Hanoi: The Zero-sum game of Dissidents

Vietnam Currents
September 1, 2006

Hanoi: The Zero-sum Game of Dissidents

On August 30, Hanoi released 38-year-old Dr. Pham Hong Son who was
imprisoned for 5 years after having translated into Vietnamese and
disseminated in cyberspace the disposition "What is Democracy?" from
the U.S. Embassy web site. Dr. Pham's wife indicated that he was
coughing blood and in poor health. Some in the international media
praised Hanoi for being responsive to world opinion, yet this release
of some dissidents bears the clear trademark of a cold, calculated, and
cynical maneuver before Hanoi hosts APEC and a possible visit from the
U.S. President George W. Bush. America has been the largest importer of
Vietnam's products and bilateral trade reached more than 6 billion U.S.
dollars in 2005, so a token measure must be taken to silence the
critics and Dr. Pham was let go.

While we share the relief and joy of Dr. Pham's family's reunion, we
should recall that Dr. Pham's father had passed away two weeks before
his release. Dr. Pham's wife had applied for a temporary relief so that
her husband could attend the funeral and said his last farewell. In an
Asian society, the absence of a son at his father's funeral services
could probably a lifelong grief and whoever prevented this ultimate act
of filial piety only exhibits the loss of human compassion and should
be condemned in harshest terms.

But it has happened before ... with well-known Nguyen Dan Que, Doan
Viet Hoat, Veneral Thich Minh Chau, Nguyen Khac Toan, Father Nguyen Van
Ly, and many less well-known or unknown people who just happen to
disagree with the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) about the political
system foe good governance in a globalized world. Each year, Hanoi
rulers release thousands of criminals through the "amnesty" on
political occasions. These released prisoners include many hard-core
criminals and party members who were caught red-handed in corruption,
embezzlements, unlawful confiscation of other people's properties, etc.
They had been perfunctorily dealt with in the courts and then assigned
to serve in symbolic sentences, always with the understanding the party
would take care of them well and they would be eligible for parole at
the first instance. (The most famous example was the Deputy Minister of
Industry, Vu Ngoc Hai, under former Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet. Excused
of corruption and embezzlement, in collusion with Kiet's wife, in the
construction of the 500 kilovolt North-South power line, he was sent to
prison, only have Kiet personally coming into his jail cell to pin a
medal and thanked him for "loyal service.") Without failing, every
amnesty includes a few well-known dissidents who had been petitioned by
Western leaders and diplomats. (To date, there have not been any
intercessions from Russia and China because these two powers have also
been busy suppressing their own people and collecting dissidents
themselves.) The party's propaganda machine, and its agents abroad,
then noisily trumpet the "humanitarian act" of the ruthlessly "lenient
regime!"

Nothing is further from the truth! Hanoi is playing a malicious game
with the lives of many political prisoners. Dissident Nguyen Khac Toan,
released several months ago after traversing numerous prison camps in
North Vietnam, wrote a lengthy account of the conditions of these
prisons and documented the presence of around 300 political prisoners,
with a few having been there since the late 1970s, i.e., nearly 30
years without anyone knowing about it! The U.S. State Department and
international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch are aware of this document and is in the process
of verifying the information therein before confronting Hanoi.

So, the next time you hear the knee-jerk utterance of Hanoi's spokesman
that, "There are no political prisoners in Vietnam," ask them
specifically to respond to Nguyen Khac Toan's numbers and accounts.
Hanoi thinks it can get away with its treatment of dissidents in
particular, and the systemic oppression of the Vietnamese in general,
by dangling the trade and investment opportunities in front of
multinational corporations and capitalists whose only preoccupations
are ways to make a fast buck. As long as the communist regime
facilitate their business plans, they could all raised their champaigne
glasses to toast the greenbacks. The way a Vietnamese government treats
its Vietnamese subjects is none of their business, these businessmen
reckon. The dissidents are merely a nuisance to them.

Hanoi also feels it enjoys impunity with respect to its abuses of human
rights in Vietnam because the world, and especially the U.S., is too
busy with other things like the nuclear problem of Iran and North
Korea, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Lebanon, the Darfur
genocide in Sudan, and massacres in Somalia, etc. As a result of their
calculations, Hanoi communists devised this simply policy: Absolutely
suppress dissent; release some dissidents when pressures become
unbearable but grab others to balance out, i.e., make sure it is a
zero-sum game; keep the number of political prisoners a "state secret";
and parrot the line of, "There are no political prisoners in Vietnam,"
at every inquiry. The world will be weary and tired!

How to deal with this cynical and inhumane policy? Speak the truth,
demand accountability, and reward Hanoi with nothing for releasing a
prisoner previously illegally incarcerated. And continue to shine the
light into the sordid state of human abuse by this totalitarian regime.
If we do not speak up for them, Nguyen Khac Toan's documentary
underscores the sad reality that these political prisoners would die in
silence while their communist tormentors are laughing all the way to
Swiss banks.

On many levels, these stories of these dissidents are inspirations for
Vietnamese everywhere. Except for a small number of Hanoi sympathizers
who are still trying to apologize for the regime, the majority of
Vietnamese, in Vietnam and overseas, now recognize that the VCP is the
boulder stopping the advancement of the nation towards a democratic and
free future where there is a decent life for everyone.


Hai Tran
Virginia, USA

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