Vietnam is experiencing big events since the beginning of 2020, which make the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)’s Politburo, headed by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong confused.
Big Criminal case, Great anniversary and Epidemic
What is the common denominator from the three big events? The answer is the negative reaction of the people. From resentment, distrust to indignation, even hatred for the regime, a part of the population has adopted various means to express dissatisfaction with anti-progressive, non-democratic and full-fledged policies as well as the lies of the government. No one else, the CPV is the author cum director (bad) while playing some of the main roles in the aforementioned tragedies.
The Dong Tam massacre, the party’s 90th anniversary and Wuhan nCov are probably the three topics that cover most websites of all kinds: dissident, pro-government, and the middle. Vietnamese society has never been fragmented from all sides, from the uncultured comments of those who are thought to be Communist Party public opinion shappers, to the posts on FB of intellectuals from civil society groups.
The most gruesome incident, causing a concussion at home and abroad, was the fact that the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam, under the direction of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and under the direct implementation of Minister of Public Security To Lam, thousands of armed policement were deployed to attack Dong Tam commune in early hours of Jan 9, killing elderly party member Le Dinh Kinh in his house.
Dong Tam Massacre: Vietnamese people are still paying attentions to Dong Tam before and after the Lunar New Year festival is reflected in civil society groups. Most of them are leading professors and doctors – but there are also many elderly from party committees, such as a deputy chief of the Central Committee of Organization. They did not go shopping for Tet. No one told anyone but the old people acknowledged and thought of such a way to mourn Le Dinh Kinh – a former district commissioner with 58 years of party’s membership- was killed by the “heroic” armed forces on Jan 9.
In a separate development, on Feb 2, appearing on the Internet and a number of independent websites, the open letter related to the case was sent to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The letter dated Jan 31 by a group of intellectuals from Saigon, including Huynh Tan Mam, Huynh Kim Bau, Le Cong Giau and Tuong Lai, included: “A fraction of Vietnam’s leadership ordered the massacre… “.
“We hope that Mr. Secretary General will have a timely voice to prevent a brutal solution of a state that has just been accepted as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council / tenure 2020-2021. We request that he immediately send a UN investigation mission to Vietnam as soon as possible to investigate in details, in order to make an objective and honest assessment of the bloody event we have just denounced…“
The CPV is ninety years old:
On Feb 3, the “right margin” press was ordered to report and praise the 90th anniversary of the CPV’s establishment. However, the speech of Nguyen Phu Trong shows that it is unclear because of age or congenital confusion, he started to talk about words. “Our party has unrivaled power, no stopping power,” was a title snatched from Tuoi Tre newspaper. However, the title was later ‘replaced’ with a more ‘neutral’ title: “No force could stop the Party from leading the nation up.”
An article in Investment newspaper by Dr. Nhi Le, or Pham Dinh Bang, former deputy editor-in-chief of the Communist Review
The lack of confidence in the press was expressed in VnExpress. The headline was originally “General Secretary: Only the Vietnamese Communist Party is competent to lead the country.” Then it was too much, the title was changed to: “General Secretary: The Communist Party of Vietnam is strong enough to lead the country.” Professor Tran Ngoc Vuong from Vietnam National University Hanoi did not hesitate to publicize on his Facebook: “Unreasonable, ridiculous and immoral, even a child who has just learned to speak is not so naive!” His status was responded by many students and friends with a series of likes and comments.
On this occasion, Dr. Nhi Le, or Pham Dinh Bang, a former deputy editor-in-chief of the Communist Review, also had a stormy article online. The article posted in the Investment review newspaper of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, titled, “The Party itself is becoming more and more worthy of becoming a nation.” Many people read the title but did not understand what the author meant. Writer Nguyen Quang Lap was surprised: “The title is not of Quang short (chief of the public opinion shappers on social networks), but it is of associate professor PhD Nhi Le … Nhi Le Oh Nhi Le Please go to mountain to take care for goats!”
It is unclear if the Investment Review has removed the article. Because “loving the party” like that is ten times to criticize the party!
Wuhan Pneumonia pandemic So far there are no truly reliable figures how many people have been infected with Wuhan pneumonia in Vietnam. According to media reports, on the morning of Feb, the official statistics on the number of people infected with nCoV worldwide are over 37,000. The number of deaths caused by this virus was over 800.
In such a situation, Vietnam has only officially confirmed more than a dozen cases of nCoV infection. Many people believe that this is an odd number. Although most “marginalized” newspapers try to reassure public opinion, there are still reports that acknowledge the risk of this plague and note another scary number.
Before that, Hanoi planned to set up the quarantine areas and build field hospitals. Despite efforts to strive for no cases of nCoV, but Hanoi Mayor Nguyen Duc Chung asked the Capital Military Command to develop a plan to establish isolation areas and field hospitals, ready to respond. During an outbreak, hospital spending in the emergency situation exceeded the capacity of the health sector.
The information of PM Phuc to build many major field hospitals in the country to prevent and treat coronavirus makes many people worried because if there are really only more than a dozen cases of Corona virus, why the government has a plan to build a field hospital? It is a temporary hospital built in case there are suddenly a large number of people infected, similar to the two field hospitals that China built in Wuhan: Fire God and Thunder God, with a capacity of between 1,000 and 1600 beds.
Certainly insiders realized that the scooped news about nCoV in Vietnam could not be kept for long, so the “party” newspapers began to “gradually reveal.”
In order to prevent epidemics properly, the goverment needs to be honest with the people so that they know the risk. Hiding and concealing information will make the situation worse.
After a period of “burning the furnace” and bragging about trying several judges to the high-ranking Party officials in the corrupt apparatus, and then the Great 90th Anniversary of the Communist Party’s existence, General Secretary Trong and PM Phuc received a dangerous pandemic, which not only threatened people’s lives but also shook the authoritarian and cruel political system in Hanoi.
The time of change is very near, it is time for the Communist Party to leave.
Hoang Trung from Ha Noi – Thoibao.de (Translated)
