Cambodia-Vietnam relations reconsidered

Should Cambodia-Vietnam Ralations be reconsidered?

Introduction: As in the former Soviet Union, and China, Vietnam is inevitably following the same pressure for changes into a more open society and more market-oriented economy. The set of articles posted below provides a glimpse of that new but certain direction toward which Vietnam is slowly moving into. It is interesting to note that the Bush Administration has now welcome Vietnam into America's economic and political sphere of influence.

That is why the American Administration under G W Bush is now so close to Hun Sen, because they know full well that Hun Sen is Vietnam's ally, or more realistically a puppet of Vietnam.

If this trend of political and economic opening is confirmed and reinforced in the future, Cambodia may stand to benefit from this sea-change in Vietnam, provided that Cambodia can come up with a real leader who is capable, caring, honest, and democratic, which Hun Sen is not capable and willing to fulfill.

Eastern Europe had benefited a great deal from the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Cambodia, could stand to gain, likewise. But, Hun Sen must go, as well as Sihanouk and his royal family, before this situation could benefit the majority of Cambodian people.

Now, having said what I just said, I am fully aware that there are those Cambodians (the majority) who have been shouting so loudly that they are ready to kill all the Vietnamese in Cambodia (Such as Kirirom, from Australia). By being so irrationally and uncontrollably in their emotion, they don't even realize that by behaving in this manner, they would not only make themselves look racists, but makes the whole Cambodia community look racist and narrow-minded.

However, I do hope that there are enough decent Cambodians left in the world, who would stand up and think seriously about this important issue, as the Vietnamese-Americans are now doing in this country to try to counter Bush's irrational and dangerous foreign policy.

If Cambodian-Americans are smart, they would come out for the democrats who will probably win the next presidential election. They should form a group of Cambodian-Americans to support any of the main front-runners of the democratic party, be it Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or John Edwards. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. June 22, 2007.

Changing times for Vietnam politics

By Bill Hayton

BBC News, Vietnam

Vietnam's National Assembly has approved an important leadership change, voting 92% in favour of new Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and 94% in favour of new President Nguyen Minh Triet.

The two men's paths to power were assured at the Communist Party Congress, held at the end of April, when they came third anf fourth in elections to the ruling Politburo.

They were beaten only by the most powerful man in the country - the Secretary General of the Communist Party, Nong Duc Manh - and the Public Security Minister Le Hong Anh.

Their success reflects a genuine popularity among the party's activists.

Mr Triet [pronounced chee-yet] has a reputation as a strong campaigner against corruption.

While head of the Communist Party in the country's business capital Ho Chi Minh City, he led a campaign against the gangster known as Nam Cam which also brought down many local politicians and officials.

He is also a supporter of greater economic liberalisation.

Vietnam's economy is growing at more than 7% per year, but some analysts argue it could grow much faster if more state industries were privatised and restrictive rules and regulations were removed.

In contrast to his predecessor, Mr Triet is expected to take a more active role in politics, using the prestige of his position to win support for more business-friendly policies.

Mr Dung [pronounced zu-ung] is also seen as an economic reformer.

He has had a very rapid rise to power - 10 years ago he was the youngest person ever elected to the Politburo.

He worked his way up through the internal security apparatus before becoming head of the Central Bank and most recently one of three deputy prime ministers.

Mr Dung is regarded as an effective political operator, something which is vital for a prime minister in Vietnam who will have to bring different factions within the ruling party together if he is to have any success.

Challenges ahead

For the first time since the country was unified after the end of the war 30 years ago, the country's head of state and government are both from the south.

It is a sign of two things. Firstly, that the importance of the south - both as a source of economic growth but also talent and ideas - is increasing more and more. Business people there are pushing for ever greater deregulation.

