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A DISPUTE AT WJC/UMASS
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n the last few weeks, conflicting opinions concerning a program at William Joiner Center of the University of Massachusetts in Boston have been drawing the attention of a great number of Vietnamese expatriates in America. It’s the Rockefeller Program on the Study of the Vietnamese Overseas, "(Re)Construction Identity and Place in the Vietnamese Diaspora."The program itself does not lead to any concern, but the selection of the two candidates who are officials of the Communist regime in Vietnam to participate in the study is the central issue of the controversy. They are Mr. Hoang Ngoc Hien, director of the Nguyen Du Institute, a state-run school that trains "literature writing," and Mr. Nguyen Hue Chi,anH
Chief of the department for Literature Reasoning and Criticism, a component of the Literature Institute, according to information provided by the Vietnamese Community in Massachusetts.
The Vietnamese community in Massachusetts and its supporters all around the world argue that selecting the two Communist officials to do a study on the Viet refugees is an act of humiliation to more than two million Vietnamese who fled Vietnam to avoid Communist persecution. It also smears the honor and troubles peaceful resting of about 100,000 people who lost their lives on their ways fleeing Vietnam in high seas and deep jungles.
People in the community compare the participation of the two ranking Communist officials to cases such as serial murderers studying their surviving victims, or Nazis doing research on victims of the Holocaust.
A delegation of the Vietnamese community in Massachusetts has met with WJC Standing Committee to find a solution. Headed by Dr. Kevin Bowen, the WJC committee adamantly defends its position. The committee’s opinion could be found in the WJC letter to the Vietnamese American Community in Massachusetts on August 8, 2000.
According to WJC, the program is to explore the ways various communities define and address the issues of their history, culture and identity in the world of the diaspora. The project, financed by Rockefeller Foundation, is to be done in four years. The two Communist researchers are working for the program only in the first year, WJC affirms.
The Vietnamese community in Massachusetts and other areas say they are supporting any study on the history, culture and place of the refugees in the world and in the USA. The purpose of UMass/WJC program would truly serve the interests of the Vietnamese exiles. However, the selection of the two Cultural Branch Communist officials Hoang Ngoc Hien and Nguyen Hue Chi is a different matter.
In the letter on August 8, 2000, Dr. Kevin Bowen wrote:
"The selection of the four candidates for academic year 2000-2001, two of whom are form Vietnam, was made by the Standing Committee of eight representatives of the five participating institutions or centers at UMass Boston. It includes DR. Kevin Bowen, Dr. Madhulika Khandelwal of the Asian American
Studies Program, Dr. Michael La Fargue of the East Asian Study Program, Dr. Rajini Srikanth of the English Department, Ms Nguyen Thi Tuyet Trinh of the CAPAY Program, Mr. Hiep Chu representing the Institute for Asian American Studies, and Nguyen Ba Chung of the Joiner Center ."
"The selection process is based on the credentials of each candidate individually, the relevance of their proposal, the methodology of their research, the possible contributions of their works to the field, and their
fulfillment of the residency requirement . It is not based on any label, class or category . Each candidate is judged on his or her own merit as a serious and independent scholar ."
"For example . Mr. Hoang Ngoc Hien and Mr. Nguyen Hue Chi are not only reputable scholars in their own right but well-known nationally within Vietnam and internationally, especially within the exile community. Mr. Hoang Ngoc Hien, a co-editor of the Yale University-sponsored Vietnam Review, has
played a significant in the Renovation process in Vietnam, and is considered one of the most influential critics of his time . Mr. Nguyen Hue Chi has been a national scholar most noted for being the chief contributor to the massive 3- vol Tho Van Ly Tran (Poetry and Prose of the Ly Tran dynasties) an
eye-opening and ground breaking work making available systematically for the first time the wealth and significance of the Ly Tran Literature . To label these scholars as " Communist" writers is simply uninformed and biased ."
"A request such as yours, or any request for a priori rejection of any candidate based on their race, religion, nationality, or place of residence, etc.. we believe would be a violation of any principle of fairness and integrity, and is therefore, not acceptable, for any research institution. The Program cannot proclaim that it will accept applications from scholars anywhere in the world, except, for example, from Vietnam." (from source in the VNC/Mass).
According to information provided by UMass/WJC, things look different from that of the Vietnamese community in Mass., mainly regarding Mr. Hien and Mr. Chi. Mr. Hien's biography sketch released by WJC shows that Mr. Hien was born in 1930, serving as literature teacher since 1949, awarded Doctor degree at Moscow University in 1964, appointed as the head of the Writers' School, a department of Hanoi Cultural University. He retired in 1993. Since 1996, he has been co-editor with Mr. Huynh Sanh Thong, a literary translator and the writer Truong Vu in the Vietnam Review Magazine. Thong and Truong Vu are living abroad.
