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

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[Year 2001]

Vietnam communists "basically" ready for leadership renewal

HANOI - Vietnam's ruling communist party is "basically" ready for a five-yearly congress later this month which is due to rubberstamp changes to the country's top leadership, party supremo Le Kha Phieu said Tuesday. A four-day closed-door meeting of the party's powerful 170-member central committee had "basically completed preparations" for the congress, including the thorny leadership issue, Phieu said in a closing speech, carried by the official VNA news agency.

Delegates contacted by AFP declined to elaborate on whether that meant a consensus had finally been thrashed out on the future shape of the leadership after the divisive debate of recent months. But they confirmed that delegates to the congress would gather behind closed doors Thursday for a week-long "pre-congress" ahead of the formal opening on April 19. All of Vietnam's top posts are up for renewal at the congress but the decisions will all have been taken behind the scenes by the time the public opening throws a glare of publicity on proceedings.

The stars of all the main leaders, including Phieu, have waxed and waned with astonishing rapidity in recent months amid an intense power struggle between rival party factions. Only weeks ago the 69-year-old party chief was written off by top officials as well as most diplomats and analysts in the face of a months-old onslaught on his leadership. Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, regarded as the key reformer within the regime, was also widely expected to leave public life after tendering his resignation twice in as many years. But in recent weeks the conservative party supremo has staged a spectacular political fightback as party stalwarts have rallied around the current leadership in the face of the country's worst unrest in years.

The severity of the protests which have swept the mainly Christian ethnic minorities of Vietnam's central highlands is seen by many within the party as a direct assault on the country's unity as well as communist control. After its last, 12-day meeting in March, the central committee announced that "continuity" and "political stability" would be its key watchwords and that "one, two or even three" top leaders would be kept in their post regardless of their advancing years. Diplomats took the announcement as an indication that committee members had shrunk from the sort of thoroughgoing leadership shakeup that would be necessitated by Phieu's removal. But the same meeting saw an unprecedented pair of disciplinary warnings against Phieu's key allies in the armed forces -- Defence Minister Pham Van Tra and chief of staff Le Van Dung -- which officials saw as the price his opponents had exacted for his own survival. But so rapid have been the changes in fortunes of recent weeks that diplomats say there is still everything to play for and that the debate may go right up to the wire.

Many even hold out the prospect that the current leadership will be kept on as a stopgap, only to be replaced in a mid-term reshuffle before the next congress in five years time. A sweepstake conducted among Western diplomats here Monday saw stark differences of opinion over the future of all of Vietnam's three top posts of party chief, prime minister and president.

Agence france Presse - April 10, 2001.


Future Of Vietnam Communist Party Head Seen In Doubt

HANOI - Divisions within Vietnam's Communist Party in the final days ahead of a key party congress threaten to unseat the country's top leader, party General-Secretary Le Kha Phieu, officials said Tuesday. The 165-member Central Committee, in a meeting that ended Tuesday, voted against recommending that the National Party Congress retain Phieu in his post, party officials said.

It was a surprising break from previous years, when the committee followed the powerful 18-member Politburo, the innermost political circle. Earlier this week, two-thirds of the largely conservative Politburo had thrown their support behind Phieu, fearing the uncertainties of a leadership change. The Central Committee vote could mean Phieu will lose his post in the party congress, which begins April 19. The committee is charged with submitting recommendations for leadership changes to the congress, which is held every five years. The party officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not say how the vote split in the committee. National Assembly Speaker Nong Duc Manh, belonging to the ethnic Tay minority, is emerging as a strong candidate to replace Phieu, party officials said.

Over the past few months, Phieu has been in a roller-coaster campaign to cling to power amid intense infighting among political factions. Phieu, a conservative who turns 70 in December, has been accused of lackluster leadership since taking office in 1997. However, recent ethnic unrest in the Central Highlands and stepped-up criticism of the Communist government by dissident religious groups had seemed to bolster Phieu's position by encouraging conservatism. The last-minute erosion of his support seems to indicate deep discontent with Phieu's leadership. President Tran Duc Luong and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, Vietnam's other two top leaders, are expected to keep their jobs, the party officials said.

The Associated Press - April 10, 2001.