Good morning, Vietnam - 30 years after the war, a new reality dawns
HO CHI MINH CITY - "She loves you ..." the band sings. "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" the swaying crowd roars back. The concert by The Beatels, a band of Fab Four lookalikes from Australia, is reminiscent of Shea Stadium circa 1965 - but the year is 2005, and the venue is the former Saigon, wartime capital of US-backed South Vietnam.
In a country where 56% of the populace was born after the Vietnam War ended in a communist victory 30 years ago, this is the face of the future: dancing teenagers singing rock 'n' roll in English instead of the revolutionary music that fuelled their parents' fight for independence. Today's generation chat on cellphones, wear designer jeans, surf the Web, and firmly believe that with hard work and education - preferably at an American college - young Vietnamese can make their nation great.
Vu Hai Minh's grandfathers fought on separate sides of the war. Now the 17-year-old plans to study economics in Singapore. "Vietnamese young people are very talented. They want to show they can rebuild the country," he says. "If Vietnam can defeat the biggest power in the world, it shows that it has huge potential."
After more than two decades of war to oust the French and then the Americans, Vietnam was reunited as an independent communist country in 1975, but still suffered isolation and extreme poverty before it began opening its economy to the world in the mid-1980s.
Now it has a peacetime generation that has gone from rice fields to universities, determined to push Vietnam onto the international stage.
"Everyone wants to contribute to the country and to see the country change, be prosperous and healthy, and have more freedoms," says Bao Chau. The 10th-grader, who speaks perfect English and likes Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears, plans to follow her older sister to college in California to become a doctor.
Chau's dreams are typical of many young Vietnamese who yearn to be educated in the United States or Europe. But few are that lucky: The annual national income averages only about 8,6-million dong (R3 340) a year, and only 3 000 new Vietnamese students enrolled in American colleges last year. Others study closer to home in Singapore or Australia, and more and more are enrolling in colleges within Vietnam - a privilege once reserved for the rich and well connected.
While eagerly embracing capitalism and nurturing a middle class, Vietnam remains a one-party system where political dissent is sharply curtailed. The party, run largely by old-guard conservatives, shows no sign of abandoning its monopoly on power and has been urging new members to join. But the mere fact that the communist leadership is allowing youngsters to be exposed to Western ideas of democracy and free speech shows that the regime is loosening up. "You cannot say whatever you want to say and do whatever you want to do in Vietnam because there are laws and regulations that govern this."
"But once the young generation takes power, I think they will have a good way to govern the country," said Hoai Thanh (24), who runs an underground rock magazine in Hanoi. Thanh, who returned to Vietnam from Sweden with a master's degree in journalism, is eager to see faster change. "I think that in the next 20 years Vietnam will be an open and modern country," she predicted.
The Star - April 21, 2005
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