What challenges await Mr. Nguyen Van Nen in Ho Chi Minh City?

Mr. Nguyen Van Nen, chief of Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam has just been introduced as a candidate for the Party Secretary in Ho Chi Minh City to replace Mr. Nguyen Thien Nhan, right after the 13th Plenum of the party’s Central Committee ended.

Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan handed the decision of the Politburo to Mr. Nguyen Van Nen on October 11

At the same time, blogger Bui Thanh Hieu also reported:

The Chief of the Party Central Office, former security officer Nguyen Van Nen will return to work as secretary of Ho Chi Minh City.

The Ho Chi Minh City Party Congress will elect 4 deputy secretaries, possibly two new, Nguyen Thi Le and Nguyen Ho Hai.

Up to now, it is unclear whether Nguyen Thanh Phong will stay or where to go. This depends on the HCMC party committee.

Notably, Le Hoa Binh, director of the Department of Construction, was selected for the chairman of Ho Chi Minh City in the next term. Relationship traders should take care of Binh from now on to pick the fruit and win big tricks soon.”

Regarding Secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan, the Berlin-based blogger added:

Nguyen Thien Nhan’s political career was quite peaceful, he climbed into the Politburo for two sessions, then retire lightly.

A lot of people like Mr. Nhan, such as Mrs. Tong Thi Phong, Truong Thi Mai, and both Mr. Tran Quoc Vuong and Vo Van Thuong, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Pham Binh Minh, and Nguyen Van Binh, they quietly took seats in the most powerful Politburo, the governing body that governs the country does almost nothing.

That is a terrible waste that the Communist Party of Vietnam never acknowledges. It’s not like they didn’t do anything either, they sat there as the background for the leaders showed.

Secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan participates in sweeping the Rach Lang canal with a large number of photographic reporters reporting

The Politburo is the quintessence of the party, the party is the comprehensive leadership organization of the country. All members of the Politburo should be working hard, must be aggressive, must direct this place and place drastically and strongly, dare to take responsibility when their decisions are wrong. That is worthy of being a member of the Politburo. If someone can’t do that, they should remain as members of the Central Committee, why do they have to go to the Politburo to pay for service costs.

This period, if the Communist Party of Vietnam innovates, so the number of Politburo members should decrease to 5 or 7,” Hieu stated his opinion.

From Saigon on October 12, attorney Tran Quoc Thuan, former permanent vice chairman of the Office of the National Assembly of Vietnam, made some comments to BBC News Vietnamese.

Mr. Nguyen Thien Nhan (right), Member of the Politburo, Secretary of the City Party Committee presented flowers to congratulate Mr. Nguyen Van Nen on October 11, 2020

Mr. Nen’s coming here has been seen and has been rumored for a long time. In the past, Mr. Dinh La Thang was sent to the City Party Committee, after that, Mr. Thang was kicked out and then transferred to prison.”

As for Mr. Nen, likely the ‘brighter character having no scandal, maybe he will stay here, Mr. Nen is from Tay Ninh province.”

However, there is a detail that when he came here to sit as Secretary of the City Party Committee, nowadays there is also Mr. Tran Luu Quang who is also from Tay Ninh. Mr. Quang was sent as the permanent deputy secretary, so it was said that people did not understand why or by chance people said two individuals from Tay Ninh province were sent to lead the HCM City while Tay Ninh is a province that is both lowland and mountainous, different from HCM City, the biggest economic hub in Vietnam.

But there is a fact that Ho Chi Minh City is now tired of the turmoil with the city’s leadership, some are disciplined, others imprisoned, even permanent members of the People’s Committee, then in the leadership of the city Party Committee, some members of the standing committee of City Party Committee were also disciplined.

Former Ho Chi Minh City Secretary Dinh La Thang went to the court in the case of PetroVietnam (PVN) to contribute VND800 billion to Ocean Bank. Recently, Mr. Dinh La Thang continued to be prosecuted for the Phu Tho Ethanol project, which lost thousands of billions of dong

Because of that, the on-site characters that are developed today are almost nonexistent. Therefore, the fact that Mr. Nguyen Van Nen is sent, people accept without objection.”

What big challenge awaits the new Secretary?

