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In the last three months,
Communist leaders in Hanoi were greatly concerned about increasing problems
from inside and
outside
of the Party. More party ranking members turned dissidents. More protests from
farmers against oppressive measures regarding land disputes. The last three
months also saw Communist leaders busy with the National Assembly election to
be held on May 19, 2002. Though candidates have been carefully selected by the
Party well ahead, Party leaders always try to have their rubber stamp
legislature voted and run smoothly for the sake of propaganda.
While
they were busy solving so many problems, a scandal of the largest scale in the
modern history of Vietnam broke out. Almost every Vietnamese is talking about
the Nam Cam Gang, a large organized crimes gang operating nation-wide from
Saigon to other cities as far as Hanoi in the North. They have involved in many
shady affairs, bribery, illegal transaction, contraband, fraudulence,
blackmail, extortion, cock-fighting, sex trade... even homicide.
Last
year, Nam Cam was arrested and officially prosecuted on several counts that
include: mastermind in murders,
assaults, usury, gambling den operation and bribery. About 150 members of his
gang have been tracked down and detained.
Nam
Cam, or “Cam the fifth sibling,” full name Truong Van Cam, had been an
RVN dishonorably discharged soldier in Qui Nhon before 1975 with a history of
law breaking. After 1975, he moved to Saigon and while working in the area, he
got acquainted with more people who had good connections with Communist
officials and Public Security officers in the area who later became his close
associates. In the late 1980s, local authorities highly appreciated him as a
good citizen having faithfully supported the Communist regime.
For
the last two decades, his gang was growing fast and Cam became a “godfather” of
a mafia-type syndicate. He quickly ascended to the position of a powerful gang
leader that earned him several million dollars after he had been arrested and
incarcerated the first time in 1995 and released in 1997.
His
relations with many Communist magnates were revealed not long after his arrest
for investigation. People are shocked by news about the crimes and
state-controlled newspapers are allowed to make it public, because the scandal
is too large to be concealed. One after another, underworld gang operations
have been reported and as a consequence, people are learning more about
questionable business of many high ranking Party members.
According
to official reports in Hanoi state-controlled media, there have been more than
a hundred suspects, alleged conspirators who were detained for investigation.
They are mostly captains to colonels, serving at all levels of the Party and
the government hierarchy, most of them are in the Saigon areas and are in
charge of criminal investigation, anti-crime task forces, and especially chiefs
of Public Security departments at city, district and ward levels. Nam Cam won
their support by bribery, sympathy and even blackmail.
His
influence has been growing larger in the last 5 years. His underlings were
running illegal businesses almost overtly after his first arrest in 1995.
People insist that without protection from powerful officials and leaders of
the Communist Party, no one could run a wide range of criminal businesses as
that of Nam Cam under a regime that holds tight control over every family if
not every citizen.
Most
recently, the probe has discovered evidence of cover-up schemes at the top Party
offices since he was arrested the second time in late 2001.
In
early March 2002, high-ranking officers of the Interior Ministry started a wide
range investigation on members of the gang and those in the Party, the
government and the armed forces having been party to the activities of Nam Cam
Gang. More than 50 low and medium ranking officials and Public Security
officers in Saigon area were disciplined, among them two journalists of the two
state-owned newspapers, Tuoi Tre (Youth) and Cong An Saigon (Saigon Public
Security).
The
investigation continues to reveal more and more high-ranking officials who have
been closely linked to or even conspired with Nam Cam syndicate. The Communist
central leaders’ most critical involvement was tracked as far backs as 1995
when Nam Cam was arrested then locked up in a “re-education camp” for his
alleged crimes.
According
to state-owned newspapers Tuoi Tre and Thanh Nien republished in Lao Dong
(Worker) on May 14, 2002, though Nam Cam had committed serious crimes before
1995, the then prime minister Vo Van Kiet ordered a special probe to be carried
out by certain Ministry of Interior personnel and related information must be
kept secret even within the criminal investigation division. The Lao Dong
article also raises the question “Why Nam Cam was acquitted from the charges
and released?”
Tran
Mai Hanh, member of the Central Committee is bearing the brunt of the intense
probe. Hanh is general director the national radio Voice of Vietnam, an
important job in the propaganda system only entrusted to faithful party
officials. He is also a representative
of the current National Assembly and is running for re-election. Hanh played a
key role in the release of Nam Cam. In his two official letter sent to the Supreme
People’s Procuracy, he asserted that Nam Cam was not doing anything wrong and
should be acquitted and released.
On
Tuesday, May 13, the National Assembly Standing Committee officially removed
his name from the list of qualified candidates in the election on Sunday, May
19. Discipline measure has not been heard of. However, the cancellation of his
candidacy is no less a light court verdict.
Several
other important figures pleaded for Nam Cam’s case in 1996. The Deputy Chief of
the People’s Supreme Procuracy Pham Si Chien is believed as having pressured
the Interior Ministry to release Nam Cam before the end of his 3-year
re-education term. In his letter last week, Chien shifts the blame on the
Interior Ministry, saying it was the Ministry of Interior that holds the sole
competence to make the decision.
The
ministry officials are fighting back, arguing that as the power of a deputy
chief of the Supreme Procuracy is concerned, Chien’s powerful pressure couldn’t
be ignored or opposed. It seems to the common people that both are responsible
for the questionable favor awarded to Nam Cam.
Chien
is also in trouble of another matter. He has been requested recently to make
full inventory of his large property. Meanwhile, at least one medium ranking
official serving the Supreme Procuracy was arrested last week and accused of
his illegal collaboration with Nam Cam.
The
investigation is going on. It is expected that many more sensational stories
from the Nam Cam scandal will be disclosed and no one could predict how far and
wide the probe will reach. For the last 57 years in power, all wrongdoing at
the top leaders circle have been tightly concealed, though the public might
have been informed a little by rumors.
This
time, the scandal reaches the highest posts of the regime. Facts found by
investigators are spreading to all corners of the country probably because the
scandal can’t be swept under the carpet as 30 years ago.
Some
rumors run that the scandal is a battle between different factions in the
party. Some foreign journalists even say that the scandal is created by Phan
Van Khai’s supporters in a move to retain him in the prime minister’s seat some
more years to improve national order and stability. Other observers think that
the crack down on Nam Cam Gang and his accomplices is a scheme of Nong Duc
Manh, the current general secretary and those siding with him to consolidate
his throne. People even say that the
scandal is a blow directed at Vu Van Kiet and his ardent supporters who advocate
more active economic reform.
The
scandal is only at its primary stage. It promise many more unpredictable surprising results.
In
the history of Vietnam, there have been eras when corruption erupted sky-high.
South Vietnam government under the late President Nguyen Van Thieu was harshly
blamed for uncontrollable corruption. But no criminal gangs had ever been able
to enroll South Vietnam’s officials or military officers at echelons higher
than district police department, into a powerful criminal syndicate with such
large sphere of influence as Nam Cam Gang.
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