Since early this month the Western press has gotten wind of an
extraordinary bit of intra-Communist party bashing underway Vietnam, but most
have missed the crux of the story.
One after another reporters have
filed reports to the effect that Vietnam has launched a new round of repression
of the media that populate the vibrant Vietnamese language blogosphere.
Case in point is Prime Minister
Nguyen Tan Dung's September 12 instruction to "responsible officials"
to investigate and punish bloggers who are publishing anti-regime news. Posted
on the government's website, Dung's circular singled out three political blogs:
Dan Lam Bao ('The People Make the News'), Quan Lam Bao ('Officials Make the
News'), and Bien Dong ('East Sea') for publishing stories considered
"slanderous, fabricated, distorted and false, with the intention of blackening
the leadership of the nation, rousing anti-party and anti-state sentiment,
giving rise to suspicion and bad opinions within society."
His directive said the blogs were
part of "a wicked plot by enemy forces." Dung instructed the Ministry
of Public Security to coordinate with the Ministry of Information, and the
latter to work with the Communist Party's Propaganda Section, to ensure the
emission of "objective and truthful news about the situation of our
country . . . and to crack down on mongers of news that isn't true."
Finally, officials and party
cadre were instructed neither to read or disseminate information that is
published on “reactionary” websites. A bit of digging by this reporter revealed
that two of the blogs were set up a few months ago as vehicles for highly partisan
attacks on Vietnam's top leaders by agents of their party rivals.
Quan Lam Bao (QLB) first appeared
in early June, vowing in its first post to “wipe out corrupt cliques that
monopolize the nation’s economic and political life.” By mid-July, QLB was reporting
10,000 “new visitors” daily. The blog's tone is stridently populist, not unlike
Britain's Daily Mail or right-wing 'talk radio' in the United States, and its
stock in trade is roasting premier Dung and his close associates, often
alleging corruption, nepotism and dereliction of duty.
QLB was the first to break news
of the banker and Dung crony Nguyen Duc Kien’s arrest on charges of
"illegal business activities," 12 hours before the national police
made their own announcement. In the next 10 days, daily hits on the site were
just short of a million, an unheard of level in Vietnam’s blogosphere.
The Bien Dong blog surfaced on
July 3 with a long, mundane account of Vietnam's historic claim to the East Sea
and almost immediately segued into ad hominem attacks on President Truong Tan
Sang, and detailed speculation that China was dictating the editorial stance of
QLB. Unlike the anti-Dung site, however, Bien Dong went almost unnoticed by
Vietnamese readers until it was sanctioned in the government's September 12
circular.
The third of the three
"slanderous" sites fingered in the circular, Dan Lam Bao (DLB), is
rather staid by comparison, a mainstream blog that has built its readership and
reputation by addressing the standard concerns of non-party dissidents, in
particular what its contributors regard as the regime's limp-wristed response
to Chinese aggrandizement and bullying.
Interviewed on a chat line by an
Associated Press reporter, a DLB editor professed to be delighted by his blog's
new notoriety. On the day the government circular was published, DLB’s daily
hits more than doubled to more than half a million, he said.
Meanwhile, seemingly unfazed by
the threat of punishment, the editors of QLB continue to post their usual
scurrilous attacks on Dung and his cronies. Bien Dong, the anti-Sang site,
however, has gone silent.
Unseen hands
Perhaps to underline its
neutrality in the intraparty dogfight, DLB on September 14 posted an analysis
arguing that if Dung prevails, Vietnam will continue to wallow in corruption
and nepotism, and if his rival should topple him, a Sang-controlled government
will be Beijing's puppet.
Vietnam's state-controlled
mainstream media have dutifully followed up the government's directive with
stories analyzing the dangers posed by uncontrolled political blogs. Many
simply reprinted copy provided by the official news agency. None seem to have
dared to hint that the directive was in fact aimed at suppressing an unseemly
airing of intra-regime dirty linen.
To Quan Doi Nhan Dan (QDND, or
People's Army), a newspaper that never strays from the party line, the problem
is the covert manipulation of well-meaning "intellectuals, social critics,
even retired or currently serving officials and party members" by the unseen
hand of "foreign organizations."
Quoting sources in the Ministry
of National Security who had counted "more than 400 reactionary
organizations inside and outside the nation" that were posting distorted
and defamatory stories on the internet, QDND concluded that weeding out such
bad behavior is, literally, a Herculean task.
Like the mythical Hydra, a beast
that grew new heads every time Hercules lopped a few off, the blogosphere is
inherently uncontrollable, the army paper said - that is, unless the government
fortified security agencies with clearer mandates, more resources and tougher
laws.
Of considerably more importance
to Vietnam's future than yet another quixotic attempt to police the Internet is
the showdown between President Sang and Prime Minister Dung. The two have long
been rivals for power and influence.
Sang, according to Vietnamese
Communist Party watchers, tried to take down Dung in the build-up to the
January 2011 party congress. He ultimately failed; though accused of
mismanaging the economy and tolerating scandal, Dung secured another five year
term as prime minister. As a consolation prize, Sang was named president, a
largely ceremonial role. The third job in Vietnam's leadership troika, general
secretary of the Communist Party, went to Nguyen Phu Trong, an ideology expert
who'd done a credible job steering the national legislature.
That should have settled internal
power struggles for another five years, but it hasn't. It is argued by at least
a plurality of analysts that it was Sang who convinced Trong to launch a "party-building
campaign" last February that has played a role in exposing recent
scandals. Reputedly, Sang played on Trong's well-known concern that the
corruption and venality of party members has steadily eroded popular respect
for its leadership. The campaign, a classic Leninist exercise in
"criticism and self-criticism" from top to bottom, is now building to
a climax.
By most reckonings, Dung has been
weakened by the recent fracas. In addition to Kien, several other businessmen
linked to the prime minister have been arrested in recent weeks. It took nearly
three months to secure the agreement of the party’s secretariat to Dung's
directive last week against QLB and the other two critical blogs. As noted
above, QLB continues to savage the prime minister, his government and
associates. Significantly, the rules of the reform campaign provide for ballots
of party members to identify and remove under-performing officials. Rumors now
are flying that the party's Central Committee will meet in special session sometime
in October.
By past form, there's little
chance that the Central Committee will vote either Dung or Sang out of office.
Many of its 170 members would probably prefer that the two shake hands and get
back to doing their jobs under the fa็ade of party unity.
However, the bad blood between Dung and Sang is real, it is public and it
overlies genuine differences in intra-party temperament and policy views. But
with all the dirty laundry aired in the blogosphere, it may now be impossible
to put the genie back into the bottle.
David Brown
Asia Times
Business & Investment Opportunities
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