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.
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