VIETNAM, NEWS ANALYSIS, NOVEMBER 13, 1998

The state-controlled Saigon Daily reports this week that bidders are invited to supply healthcare equipment and upgrade an emergency and post-operation facility at Thong Nhat Hospital in Saigon with total funding of 8 billion VN dong (US$ 500,000).

Of the total funding, to be disbursed from State coffers, more than 6.6 dong billion will be used for purchasing ambulances, specialized beds for emergency and post-operation care, electrocardiographs, and many others. 

On Saturday, Nov 6, a hospital official said the purchase of healthcare equipment and the upgrade of the emergency and post-operation facility of the cardiovascular ward were part of a 150-billion-dong project to develop the hospital approved by the Government on June 3 this year. 

According to the project, by 2002 Thong Nhat will finish upgrading hospital facilities with a funding of 12 billion. Thong Nhat Hospital was originally Vi Dan Hospital, built in 1973-74 by contributions that Mrs. Nguyen Van Thieu, the then first lady of the Republic of Vietnam, was raising. 

After the collapse of the RVN government, the hospital was renamed "Thong Nhat" and exclusively reserved for Communist high ranking cadres and officials. 

The regulations for admission are so strictly implemented that many times it refused to provide emergency treatment to victims seriously injured by traffic accidents near the front gate. 

In 1997, medical care annual budget per capita was less than US$ 7.00. Meanwhile, in most hospitals, offering briberies for admission is so common that people seem to take it for granted.

In an interview with Tuoi Tre magazine last weekend, Hanoi Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said that he would submit a plan for ruling policies reform to the Vietnam Communist Party Politburo and its Central Committee, after thorough studies of the Communist regime in China. 

Khai said he will dispatch officials to China to learn how Beijing has conducted its administrative reform. According to Khai, China has reduced personnel serving governments from central to local levels by 50 per cent and the leadership from 40 to 20. 

Khai also admitted failure of his party in the field of management, which needs quick reforms. 

"Our operation systems are too complicate, unclear, and usually create overlapping responsibilities, not only at the top level leadership but also at local level and in the Party organizations. 

Khai praised the China Communist Party and said that his Vietnam Communist Party is willing to follow the path of the China Communist Party. "To recover the orderly governance by the Party and the local ruling systems is now very essential to us." 

Khai's comments only confirm what his party has done for the last decade. The VCP has silently adopted several Beijing policies and measures especially in political security protection and lately, economic reforms. 

Contrary to what many people might be thinking, most of VCP high ranking members still sympathize with Chinese Communism. There is always a possibility of VCP taking side with Beijing rather than blocking the Chinese expansion at the southern border of China.

In answering questions from foreign reporters about the position of the Vietnamese government relating to the Philippines' reaction to the intrusion of Chinese ships into Vanh Khan (Mischief) Reef area, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh says that Vietnam stands for a peaceful solution to the disputes on the Spratlys (Truong Sa) archipelagos. 

"We have reiterated Vietnam 's position toward the Truong Sa issue time and again, and Vietnam has full historical evidence and legal basis to claim its sovereignty over Truong Sa"; and " pending a fundamental and long term solution, the parties concerned should restrain themselves and refrain from making the situation more complicated". 

Her statement reflects the opinion of all Vietnamese, nationalist or communist, about Vietnam sovereignty over Truong Sa as well as Hoang Sa (Paracel). However, Ms. Thanh and her government said nothing about Hanoi's position concerning the same issue, before April 30, 1975 when the Republic of Vietnam collapsed. 

What would Hanoi say about a diplomatic letter of the former Prime Minister Pham Van Dong to the Beijing government, endorsing a Beijing declaration of Chinese sovereignty over the two groups of islands?. Would Mr. Pham Van Dong and Hanoi government admit that the diplomatic letter has been illegal? 

Red Chinese forces attacked South Vietnamese army and navy defending Hoang Sa (Paracels) and occupied the islands in 1974. Hanoi kept totally silent, mumbling not a word to assert the integrity of our Motherland. The nationalists called such Hanoi's attitude as cowardice.  

Truong Sa (Spratlys) and Hoang Sa (Paracels) are geographic names used by the Vietnamese for hundreds of years and in South Vietnam till 1975. Why the Communist regime in North Vietnam used the Chinese names Nam Sa and Tay Sa respectively in official papers and in military maps, and only switched back to the Vietnamese names after 1978?

A special working group under Hanoi prime minister has been established to settle long-standing complaints and petitions. Deputy Chief of the State Inspectorate, Duong Ngoc Son, speaks with Tien Phong (Pioneer) newspaper about the new group, which he will head. 

In the recent months, many people from around the country have gone directly to central offices, and State and Party leaders' houses, to lodge complaints and petitions. Most are complicated cases, which involve injustice. The people hope they will receive help from the Party and State leaders, but the top authorities said that these people just cause trouble and disturb public order.  

Tien Phong adds that the situation has damaged the prestige of the Communist Party and the government, caused a number of disturbances in the capital city, and reflects a decline in people's confidence in a number of Government offices. The working group has therefore been set up to settle longstanding complaints and petitions. 

In any democratic regime, the responsibility of dealing with people's complaints and petitions are assigned to government ministries and agencies in charge of related matters on a permanent basis. When so many people do not rely on those organizations and have to approach the highest government echelon, the effectiveness of the administration and judicial systems and the regime as well, must be questioned. 

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