Vietnam’s ruling communists yesterday ended a secretive five-yearly congress with the prime minister apparently fending off a leadership challenge as the party cements its hold on absolute power.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s expected reappointment comes amid mounting challenges including double-digit inflation, a weakening currency, poor infrastructure, an outmoded economic growth model and systemic corruption.
While the Vietnamese Communist Party confirmed only that Dung was re-elected to the politburo, which sets government policy, all signs indicated he had fended off a rival for the country’s most powerful position. Five new members joined the politburo, while eight others kept their seats.
Observers said there appeared little prospect of a radical change of course in a country that is opening up its private sector, but where everything from trade unions to youth groups and the press is linked to the party.
“I don’t think there’s going to be any abrupt switches in direction,” said David Koh, senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
The authoritarian leadership has ruled out an end to the one-party system, which the US-based opposition movement Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party) yesterday called “a testament to its obsolescence and self-serving nature.”
Openly advocating political pluralism can result in imprisonment in Vietnam.
Observers expect Dung, 61, to be formally re-appointed to his job later in the year after a symbolic vote by the communist-dominated National Assembly.
They describe him as ambitious and media savvy, a contrast to typical “cadres” in the traditionally staid world of communist politics.
He appears to have survived an aggressive challenge for his job from longtime rival Truong Tan Sang, who is now expected to take the largely symbolic post of president. Analysts say the post of prime minister has become the most powerful because of its extensive patronage network, eclipsing the party leader.
That job went to Nguyen Phu Trong, 66, who replaces retiring Nong Duc Manh.
“Long live the Communist Party of Vietnam!” the white-haired, bespectacled Trong announced to close the congress.
Vietnam’s growth has ranked among the fastest in Asia since the war-shattered country began to turn away from a planned economy in the mid-1980s. It relied on natural resources and unskilled labor to achieve that growth, but party leaders now speak of moving to a more technologically advanced system of production.
Investors have urged greater efficiency in the state-sector, whose problems were dramatically illustrated by the US$4.4-billion-debt of state-owned shipbuilder Vinashin.
For ordinary folk like Tran Van Bay, a motorcycle taxi driver, Vietnam’s new leadership is unimportant. What matters is day-to-day survival.
“I only pay attention to earning money for my wife and kids,” said Bay, 39.
Tran Quoc Hung, a 20-year-old marketing student, said he wanted Vietnam to become as wealthy as Singapore or Malaysia.
Analysts say rapid economic expansion has helped the communists to win popular support, but the regime does not tolerate any perceived threats to its authoritarian rule. It has jailed dissidents and allegedly hacked critical Web sites.
The communists also recognize that increasing exposure to the outside world, including through the Internet, has exposed Vietnamese to different ideas, Koh said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique