Still not rich enough, General Secretary prints many books in recent years before retirement

In just over a year, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam has printed and released his own political anthologies at least four times.

On November 14, 2023, the book “The whole country unites, takes advantage of every opportunity, overcomes all difficulties and challenges, and is determined to successfully implement the Resolution of the 13th Party Congress” was launched.

At the end of May 2023, the book “Some theoretical and practical issues about Socialism and the path to Socialism in Vietnam” and the book “Resolutely and persistently fighting to prevent and fight corruption, negativity, contributing to building our Party and State increasingly clean and strong” were published.

Previously, in early 2023, the book “Resolutely and persistently fighting against corruption and negativity, contributing to building our Party and State increasingly clean and strong” was released, with more than 600 pages. and has nearly 100 illustrations. This book was published and released to the public by the Central Commission for Internal Affairs and the National Political Publishing House Su That/Truth.

Most recently, on February 2, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported: “Launching two new books by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.”

Tuoi Tre Newspaper wrote 2 selected books including typical talks, articles, speeches… of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, in the three years 2021 – 2023 have just been released to readers.

Public opinion finds that, in the last years of his life, the head of the Communist Party of Vietnam showed signs of “abuse” by printing and publishing too many theoretical books, with tens of thousands of editions for each book.

At the same time, public opinion asked: “Who will read the General Secretary’s anti-corruption books?”

The online community also raised doubts that Trong took budget money to “polish” his name before ending his political career. More importantly, this will bring him a large amount of pen money. That is, not to mention the cost of organizing massive book launch ceremonies, which are quite expensive.

General Secretary Trong is said to be famous for his anti-corruption work, also known as “burning the furnace.” According to the summary of Deputy Head of the Central Commission for Internal Affairs Dang Van Dung:

“In 2023, the Communist Party of Vietnam disciplined 606 Party organizations and 24,162 party members. The number of party members disciplined in 2023 increased by 12% compared to 2022. The number of party members disciplined due to corruption is 459 people; 8,863 party members were disciplined due to deterioration in political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle.

As many as 105 people under Central management were disciplined, including 22 members and former members of the Party Central Committee. Among these, 19 officials under management of the Politburo and the Secretariat were disciplined, prosecuted and arrested due to corruption.”

This shows that Trong’s anti-corruption work over the past 8 years has really reached a deadlock.

The more they fight, the more corruption increases, with no signs of decline. Preventing and combating corruption and negativity in Vietnam is actually just a formality, aimed at polishing General Secretary Trong’s reputation.

So, what is the benefit of publishing and distributing General Secretary Trong’s theoretical publications on anti-corruption?

Public opinion has long had a stream of opinions, and suspicions that General Secretary Trong is not clean, through his refusal to disclose his assets according to the Party’s regulations.

The Communist Party of Vietnam’s anti-corruption policy does not attach importance to controlling the assets of officials and civil servants. Party and Government agencies have issued many regulations, requiring leaders to accurately and fully declare their annual asset fluctuations. The declaration deadline is even 6 months for civil servants working in professions prone to corruption.

Yet Trong not only failed to be exemplary, to set an example. Specifically, on the afternoon of June 17, 2018, he  and National Assembly delegates from the Hanoi Delegation had a meeting with voters in Cau Giay district. he stated that “the issue of declaring officials’ assets is a very difficult and sensitive issue because it involves the right to privacy and the right to personal confidentiality.”

That is an evasive statement, refusing to declare assets according to the Resolution of the Politburo and the Secretariat. If General Secretary Trong is truly pure, not corrupt, and has no ill-gotten assets, then why does he not dare to disclose his assets, citing it as “related to the right to privacy and the right to personal confidentiality”?

What is more worrying is that, after Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong printed a series of books as mentioned above, Minister of Public Security To Lam and Minister of Defense Phan Van Giang also followed. These two men also printed books hundreds of pages thick, with titles as long as slogans./.

 

Tra My – Thoibao.de

Kasse animation 7.8.2023