Vietnam communists set to wrap up leadership debate
HANOI - Vietnam's ruling communist party will wrap up 12 days of closed-door debate on Saturday on a raft of hotly contested
leadership changes to be adopted by a five-yearly party congress next month, officials said.
The head of the ideology and culture commission Huu Tho will brief the foreign press on the results of the central committee's
deliberations after the meeting closes at 2:00 pm (0700 GMT), the foreign ministry said.
Principal among the changes expected to have been thrashed out by the 170-member committee is the replacement of
Vietnam's top leader, party chief Le Kha Phieu, who has been widely criticised for a "lacklustre" performance.
The party's three powerful advisors -- elder statesmen Do Muoi, Le Duc Anh and Vo Van Kiet -- circulated a letter within the
leadership as long ago as last October accusing him of demonstrating "a lack of ability in party and state management," a top
official told AFP earlier this month.
At its last meeting in January, the central committee debated an upper-age limit for senior officials which was widely seen as an
attempt to give the 69-year-old party chief an honourable way out.
Reformist Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has also made it clear he wants to leave the public stage, tendering his resignation
twice in as many years.
But the party has been trying to convince him to stay on or accept other government responsibilities, officials say.
It is by no means certain that the current meeting of the central committee will have entirely sealed the debate on what is
euphemistically known here as the "personnel issue."
In a defiant speech at the opening session last week, Phieu revealed that a further meeting would be held "very soon, just before
the party congress."
The conservative party chief himself called for a thorough shake-up of the leadership in his speech.
"Cadres who lack political conviction, are greedy, opportunistic, ambitious ... corrupt, bureaucratic and inefficient should play
no role in the future leadership of the party," he told committee members.
"The most virtuous and talented cadres should be chosen and presented to the ninth party congress to be elected to the central
committee," he said, according to a text published by the party's daily, Nhan Dan.
The raging debate over the leadership issue has forced the postponement of a party congress which was orginally scheduled for
March.
The central committee has repeatedly ducked the issue in recent months, giving no discussion at all to the problem at its last
meeting in January and postponing another meeting tentatively scheduled for last month.
It has been an unedifying spectacle for a ruling party which has always made it a point of honour not to wash its dirty linen in
public.
The party congress is now tentatively scheduled for the third week of April, officials say.
Preparations are already under way for an event that is regarded with an almost religious reverence here, even though it only
ever rubberstamps a consensus that has been painstakingly thrashed out in advance.
Earlier this week, the official media reported that the government had issued a decree banning demonstrations in big cities until
the end of April to prevent any disturbances during the congress.
A propaganda exhibition sponsored by the culture and information ministry to welcome the congress also opened in the capital
on Tuesday.
Agence France Presse - March 23, 2001.
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