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Corruption exists almost everywhere in the world. The only difference is its intensity and scale. According to many study and research organizations, Vietnam under the Communist regime is one of the most corrupt countries in Asia. Even the Vietnam Communist Party leaders, who always boast about their party and its regime, dare not deny that allegation.
Recently, the VCP leaders have shown more efforts to fight corruption that they admit as the most perilous social evil threatening the existence of their party ruling power. However, the situation has been too serious to be solved with common solutions. Similar to drug addicts, corrupt officials are present everywhere and intensity is increasing.
Nong Duc Manh, VCP General Secretary and other top leaders, say several times since the week prior to the election that the 11th National Assembly will have the highest priority in fighting corruption.
Meanwhile, Hanoi leaders seem to get lost trying but unable to select appropriate actions to fulfill their promise of fighting corruption. They have to adopt measures that were applied in many countries such as forming special inspection teams to be dispatched to troubled localities to respond to complaints of the people. The inspection campaign launched earlier this year failed to dampen local people anger against corrupt officials.
Some ministers and officials of equal rank led the special inspection teams. They were empowered to fulfill the difficult task as top leaders hoped that they would do something spectacular to cool down the grudging atmosphere all around the country and to restore the Party’s prestige. No favorable reports have been heard of, but failures couldn’t be denied as the campaign ended up in silence.
Reading between the lines of different news and reports, it’s not difficult to see that nearly all the local authorities have not fully cooperated. They have even disregarded measures directed or recommended by the inspection teams. The VCP Central Committee and its central government gave in. Right at this time the Nam Cam Gang scandal broke out and it has aggravated the Party’s dilemma.
Prior to the election on May 19, 2002, the Politburo ordered that all candidates must declare their assets. This had been ordered a few years ago, aimed at medium and high-ranking officials but no results have been reported.
According to sources from Vietnam, the above-mentioned declaration of assets has been carried out. But the documents are kept secret, only available to some officials of the Election Council. The purpose of the compulsory assets declaration is to show the general public whether an official, a public servant or a leader is corruptible by justifying the source and origin of the property. It is not a pure investigation, so it should not be kept secret. This is an evidence of the leader’s lack of volition to actually exterminate the evil of corruption, probably because the invisible and invincible power behind the investigated persons.
The insurmountable obstacles lie within the Party itself. During the wars, local and central Party leaders promised too much of a bright future to their subordinates. As in any party that relies on the absolute loyalty of the key members, the last thing top leaders may do is to break that promises. The obstruction is even greater in the current Communist despotic regime where local Party leaders have turned feudalist lords who often disregard orders of their superiors. They are – as a Vietnamese saying – the legs of the central leaders’ chairs.
Technically, assets declaration can trap only the most foolish ones. Before committing corrupt actions, a Communist cadre must have found the safest way to protect the assets from being detected and confiscated. Centuries ago, the corrupt mandarins must have had their own way to hide their illegal income. One of which is to entrust a part of their assets in safe custody of each of their confident close relatives, who would be awarded a percentage of such part.
Traditionally, the rich in Vietnam keep their assets in solid gold including jewelry. Diamonds, gold bars are easy to be hidden somewhere, whereas real estates is registered under the names of more trustful relatives so that no one in their families officially owns a piece of property.
A South Vietnamese worker lost his job since Saigon collapsed on April 30, 1975. Then he found a small but lucrative business in the chemical industry. After a year, he made friend with a Communist high ranking official who helped him expand the business that earned him about 1,000 gold taels (1,300 oz) a year after all expenses and bribes. Several times Communist authorities searched his home for gold and other valuables after they received a tip-off about his illegal income.
Each time, Communist Public Security could find out only less than 100 taels. According to him, he must accept a loss of 100 taels to save the other thousands. “When they (Public Security) act on a tip-off, they must have something to report their superiors that they have successfully performed the task. Besides, this tactic also helps his friends in the local government protect him more effectively. “Yes, he earned some illegal money, but not as much as reported by the informers...”
Under the former Republic of (South) Vietnam, a similar campaign had been launched but failed to render significant success. Under the current Communist regime, there is no reliable archives system, clear and effective financial procedures and regulations as compared to the former RVN. Besides, many of the Communist officials have been skillful militiamen in guerrilla warfare with years of experiences in fooling and cheating their enemy and the people. Such experiences may not help the Communist regime in economic reforms but they certainly ameliorate the plots in corruption of Communist officials and leaders at all levels.
In comparison with the former RVN government, the Vietnam Communist Party regime is confronting the corruption of ten times trickier, hundred times larger in scale and thousand times detrimental to the prosperity of the Vietnamese people.
There have been dozen times Hanoi government released orders prohibiting its civil servants, including and particularly the Public Security from doing certain things. One of them was promulgated last week. But it is expected nothing better than its precedents that didn’t last long, like a short breeze.
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