Vietnam’s re-elected leader, a 71-year-old Communist Party ideologue, yesterday made it clear that one-party rule was here to stay, insisting that the collective leadership he heads is a better alternative to what he called authoritarianism disguised as democracy.
Nguyen Phu Trong on Wednesday was re-elected general secretary head of the party and the leader of a 19-member politburo that will govern the nation for the next five years. The decisions were made at the end of a weeklong congress of the 4.5-million-member party.
“Vietnam’s Communist Party is a one-party rule, but we also have principles of democracy and accountability of the leaders. Otherwise, good deeds would be credited to individuals, while failure would be blamed on the group and no one would be disciplined,” he said.
Photo: AP
“The principle of the Communist Party of Vietnam is collective leadership with accountability and responsibility of the individual, which can never become authoritarian. It is not proper to name them, but in a number of countries, in the name of democracy, all decisions are made by one person. So which is more democratic?” he asked.
Justifying the party’s iron-fisted rule, Trong said Vietnam needs discipline to meet its goal of becoming a modern, industrialized society.
“A country without discipline would be chaotic and unstable... Democracy should go alongside discipline. There should be no imbalance. We should not go to either extreme. We need to balance between democracy and law and order,” he said.
Along with Trong, a new crop of leaders were elected to the politburo and the 180-member Central Committee — the other key component of the ruling structure.
The renewal of the leadership means little change for Vietnam, where the people have no direct role in selecting the party leaders.
Trong is expected to continue to push the economic reforms led by outgoing Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. The prime minister is the de facto No. 2 in the hierarchy, and the post will be held by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc after it is endorsed by the National Assembly later this year.
Despite having a reputation for being pro-China, Trong is not likely to be totally subservient to Beijing as that would risk massive anger from ordinary Vietnamese who harbor a deep dislike and historical suspicion of China.
“Many people were afraid that a conservative trend would prevail if Mr Trong is re-elected. But ... whoever they may be, and however conservative they may be, when they are at the helm they are under pressure to carry out reforms,” said Le Hong Hiep, a visiting Vietnamese fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asia Studies in Singapore.
Trong’s re-election was an expected outcome, even though he was briefly challenged by Dung in what had become a relatively public power struggle. Dung was ousted from the politburo last week. Now that he has become virtually a lame-duck prime minister, it is not clear how he will make any decisions incumbent on his office.
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