Celebration cannot mask stagnant party, slowed economic reforms
HANOI - Vietnam's communist vanguard gathered in Hanoi
yesterday for what was supposed to be a glorious
occasion: the 70th anniversary of the country's
Communist Party.
To the strains of martial music, construction workers
spun in pirouettes and traditionally clad ethnic minority
women sang hymns praising the glory of Ho Chi Minh,
the party's founder and Vietnam's treasured
revolutionary icon. Many waved the hammer and sickle
flag under the watchful gaze of Marx and Lenin.
To the nation's political and military elite who filled the
Ba Dinh Meeting Hall, many of whom are genuine
battlefield heroes, it may have been a commemoration
of personal sacrifice and accomplishment, of battling the
evils of imperialism and emerging independent and
sovereign.
To foreign observers, it was a stern warning that the
"gravediggers of colonialism" will brook no rivals to its
political regime.
"We will not accept political hegemony," party General
Secretary Le Kha Phieu intoned, elaborating on the
various guises international governments and
corporations may be employing in their plots to subvert
the world's remaining socialist states.
Such "hostile forces", he suggested, were looking to
wreak havoc on Vietnam's communist idyll.
"We should never relax for a minute our vigilance"
against them, General Phieu said, claiming that the
party's victories, since its inception in 1930, are proof of
the correctness of the communist platform.
"This reminds me of North Korea," a Vietnamese
observer noted during the cabaret-like opening song
and dance routine.
Many of the foreign envoys listening in on headsets
registered similar disbelief.
"I'm dumbfounded," said one Western ambassador after
the event. "I kept on pinching myself to realise what
century I'm in."
General Phieu dwelt on the revolutionary
accomplishments of the 20th century, but regularly
barked out warnings for the future.
"Socialist orientation is still our main measure."
No one is arguing the point these days. Vietnam
continues to prop up its lumbering state-owned
enterprises, to the detriment of a fledgling private sector
chomping at the bit. Promised economic reforms have
slowed, and foreign direct investment has taken a nose
dive in recent years, amounting to only US$600 million
(HK$4.64 billion) last year.
The all-powerful Politburo has balked at signing a
landmark trade agreement with Washington just as
China has inked its own deal with the US for WTO
accession.
"This event cements the party's stagnation more than
anything else," said another European diplomat.
"If you want the party to have a leading role, that's fine,
but it should at least lead somewhere," he said.
By Michael Mathes - South China Morning Post - February 3, 2000.
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