NEWS ANALYSIS, DECEMBER 29, 2001.

"An intellect who acts on the Party's orders have the heart of the dog, not the heart of the intellectual," said Duong Thu Huong in an interview by Little Saigon Radio on Tuesday, December 18, 2001.

The interview was made through telephone between Vietnamese language Little Saigon Radio in South California and Duong Thu Huong at her residence in Hanoi.

Duong Thu Huong, 47, is the famous dissenting writer whose works draw much attention from the all over the world. Her books, most are of anti-Communist contents, include Thien Duong Mu (The Blind Paradise) that is the most bitter attack against the regime and its leaders.

Before April 30, 1975 when South Vietnam collapsed under North Vietnamese Communist offensive, Duong Thu Huong had been serving the Communist cultural group on the front line. Upon arrival in Saigon right after the capital city surrendered to the Communist force, she was stunned at the realities of the South Vietnamese society, completely different from what she and millions of North Vietnamese had been stuffed with by Communist propaganda.

The facts she witnessed converted her to a fervent anti-Communist. She wrote books to speak up the voice of conscience and the works were quickly appraised by people in and outside Vietnam. Her fame led to her arrest and months in prison, and she was released only after Hanoi was under strong pressures of international organizations and governments. She is living at her Hanoi home under covert supervision of Hanoi Public Security Department. Once in a while she could communicate with the overseas Vietnamese by telephone.

The interview with Little Saigon Radio took place at 12:40 PM on Dec. 18. The interviewer was Dinh Quang Anh Thai, editor of Little Saigon Radio. Following is Duong Thu Huong interview, summarized in English by Viet Quoc Home Page.

To the question about her opinions on the issues of the country in 2001, she admitted that she has not been a politician but a dissident who for a long time has interrupted all contacts with people outside including those in the literary circle. "But if you accept it," she said, "I would speak out my subjective viewpoints."

Citing public opinions after Nong Duc Manh was elected general secretary of the party, she thought the Vietnamese common people are smart enough to analyze the situation and the leaders. But in this historical background they have to take it for granted as they had to accept food rations with 70 percent sweet potatoes and manioc years ago.

She said people could notice all the regression on the streets, at shops and stores and how people were buying and selling. However, she recognized that the government has tried to drop some of its privileges as its officials are having too much lucrative relations with foreign organizations. Therefore, the government has given in a little to the people. It is why people who write political jokes and satirical verses to make fun of the regime are not fiercely hunted down and arrested as in years ago.

"I think the leaders themselves do feel ashamed of the present plight of the country and they also don't have confidence in themselves," she said. According to her, true stories of the government members are spreading over sidewalks and coffee houses. There are stories about how the prime minister's son is gambling, about an illiterate wife of a deputy minister has ascended to a high post only because of good connections, or about a truck driver who climbed to the seat of provincial party secretary only because he is a real cunning flatterer. Public Security officers are too tired and too frustrated to muzzle the people anymore from talking about such realities.

In an interesting issue, Little Saigon Radio asked Thu Huong for his opinion about the special report released on November 28, 2001 by Democracy Study Center of U.C. California at Irvine, regarding "The Vietnamese Public in Transition - The World Values Survey: Vietnam 2001." The report compilation, however, was confided to the Human Study Institute in Hanoi instead.

The report states that 91 percent Vietnamese people are pleased or very pleased with their lives, satisfied with the government, the national assembly and the armed forces; that Vietnam ranks above most of developing countries, equal to China, Mexico, Chile and Spain; that about 46 percent of the interviewed people say they are not followers of any religion; that only 10 percent consider religion to be playing an important role in their life.

Duong Thu Huong's comment runs that "Such American study centers of the kind are very frivolous and bureaucratic. They could only work with what are within their limited space, because they only met with those who were permitted by Hanoi authorities. Those permitted by Hanoi are faithful underlings of the Communist Party, and they have the dog's heart, not the heart of the intellectual, you know that, don't you? And they could never tell the truth."

"I don't have time to be fiddling about likewise, but I just say a short sentence: There are no intellectuals in Vietnam, so there is no study or research. All such tasks are carried out under the Party orders. All the so-called intellects are members of the party, paid by the party to say what it wants... Years ago, the late premier Pham Van Dong ordered the Committee for Social Science to demonstrate that Vietnam has a 4,000-years culture, and they did. If now they are asked to demonstrate that it is 5,000 years instead, they will certainly perform the task as were told and may insert four or five more bird feathers on the ancient Vietnamese head... I think all are farces..."

