The Washington Post: In Vietnam,
journalist hits limits of government’s willingness to debate new
constitution
By Associated Press,
HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam’s government has asked its citizens to
debate planned revisions to the country’s constitution. But when journalist
Nguyen Dac Kien weighed in on his blog, he quickly discovered the limits of its
willingness for discussion. His state-run paper fired him the next
day.
Kien had taken issue with a statement by the Communist Party chief in which
he said discussions over the revisions should not include questions over the
role of the party.
In a post Monday that rapidly went viral, he wrote that the party chief had
no right to talk to the people of Vietnam like this, and that state corruption
was the real problem.
Kien said he wasn’t surprised by his firing, which was announced Wednesday in
an article on page 2 of the Family and Society, the paper where he
worked.
“I knew that there would be consequences,” Kien said by telephone. “I have
always expected bad things to happen to me. The struggle for freedom and
democracy is very long and I want to go to the end of that road, and I hope I
can.”
Vietnam opened up its economy in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet
Union deprived it of a vital economic partner and ally, but under an
authoritarian regime, government critics, free speech activists and other people
the party regards as dissidents can be locked up for many years. The emergence
of the Internet as an arena of free and uncontrollable expression, coupled with
a stuttering economy, has led to new pressures on the regime, but few think its
grip on power is seriously weakening.
The government is revising the constitution for the first time since 1992,
citing the need to speed up the country’s development.
Perhaps the most significant change in the draft on the government’s website
is the removal of language stipulating that the state sector “plays the leading”
role in the national economy. That could help the government in its pledge to
restructure the country’s lumbering, corruption-riddled and unproductive
state-owned sector, which eats up much of the national budget and has been
blamed for the current economic difficulties.
The government has asked for public discussion on the revisions, even opening
up its website for comments, a move that carried some risk. In response, a group
of several hundred well-known intellectuals, including a former justice
minister, have circulated an online petition calling for multiparty elections,
private land ownership, respect for human rights and the separation of the
branches of government. More than 5,000 people have signed it.
Vietnam’s state-owned television
station quoted the Communist Party’s general secretary, Nguyen Phu Trong, as
saying those ideas amounted to the abolishment of article 4 of the constitution,
which guarantees the political dominance of the party. He said that was a
“political, ideological and ethical deterioration” and should be
opposed.
Kien immediately took to his blog, writing “you are the general secretary of
the Communist Party of Vietnam. If you want to use the word deterioration, you
can only use it in relation to Communist Party members. You can’t say that about
Vietnamese people.” He said there was nothing wrong with wanting political
pluralism, and that “embezzlement and corruption” by party members was a bigger
problem.
The Family and Society newspaper, which is owned by the ministry of health,
said in the article that it fired Kien for “violating the operating rules of the
newspaper and his labor contract,” adding that he alone was “accountable before
the law for his behavior.”
In a posting on his Facebook page after his firing, Kien said “whatever
happens, I just want you to understand that I don’t want to be a hero, I don’t
want to be an idol. I just think that once our country has freedom and
democracy, you will find out that my articles are very normal, really normal,
and nothing big.”
He also said he understood the decision of the paper’s editors, saying “if I
were in their position, I may have acted the same.”
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Global Post: Vietnam reporter fired for criticising ruling party
chief
A Vietnamese journalist said Wednesday he had been fired from his state-run
newspaper after criticising the head of the ruling Communist Party in a personal
blog.
Nguyen Dac Kien was sacked from the Family and Society newspaper less than 24
hours after he published an essay on his blog -- which quickly went viral --
criticising a speech by the party's general secretary Nguyen Phu
Trong.
The newspaper falls under the remit of the Ministry of Health.
Vietnam, a
one-party state that forbids political debate, routinely jails or places under
house arrest activists and bloggers for publicly expressing dissent and
challenging the communist party's rule.
"I am not surprised. After what I wrote (my removal from the paper) was easy
to predict," Kien, who had worked at the newspaper since 2008, told AFP by
telephone.
"I disagree with his (Trong's) speech... I think it is unacceptable," the
29-year-old reporter said.
The newspaper said in a statement that Kien was sacked for "violating the
operation status of the newspaper" and would have to take "personal
responsibility" if prosecuted.
Speaking on Monday Trong, one of Vietnam's most powerful leaders, accused
people calling for political reforms in the authoritarian state of showing
"political, ideological and moral deterioration".
"Who wants to deny the Communist Party's leading role? Who wants pluralism
and a multi-party system? Who wants separation of power?... This must be nothing
else but deterioration," he said.
Responding in his essay, Kien said Trong had "no right to address the whole
country" and only certain communist party officials wished to preserve the
protected status of the party in political life.
"You cannot say that it's the aspiration of the Vietnamese people... only
embezzlement and corruption, running counter to the benefits of the people and
the nation, are deterioration," he added.
The reporter, who is married and has one young son, told AFP he was prepared
for difficulties after his sacking but was worried about the impact on his
family.
"I will continue to pursuit my path fighting for democracy in this country,"
he said.
Vietnam ranks a dismal 172 out of 179 countries on the latest Reporters
Without Borders press freedom index.
ceb/apj/sm
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VOA News: Vietnam Reporter Fired After Criticizing Communist
Leader
February 27, 2013
A Vietnamese journalist working for a state-run newspaper has been fired and
threatened with prosecution after criticizing a Communist Party leader on his
personal website.
Nguyen Dac Kien was let go by the official Family and Society newspaper on
Tuesday, less than 24 hours after writing a blog post that took issue with a
speech by General-Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.
In the nationally televised speech Monday, the general-secretary said those
who call for pluralism, a multi-party system and separation of power represent a
"deterioration" of Vietnamese society.
Kien's blog post, which went viral , said the leader had "no right" to
address the people of Vietnam like this, saying state corruption was the real
problem with Vietnam.
The paper, where Kien had worked since 2008, quickly put out a statement
saying the reporter had "violated the operating rules" of the publication and
had been fired. It warned he will be "held accountable before the law for his
words and behavior."
Kien, who is married and has a small child, says he had done nothing wrong,
but that he is not surprised by the firing. He says he will continue fighting
for democracy in Vietnam and is prepared to face the ramifications of writing
the article.
Vietnam is a one-party Communist state that strictly forbids criticism of its
leaders. It increasingly has jailed political dissidents and activists who
question the party's authority.
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