The selection of senior personnel at the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) is still a “closed” job that seems to be “pre-negotiated” internally without the participation of the people. Vietnamese observers told BBC News Vietnamese this week.
On February 4, 2021, from Hanoi, Assoc. Dr. Hoang Ngoc Giao, director of the Institute of Policy, Law and Development, commented to the BBC:
“In Vietnam, in the current political system, the appointment of officials to important positions are not necessarily linked to individual achievements.”
“But the selection of personnel at the Party Congress is a closed job that seems to be planned as well as negotiating with each other in a certain way.”
Photo 1: Party leaders vote for the Central Committee of the 13th term on the afternoon of January 30. (VnExpress)
“As for the citizens’ assessment, in recent days a lot of people want to vote for Mr. Vu Duc Dam as prime minister, but it is not tied to the above.”
“Even those who got into the Politburo, I say always the case like Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh, the Ho Duy Hai case is a very big case, affecting the judiciary very seriously, but he still can be a Politburo member.”
“The public sees that the criteria for evaluating a person’s success or failure are not part of the party’s personnel process for organizing positions within the party and state.”
“This is very specific in Vietnam that the people are aware of, but this is the work of the party, of the state, it can’t be helped.”
How is the individual role in collectivism and personnel?
From the Institute of Policy and Development, under Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment, Assoc. Dr. Pham Quy Tho, former Dean of the Faculty of Public Policy, further commented to the BBC, emphasizing the aspect of the relationship between the individual and collectivism in the mechanism and leadership of the Communist Party in Vietnam today:
“Perhaps by any mechanism some individual is not a hero, because, in the collectivism that underpins this complete and absolute party-leadership mechanism, an individual cannot be higher interests of the party.”
“So it is true that everything has been planned before, moreover, in a context of corruption, then the situation called ‘recession’ then ‘self-transformation’ and ‘self-transformation’ are popular, the party puts those criteria in priority over the achievements that people see.”
“In a certain angle, people think that the role of the government in recent times is very active, for example, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is not only evaluated by the people, but also by foreign observers are also very aggressive.”
“Then officials like Mr. Vu Duc Dam are also one of those active and often appear in very difficult places in the pandemic zone.”
“Then they are just individuals in this institution and must obey, obey the principles of the party, which are also the core of this institution, that is, relying on a collectivism the party decides on the issue of personnel, not an individual or a group of individuals,” Pham Quy Tho told the BBC panel on Thursday.
“Centralized” and “tinged with dogma”
Also assessing the Politburo after the 13th Congress, an author from the US said that the 18 new Politburo members on average were “older and more from the army and police but less technocratic” than the previous tenure.
In an article on The Diplomat (February 2, 2021), Mr. Zachary Abuza, a Southeast Asian researcher from National War College, USA, said with an average age of 63, this is the Politburo “old and more men than the Politburo of the 12th term.”
The People’s Army of Vietnam has two Politburo members in the most powerful body in Vietnam, double compare to the previous term.
In the 12th term, only the Minister of National Defense (Ngo Xuan Lich), the former head of the General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People’s Army, had a seat in the Politburo.
Now the army has two generals, General Luong Cuong and General Phan Van Giang.
“The number of Police representatives also rises,” said Abuza. In addition to the re-election of Minister of Public Security To Lam, there are also people from this ministry: Pham Minh Chinh used to be a deputy minister, Nguyen Hoa Binh also worked in the Ministry of Public Security before joining the Supreme People’s Procuracy.
This author believes that the structure of the Politburo reflects the “trends, priorities and concerns” of the ruling party in Vietnam.
Dr. Zachary Abuza also noted the lack of representativeness of technocrats, including Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, who directed Vietnam’s brilliant campaign against Covid-19.
This shows that regardless of economic or technical complexity, important decisions will be with the “centralized” and “dogmatic” ruling group, Mr. Abuza stated.
Are people interested and surprised about the results of the meeting?
Returning to the BBC News Vietnamese discussion on Thursday, commenting to the BBC from Paris by freelance journalist Tuong An said that although the 13th Congress of the party wanted to “keep it a secret” until the last minute, many people, including overseas Vietnamese, did not seem to be surprised about the final personnel results and she explained the reason:
“I think that with an exception for some journalists, or freelance communicators, etc. who are interested, most of the others are not interested.”
“Why don’t you care? Is that because it’s not surprising, even before that there were reports that this personnel would be kept secret until the last minute, but actually people already know before Congress elected the staff. ”
“It’s not surprising, it’s just like decades ago, while we see the elections in the US as surprising to the last minute, and at the 13th Congress nothing is surprising.”
“And just as you guys above used words like there were ‘agreements’, choices, ‘negotiations’ among themselves, etc …, of course, this is just a settlement with to see who will hold what positions, that’s all.”
“And the people do not have any say at all, the ordinary people do not have the right to participate in selecting the country’s leadership, so I remember that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said that the new Politburo will integrate into international operations, etc., which means very ‘good’ cliches, but nothing has changed.”
“It means that those positions are just internal arrangements and conflicts for influence, while the people do not have a voice at all and that is the main thing that is all. All people looking to Vietnam are interested, which means that all citizens have to have their opinions in the election of the Politburo or the Central Committee of the Party leading the … that affects them.”
“Mr. Hoang Ngoc Giao above said a sentence that I personally feel very sad, when he said ‘it’s the party’s job, it’s the government’s job and we have to accept it’, I think it’s nothing. It is accepted here that the ordinary people must have their voice, the people must have the right to make decisions related to their lives.”
“It is not just a few ‘old’ people and a few party followers who decide, that is what those overseas who are interested in Vietnam want; that Vietnam does. Because there is a party, instead of just having the voice of one party, there must be the voice of many different parties. As with every society, there is competition, it will bring new things, benefits for people,” freelance journalist Tuong An told the BBC.
Vietnam’s state-controlled media reported that Mr. Trong, 77 years old, is one of the ten special cases elected to the Central Committee, specifically over the age limit to participate in the Central Committee as specified in the article. party rules.
“Now I am old and my health is not very well, I have also resigned, but the Congress still has elected me and as a member, I have to obey, so I will do my best,” General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said at a press conference on February 1, according to local media reports.
Professor Mac Van Trang, who often criticizes the regime on social networks, shares his opinion with VOA from Ho Chi Minh City:
“Mr. Trong is an elderly person, has had a stroke, his health has deteriorated, even has to be led by someone, yet he continues. That proves there is a leadership crisis in the elite of the communist party.
Mr. Trong violates the party’s charter. Now he was serving his third term, which created bad public opinion. Younger people should have replaced him.
This proves that there is a deadlock, lack of trust in younger generations.”
Freelance journalist Song Chi, a former film director who left Vietnam for political asylum in 2009 and now lives in the UK, expressed her opinion on her personal Facebook page: “The whole country [Vietnam] is led again by a 77-year-old old man who suffered two strokes recently, hardened mind, only repeating of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s thought, Socialism, always put the party’s survival of the mode first.”
In the eyes of the journalist, Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong is “an image of a communist from the 40s-50s of the 20th century, a conservative man, with only a bunch of old Marxist theories, rather than being a leader of today’s times, without sharp thinking, the foresight to lead the country.”
Ms. Song Chi envisioned a negative prospect for Vietnam with a comment that: “When you look like that, you can see the future and the destiny of the country at least in the next 5 years under his leadership will not change, still stumbling along the zic zac path, still continuing to patch this place and cover there.”
Thoibao.de (Translated)
