Cracks Appear in Vietnam’s Economic Miracle

Vietnam is Asia’s number two success story. Often in the shadow of China, its massive neighbor and sometimes antagonist to the north, Vietnam’s economic miracle is nonetheless just as impressive, maybe even more so. Out of the ashes of the destructive Vietnam War and abject poverty, the country rose to prominence in Southeast Asia, commanding respect both regionally and even internationally.

In fact, Vietnam’s own economic miracle became legendary, one that the World Bank a few years ago called a “development success story.” In 1986, the year that political and economic reforms were launched, Vietnam was one of the poorest countries in the world with a per capita income below $100. In just 25 years, by the end of 2010, Vietnam was listed as a lower middle-income country with a per capita income of $1,130. The ratio of population to poverty fell from 58% in 1993 to just 14.5% in 2008. And, the country has already attained five of its ten original Millennium Development Goal targets and is well on the way to attaining two more by 2015.

Yet all is not well for Vietnam lately. Corruption and a totalitarian government that still suppresses journalistic freedom, and engages in often-rampant religious persecution that continues to alienate its potential Western allies, particularly the United States (who try as she might simply can’t overlook news of human rights atrocities coming out of that country) plague the nation. In fact, on September 11, the US House passed a bill to protest human rights abuses in Vietnam. Vietnam for her part was quick to respond, rejecting the bill. The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry said that the resolution forged was based on erroneous information and only tended to hinder progress in the normalization of relations between Vietnam and the US, based on openness and mutual respect.

Though Vietnam can likely weather such problems as Hanoi matures and comes to grips with the complexities of international diplomacy in the 21st Century and learns to balance its ambitions while stubbornly holding to still dogged communist ideals at home, it is likely to have more problems dealing with two other more pressing issues: recent financial upheaval resulting in lower GDP projections and energy shortages - both of which can cause Asia’s second economic miracle to sputter, perhaps come to a grinding halt.

Cracks in Vietnam’s economic machine

Economic problems have started to eat away at Vietnam’s fledgling prosperity. In May, Vietnam News Service (VNS) reported that while the Vietnamese economy is showing signs of recovery after monetary and fiscal measures were taken by the government to support business, this year’s targeted GDP growth of 6-6.5 percent would be difficult to reach. Vietnam’s GDP growth is projected to be 4.5-5 percent. Other forecasters project Vietnam’s GDP growth at just 4 percent.

Another problem is inflation. Ironically, Vietnamese businesses try to counter a weakening Vietnamese Dong by using US Dollars, the preferred payment at many hotels, shops and business throughout its larger cities, particularly Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and Hanoi.

A World Economic Forum (WEF) report released at the beginning of September reported that Vietnam’s inflation approached 20 percent in 2011, twice the level of 2010, and the country’s sovereign debt rating worsened. Vietnam has plunged ten notches in an annual ranking of its financial and business environment.

The country fell to 75th from 65th a year ago and 59th in 2010, making it the second-lowest ranked among eight of the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) covered by the Switzerland-based WEF annual report on global competitiveness. The report also listed corruption as one of the primary culprits in Vietnam’s recent slippage in its poll.

Banking irregularities are also pulling down Vietnam’s economy; to such a degree that news broke in early September about a possible International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail out, rumors the government was quick to put down.

The trouble stems from the fact that many Vietnamese banks made bad loans amid the recent financial crisis. Three weeks ago the Wall Street Journal reported that the Vietnamese government acknowledged that non-performing loans (many made to inefficient state-owned companies) could be as high as 10 percent of the banking system, substantially higher that reported by individual banks. Fitch Ratings analysts think the number is as high as 15 percent.

Gareth Leather, an economist at Capital Economics argues that Vietnam’s economic problems are mostly from its banking sector, and forecasts GDP growth at 5 percent in the coming years. He said that although higher than growth rates in the West, 5 percent is considered slow for a developing Asian country like Vietnam and might not be fast enough to generate sufficient jobs to keep its growing population employed.

Power crunch

Not only is Vietnam’s economy slowing but its energy sector can best be described as problematic. First, Vietnam subsidizes the price that its citizens pay for natural gas. They don’t want to raise the end-user price of gas to a level sufficient enough to guarantee a profit for foreign companies that search for and then have to pay large sums to develop gas reserves.

