Vietnam leadership runner-up wins high profile job
HANOI - The defeated challenger for the leadership of Vietnam's ruling communist party, Nguyen Van An, Wednesday
won the high-profile job of Speaker of the National Assembly.
He was unanimously elected by Vietnam's 450 members of parliament on the recommendation of the party's
elite politburo, the assembly's office said.
His appointment was widely seen as a consolation prize after his surprisingly strong showing in elections for the
party leadership in April against outgoing assembly Speaker Nong Duc Manh.
An won more than 30 percent of the vote among the party's 150-member central committee against less than
65 percent for Manh and less than 10 percent for President Tran Duc Luong, largely through the support of
communist hardliners, party sources said at the time.
A member of the party's powerful organization committee throughout his 19 years in the central committee, An
is regarded as a loyal party man, more in tune with the thinking of party conservatives than Manh.
As long ago as the early 1990s, he proved that he had influential backers within the party when he survived a
scandal surrounding the bankruptcy of a huge state-owned textile factory in his home province of Nam Dinh
which cost some 10,000 jobs.
"He is obviously a reasonably powerful person within the party -- he would not have given Manh a run for his
money if he wasn't," one Western diplomat told AFP.
"I don't think it's right to describe him as a reformer. He has done the kind of jobs that suggest he's a loyal
party guy."
His new post is expected to give him a high-profile platform equal to that of the three top positions of party
chief, prime minister and president.
Sessions of the National Assembly, particularly MPs' questions to government ministers, have been given
mounting television exposure in recent years.
Despite his conservative support, An is not expected to undo the reforms of his predecessor over the past
decade which have given the assembly increased legislative muscle after years of being little more than a rubber
stamp.
"The development of the National Assembly will continue regardless of who is its president," the Western
diplomat said.
"From the external public relations point of view, they would be very foolish to rein it in. It's not as though it has
caused the government any major problems in the development of policy."
Earlier this month MPs dared to vote down a government bill that would have given district magistrates far
wider powers because of fears that it would lead to an explosion in the prison population and widespread
miscarriages of justice.
But the communist authorities are still able to bypass the legislature on key policy decisions.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh confirmed that a landmark trade agreement with the United
States, which is seen as the climax of a reconciliation drive between the former foes, can be ratified by the
president without any debate in the National Assembly.
The assembly's discussions also remain out of bounds for foreign correspondents, who are only allowed to
attend the opening day of each parliamentary session.
Agence France Presse - June 27, 2001.
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