In May 2013, Vietnamese courts imposed heavy sentences on two patriotic students in their early 20s who had been charged with “speaking ill of China.” These charges touched the most sensitive nerve in the nation’s psyche — our patriotism and spirit of nationalism — and publicly exposed the government’s shady collusion with foreign aggressors.
Vietnam’s
greatest tragedy is that the illusion of a common socialist ideology
has been used by the Vietnamese government as an excuse to allow Chinese
expansionism to run rampant and to stifle democracy, censor and
suppress information, and psychologically terrorize its citizens.
Earlier this week, the police in Hanoi broke up an anti-China
demonstration and sent the organizers to jail.
We Vietnamese are rightfully proud of building and defending our nation
for thousands of years despite its perilous position, bordering a
gigantic neighbor that has never abandoned its expansionist dream of
devouring Vietnam. We endured 1,000 years of Chinese occupation. During
that long and painful night, China constantly sought to assimilate the
Vietnamese people. But they failed.
Vietnam fought off the Mongols in the 13th century and defeated other
foreign aggressors during the 15th, 18th and 20th centuries. Our
character was forged by these ferocious struggles. Yet today, in
defiance of international law and trampling on principle and morality,
China’s territorial claim stretches into the South China Sea like an ox
tongue trying to swallow up waters that hold in their depths a vast
reserve of petroleum to feed an energy-hungry economy that dreams of
attaining superpower status. It is also a vital maritime artery that
would enable China to achieve its ambitions.
In response to China’s actions, so-called angry feet have pounded
Vietnam’s streets in demonstrations that have united intellectuals and
urban youth. They have been joined by farmers, who have been forced into
lives of poverty because the government, under the banner of people’s
ownership, has expropriated their fields without providing adequate
compensation. Meanwhile, Internet communications networks have sprung up
like mushrooms after a heavy rainstorm, displaying a spirit of
patriotism that ignores all repression.
The people’s anger is rising at a time when Vietnam’s leaders are
showing themselves to be timid and weak. And factional fighting has been
fierce and getting nastier between an anti-Chinese camp and the more
doctrinaire old guard.
The “socialist-directed market economy” that Vietnam’s leaders now talk
about is vague and unclear. They are trying to cling to a political
system that is outdated. If it hadn’t been for the market reforms of the
1980s, centralized planning would have driven Vietnam’s economy to the
brink of collapse. However, those economic reforms stalled because there
was no accompanying political reform. Our leaders never built a state
that was governed by the rule of law and enjoyed a genuine civil
society.
In the wake of its victory over the United States in the 1970s, Vietnam
gained the sympathy, respect and admiration of peace-loving people
around the world. But because our leaders insisted on maintaining a
moribund political system and a dogmatic ideology, Vietnam’s economic
fortunes declined and our government became the target of international
criticism for its repression of democracy and violations of human
rights.
Vietnamese leaders became overly subservient to China, falling out of
the orbit of democracy and far behind the rest of the world, a world
into which Vietnam now desperately needs to integrate itself so that it
can grow and develop.
China’s leaders long ago discarded socialism for an unbridled right-wing
capitalist system that nourishes the expansionist dreams that their
forefathers never abandoned. And Vietnam’s leaders are using the smoke
screen of shared socialist ideology to protect their own hold on power.
Their hypocritical words about being friendly neighbors are a farce.
To protect a small political elite and vested interest groups, our
leaders have turned their backs on the people. A number of
intellectuals, including me, have put forward a series of petitions to
enshrine human rights protections in the Constitution and make it
genuinely democratic. Yet our proposals have been met only with insults
and slanders in government-controlled newspapers.
Our leaders must recognize that the confluence of patriotic opposition
to foreign aggression and demands for democracy and human rights will
lead to dramatic and unpredictable changes. The more the Vietnamese
government employs violence and repression, the more it reveals its own
inhumanity.
A leader who has a firm understanding of this new situation, rapidly
responds to the people’s will and places the national interest above all
else will receive popular support as well as the sympathy of Vietnam’s
friends abroad.
If, however, in their effort to hang on to their crumbling thrones, our
leaders turn their backs on the people, if they hide behind the tenets
of an outdated ideology, if they stubbornly cling to an obsolete model
of anti-democratic governance and lead our nation into a blind alley
from which there is no escape, their demise will be inevitable.
*Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/opinion/vietnams-angry-feet.html?_r=0
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