Vietnamese Party leader says Ho Chi Minh not his father
HANOI - Vietnam's
Communist Party leader has laid to
rest a persistent and intriguing rumour by denying that the
country's late revolutionary hero Ho Chi Minh was his father,
Time magazine reported on Monday.
The latest edition of the U.S. news weekly's Hong
Kong-based Asia edition said Nong Duc Manh was asked in
an interview whether Ho was his biological father and replied
with a chuckle:
"I must repeat and confirm that is not true...I can tell you the names of my parents, but they
are dead already."
According to Time, Manh named his parents as ethnic Tay farmers Nong Van Lai and
Hoang Thi Nhi, before going on to repeat a reply he has made to the same question in the
past:
"I think the entire people of Vietnam regard Ho Chi Minh as their spiritual father, and I do
too."
Manh had only appeared to deny the rumour back in April last year when he was
appointed leader of the ruling party Ho founded. Ho died in 1969 and Manh was born in
1940.
Analysts say Manh's vagueness about the rumour in the past did little to harm his rise to the
top of the political hierarchy in Vietnam, where Ho is still widely revered.
Time said Manh brushed aside calls that have come from dissidents within and outside
Vietnam for the communists to allow alternate political parties, saying communist rule was
"the burning desire and aspiration of all the people of Vietnam."
"We never think about any opposition parties," he added.
The magazine said he also rejected charges of human rights violations.
"Individual rights always go along with the interests of the society...in Vietnam we have no
political prisoners. No one is arrested or jailed for his or her speech or point of view.
He said Roman Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly, jailed last year for 15 years, was
imprisoned for breaking the law, not because of outspoken criticisms of communist rule he
made to the Committee on International Religious Freedom, an advisory body to the U.S.
Congress.
New York-based Human Rights Watch in its annual report on Vietnam released this month
said Vietnam took "major steps backwards" in 2001, particularly on religious rights.
It highlighted alleged mistreatment of ethnic minorities, who critics say have continued to
suffer abuses despite hopes that Manh, given his minority roots, might improve their
conditions.
In the Time interview, Manh also reiterated past comments on the need to intensify
Vietnam's reform process and also spoke of the need for greater transparency.
He said that in the past, during the revolution, the party had needed to maintain secrecy in
order to ensure victory and the goals of independence and national unification.
"Now the party has won a leading role...I think everything should be governed by law," he
was quoted as saying.
Reuters - January 21, 2002.
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