronts. First, it regains for the Party the trust of all members and the people. It also helps collect the money and land that were stolen. The recovered properties will be added to the needed capital to rebuild the country and to eradicate poverty.

.....

Finally, we hope that you will have action in parallel with your speeches. That is the value of the communists. If they do the opposite or ridicule [others' advice], they will be cursed for years to come.

Upon receiving this letter, please give us some kind of confirmation or reply to us. Even though such is just a common administrative procedure, it will increase people's trust and prove that administrative reform does exist.

We wish the Politburo and Uncle Advisor Pham Van Dong lots of health, happiness in your families, and determined leadership to start reaping good result from this day (May 01, 1998) on, with the first Order that comrade Pham The Duyet and Dinh Hanh must declare their properties and income.

People and party members like us await with hope.

Respectfully Yours,

We, the undersigned, are responsible [for what being said here]. We earnestly request to meet directly with the Politburo or the Standing Committee of the National Assembly to present further details pertaining matters in this letter. For your convenience, please send confirmation or reply to the address at 37 Hang Buom street.

List of signatures:

1. Doan Nhan Dao - Elder Revolutionary Cadre, with 48 years of Party membership. Residence: 37 Hang Buom street, Hoan Kiem district. (Signed)

2. Dang Thi Xuan Tien - Political Prisoner at Nha Tien, with 51 years of Party membership. Active party member at Dong Da district. Residence: number 27, group 1, bloc 7, Nghia Do, Cau Giay. (Signed)

3. Nguyen Thi Luong - Resistant at Hoang Dieu Fort. Mother of Sacrificed Soldier. Residence: group 4, Nghia Do ward, Cau Giay-Tu Liem district. (Signed)

4. Nguyen Thi Thuan - Resistant at Hanoi Fort. Political prisoners at Hoa Lo in 1948. Residence: 82 Lac Long Quan street, Buoi ward, Tay Ho- Ba Dinh district. (Signed)

5. Pham Van Phieu - Veteran from the Vanguard Division, with 50 years of Party membership. Residence: 130 Mai Hac De street, Hai Ba Trung district. (Signed)

6. Dao Van Giap - Soldier in the National Defense Revolutionary League. Political prisoner. Family with sacrificed soldier. Residence: Hai Ba Trung district. (Signed)

7. Ha Van Thinh - War Invalid, with 47 years of Party membership. Residence: 151, Phan Hoa district, Cau Giay-Tu Liem district. (Signed)

8. Nguyen Huu Hoang - Retired Major, Elder Revolutionary, with 50 years of Party membership. Residence: house T5, group 23, bloc 4, ward Kim Ma, Cau Giay-Tu Liem district. (Signed)

9. Nguyen Doan - War Invalid. Family with sacrificed soldier. Residence: 83, Phan Hoa ward, Cau Giay-Tu Liem district. (Signed)

10. Duong Van Loi - Retired Colonel, with 36 years of Party membership. Residence: Vinh Tuy ward, Thanh Tri district. (Signed).

11. Nguyen Van Binh - Member of the Vanguard Youth against the French and Americans. War Invalid, with 44 years of Party membership, working at Periodical Department of the Ho Chi Minh National Institutes (former Propaganda Training School). (Signed)