The congress is just the beginning, but whether the party can do it or not, whether to make the resolution a reality, whether to bring out material wealth, bring wealth and happiness to the people, that’s the actual success of the congress.
The comment just mentioned by Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) cum State President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam when he spoke at the closing ceremony of the 13th National Congress of the party held in Hanoi on Jan 25-Feb 1.
Ms. Huyen Trang, a business analyst for a foreign company in Ho Chi Minh City, commented on the statement of the head of the Communist Party of Vietnam as follows:
“That is the direction the party gives, but the implementation is not really what the people want.”
According to musician Le Thieu, who is in Saigon, from past to present, Trong or any communist leader said the same thing, bringing the party to the people, but the reality is that it can be done or not totally different, not related. He said from the social reality in which he lived:
“There are no happy people even rich ones due to unsafe food and risks of cancers and traffic accidents while poor people find difficulties in meeting two ends. This Lunar New Year festival (Tet), when migrant workers coming from the provinces have no money to return home, how can they be happy?
So the happiness of the majority of the people is so vague that I am personally one of the people I have never seen.”
Still according to the musician Le Thieu, for nearly half a century he lived under the socialist regime and he saw that everything the Hanoi government leaders said was populistic in order to control people.
“The Party tries to keep the party and the regime, but actually they do not worry about the poor people, it neglects people’s lives. There is not so-called the state or government that work for people.”
Vietnam has been reported to have many improvements in the happiness index over the past three years.
Specifically, according to the World Happiness Report compiled annually by the United Nations Network for Sustainable Solutions in 2018, Vietnam ranks 95th in the list of 156 countries.
By 2019, Vietnam ranked 94th in the ranking, up to one notch from the previous year.
By 2020, the Happiness Index Report shows that Vietnam has climbed to 83rd place.
In addition, according to the statistics of the UK-based socio-economic research organization New Economics Foundation, in 2018, Vietnam ranked 5th among the happiest countries in the world and ranked 2nd in the Asia-Pacific region.
A year later, according to the HSBC Expat 2019 report published by HSBC, Vietnam entered the top 10 best countries for foreigners living and working for the first time.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread widely around the world in early 2020, Vietnam is a highly appreciated country for having effective measures to control the epidemic.
Besides, Vietnam is also on the list of a few countries with positive GDP growth during the gloomy world economy
Ms. Hong Thanh, a preschool teacher in Dong Nai said:
“Compared to other countries in this pandemic situation, Vietnam is also quite happy, but after the pandemic goes over, I do not know.”
With many years of experience in the analysis industry, Ms. Huyen Trang said that if comparing Vietnam with other countries, it is clear that Vietnam manages the Covid-19 pandemic too well. So, according to her, at this moment it is honestly true to ask everyone that they feel happy.
However, Ms. Huyen Trang also said that if she said the happiness index right now would not be the same as the old days because each time would be evaluated by different factors. She further explained:
“For example, in the past, to measure the happiness index, people would have many factors, including things like social welfare, income per capita, state management apparatus … In old-time, Vietnam had not been on the top because basically, the people’s income is not high, the rich are very rich and the poor are very poor, the support policies and welfare for everyone are not good.”
Therefore, Ms. Huyen Trang said that if we put COVID-19 aside to talk about living standards, quality of life … Vietnam still has many bad things. She commented:
“Because basically the policies to support people and welfare are not at a level that people feel satisfied, there are many problems and not thoroughly. That means the government has a plan to do those things, but it is not really effective. So naturally, people know that they are making it possible, not thinking for the people, so the people won’t feel happy.”
From a personal point of view, musician Le Thieu expressed his concern:
“The happiness of the people in the country under the socialist regime is a very distant thing and a long way to come. The party’s policies and their implementation are like a myth.”
Thoibao.de (Translated)