Also, though this may change as Vietnam’s GDP slips, the country’s electricity demand has accelerated as its economy continues to grow. In the past 15 years, the country’s GDP increased at least 7 percent annually. Electricity demand (in line with economic growth) climbed by 15 percent yearly since the mid-1990s, according to a 2010 World Bank Report.

Since 2007 power shortages and cuts have plagued the country. Conditions worsened in the hot season of 2010 and 2011 when power was cut several times a week, angering citizens and causing heavy losses for businesses.

To meet its growing energy needs, the country has tried to diversify its energy mix while also being aggressive in offshore oil and gas exploration.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that about a third of Vietnam’s energy consumption is from traditional biomass and waste. About 70 percent of the country’s population lives in rural areas and agriculture accounts for a large part of the country’s GDP.

Nearly one quarter of its energy consumption comes from oil, while hydropower is at 10 percent, coal at 20 percent and natural gas at 11 percent.

Vietnam’s oil production has decreased over all since 2004, after several years of steady gains and the country has become a net oil importer since 2011. Vietnam’s natural gas production however has risen rapidly since the late 1990s and is used entirely to supply the domestic market. Though foreign firms are often hesitant to enter Vietnam’s energy sector, TNK-BP has had success there lately.

In April, TNK Vietnam, a subsidiary of Russian oil giant TNK-BP, announced that it had successfully completed the drilling of two development wells in the Lan Do field, just over three months after work started. With an expected annual output of 2 billion cubic meters (bcm), TNK-BP stated that it hopes its new Lan Do offshore field in Vietnam will help to offset nearby field declines as well as helping to meet the country’s growing power demand.

The first gas from Lan Do is projected to flow through the pipeline in the fourth quarter of 2012. TNK-BP expects Lan Do’s annual production to sustain Block 06.1’s current production of 4.7 bcm/y. The field sits 28 kilometers from the Lan Tây offshore platform in the Nam Con Son Basin’s Block 06.1, where TNK-BP is producing gas for power generation in Vietnam.

Some analysts think that this will have a positive impact on the country’s domestic power market, which needs additional fuel sources to meet future demand.

Jamie Taylor, upstream research analyst for Wood Mackenzie, offered a different perspective. Speaking by phone he told Energy Tribune that the development of Lan Do will help offset what he sees as a production decline from the adjacent Lan Tây field rather than result in increased supply from the project.

Taylor mentioned an additional problem with Vietnam’s power sector that often plagues ASEAN member states. “Slow progress in power projects implementation in southern Vietnam has made power shortage inevitable in the region,” he said. “Looking at the current status of power projects, a power deficit is likely to continue for the next few years even if Vietnam speeds up power projects implementation.”

He added that a slower GDP growth in Vietnam will likely reduce the power demand going forward and might lessen the impact of power shortages. If so, it’s a mixed blessing coming amid the country’s recent financial woes.

Chris Faulkner, CEO of the Dallas-based Breitling Oil & Gas Corporation told Energy Tribune that the gas industry has played a prominent role in the fast growth of the Vietnamese economy in recent years, but energy demand has outpaced both the economy and Vietnam’s energy infrastructure.

“Though Vietnam recently transitioned to a free market style economic system, it still lacks the energy infrastructure to provide the stable energy resources that will be key to maintaining an aggressive GDP,” he said.

Faulkner said that Vietnam is at a pivotal point in its domestic energy supplies and policies and that it will not be producing enough natural gas domestically to keep up with demand in the near term, unless new domestic sources are found and developed.

He added that population growth combined with increased demand on natural gas for electricity generation will soon overcome Vietnam’s current reserves and move that country from its current status as a net exporter to the undesirable position of becoming a net importer of natural gas.

“Vietnam will also need to get serious about energy efficiency. A domestic energy policy that addresses energy efficiency, foreign investment, gas exploration, infrastructure development, production, distribution, pricing, and imports is the only pathway to success that I can see for Vietnam to meet surging domestic demand,” Faulkner added.

source: Energy Tribune - By Tim Daiss Oct. 02, 2012
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Time to Get It Right: Southeast Asian Nations Human Rights Declaration

Foreign Ministers from ten countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will meet in New York on September 27 to review the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD), which is currently the controversial second draft.