Before the question of Mr. Nguyen Van Nen, if you sit in the chair of Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Secretary and hold a whole term, what major challenges might you face, Lawyer Thuan replied:

Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam, it is also a special city, so the Politburo previously met and issued many resolutions on the city, affirming the city is the economic center, the locomotive economy, then the commercial and financial center of the country, this is the largest contributor to the country’s budget.

Indeed, one-third of the country’s budget comes from the source of this city and it is also the most populous city in the country, with the diversity of sectors, economic fields, the most dynamic and creative. But it’s also very complicated at this scale.”

On the other hand, many leaders from this city have been assigned to the Central Government to hold positions such as the prime minister, such as Vo Van Kiet, then Phan Van Khai, including the general secretary. It can be said that the big city has trained such leaders and administrators, so the new Secretary’s work in this city must also meet the expectations.”

However, Mr. Nguyen Van Nen spent a long time at the central level, he used to be chief of the Government Office, and now is Chief of the Party Central Office, before that, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, he probably has learned a lot and learned many things, so I don’t think he was surprised when he went to the city.

Former Secretary Le Thanh Hai caused the Thu Thiem land corruption case that caused hundreds of people to break their doors, mourn over the past 20 years, until now he is still disgraced with the disciplinary sentence of losing his old positions after he retired many years ago, there is nothing more fun than the discipline style of Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong

I think the big challenge waiting for Mr. Nen right now is the Thu Thiem case, how to completely and rationally settle the Thu Thiem case, now there is more the establishment of Thu Duc city, and the requirements on a smart city for Ho Chi Minh City, in addition to ensuring people’s lives and security order, especially continuing to contribute to the country’s budget besides many objective issues and other expectations, including solving problems from before, then that is actually heavy, not simple.”

But I see that Mr. Nen is a person who has a humble speech, can listen, I hope that the complicated cases and events in the past will be gradually overcome.”

Punishment is not serious so people haven’t respect

On this occasion, lawyer Tran Quoc Thuan commented on what was the consequences and issues that the previous terms of the leaders of the city committee, the City People’s Committee, as well as how to make local officials accountable for their consequences.

He said:

Now looking back, checking back and looking at it most generally, it is clear that in the top management of the city, within the party, which is understood as the Standing Committee level, the Standing level of the People’s Committee, The People’s Committee Vice Chairman level … many people have been disciplined.

The lightest discipline is a warning, and the highest discipline is being imprisoned, the two vice-chairmen have already been in jail, tried, not knowing who else will be tried here, and the Party Secretary, Member of the Politburo during those troubling terms of the city was also dismissed from the post he had retired from the 11th term.

The violations of Mr. Tat Thanh Cang, the deputy secretary of Ho Chi Minh City also related to the Thu Thiem case and many cases causing serious loss of waste, have been probed for a criminal accusation. Thu Thiem people repeatedly asked to prosecute Tat Thanh Cang and Le Thanh Hai, but over the years, Mr. Cang has only been disciplined to lose the positions he ended many years ago like Mr. Le Thanh Hai.

It was said a lot that in the leadership group was disciplined and then imprisoned like that, but the tallest person leading the city at that time, but only being disciplined like that, was not satisfactory for their wrongdoings which had made the city almost all shattered, leaving very heavy consequences for the apparatus, for many people. Many high-ranking officials of the city were also involved, making such mistakes.”

Such a punishment is not strict, the people have not yet surrendered, the public opinion is very tumultuous, there are also many people who raise the issue of being dismissed, so it must be deeper, because the leader of that Party Committee holds two terms of Politburo and the two tenures as Secretary of the City Party Committee, and before that, he was also chairman of the City People’s Committee.”

He was also the man who had a hand in creating that apparatus, those cast of cadres, for that to happen to himself and to others, it would have to be considered that responsibility and must be dealt with in a more satisfactory way.”

But looking from the ground, from which, from the leaders of this city to come up, there may be many leaders above who have or have made so many mistakes, some people ask the question whether they have supports from the higher level. I think maybe here in the immediate future, the party will limit discipline to the line of Politburo members, former Politburo members, even though recently, and the incident happened to Dinh La Thang can also be considered a special.”

Following the recent conferences, people also see that there are many people with scandals about something, that, still appear and sit at the events and they still see ‘happy laughs,’ so people think it is because the party wants to keep the balance and stability for the 13th National Congress?”

Thoibao.de (Translated)

Kasse animation 7.8.2023