~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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Flex our own muscles, says Vietnam elder

HANOI - Vietnam recognises the importance of foreign investment but must give top priority to tapping the country's internal resources, elder statesman and wartime prime minister Pham Van Dong said.

The ageing but lucid Dong also chided the current communist leadership -- although he did not mention the Communist Party by name once -- for not performing well enough and said he maintained an active role in politics.
Dong, who says he is 95 although he is officially listed as 93, is one of Vietnam's most prominent 20th Century figures, having played a frontstage part during one of the most turbulent periods in the nation's history. He was prime minister from 1954-1987.

``Of course we attach much importance to (foreign investment). However, at the same time we always consider that the prime force is our internal resources, our internal strengths,'' Dong told Reuters Television on Thursday.
``We do not just rely on foreign resources, although this is very important,'' added Dong, speaking at his modest villa near the ornate Presidential Palace in Hanoi.
His comments were not exactly music to the ears of the foreign investment community in Vietnam and reinforce Hanoi's official line that what counts is the country's own muscle.

Dong did not name the nation's internal strengths, but they usually mean the industriousness of Vietnam's people, a wealth of natural resources and an estimated several billion dollars stashed under mattresses to avoid the shaky banking system.
Some foreign economists have questioned this internal focus, which gained momentum last year, and said what Vietnam needed was to open the country to new technology and ideas.
Wearing a grey suit and dark glasses -- he has suffered from near blindness since the 1980s -- Dong said he was healthy and closely monitored events in Vietnam.

``People would not believe it if I told them my daily working schedule. I have a working programme every day, and I work all day,'' he said.
He even gently lectured the current leadership, with whom he had ``very regular and close relations.''
``They are doing what they have decided to do. However their work has not been as good as it should have been. They have a lot of work to do,'' Dong said, without elaborating.
Although widely respected, Dong's political influence has declined with the passing years and he makes rare public appearances. Nevertheless, some analysts believe he can wield clout on major decisions.

Indeed none other than Communist Party General Secretary Le Kha Phieu arrived to met Dong just before Reuters Television left.
Phieu and other top leaders installed in the past 18 months represent a clear break from the revolutionaries that fought French colonialists until 1954 and then the U.S.-backed Saigon regime during the Vietnam War that ended in 1975.
An intellectual, Dong ranks in terms of stature alongside military veteran General Vo Nguyen Giap and was considered personally close to late president Ho Chi Minh.
As with Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam watchers have debated whether Dong is at-heart a true communist, or a nationalist who was drawn into the collective socialist system he helped create.
Unlike contemporary Vietnamese leaders, who partly praise Marxism-Leninism for the country's achievements, Dong did not mention ideology during the interview.

``I feel proud of our country and believe the Vietnamese nation will strive to build a strong and more beautiful country and improve people's living standards,'' he said.
``Our nation will forever remain Vietnamese, a nation that will never forget its roots, its past and history.''

Reuters - February 11, 1999.