The 8th Plenum of the 13th term of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)’s Central Committee opened in Hanoi on October 2. It is expected that this conference will last about 8 days, with many important contents. This includes reviewing the discipline of a number of former and current Central Committee members, as well as discussing and reviewing the key personnel structure for the 14th National Congress scheduled in early 2016.
Before the 8th Plenum, insiders said that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong had an absolute victory in organizing and welcoming US President Joe Biden to visit Vietnam, while upgrading bilateral relations to the highest level; has made the roles of the three remaining “pillars” Prime Minister Chinh, Chairman of the National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue, and State President Vo Van Thuong become too obscure. There is a high possibility that Trong will remain in his post at the 14th National Congress.
Meanwhile, by the 14th National Congress, Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong had served three terms as General Secretary of the Party. At the age of 82, he is overdue both in age (no more than 65) and in number of terms (no more than two consecutive terms).
Domestic and international observers believe that, perhaps, partly for this reason, for the first time, the responsibility of the head of the Communist Party of Vietnam has been dissected by the Central Committee in details and merciless.
This responsibility is related to Mr. Trong’s personal role as Head of the Human Resources Subcommittee of the 12th and 13th Party Congresses.
It is no coincidence that on October 5, the website of the Voice of Vietnam had a rather serious article, with the title: “We have let cadres who are not virtuous and talented enough into the 13th Central Committee.”
It cites the Party Central Committee’s decision to discipline all positions in the Party against Mr. Le Duc Tho, Secretary of the Ben Tre Provincial Party Committee; Mr. Trinh Van Chien, former Secretary of Thanh Hoa Provincial Party Committee; or dismiss Mr. Dieu K’ré – Permanent Deputy Secretary of the Dak Nong Provincial Party Committee.
VOV quoted Mr. Vu Van Phuc – Vice Chairman of the Scientific Council of Central Party agencies, former Editor-in-Chief of the Communist Magazine – frankly assessing that “For effective cadre planning, the most important thing is to choose the right person. However, in many recent terms, many officials who were not virtuous and talented enough still made it to the Central Committee.”
And “… our internal political protection work has let cadres slip into the 13th Central Committee and has shown that the personnel selection process is strict but there are still many loopholes.”
That is completely consistent with the assessment of public opinion, as well as domestic and foreign political observers. Before the 8th Plenum, they all agreed that:
“From choosing personnel arbitrarily, by factions, by scams, unscientifically and unfairly, leading to a personnel crisis. The Central Committee that was once praised as an ‘elite team’ and the ‘quintessence of the Party’ is now tattered like ‘weak clothes’ without anyone standing up to accept responsibility…
Mr. Trong is the Party’s supreme leader, always shouting to be fair and objective, especially to be very alert and clear-headed in selecting personnel for the 13th term… [but] the Party chooses its own team too ‘excellent’ so that today people can clearly see the faces of key ‘stars’ from the locality to the central agencies, who are all a bunch of insatiable greed, blatant robberies, committing serious crimes through the big cases Viet A, rescue flight, and AIC case, etc. ”
If we know that a compatriot and also one of the close allies of Politburo member, Minister of Public Security To Lam, is the current General Director of the Voice of Vietnam – Mr. Do Tien Sy; at the same time, refer to the article “We have let cadres who are not virtuous and talented enough into the 13th Central Committee” recently published by the Voice of Vietnam; perhaps, most likely, it is a message from Minister of Public Security To Lam, wanting to send to General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong: “Well, your time is over. Please take a rest!”.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