NEW FACES

Nguyen Tan Dung, 56

Groomed for top by outgoing PM Phan Van Khai

Army background suggests politically conservative

Southerner thought to favour more economic reform

Nguyen Minh Triet, 63

Party chief in Ho Chi Minh City, reputed to favour economic openness

Was in charge when underworld figure Nam Cam tried and executed

It also suggests the Party is prepared to appoint those it considers the best people for the job - without the traditional efforts to balance appointments between the north, south and centre.

The two men are relatively young. The people they have replaced were in their late 60s and 70s.

Mr Triet is 63 and Mr Dung is only 56. They were in their 20s during the war against the United States, in their 30s under state socialism and in their 40s when Vietnam's economic reform programme known as Doi Moi began in 1986.

In other words they were educated in very different times to today - politically and economically.

They also experienced the crisis which forced Vietnam to open up to the world and recognise that, even for a communist state, international economic integration is now the only alternative to the isolation suffered by North Korea or the underdevelopment endured by neighbouring Laos.

Politics in Vietnam is driven by consensus, and it is the Communist Party which forms that consensus and the government which implements its policies.

However, the two men will have considerable influence in how those policies are decided.

They will have to use all their political skills to overcome resistance from those in the Party who object to further privatisations and deregulation.

They are under pressure to tackle corruption and reduce inequality - two consequences of economic growth running at over 7% a year.

They will also have to respond to demands for greater accountability and openness in politics and society more widely. It will be a challenge.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/5121496.stmy

Communist debate grips Vietnam

By Nguyen Giang

BBC Vietnamese Service

In Vietnam, February and March are supposed to be a good time for relaxation, after the exuberant Lunar New Year.

But Vietnamese media have been absorbed since the end of January in a difficult and sensitive debate - over the leadership of the Communist Party, or rather a lack of it.

Online news services and newspapers have run discussion forums and printed articles containing questions which were impossible to ask a few years ago.

The debate had become so heated that the party's newspaper has recently stepped in to try to prevent it from "running in a dangerous and harmful way".

It all began early this year with a formal request by the party leadership for people's views on its political platform in the run-up to its 10th National Congress, expected to take place in the next few months.

This has provided a rare opportunity for many intellectuals, journalists, lawyers and even government officials to criticise what is perceived to be widespread corruption and abuse of power by a number of the party mandarins.

For example, economist Bui Kien Thanh said on a webcast talk show on Vietnamnet, one of the country's leading online news services, that "if the party is genuinely serious about democracy, they must allow Vietnamese people to choose their political leadership".

Pluralism has worked well in economy over the last 20 years, now it's time to try political pluralism too; Le Cong Dinh, lawyer

Another guest speaker, Nguyen Dinh Luong, also made very direct comments, saying: "There have been many lies about the government's economic achievement, and in general, a lot of political diseases in the system, due to bad policies and poor leadership."

Nguyen Dinh Luong is no dissident, but a high government official who represented Vietnam at the US-Vietnamese Trade Agreement negotiations some years back.

In the south, pro-reformist Tuoi Tre newspaper has launched a series of articles by Nguyen Trung, a former diplomat and currently an adviser to Prime Minister Phan Van Khai.

These have criticised "lack of democracy" in the party, and claim it has lost its direction after two decades of economic reforms.

Online users have flooded Tuoi Tre's forum with comments about Nguyen Trung's views.

Some have gone so far as to question the party's control over government departments and over almost every aspect of the economy.

The Communist Party of Vietnam currently has a final say in the nomination of all senior government officials to important posts in all ministries and state-owned co-operations, where many corruption cases have recently been investigated.

Gambling scandal

In January, Vietnamese police arrested Bui Tien Dung, a senior government official who was alleged to have bet more than $2m (£1.1m) of state money in illegal football gambling.

Such cases have given the forum participants the opportunity to make their point.

Recently the debate has moved from underground bulletins and online letters by dissidents and religious groups to public life.

And more people have joined the discussion, by sending out letters to the media to call for political change. Some have even called for a pluralistic political system.

