With a higher frequency of appearing in the press than usual, former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung suddenly became the focus of public opinion and caused much controversy.
In 2016, Dung “voluntarily” withdrew from politics, due to pressure within the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam. More importantly, the policy of “anyone can be Prime Minister, but not Ba Dung” agreed by the Beijing leadership, created great pressure on his decision.
Social media has been abuzz in recent days, with comments praising and criticizing former PM Dung – who is showing signs of entering politics, as a “military advisor” for newly-elected General Secretary To Lam who is also the State President.
Recently, Nguyen Sy Dung, former Deputy Head of the National Assembly Office from 2003 to 2016, posted a status on his personal Facebook, with the content:
“Former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is a great personality. I am honored to have been an expert advisor to him.”
Immediately, Dung was strongly opposed by many people who did not support the former PM, forcing him to disable the comment function.
After this action, Dung was immediately criticized again, saying that he did not “respect differences.” Therefore, Dung had to post a status explaining why he praised former PM Dung, as well as why he had to disable comments.
When evaluating an individual, especially politicians, of course, there will be people who praise and people who criticize. This is the opinion of each individual within the limits of freedom of expression.
However, the opinions will certainly be greatly influenced by the external environment, by the information they receive. For PM Dung, he was certainly deliberately smeared, with the purpose of bringing him down and reducing his reputation, by political opponents, specifically by the faction of late General Secretary Trong.
In a status titled “Confession” posted on his personal page, Dung confided:
“There are two truths that we all know. Let me analyze these two truths for your reference.
- The first truth is that it is impossible to detect violations. PM Dung is considered “comrade X,” “king of worms,” “boss of the bosses” so he became the first target of the furnace campaign. During nearly three terms (nearly 15 years) with supreme power, with iron determination, with a powerful inspection, examination and investigation apparatus, it is still impossible to detect any violations to put subject 3X in the furnace. Is that enough time for your conscience to tell you about the obligation to restore honor to former PM Dung?
- Why are all citizens protected by law from slander and insult to honor, but not citizen Nguyen Tan Dung? What kind of strange rule of law state are we building?!”
Si Dung’s opinion is that, regardless of the efforts of General Secretary Trong or Sang [State President Truong Tan Sang] to “dig up dirt and find fault,” the final result is that no trace of corruption by former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was found. And until there is a court verdict, no individual is guilty.
Meanwhile, during the last period of his life, General Secretary Trong was also overturned for accusations related to the “Ciputra-Nam Thang Long Urban Area” scandal.
Accordingly, just because of a “hasty” decision, the leaders of Hanoi at that time, Secretary of the City Party Committee Nguyen Phu Trong and Chairman Hoang Van Nghien, approved the land use fee collection price of this project 16 days earlier, causing a loss of VND3 trillion ($120 million) to the state budget. There were even accusations that the leaders of Hanoi at that time received “gifts” worth millions of USD.
The above are still just accusations. However, there are opinions affirming that the fact that General Secretary Trong received 2 villas from Ciputra Group is well-founded. Public opinion believes that the accuracy rate of rumors in Vietnam is quite high, because they may have been leaked from within the Party.
Tra My – Thoibao.de
