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The Vietnam Communist Party
Central Committee held its three-day Seventh Plenum from November 7, 2002,
discussing social and economic plans for 2003, including a hydroelectric power
plant project in Son La province.
In
his opening speech, VCP General Secretary Nong Duc Manh admitted the fact that
there are two major problems confronting the Communist regime: political
instability in rural areas and corruption of party members and government
officials at all levels. He called on the Central Committee to take strongest
measures against corruption.
At
the same time, hundreds of people from An Khanh village, Hoai Duc district, Ha
Tay province clashed with Public Security force in a demonstration against the
government's purchase of their land at an imposed price which they said too
low. The village is about 30 kilometers west of Hanoi. A number of Public
Security officers and protesters were injured during the clash. Several
protesters were detained.
Last
year, local government ordered the requisition of more than 30 hectares of the
village land to construct an industrial complex. The land belongs to 800
peasant families. Many of them complained that compensatory payments were far
lower than current values at the land market.
Land
disputes have increased since the Communist forces overthrew the nationalist
government in Saigon in April 1975. But the public has been aware of the
complaints only since 1986, when Hanoi allowed state-owned newspapers to report
such incidents. The "doi moi" (or renovation) launched that year has loosened
control over the press, permitting news reports on events that could not be
hidden or concealed. The reported events are only a small parts of farmers'
protests taking place everywhere each year.
The
Communist policies over land ownership cause many unsolvable complaints by poor
citizens. So far, Communist leaders since Ho Chi Minh have clung to a Marxist
theory contending that the state owns all land of the nation, the citizens only
have the right to usufruct on the land they are farming and living. In recent
years, the state has formally awarded each family the right to use the land
specified in the title-deed, so-called "red book" or "red
certificate." In principle, that right can be revoked by the authorities
at any time, with or without compensation.
The
policy governing land issues have met strong resistance from the Southerners
although it had been implemented successfully in the North since 1954. However,
village and district authorities in many areas especially in the Mekong Delta
reallocated planting fields and resizing land for homesteads.
Taking
advantages of ambiguous directives of higher authorities and the large ruling power
entrusted to local governments, party leaders and authorities at villages and
districts gave themselves the most valuable pieces of land for their families,
even playing tricks to get them. Hundreds of litigations by poor farmers
against land extortions of the "Red Wicked Lords" were reported but
most of them seemed to be disregarded.
The
Communist government also enacted some decrees concerning real estates legally
owned by former civil servants, police and armed forces officers of the
defeated South Vietnam government. Hanoi directives, mostly given through
telephones, forbade the sales or transfer of possessions of property owned by
police lieutenants, army major and higher when they immigrated to America and
other Western countries. However, large and valuable properties especially
those located at prosperous downtown areas of the civilians and former officers
with ranks lower than that mentioned above fell into the forbidden category.
Hanoi
dared not officially confiscate their properties, but only said in a memorandum
that the officers' homes and surrounding land must be "put under the
management of the governments" before their departure for resettlement
abroad. After they left, the properties were given to the Communist party and
government selected officials and officers.
The
way Hanoi dealt with the land issues proves that the Communist leaders are not
any good rulers as they are cracked up to be. Besides, their government is not
capable of handling the real estate market, which has been in high fever for
the last few years.
Realtors
in big cities are making incredible fortune by joining real estate trade.
Prices vary from US$ 100 to as staggering as US$ 7,000 a square meter (10 sq.
feet). Many Communist ranking members and its government officials whose jobs
relate to real estate market quickly became multi-millionaires in U.S. dollars.
Meanwhile,
the policy of land usufruct fails to gain any objective of controlling the
distribution of land imposed by the Communist regime. Until now, the "red
book" means nothing more than its red cover, the color of Communism.
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