Open discussion, through all sorts of letters disseminated around the country, is harmful; Nguyen Duc Binh; Party chief ideologue

"Pluralism has worked well in economy over the last 20 years, now it's time to try political pluralism too," Le Cong Dinh, a lawyer in Ho Chi Minh City, told the BBC's Vietnamese Service.

Such talk must be alarming the conservative faction in the party. In a late February issue of Nhan Dan newspaper, the party's chief ideologue, Nguyen Duc Binh, launched an attack on those who had questioned the principle of socialism.

A better place to discuss socialism and the future of the party, he argued, should be an internal magazine, instead of in the national and regional press.

He said, for example, that a new plan to allow businessmen to join the party was "unnatural".

"Open discussion, through all sorts of letters disseminated around the country, is harmful," he said.

Nguyen Duc Binh's intervention suggests that those expecting a big change in Vietnamese politics may be wrong.

However, modern Vietnam has changed so much that it is difficult for the party to stick to the traditional interpretation of Marxism-Leninism. Do Ngoc Ninh, director of a party think-tank in Hanoi, dismissed Nguyen Duc Binh's view as "his own private opinion".

Twenty years of economic reform have also encouraged a number of young professionals, such as lawyers Le Cong Dinh, Le Quoc Quan and journalist Phan The Hai, to speak out about politics.

And, still in their mid-30s, they can afford to wait for change.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/4766846.stm

Published: 2006/03/02 17:39:52 GMT; © BBC MMVII

Cambodia's long road to justice

(Please, watch this CNN report on the Khmer Rouge Trial and the recent confessions and testimonies by Cambodians who were eyewitnesses to that horror during the Pol Pot years.

The only unfortunate aspect of this video is the fact that it gave too much highlight to the Vietnamese photographer who came in with the invading Vietnamese army. The other negative aspect of this video is the lack of objectivity of the reporter, Dan rivers, by not even mentioning that this trial was totally manipulated by the Vietnamese and Hun Sen to make them look more acceptable to the international community by demonizing the demons, forgetting that it was the Vietnamese who had fostered the birth of the Khmer Rouge movement in Cambodia when Ho Chi Minh created the Indochina Communist Party (ICP) under his total control and for the benefit of Vietnam alone. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. May 2, 2009)

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In 1979 Norng Chan Phal ran through the Khmer Rouge prison S-21 in Phnom Penh as a 9-year-old boy, searching for his mother. He is one of many survivors seeking justice more than 30 years after the Khmer Rouge regime was toppled. Whether that happens remains to be seen. full story

· Dan Rivers: Nation tackles genocide history

· Air times: World's Untold Stories

CNN International: April 30, 2009

http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2009/news/cambodia/

Vietnam forges ahead with US ties

By Giang Nguyen

BBC Vietnamese service

Nguyen Minh Triet has made history this week as the first Vietnamese president to visit the United States since the war ended in 1975. The trip marks a high point in the increasingly cordial relationships between the former enemies.

It also has huge implications for Vietnam at home and abroad. But the president will be hoping that US concerns over human rights in his country do not overshadow his visit.

Things have changes since Mr Triet was a Viet Cong fighter in the jungle - on this trip, he will be received at the White House.

His efforts to promote trade and attract more US investment in Vietnam have proved popular in American business circles, but there is a lot riding on the visit back in Vietnam.

Capitalist reforms

A renowned reformist and business-friendly pragmatist, Mr Triet, 64, and his supporters have spent years building up their political credentials by following a policy of economic liberalisation while holding on to their communist principles.

If they had one, their motto would probably be something like, "the bigger the market, the better" - not just for the party, but also for government officials and their families.

Wealth is no longer a badge of shame in Communist Vietnam, and last year the government passed legislation allowing its members to be have unlimited involvement in private business, thus dismissing a major piece of socialist dogma.

The downside is that corruption is rampant, and the richest people in Vietnam are often those who are able to use their privileged access to information to manipulate the property market and export quotas, and who acquire millions of dollars-worth of shares in newly privatised enterprises.

