In the last three consecutive years, the budget expenditure estimated for Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security has always been the second highest, just lower than the allocation for the Defense Ministry and more than ten times higher than that of the Ministry of Education and Health.
Priority for the police
According to figures released by the Ministry of Finance, in 2021, the estimated budget expenditure for the Ministry of Public Security is about VND96 trillion, more than 10 times higher than the Ministry of Health (about VND9.1 trillion) and the Ministry of Education is about VND7.1 trillion.
In 2022, the Ministry of Public Security was allocated an amount of VND95.5 trillion and increased to nearly VND100 trillion this year.
Meanwhile, in the years when the COVID-19 epidemic raged in Vietnam, the most allocated amount by the Ministry of Health was just over VND11 trillion in 2022.
State budget estimate is the planning of revenue sources and expenditure tasks of the State budget, usually made one year in advance. On the State Budget Publication Portal (as noted by RFA), there is no data report on the specific amount of state budget spending to the Ministry of Public Security each year.
The “shield” protects the regime
From Germany, lawyer Nguyen Van Dai said, the reason why the budget has to spend an exorbitant amount of money on the cumbersome police apparatus is because the police are the “sword and shield” to protect the regime. He said:
“The Vietnamese government has always considered the police and military forces to be the ‘sword and shield’ protecting the regime, so it has to spend money on these forces…
Even if there are natural disasters or epidemics, providing the forces to protect the regime is always the number one priority. Meanwhile, they disregard or do not pay attention to protecting people’s lives and health.”
Sharing the same opinion, a former Reuters journalist, who has written for more than 30 years on the situation in China and Vietnam, asked to remain anonymous, saying that authoritarian governments like China or Vietnam are forced to spend a lot money for the police apparatus, because the survival of the regime depends greatly on this force:
“In authoritarian regimes like China and Vietnam, the government depends on the police to ensure the Party’s monopoly on power.
The police systems in such countries monitor and suppress the activities of citizens, intellectuals, academics, dissidents, activists, media, NGOs and any other who challenged the party’s rule.”
The more police, the less freedom?
On the official website of the Ministry of Public Security, one of the important tasks of this force is clearly stated as “protecting national security, ensuring social order and safety, and fighting crime prevention and control of violations of the law on national security, social order and safety…”
According to the anonymous journalist, the more money a country spends on the police, not necessarily the security and social order of that country will be more secure, but the reality shows the opposite:
“Through decades of writing articles about China and following news about Vietnam, I have found that organizations like the Ministry of Public Security actually pose a danger to security and social order.”
This journalist cited, in China, the last two outbreaks of SARS in 2002-2003 and COVID, the Beijing government used the security apparatus to censor all media, not allowing to report this issue, while limiting discussions on the Internet. Thereby, this person continued:
“This makes the situation worse. A lot of people have died from the epidemic because the Chinese government has blocked all discussion of this issue.”
Comparing Vietnam, the same thing happened. This journalist gives an example of how the government has restricted people from discussing environmental issues, resulting in environmental pollution becoming worse and worse. He further cited:
“Over the past few years, the Vietnamese government has also used allegations of tax fraud to silence and imprison prominent environmental experts.
In general, in both Vietnam and China, people are unable to voice any concerns. That makes the situation worse and more people suffer the consequences.
People’s ignorance is never a positive factor, it only helps the ruling party.”
In addition, the anonymous journalist said, the large police force makes the basic freedoms of citizens even more tightened:
“The proof is that security forces always monitor and suppress followers of religions, especially members of religious groups not registered with the government.
The police also vigorously prevented any public demonstrations of opposition, such as street demonstrations. In recent years, the police have prevented Vietnamese people from protesting to protect the environment or even against China’s unruly behavior in the East Sea [South China Sea].”
Party is protected, who is the victim?
Lawyer Nguyen Van Dai said that in addition to paying taxes, it is the health and life of the people that is the price to pay for a “police-governed” state like Vietnam:
“As a result, people’s lives and health are not guaranteed. It is clear that public security policy does not prioritize the protection of the people. The amount of police spending tax of the people but they are not helping the people at all.”
For the anonymous journalist, in a “police-governed” country like Vietnam, all independent voices are silenced and national issues are neglected. A lot of information the censor, withheld, makes the situation worse:
“We can see this dangerous trend playing out especially during national health emergencies and environmental challenges.
As long as the police try to silence the voices of citizens and experts, no progress can be made. The party may be protected, but the whole society will be the victim.”
Translated by Thoibao.de from RFA: https://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/in_depth/ministry-of-public-security-budget-is-ten-times-of-the-ministry-of-health-and-the-ministry-of-education-08182023150520.html
