Vietnam communists under pressure to drop anti-capitalism ban
HANOI -
Vietnam's ruling communist party faced pressure Friday to end one of the last vestiges of its opposition to capitalism and relax a
longstanding ban on party members engaging in business.
Delegates from the country's economic powerhouse, Ho Chi Minh City, will call on a key party congress later this year to lift
the ban, in force since private enterprise became legal here with the market reforms of the 1980s, the city communist party's
mouthpiece, the Saigon Giai Phong announced.
The city delegates will propose that party members be allowed to "exploit their fellow human beings" under certain conditions.
Party members should not be serving government employees and must have their own capital, a professional qualification and
managerial ability, delegates will say.
The business they establish should also have a "reasonable" system for sharing profits with staff and should be in accordance
with both the law and "socialist orientation."
The last stricture should not be too taxing as Vietnam's ruling communists insist the mixed economy they have created with the
market reforms of the past 15 years remains firmly "socialist-oriented."
If the Ho Chi Minh City party's proposals are accepted by the party congress due in March, it will mark a victory of sorts for
the former capital of the capitalist south.
After the dark days following the 1975 end of the Vietnam War, when tens of thousands of boat people fled the new
communist authorities' efforts to stamp out private enterprise, the former Saigon has reestablished itself as the country's
indisputed commercial capital, attracting the lion's share of foreign invstment.
Even in Hanoi, where political power firmly remains, many have come to question the tenability of sanctioning rank and file
party members for private enterprise when several top officials are known to have substantial investments though their spouses
or family.
But the ban remains a shibboleth for hardliners, who have fought off similar reforming efforts in the past.
And such party stalwarts are precisely the constituency that conservative communist party chief Le Kha Phieu will need to
appeal to if he is to fight off what analysts say are mounting efforts to unseat him for a performance regarded as lacklustre.
The party makes it a point of honour not to air its dirty laundry in public, but some of the heatedness of the debates can be
guaged by the length of the preparations for the congress.
Last weekend the party's powerful 170-strong central committee opened a 10-day meeting expected to make the final
preparations.
But on the very first day, Phieu announced that the meeting would take no final decisions.
It would debate the draft proposals to be put to the congress but the final voting would be left to a further meeting to be held at
an as yet undisclosed date.
Looming over everything is the question of the future of the leadership, on which Phieu said there would be no discussion at all
during the current meeting.
Analysts say Phieu has been put in some difficulty by a proposal from the party's powerful advisors -- elder statesmen Do
Muoi, Le Duc Anh and Vo Van Kiet -- calling for all politburo members who will be 70 before the next party congress in 2005
to stand down.
The proposal would require the resignation of reformist Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, who will be 70 in 2003.
But diplomats and analysts say he would probably go without a fight having already offered his resignation twice in as many
years.
However Phieu, who will be 70 later this year, is believed to be keen not only to stay on as party chief but also become
president as well, prompting analysts to question whether a consensus can reached in time for the congress to go ahead in
March.
Agence France Presse - January 12, 2000.
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