With Directive 20: Will Hanoi be a prison camp, the police become prison guards while local residents become prisoners?

Police check the travel permit of a resident in Hanoi on September 4

That is the thought that has been compressed into a public protest question of many people and households, including some central agencies in the inner city, when hearing “Directive 20” from the People’s Committee of the city.

According to state-controlled media, the above directive assigned to the police to issue a travel permit was signed by Chairman of the City People’s Committee Chu Ngoc Anh on September 3.

The Hanoi People’s Committee divided into three zones to prevent and control the COVID-19 epidemic from 6 a.m. on September 6 to 6 a.m. on September 21, 2021.

One of the biggest concerns currently raised by the domestic media is the restlessness and anxiety of people and businesses about the vague instructions for applying for and issuing travel permits in the three red-yellow-green zones differently.

This type of social distancing is almost turning the people of the capital into prisoners, turning cities and districts into giant prison camps. And police forces at all levels become prison guards, literally professional guards.

It’s immediately easy to recognize, not only “politics is the boss” as from the beginning of the anti-epidemic campaign until now. Now, if Directive 20 is accepted, “police rule” will be the next trend, despite all the consequences as we have seen from the ongoing 4th wave.

Also on September 3, the Hanoi City Police issued a “fast” document to the People’s Committees of districts, towns… on preparing conditions to be ready to coordinate with the City Police Department in the development of software to issue and check identification for “eligible people to participate in traffic through QR Code.”

The text on the notice continued: “Organizations, businesses and individuals register information through the regional police and then commune, ward and town officials approve or reject (notify by email) and then the regional police will return the approved and stamped travel permit to organizations, businesses and individuals…”

Clearly directives overlaps others, text overlaps text. People are like “great-grandchildren” going into the green forest, not knowing where to go.

After two years of looking back, within our country, the Covidvirus has caused serious harm to people’s health, loss of lives, and pain is increasingly piling up.

The situation is so serious, but for some reason, until now, the National Assembly has not once considered documents that show signs of violating the Constitution and the law.

The three Directives (No. 15, 16 and 19) of the Prime Minister are not legal documents. Now, can the Chairman of the city alone come to the above unprecedented decision against the COVID-19 epidemic?

If a “collective trauma” precedes a very specific decision of this totalitarian regime, who will be ultimately responsible before the Constitution and the law for Directive 20?

It is no coincidence that writer Huy Duc, a well-known blogger on his personal Facebook, made an urgent recommendation that he called “there should be a meeting at a higher level than Hanoi to decide the plan for Hanoi.”

The article, which has more than 15,000 interactions and 3,000 shares after about 8 hours, has the passage: “To ensure that the power of the country remains unified, it must be shown that the State of law still exists, the Constitution and the law are still in effect.”

Outside, the Belgian Metrotime newspaper headlined, “Hanoi turned into a prison.” And, by dealing with COVID like this, on September 3, Nikkei Asia ranked Vietnam 121 among 121 countries in its ability to fight the epidemic.

In 2020, we used the most “elite army groups” to attack “several hundred F0 guerrillas” and very soon triumphed and for a long time, shaking our thighs in praise.

Blogger Le Viet An, in a comment from the early days of the fourth wave of the pandemic, warned that the policy of “politics is the leader” in fighting the epidemic would lead to serious consequences.

The author especially emphasized a few months ago about two mistakes that can lead to disaster in the fight against the epidemic that still have current and scientific value today.

First, the epidemiology is fundamentally different from the law of fighting the enemy (that is, the law of war). As for the variants of the Covid virus, epidemiologists almost unanimously agree, there are many unknowns about this virus.

Second, the law of war is even more different from the law of peace. In peacetime, when doing economic business, businesses must always take into account the “opportunity cost.” Therefore, it is not possible to shout against the epidemic like fighting the enemy.

This is a key concept in economics. The “opportunity cost” is based on the fact that resources are scarce, forcing businesses to make choices. Disease has its own rules.

When fighting the enemy, we can “burn the whole Truong Son mountain range,” sacrificing human and material strength to gain independence. But when it comes to epidemic prevention / control, experts have to put human life first.

Will Directive 20 be the third major mistake? Because, if the provision is made to assign the City Police to approve the road, it is clear that Hanoi will be a giant prison camp, the police are professional prison guards and the people of the capital are reluctant prisoners.

Thoibao.de (Translated)

Source: https://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/news/blog/order-20-turns-hanoi-into-a-prison-09042021223506.html