Symptoms of Malaise
Hanoi renews intimidation amid troubling incidents
HANOI - Ba Dinh Square could be called the heart of the Vietnamese state. A large lawn is bordered on one side by the mausoleum of the late President Ho Chi Minh, on another by the home of the country's legislature, and on a third by a villa that houses the Communist Party's headquarters. It's an expansive, picturesque place that
inspires awe and respect. For the same reasons, it's also the perfect place to make a statement.
It was near here, on April 15, that 63-year-old Nguyen Van Kinh chose to express himself in a most dramatic way. In broad daylight, he set himself on fire in an act eerily reminiscent of the 1960s, when Buddhist monks sacrificed themselves to protest against the Ngo Dinh Diem regime ruling then-South Vietnam. Kinh survived,
but the incident shocked those who heard about it, though they are few: It was not reported in the press. One source said that security forces surrounded him quickly.
On April 21, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that Kinh suffers from mental illness and was drunk at the time of his self-destructive act. He had tried it before in 1990, the statement said. However, another source said the man appeared to be angry about a dispute over local-level party membership in Ha Tay province.
It wasn't immediately possible to determine whether his action was politically motivated. However, the choice of method and site, plus the fact that it came at a time when the party is under siege from many sides, has led some to interpret the event as a metaphor for social and political decay.
"If he is not crazy, it's a symbol of social breakdown," says one usually effusive official who has turned deeply sombre. "Slowly but steadily pressure is building on the regime. The chain is difficult to follow, but it's very deep and profound."
Links in the chain include a second call by a respected retired general for dialogue about democracy, and continuing sporadic rural protests against local corruption. On the streets of Hanoi, many residents are increasingly concerned about bizarre acts of
random violence and a seeming erosion of respect for authority among Vietnam's youth.
These events, compounded by a slowing economy with predictions of worse to come, are being met with a renewed climate of intimidation in Hanoi as a new leadership tries to grapple with change. In recent weeks, foreign diplomats have
reported more surveillance and harassment of firms. Reporters also say they notice more obvious surveillance. And Vietnamese employees of at least two foreign enterprises have been arrested, one reportedly for possessing confidential documents.
Gen. Le Kha Phieu, the little-known political commissar of the army who became Communist Party chief in December, is showing his true colours, say some political observers. Regardless of his public assurances that the country will remain open to foreign investors, it seems increasingly clear that internal security remains the priority--even if it comes at the expense of economic growth.
Still others say the crackdown may not represent the will of one man, but an intensifying struggle for power within the party leadership. "I doubt that Phieu is an independent actor, and power has fragmented to the point that some entities within the party and state might act more or less independently," says William Turley, a Vietnam specialist at Southern Illinois University.
One of the arrested employees worked for American accounting firm Ernst & Young. Since he was detained on March 6, the firm has received no official notice of his arrest, says managing partner Peter Tibbitts. "The only way we found out was his family called and told us that he had been temporarily detained by the Ministry of
Interior," he says. "That's all we know."
A local employee of European engineering giant ABB has also been detained, say staff at the firm. (Executives could not be reached for comment.) And one Western official said that local employees of a company trying to do market research in Vietnam were recently taken to the Ministry of Interior, which oversees the police
and internal security, for questioning.
Vietnamese are increasingly apprehensive for other reasons too: In the last few weeks a motorbike rider has slashed the faces of several children riding with their parents. He remains at large and many locals have bought helmets or other head gear to protect their kids.
The social ills at street level are reverberating in the halls of power with the forthright and critical letters of retired Gen.Tran Do. He fired his first lengthy missive criticizing corruption within the party and calling for democracy in December. He upped the
ante in early April with a second letter in which he complained about a concerted press campaign attacking his ideas, intimidation of his children--two of whom are high-ranking army officers--and surveillance of his home, says a source familiar with the letter's contents.
Now the self-immolation, regardless of its motive, has sent another shockwave through party ranks. About the only conclusion people are drawing, though, is that the events together show all is not well in modern Vietnam. Says one official: "Maybe they act separately, but it's one signal of the disease of the society."
By By Faith Keenan - Far Eastern Economic Review, April 30, 1998.
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