In the last few days, the online community of Vietnam has witnessed
one of the most creative, intriguing and exciting events in its history.
That is the birth of the “We Want to Know” Movement led by members of
the Bloggers Network of Vietnam, a civil society organization founded by
private citizens and independent of the vast network of media outlets
funded by the state and subject to the absolute control of the Communist
Party of Vietnam (CPV).
We, the people want the state (read CPV) to inform us of decisions
affecting the nation, in particular, the content of the private
agreement between the CPV and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the
Chengdu inter-party Convention of 1990.
At this infamous convention, the CPV was represented by then General
Secretary Nguyen Van Linh, Prime-Minister Do Muoi and Adviser to the
Central Committee Pham Van Dong. The CCP was represented by then General
Secretary Jiang Zemin and Premier Li Peng.
It is common knowledge in Vietnam that during this convention, in the
wake of the fall of the Soviet Union and the entire Communist Bloc of
Eastern Europe, the CPV had sold out Vietnam to China, in order to curry
Chinese support for its continued hold on power in Vietnam.
The extent of such selling-out of the national interests could range
from territorial and sea areas concessions to the gradual absorption of
Vietnam into China, as a province or autonomous region, on par with
Tibet or Inner Mongolia.
The CPV has kept jealously as a secret the content of that meeting from
the public. Under its draconian state secrecy laws and secret service
rule, all oppositions are silenced without pity.
It is now clear to concerned citizens of Vietnam that subsequent to the
Chengdu Convention, the CPV, through its puppet Congress, had legislated
or consented to cede part of Ban Gioc Fall, the Nam Quan Pass, tens of
thousands of square kilometres of the North Vietnam Bay to the Chinese.
Furthermore, the feeble and laughable reactions of the CPV to Chinese
aggression in the South China Sea and Vietnamese continental shelf are
indicative of the treacherous nature of such national sell-out.
Why did the We Want To Know Movement strike such a cord in the minds and hearts of the Vietnamese people?
The reason could partly be attributed to the world wide web. Indeed,
within a couple of decades, the internet has brought untold knowledge
and power to the people. They want to know because they are aware that,
simply as the people, they are born endowed with the right to know.
They also know that this right to know has been enshrined for centuries
in the constitutions of all democratic nations of the world, both at
legal and institutional levels and the peoples of other nations have
been enjoying this right totally unfettered.
Perhaps the best illustration of the importance of the people’s right to
know could be found in the following quote by James Madison, the Fourth
President of the USA:
“A popular Government without popular information, or the means of
acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps
both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to
be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which
knowledge gives.” (Letter to W.T. Barry 1822)
This right to know is part of a dual concept fundamental to all democratic government: transparency and accountability.
While transparency in government finds immediate resonance in the right
of the people to know, this concept will not be sustainable unless
there is accountability in government.
That is unless government is responsible to a higher authority with real power to rein in its potential abuses.
In the USA, under the presidential system of governance, Montesquieu’s
horizontal separation of powers is applied. The president, wielding
executive power, is accountable not only to Congress (which holds
legislative power and in which government and opposition representatives
and senators are legitimately part of) and the Supreme Court (which
holds independent judicial power), but also accountable to a vibrant,
prosperous privately owned media which leads civil society and reports
directly to the people any government misdemeanours.
In democratic nations under the parliamentary system of government, such
as Great Britain and Australia, although Montesquieu’s separation of
powers is not strictly implemented, similar accountability practises are
in place and the existence of an official opposition in the parliament
compensates for the lack of separation of powers between the executive
and legislative branches.
The question is: why this right to know by the people is at issue in Vietnam?
The answer lies in her socialist heritage.
Superficially, the 2013 constitution, at a legal level, made mention of
fundamental principles found in all true democracies such as the
existence of three branches of government, the right to vote, free
enterprise and market economy. However, this is only a farce. This
constitution also enshrines concepts that actively undermine these
fundamental democratic principles. Indeed, article 4 gives monopoly of
political power to the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), the bizarre
Leninist concept of democratic centralism subjugates lower echelons of
society to central authority, the Fatherland pre-selects candidates for
elections on behalf of the CPV, state enterprises prevails over private
enterprises and the economy must follow socialist orientations.
If we ponder further on the above quotation from James Madison, it
appears to lead to the conclusion that the people’s right to know varies
in proportion with democratic freedoms. The more democracy, the more
knowledge for the people about government decisions.
The next question thus arises: what should be done to bring about democracy to Vietnam?
For a democracy and thus the people’s right to know to be established,
there must be not only unfettered legal recognition of democratic
principles, but equally importantly, democratic institutions must also
be created.
Under the CPV rule, these institutions are totally banned. There are no
opposition political parties to question any CPV decision, the party and
government are identical, there is no independent judicial power, there
is no independent electoral commission and no free election. Candidates
are pre-selected by the Fatherland Front, the CPV controls all three
branches of government, all media outlets belong to and are funded by
the CPV government. Under these conditions, instead of being transparent
and accountable, the Vietnamese government is opaque and unaccountable.
To paraphrase Lord Acton, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts
absolutely. The CPV is corrupt to its teeth. It is apparent to the
people that the CPV has sold out Vietnamese sovereignty to the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) for political power and for cash to its leaders.
The extent of such sell-out is probably unfathomable and with the dawning of the information age, the people want to know.
But this knowledge can come only over the dead body of the CPV and many
of its prominent leaders. They are now fighting for their survival.
The 21st century thus promises an epic battle between the Vietnamese
people and the CPV, over the issue of the people’s right to know. And
when the people do know, the CPV will be a goner and relegated to the
dustbin of history, to paraphrase no other than Vladimir Ilich Lenin.
Constitution Hill 11/9/14
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