Last year, popular anger in Vietnam against official corruption led to large scale rural unrest. Following the protests in Thai Binh province, demonstrations have taken place in other areas with increasing regularity. Recently, another form of protest against official corruption has taken shape with equally ominous consequences for the leadership of the Vietnamese Communist Party.

On May 1, 1998, a group of eleven life long party members sent a letter to top party and government organs raising charges of corruption against a member of the Politburo (Pham The Duyet) and the Vice-Chairman of the Hanoi City People's Committee (Dinh Hanh). The authors detailed six cases of alleged wrongdoing by Pham The Duyet and Dinh Hanh and chronicled the various properties amassed by these two officials over the years. Their letter, titled "From the Hearts to Improve the Party," concluded by challenging the Politburo to force Pham The Duyet and Dinh Hanh to publicly disclose their assets.

Then on July 28, a separate group of ten party cadres also submitted a letter calling for an investigation into the financial dealings of Pham The Duyet and six other top officials, including the Vice-Chairperson of the National Assembly (Truong My Hoa), a cabinet minister (Nguyen Thi Hang), and two deputy heads of the Central Committee's Bureau of Culture and Ideology (Tran Hoan and Dao Duy Quat). This second letter, which was addressed to the Party General-Secretary and the National Assembly Chairman, declared: "At any time you are interested in finding out the crimes committed by the listed individuals, we are ready to meet with you and provide all the supporting evidence."

These letters have been widely circulated underground in Vietnam. Readers, including party officials, have been stunned by the fact that the writers dared to sign their names, list their addresses and petition as a collective group, and that they dared to name senior party officials in the accusations.

The phenomenon of party dissidents attaching their names to bold demands is the clearest indication yet of the erosion in authority of the communist leadership as well as the boiling-over of discontent. Reading the letters, one gets the sense that these individuals have banded together to pledge their "lives, fortune and sacred honor" against the regime's abuse of power. The sheer frankness of the accusations indicate that the indignation and willingness to protest have subsumed the concerns of possible retaliation. Taken together with the outpouring of support in recent months by Vietnamese intellectuals (both within and outside the party) for General Tran Do's calls for political reform, these two events are further signs that an informal opposition inside Vietnam is gathering momentum.

These frank anti-corruption letters pose a serious threat to the leadership of the Communist Party for several reasons.

First, by targeting Pham The Duyet--a member of the Politburo--the letters are precedent setting and, therefore, chip away at the power and prestige of the Party's paramount decision-making body. As a result, more and stronger letters are sure to be issued in the future.

Second, the demands for top party officials to disclose their assets have the potential for dividing the communist party. There will be a temptation in the party to find scapegoats. There will also be a temptation for internal rivalries to spill out into public as each faction rushes to publish the misdeeds of the others.

Third, the fact that Pham The Duyet was singled out carries a special significance. Pham The Duyet, as the right-hand man to Party General-Secretary Le Kha Phieu and the Party's head for mass mobilization, has the task of handling popular unrest. Last year, he was put in charge of assuaging the rural protests in Thai Binh province. More recently, he was given the task of coordinating the Party's attack against Gen. Tran Do. At a time when the Party leadership is struggling to contain the influence of Gen. Tran Do, any diminution in the authority of Pham The Duyet is a reduction in the leadership's ability to repress critics.

The Vietnamese Communist Party and its government have repeatedly declared war on corruption, but the efforts have been cosmetic and lackluster for the simple reason that official corruption sustains the regime. With the pursuit of Marxist-Leninist ideology no longer the raison d'etre of party members, what motivates cadres now is their ability to exploit official positions for private gain. As an instrument of patronage, official corruption bolsters the regime. But official corruption also weakens the credibility of the Party leadership. Vietnamese dissidents have become more sophisticated and courageous in exploiting this weakness.