This week, a former Vietnamese deputy trade minister, Mai Van Dau, was given a 12-year sentence for bribery relating to US textile quotas.

His son, 35 year-old Mai Thanh Hai, will serve a five-year sentence for using his father's influence to extort $35,000 from garment companies, and for using a fake university diploma to secure his ministry post.

Domestic support

A successful visit to the US will further strengthen Mr Triet's vision of a strong, authoritative Vietnam supported by Washington and international financial institutions.

Experts such as J Peter Pham of the James Madison University in Virginia also believe the US has a unique opportunity to make Vietnam a valuable ally in possible future attempts by Washington to control Chinese expansion.

We want the US government to engage more with Hanoi to give them more chance to relax political freedoms; Thai Van Tran; Californian State Assembly

The visit to the White House will certainly help Mr Triet weaken the so-called Northern Faction, which is keen on a closer relationship with China and resistant of efforts to reform the party apparatus.

The group is reportedly run from behind the Vietnamese political scene by retired leaders such as Do Muoi and Le Duc Anh.

It is represented by the party's Secretary General Nong Duc Manh, who made a friendly visit to Cuba early this month.

Mr Triet clearly hopes that a strong partnership with the US will guarantee political stability for Hanoi in the years to come, and give international legitimacy to the ruling Communist Party.

Such legitimacy could, however, be used as cover when harassing political dissidents.

Human rights concerns

Mr Triet knows that making friends in the US is not easy, and that international criticism of Vietnam's human rights situation will complicate the talks.

The Vietnamese-American community has already staged demonstrations against the visit, and recently US President George Bush has been more outspoken than ever about developing democracy in the world.

He went as far as mentioning Vietnam in a speech at the recent G8 summit in Germany, criticising the state authorities for rolling back earlier "freedom".

In an unusual move designed to address public concerns, Mr Bush invited four American-based Vietnamese human rights activists to the White House in May.

Meanwhile, Vice-President Dick Cheney received letter from Vietnamese dissident Hoang Minh Chinh in Hanoi as recently as 14 June.

Recently, Hanoi was pressured by Washington into releasing Nguyen Vu Binh, a dissident journalist, and Le Quoc Quan, a lawyer who had campaigned for political pluralism.

Pragmatic approach

But there has been a marked change in the mood of the exiled Vietnamese.

Many now believe forging business links with Vietnam is a priority.

Trinh Trung, a businessman in Virginia, told the BBC's Vietnamese service: "Yes, they can talk about human rights and religious freedom every year, but we keep doing business with Vietnam. Freedom is about people's free choice after all."

We need a roadmap. We the Vietnamese are always in a rush to make friends; Thanh Thao; Poet

Others, like Thai Van Tran, a Vietnamese-born member of the Californian State Assembly, want to promote trade with Hanoi but also want to keep democracy and human rights high on the agenda.

"We want the US government to engage more with Hanoi to give them more chance to relax political freedom," he said.

But some war veterans in Vietnam are concerned about Hanoi's attempts at a rapprochement.

Thanh Thao, a former Viet Cong and poet renowned for his democratic views, warned the leadership not to make friends with Washington too fast and at all costs.

"We need a roadmap. We the Vietnamese are always in a rush to make friends," he said.

Talking on an overseas Vietnamese website to fellow writers, Thanh Thao said he wanted the Vietnamese to build a truly "free society" before engaging into a new relationship with the US.

Desire for change

While the Bush administration knows that it cannot ignore the voices of the two-million strong Vietnamese-American community in their dealings with Vietnam, it would be wrong to assume that Mr Bush and his successor will seek to change Vietnamese politics overnight.

Vietnam will remain a mono-party system in the years to come, but a closer relationship with the US will inevitably mean more American influence in the Vietnamese policy-making process.

And this is exactly what some of the reformists in Hanoi want.

