On the morning of December 12, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)’s General Secretary cum State President Nguyen Phu Trong presided over the national conference to review the anti-corruption work in the 2013-2020 period.
Deputy Head of the Central Commission on Internal Affairs Nguyen Thai Hoc commented that “The General Secretary has repeatedly concluded that the fight against anti-corruption does not stop, does not rest, does not slack, but becomes more drastic.”
At the same time, Mr. Hoc also affirmed “Once it was hot at the beginning of the 12th term, the spirit of fighting against corruption remains the same.”
According to the summary report at the conference this morning, from 2013 to 2020, the committees and inspection committees at all levels have disciplined more than 131,000 party members.
Particularly from the beginning of the 12th National Congress up to now, more than 87,000 officials and party members have been disciplined. In which, over 3,200 party members were disciplined related to corruption.
The competent authorities have disciplined more than 110 senior officials under the central management (27 members or former members of the Party Central Committee, 4 members and former members of the Politburo, more than 30 army or police generals). This is a breakthrough in the inspection and discipline of the Party.
Will corruption be reduced?
Mr. Vu Quoc Hung – former permanent deputy chairman of the Central Commission for Inspection, called the term of the 12th Congress term, a period of “turning the situation around.”
According to Mr. Hung, many cases, which have long been considered “restricted and sensitive areas,” lasted from previous years, involve high-ranking officials, but have been prosecuted, investigated, and considered by procedural agencies and tried according to the law. He took the example of the case related to Mr. Dinh La Thang; the AVG case; …
One of the cases that Mr. Hung raised was the case that MobiFone bought 95% of AVG’s shares, when for the first time two cadres, former members of the Party Central Committee, the former minister, were publicly tried on charges of accepting bribes, one directing non-state enterprises on charges of giving bribes. Also, in this case, the recovery rate of corrupt assets reached 100%, with more than VND8 trillion ($340 million).
Earlier in January, according to a poll in Vietnam, it seems that corruption has decreased in recent years, around the same time Trong’s “burning furnace” was taking place.
Specifically, Towards Transparency, a Vietnamese non-profit consulting organization, announced on January 7 the survey results of the Vietnam Corruption Barometer 2019.
They interviewed 1,085 people in 19 provinces and cities nationwide during July and August and November 2019.
Although the level of corruption is still perceived to be high nationwide, it has improved over the past 3 years. In 2019, 43% of Vietnamese people think that corruption in Vietnam has increased over the past 12 months (lower than 58% in 2016); 31% thought the situation had not changed (compared with 25% in 2016); and 26% believe that corruption has decreased (compared to 17% in 2016).
Campaign into internal punishment?
Lawyer and journalist Trinh Huu Long previously commented to the BBC: The anti-corruption “firewood, furnace” campaign that Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong launched was of course an internal purge campaign, I think it is a lengthy campaign through Congress launched to serve a certain faction holding flags and waving in hand.”
Mr. Long said that the way the state official media reported with Mr. Nguyen Duc Chung, Mr. Dinh La Thang, and other defendants, even the officials considered “firewood” was put into the furnace-like For a long time, no manifestation of a rule of law state is present.
“The rule of law will deal with corruption without regard to political factions, and the Vietnamese Communist Party’s” set fire “campaign is clearly a purely political campaign. It is not a crackdown on crime, it is two very different issues,” Mr. Long admitted.
Also in the program, BBC’s Fifth Round Table, researcher Le Van Sinh commented: “Regarding the work of ‘firewood, burning the furnace,’ I think that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong knows better than anyone about corruption which will destroy the legitimacy of the CPV, and will push the country to corruption.”
“The anti-corruption campaign launched by him has brought certain results, but in my opinion, it is still not basic. Anti-corruption must go hand in hand with the radical reform of the party and government apparatus as the way Mr. Li Quang Dieu works in Singapore? Unfortunately, Vietnam has not yet done so.”
“In the end, not just in any particular case, I think that, with Vietnam, an effective way to fight corruption is to reform political institutions in the model of freedom and democracy. At that time, though General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong If not in a position anymore, the “firewood, furnace” work is still operating smoothly and efficiently,” the researcher from Hanoi National University stated privately to BBC.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/vietnamese/vietnam-55285481
Thoibao.de (Translated)
