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

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[Year 2001]

Vietnam's communist party selects new leader

HANOI - The Central Committee of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party voted Tuesday to oust the country's conservative top leader and replace him with a moderate member of an ethnic minority group, officials said. Party General Secretary Le Kha Phieu, a former military commissar, will be removed because of uninspired leadership as Vietnam grapples with the extent of its economic reforms, the party officials said.

The Central Committee voted to replace Phieu with Nong Duc Manh, an ethnic Tay who would be the first minority group member to hold the top Communist Party position, they said. The decision by the 150-member Central Committee, which was elected Monday, must be rubber-stamped by a four-day national party congress that begins Thursday. The congress, which meets every five years, will also approve a political report outlining Vietnam's social and economic policy for the next five years. The party's elite and more conservative Politburo had earlier voted to retain Phieu, and the Central Committee's decision to overturn that vote is a positive sign for political reform, analysts said.

Manh, 60, head of the lawmaking National Assembly, is a forestry engineer who has long been rumored to be an illegitimate son of the late revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh. He has a reputation for being clean and untainted and is seen as a relatively weak leader who operates on the basis of consensus decision-making. His ethnic background could help assuage ethnic tensions that erupted in February, when thousands of hill tribe members protested in Vietnam's Central Highlands over poverty, land grievances and government restrictions on the practice of their Protestant religion.

Manh's selection by the Central Committee indicates support for economic reforms in a country that in recent years has been mired in corruption and bureaucracy. "The reform process here has taken root and will go forward regardless of who ends up running the party," said Peter Ryder, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi. "However, if somebody who is more reformist, more internationally minded ends up as party secretary, that's a sign that things will perhaps move forward quicker than they would otherwise."

In 1986, Vietnam launched a set of reforms called Doi Moi designed to pull the country away from famine by allowing a market economy and increased private enterprise. In a recent poverty-reduction plan prepared with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the government pledged to further liberalize foreign exchange and trade regulations and reform state-owned enterprises and state banks. Indications of greater chances for change apparently convinced Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, a reformist, to remain in his post, the officials said. Khai has reportedly tendered his resignation twice because of frustration over the slow pace of reform implementation. Both Khai and President Tran Duc Luong - who together with Phieu form Vietnam's ruling troika - are expected to retain their positions. Phieu's political fortunes have changed repeatedly in recent months. He briefly appeared able to hold onto power because of a conservative backlash that followed February's ethnic unrest. Phieu's supporters stressed his military background in their campaign for his re-election.

Vietnam's communist government has yet to resolve an internal debate over how much to open the economy to the outside world. Supporters of reform say the country will be left behind if it holds back, while opponents worry that economic reforms will eventually threaten the Communist Party's hold on power. A draft of the political report made public earlier this year said the government would "create a conducive policy and legal environment for the private capitalist economy to develop" and privatize "enterprises where the state does not need to hold 100% of capital." However, it said Vietnam would retain state ownership in key areas of the economy.

The Associated Press - April 17, 2001.


Vietnam communists fought behind-the-scenes leadership battle

HANOI - Vietnam's secretive communist party created confusion over the succession to its top post to prevent any last-ditch fightback by ousted incumbent Le Kha Phieu, officials said Tuesday. A new party secretary-general was finally voted in at a closed-door meeting Monday just three days before the formal opening of the party's five-yearly congress, officials said.

But the apparent victor -- the head of the party's powerful organising committee, Nguyen Van An -- was the least talked-about of the three rival candidates in the run-up to the meeting. Votes were taken on the other two candidates -- President Tran Duc Luong and National Assembly speaker Nong Duc Manh, officials said. But Luong failed to garner enough support among delegates and, even though Manh won majority backing, he immediately turned down the post with the approval and advance knowledge of party elders.

An now appears to have been the favoured candidate all along of the party's powerful advisors -- elder statesmen Do Muoi, Le Duc Anh and Vo Van Kiet -- who have been campaigning for months to oust the party chief, officials said. Phieu won the abiding hatred of the trio by pressing for the suppression of their posts as party advisors early last year. But the three powerbrokers played their cards close to their chest to confuse Phieu's supporters over the identity of his principal rival, the officials from both sides of the power struggle said. In the event the party chief gave in gracefully and the feared fightback did not materialise.

Phieu's name was not even put foward as a candidate when congress delegates voted in a new slimmed-down 150-member central committee Monday, the officials said. But Phieu does appear to have extracted some concessions for bowing out without an unseemly last-ditch fight. He is now likely to be recognized as an elder statesman and join his three leading detractors on an enlarged council of party advisors, officials said.

He also appears to have saved the career of one of his leading proteges, Defence Minister Phan Van Tra, who is thought likely to retain his cabinet post despite being disciplined by the party's central committee last month. The unprecedented pair of reprimands delivered against Tra and army chief of staff Le Van Dung now appear to have been the final nail in the coffin for the party chief's battle to stay in power. The wounding of his close allies left the party chief fatally exposed at the central committee's final preparatory meeting last week, enabling his opponents to exclude him from the shortlist of candidates put forward to the new central committee.

Delegates were finally due to wrap up their six days of closed-door deliberations Tuesday with elections for a new elite politburo of 15 members, reduced from the current 18. Four new members were due to be elected to replace seven who are stepping down, including Phieu and veteran troubleshooter Pham The Duyet. Party ideology chief Huu Tho was due to hold a briefing Wednesday morning ahead of the following day's public opening of the congress. But officials said it was unlikely he would publicly confirm any of the leadership changes thrashed out behind closed doors until they have been rubber-stamped after Thursday's opening.

The vote at the open session will have one major difference from this week's closed-door debate. Delegates will be called upon to vote by secret ballot rather than a show of hands. The officials insisted delegates were far too well-schooled in the disciplines of party unity for that to lead to any last-minute change of heart on the new leader. But given the scale of manipulation during the leadership battle of the past six months, few analysts are prepared to entirely rule out fresh surprises.

Agence France Presse - April 17, 2001.