She said the Communist leaders' beliefs have shattered, but they still have power in their hands and are still so haughty. Long ago, the feudalistic culture were teaching our ascendants to preserve honor, which has not existed anymore in the last 50 years. So all are in a world where we all know that we are telling lies, keeping silent to earn our living.

To a question concerning the new American Ambassador to Hanoi and the possibilities of changing Vietnam to the better in the economy and human rights after the trade agreement, the brave woman said she was having little contact with people outside. So she had no idea about the new ambassador, nor the (Communist) policies in coming years. But in her view, the life of the people is in grave danger. All signs of prosperity is nothing but a hardened top layer of a bowl of watery rice porridge, the prosperity that only concentrates on the major cities.

"If you go out a few kilometers away from the big cities, you'll meet very impoverished farmers who are toiling over hard works to earn one or two US dollars a day. One way or another, we all love our people and don't want them go starving," Thu Huong insisted.

As to the near future, she said with all she had heard and all discussions of people on the city sidewalks, she deemed that the time of illusion had passed long ago. "Their fear (of Communist rulers) has greatly diminished, and they now dare to publicly show their contempt against the authorities. Such action reflects some progress. Derision, sarcasm, disdain, all indicate the first steps towards perception."

To the question concerning her literature activities, she disclosed that her most recent book "Chon Vang" is translated into English with the title "No Man's Land." It's about men and women after the war.

When the interviewer asked her about how she has changed her viewpoints since she arrived in Saigon after it had surrendered, she admitted that "after the Liberation of South Vietnam," she suffered the deepest fall in her life from disillusion. She sank into despair and this very despair had turned her life to another direction. "Since long ago, I had given up everything in the home front and all possibilities of a somewhat sweet life, to throw myself on the war against the aggressors. But after the Liberation, I thought I had been completely wrong because it was a civil war and the war between two ideologies. And the victory was of a barbaric nature because despite everything, the capitalist model is still better. So at last I realize that all my life, my courage has worn out, I have been mistaken, I've been duped. If I had known the war would conclude that way, I wouldn't have launched out into the war as I did," she said.

To the interviewer's remark about the term "Liberation," Thu Huong said she used it from habit, and that she should have referred to the event as "After April 30" to avoid causing bitter feeling to the South Vietnamese.

"If you light an incense stick at the sacred time of the New Year's Eve, what would you think about and what would you wish?" asked the interviewer. Thu Huong said, she would feel sorry for the innocent Vietnamese, who are made the scapegoats by the wicked lords. "I think our country is having a run of ill-luck, so there is no decent figure to lead the nation. At last the people is brought to brutal circumstances but receives nothing."

"What would you talk to the young people in exchanging confidences with them," asked the Little Saigon Radio interviewer. Thu Huong says she is unable to exchange confidences with those of the younger generations as they are only interested in making money. Sometimes there are a few guys calling her on the telephone and say that "I admire and respect you very much," but they are frightened, they do not give their names and are afraid of being caught by the Public Security. Those cops are bugging the lines. If they track them down, the consequences would be fatal...

Nowadays, the young generations are studying to be very fluent in foreign languages and are devoted to earning money, keeping themselves away from everything else. But she thinks that if a bamboo is bent down or a pendulum is pushed to one side, they will swing back to the opposite direction. And only after getting through a period of devoting only to serving oneself, the even younger generations would be cooled again to rethink and then we'll have much better generations.

The interviewer raised the issue regarding young Vietnamese living abroad, many of them are concerned and uneasy about their motherland. "What would you say to those young people if you meet them," he asked.

"The overseas Vietnamese on their trips visiting Vietnam are reluctant to see me as they are afraid of getting in trouble with the Public Security. I don't think about exchanging ideas with them, nor teaching them anything. I always hate the way the old teaching the young," she said.

The interviewer put the last question, "What do you wish at this very moment?"

Duong Thu Huong: "I have many wishes. To your question, I would say I'm wishing for democracy in Vietnam. But I have to say that as I'm struggling for democracy, nobody should be afraid that I would be establishing any political party to seek for power, because I'm never a politician. I believe that democratization must be the essential way to save Vietnam from poverty and from present oppression."

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