Mr. Chi was born in 1938, completed a literary course in Hanoi University in 1959. He was serving as an editor of the state-run Lao Dong Publisher; assistant for Scientific Study, Literary Institute, then senior researcher, associate professor, and chair professor, chief of the section for ancient and modern times history in the same institute.
WJC says in its statement that Mr. Hien was removed from the seat of department chief from 1979 to 1983 after he wrote an article about some peculiarity of literature and arts in Vietnam (unfavorable to the regime?) Meanwhile an article written by Mr. Chi, concerning the oversea Vietnamese literature and an essay about Oriental Philosophy have been harshly criticized by a number of (Communist) writers in Vietnam. WJC also quotes a report by Ms Thuy Khue, a literary critic of Radio France Internationale, praising the works of Mr. Hien.
WJC's information asserts that Mr. Chi has never been a Communist Party member.
The WJC's letter and information clearly shows fundamental differences between the two sides in the dispute. Most arguments of the concerning Vietnamese published and broadcast in the media or expressed in conferences are focusing at some common points.
They agree that the selection guidelines as mentioned by Dr. Kevin Bowen is reasonable, beyond any question. But WJC obviously misunderstands their points. They do not protest the guidelines. They do not look for discrimination based on label, class, nationality, religion or category. They don't protest only because the two candidates are Communists from Vietnam.
They are only against the application of these guidelines. They don’t believe in the fair contributions of Mr. Hien and Mr. Chi to the program as long as they serve as the Communist "cultural ranking cadres." For the same reasons, the two can’t be independent when they are faithful to a regime where key posts in the state sector are only given to devoted party members or fervent party supporters.
They strongly disagree with Dr. Kevin Bowen about his comments regarding Hien and Chi. Their names and works are not well known in Vietnam, let alone in the exile Vietnamese community. Not one in a hundred of the Vietnamese writers outside Vietnam has ever heard of the two names. The fact that some of their works have been published in four or five exile Vietnamese newspapers proves very little, as the large number of publication in the Vietnamese community, about 250, is concerned.
They might have been best contributors to greatest works in literature. But that does not mean they will be best contributors to the study which relates to the Vietnamese refugees. Contrary to Dr. Kevin Bowen's assertion that the Vietnamese community is uninformed, all Vietnamese in and outside Vietnam know very well by their own ears and eyes without relying on any books or researches, that such ranking officials serving the most important branch in the Communist ideological instruction system, must be faithful Party members or reliable supporters and will do everything exactly as instructed by the Party Politburo whether they like it or not. In every statement regarding literature, top party leaders always assert that literary works must be managed and oriented by the party's policies.
During the last few years, WJC has sponsored some thirty Vietnamese who are serving the Communist Party and the Hanoi government to visit the USA in various programs. They have met no protests even when many of them availed themselves of the opportunities for Communist propaganda. This time however, the case is specially serious and extremely sensible to the Vietnamese refugees’ feeling.
Officials of the Vietnam Communist Party and its government may contribute their works to anything else but not on the issues related to the Vietnamese refugees’ life in social, political, cultural, psychological aspects, according to the Vietnamese who said they will join the demonstration. Moreover, the alleged scholarship in literature of Mr. Hien and Mr. Chi is not well appropriate to the study that also requires knowledge of sociology and psychology, which can be acquired only if they have been living a long time in the targeted community.
Most of the two millions refugees are against the Communist regime, and what the Hanoi goverment is doing only deepens the animosity. Would any ranking officials from Hanoi dare to admit the fact that the refugees risked their lives on small rickety boats or in dense forests because they had been oppressed, persecuted by the VCP regime, and of their deep hatred against Communism and the Communist regime? Certainly they wouldn’t, unless they intend to apply for political asylum afterward.
This is the most important factor in the study, because of its dominating influence on almost all aspects of the refugee’s life. Every study on the Vietnamese refugees must take this factor into the most serious consideration. Communist-faithful scholars would hardly have courage to do so even if they do grasp it firmly. Besides, there is a possibility that they may have to juggle with the facts in the research to reach a conclusion that "most of the exile Vietnamese are economic refugees."
The Vietnamese community's greatest concern is that if the study produces false reports and twisted information regarding the Vietnamese refugees, it will be very difficult to rectify the errors when the final document is distributed all around the world.
In the meantime, many Vietnamese refugees are going to hold protests, the size of which is unpredictable. They are about to launch a campaign to call for support from the academic circles, veterans associations... The smaller number said that they would rather wait to see how the study is conducted and some of its results before they decide to react.
WJC reportedly has promised to welcome members of the Vietnamese community in Massachusetts to attend and contribute to the lectures, to cooperate in calling on the oversea Vietnamese researchers to participate in the program. WJC also promises that it will work with the community to promote other initiatives relating to its program.
The dispute may be leading to some troubles. To many Vietnamese, it is advised that WJC should do more to prove that the truth and the honor of the Vietnamese refugees community will be respected and protected. However much extremely anti-Communist they might be, the Vietnamese refugees are always reasonable when dealing with honest and free-hearted opponents in a dispute.
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