Nguyen Dinh Luong, Vietnam's former chief negotiator at the WTO, said Vietnam needed to "increase Americanism" in its economy.

In other words, he said, Vietnam can only make the best out of US investments with a deep structural reform and a professional civil servants corps.

Despite the differing views on human rights, democracy and religious freedoms, there has never been so much support for developing mutual trade and a US engagement with Vietnam.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6223030.stm

Published: 2007/06/21 16:17:17 GMT

Reform call by ex-Vietnamese PM

By Giang Nguyen and Xuan Hong

BBC Vietnamese service

The former prime minister of Vietnam, Vo Van Kiet, has urged the Communist Party's leaders to talk to political dissidents.

In a rare interview with the BBC Vietnamese Service, 86-year old Kiet, whose first wife and four children were killed during the Vietnam War, also called for national reconciliation.

His views seem to be at odds with the government's tough policies toward a number of dissidents in recent weeks.

Just a few weeks before Mr Kiet spoke to a BBC Vietnamese reporter in Ho Chi Minh City, a Catholic priest, Father Nguyen Van Ly, was sentenced to eight years in jail.

Two other dissident lawyers are expecting to face trial on 11 May for "anti-government activities".

Most of the dissidents have been advocating non-violent changes to Vietnam's mono-party system.

Mr Kiet, a former Politburo member, said the authorities must not avoid "talking to those who have a different view" on Vietnamese politics, and he added that "the dialogue should be honest".

He warned the government "not to execute administrative measures" in its dealings with the dissidents.

Push for reform

Once a Viet Cong leader in South Vietnam, Mr Kiet was considered the chief architect of the Vietnamese market reforms called Doi Moi in the late 1980s.

The success of Doi Moi, with economic growth of 8-9% annually since the 1990s, helped to make Vietnam a member of the World Trade Organization early this year.

VO VAN KIET

Prime Minister: 1991 - 1997

Seen as a reformer, helped create Doi Moi

Member of Indochinese Communist Party: 1939

Took part in Cochinchina Insurrection: 1940

In Viet-Cong Guerrilla leadership in Saigon's areas before 1975

Party chief of Ho Chi Minh City Committee: 1976

It also led to political challenges for the ruling party.

Many war veterans, intellectuals and professionals have called on the party to reform its own apparatus to tackle corruption and abuse of power for economic benefits.

But the reforms have also strengthened the so-called "reformist faction", widely identified with Mr Kiet and party politicians from the South, including President Nguyen Minh Triet and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

So Mr Kiet's warning about the current leadership's handling of dissidents should not fall on deaf ears.

He even seemed to encourage people to push reform still further, by recognising that Vietnam's "democratisation has made progress, with people now being able to strongly criticise government officials".

He also questioned an orthodoxy that the only true patriots are the Communist Party's members.

"There are a hundred ways of being a patriot. The motherland of Vietnam doesn't belong to one person, one party or one group only," he said.

In a conciliatory tone he recognised the party made "serious mistakes" in the south after 1975, when massive repression by former South Vietnamese government officials and army officers forced 100,000 people to flee the country as "boat people".

Less progressive

Turning to the overseas Vietnamese and their children in the US, Australia and Europe, Mr Kiet said he would welcome them to take part in the parliamentary elections, planned for 20 May.

However, the current leaders, including Mr Kiet's protegés seem to hold a less progressive view towards Vietnamese politics and overseas Vietnamese.

A female dissident, Ms Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, was recently arrested for contacting some Vietnamese human rights organisations in the US, which are accused by Hanoi of "subversive activities".

And as the vice-chairman of parliament, Nguyen Van Yeu, told the press recently, the elections later this month are not about "competing for seats", adding that the National Assembly "must always follow the party's leadership".

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6638347.stm

The Khmer Rouge Trial (KRT) and the Destiny of the Cambodian People.

This site was built: to honor those Cambodians and others who were slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge; to seek real and lasting justice for those who have survived but traumatized and; to give them a better chance for a normal life. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D