VIETNAM, NEWS ANALYSIS, NOVEMBER 6, 1999.

In the Sai Gon Giai Phong, an official newspaper of the Saigon Communist Party Committee on Saturday, October 30, there is an editorial criticizing the Vietnam Communist Party, in general, of corruption and bureaucracy and saying that their victims are the very majority of the Vietnamese people.

The author of this editorial is Tran Trong Tan, a former head of the Culture and Ideology Committee in the VCP Central Committee. He is currently the deputy chief of Saigon Communist Party Committee. He denounces the Party leaders' failure of extirpating corruption, factiousness, bureaucracy that lead to the detriment of the people.

Tran Trong Tan says in his article that the VCP is ignoring all complaints of the people, and people's discontentment could bring forth adversary effects to the Party. According to him, the discontented masses is an undercurrent that might become deadly hurricane that could sink all kinds of ships.

He also said that the anti-corruption campaign has been increasingly difficult. Those who speak out to demand that anti-corruption policy be changed for the better, will be labeled as dissidents acting against the Party top leaders and get into trouble given by the alleged corrupt officials themselves.

Tan recites a satirical two-line epigram, a production of Hanoi and best-known in Vietnam today:

(Failure of crop is because of natural disaster,

Abundant crop is made by the genius of our Party).

He cites the cases of the former Soviet Union and the Communist states in Eastern Europe, that collapsed only because their people had not trusted their leaders any more.

Tran Trong Tan is still a VCP member, and retired from official position 2 years ago.

He is one more VCP high ranking official whose name is included on the list of dissidents. The list first appeared in the early 1980's with some Communist veterans of South Vietnamese origin on the top few lines such as Communist 3-star general Tran Van Tra, Nguyen Ho... More names have been added every year as Hanoi were conducting more crackdowns against them. However, Hanoi dare not impose harsh treatment on their famous former comrades as it does to the nationalist dissidents.

In the last few years, may more VCP high ranking party officials and scholars have joined the dissidents in the list. They are classified into several group, based on their differences in opinion about the role of Communism and the party, though they agree to the same position against the current regime.

In the first group, Communism is categorically rejected and Ho Chi Minh is unmasked. They publicly assert their opinions, but some did the same tacitly in their writings and speeches, but all are especially attacking the VCP most sensible spots, including the false hero Ho Chi Minh.

The second group is against Communism and the current Communist leadership but still advocate the existence of a proper socialist party to replace the current Communist Party.

The third group, however, is only flaying the Party leadership alive for their inability to deal efficiently with corruption and other evils. They call on the party to reorganize and to get rid of corrupt leaders but retain the Communist Party's ruling power.

The three groups reflect the contention between different standpoints not only within the Party Central Committee but also among the party members. That is one of the few main reasons that forced Hanoi to delay the official signing of the normal trade agreement between Washington and the VCP government.

Why a state-run newspaper published such an editorial by a Communist high ranking official is a good question.

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Torrential rains along a large part of the Central Vietnam six coastal provinces caused the most serious floods in this century. According to the latest reports on Thursday, death toll has reached nearly 500 and about 150,000 people are facing starvation. Hue City, the ancient imperial capital is under ten feet of water at some locations. Hue was a site of the bloodiest battle in the 1968 Tet offensive. It is predicted that the weather could be worsening into next week.

The narrow coastal land along Central Vietnam is always threatened by flash floods. Short rivers, some only 50 miles from the Truong Son Mountains, often overflow their banks when heavy rains from the highland suddenly inundate the region without warning.

Such devastating disaster occur every decade in Central Vietnam. One of the worst floods befell this section of the country in late 1964. Thanks to scores of the U.S. Army helicopters operating rescue missions days and nights, thousands of lives were saved. Luckily, none was shot down by Communist soldiers. They were not reluctant to open fire at the UH's flying food and medical supplies to isolated villages and saving people perching on top of their houses or trees and drifting away to the sea.

As usual, the current disaster in Central Vietnam prompts the Vietnamese community to join relief operations to send emergency aids to the flood victims. However, many émigrés doubt that full amount of aids in cash and kind would reach the victims' hands. They have experienced too many tricks of Communist officials who always are eager to get some profits from such relief supplies.

After the floods that encompassed many areas from north to south in 1978, tons of foodstuff from Western countries were sent to each flooded village. In many areas, Communist officials distributed the items without a word. Only 6 months later, they told victims that the supplies had been given to the government, who resold them at low prices, so the recipients had to pay for them in 12 monthly installments. Actually, local governments collected the money only after six months, against the will of the people. Meanwhile, relief supplies such as soybean oil and wheat flour were also supplied to Communist soldiers in Cambodia.

During the last few years, émigrés who sent aids to their home villages have encountered similar tricks. For example: A group of dozen émigrés from Quang Nam province sent money to their home village for several tons of rice to help their villagers. The donation had to be permitted by the village people's committee who received the money on behalf of the people.

The benefactors found out later that the village committee had actually donated their rice to the villagers. However, the committee told the beneficiaries that the gift was given by "the goverment." Of course, the benefactors' names have never been mentioned.

Internatonal charitable organizations should be cautioned against such dirty tricks to make sure that the Communist party and government agencies, as well as Communist officials would not make illegal profits from humanitarian assistance of any kind.

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