|
 |
 |
UNITED NATIONS — A decade after the collapse of its proletarian patron the Soviet Union, Vietnam's ruling communists now seem to have noticed. During their recent Ninth Party Congress, the new voices in the Party called for rejuvenation and renovation to resuscitate a moribund Marxist system that has succeeded in little more than holding back the Vietnamese people from what they could have achieved.
The formality of the Party Congress, the crimson trappings and other iconography of the regime, all seemed in place for yet another self-congratulatory political pageant in which the Old Guard would get older while ritualistically calling for a "new and renewed spirit of struggle and sacrifice." Yet this time, many of the Old Guard will now seemingly be allowed to go into the sunset and not have the chance any longer to meddle with the political and economic fortunes of the 80 million Vietnamese people.
The elevation of a "reform leaning pragmatist," (aren't they always!?) Nong Duc Manh, (60) the first Party Boss not to have been involved in the near perennial wars which plagued this Indochinese land for nearly half a century, may be little more than proletarian chic to appeal to the younger generation who strives to succeed despite system's conformity.
Even departing Party Boss Le Khia Phieu conceded that growing anger over corruption by the communists has emerged as "a major danger threatening our regime's survival." Part of that survival scheme depends on creating a "socialist-oriented market economy" which also could deliver higher economic growth.
Though three-quarters of the population are below 40, the average age of the ruling elite in the Central Committee and Politburo is 60. Moreover of the 80 million Vietnamese, a minuscule 2.4 million or just over 3 percent belong to the minority Communist Party.
"This marks the transfer from the gun carrying generation to a pen carrying generation, " (note not PC nor Palmpilot generation!) said Dr. Le Van Sang, deputy director of the government's world Economic Institute told Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.
Significantly the hard-line military now has only 15 seats on the Central Committee and only one member on the ruling 15 member Politburo. For the first time since Vietnam started its economic renewal process known as doi moi, the ruling trokia of Party Boss, State President, and Prime Minister has no military representative.
New blood and some genuinely overdue changes have come to the fore in Hanoi, not for any hint of democratization, but probably a long missed wakeup call that comrades round the world have been allowing economic reforms. This transpired because there was no alternative, not because of any nascent stirring for democracy.
As this column has oft stated, admittedly with a hint of shadenfreude, for a quarter of a century since the fall of Saigon to the communists, the smug Hanoi hardlines ran the show in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Human rights abuses, religious repression and static growth rates became the norm. While economic renovation and foreign investment was permitted in the 1990's, there's little doubt that Vietnam had missed the era of extratordinary economic growth which swept the region from Southeast Asia to South Korea.
Perhaps most embarrassing was that neighboring China, its ancient foe, profits from significant economic reforms, which have brought prosperity despite the communist regime.
In recent years, the Vietnamese economy saw some success through doi moi but still suffered from the millstone of corruption and cronyism. The formal lifitng of the U.S. trade and investment embargo proved less of a windfall than expected but let's not forget that while the Vietnamese are hardworking and industrious their initiative and talents are stifled by the stupidity of trying to force them into the cookie mold of socialism.
Now the dour Politburo seems to have been pushed aside by slightly more realistic players who see the glaring errors in running Vietnam the old fashioned way. By allowing some economic liberty, the system may still be able to slog through the morass the communists have vaingloriously created and forced upon the long suffering Vietnamese people.
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.