On September 25, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum Asia) and Solidarity for Asian People's Advocacy Task Force on ASEAN and Human Rights delivered a statement before the Human Rights Council in Geneva, which called the draft version of the ASEAN Declaration seriously flawed for being discriminatory and in violation of the commonly held principle of human rights being inalienable.

Throughout the drafting of the Declaration, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) has been sharply criticized for several reasons: limiting civil society participation by rushing the drafting process, curbing the diversity of civil society voices by excluding many groups denied official registration and legal recognition by their governments for work as human rights defenders, lacking transparency by not sharing drafts of the Declaration with civil society groups or indicating if civil society recommendations were being incorporated into the drafts, and excluding marginalized groups requiring human rights protections, including LGBT people.

AICHR which comprises representatives from each of the ten ASEAN countries was mandated in 2008 under the ASEAN Human Rights Charter to develop a "framework for human rights cooperation through various ASEAN conventions and other instruments dealing with human rights." Among AICHR's members, tasked with giving the region its first set of guidelines for ensuring human rights, are high level government officials including Vietnam's director of foreign affairs, Brunei's chief justice of the sharia high court, the Philippines ambassador to Japan, Singapore's senior district judge for subordinate courts, as well as two activists from Thailand and Indonesia, and a lawyer from the Malaysia Human Rights Commission.

The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights makes decisions by consensus, which has created stalemates on decisions about excluding "public morality" as a caveat for suspending human rights and including LGBT people's rights. According to the summary record of the Commission's convening in the Philippines on September 12, Sriprapha Petcharamesree, Thailand's representative gave assurances that if consensus was not possible, they would use the formulation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). " We will not go lower than the Universal Declaration," she said. In contrast, Bounkeut Sangsomsak, the representative from Lao, insisted that they "should not simply be a copy the Universal Declaration but take into consideration the diversity and realities of the ten ASEAN member countries."

LGBT rights advocates in the region , working to make the Declaration truly "people-centric" are concerned that in the absence of explicit reference to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) in the Universal Declaration, the drafters of the ASEAN Declaration will omit LGBT rights. The activists are urging that the AHRD also be based on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected categories. All ASEAN countries, have signed these two treaties and are obligated to promote the principles of equality they mandate.

The drafters of the AICHR are out of step with developments in the broader human rights arena. They have missed the opportunity to adopt a progressive vision of human rights. Instead, they have blamed religion and culture for holding back its commitment to recognizing that all human beings have human rights and that LGBT rights are human rights.

The decision to omit sexual orientation and gender identity from the ASEAN Declaration signals lack of concern for marginalized communities who suffer horrendous violence because of their sexual orientation and gender identity and have no avenues of legal recourse for widespread and institutionalized discrimination. Those individuals from religious minority groups that have noisily demonized LGBT people and spread intolerance in the name of religion do not represent the majority in their countries, nor do they represent the majority point of view of all religions. Most people in the ASEAN countries do not want LGBT people to suffer from violence, discrimination, hatred and intolerance.

The meeting of the ASEAN Ministers precedes a convening of Commonwealth Foreign Ministers on September 29 in New York. Four ASEAN countries are part of the Commonwealth (formerly colonized by Britain) -- Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore, the strongest opponents to including sexual orientation and gender identity in the ASEAN Declaration. Burma, also a Commonwealth nation is silent on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

There is still time to right a wrong. And now is the time to do it. Non-discrimination, non-violence, and equal protection of the law are critical for the well being of all people in Asia including LGBT people. The Foreign Ministers of the ASEAN need to reject the current draft of the Declaration and insist that it be inclusive and truly representative of the diversity of ASEAN societies. It needs to reflect the voices of hundreds of civil society groups who have asked for the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity as a protected category in the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration before it is adopted in November 2012.


Grace Poore is Regional Program coordinator for Asia and Pacific Islands, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. She may be reached at gpoore@IGLHRC.org
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Khmers-Thais: The Complex Relations

GERALD W FRY
Distinguished International Professor
Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development
University of Minnesota September 24, 2012 1:00 am
gwf@umn.edu

Cambodia and Thailand have always had a closely linked history. Despite sharing many common cultural traditions and traits, the Thai-Khmer relationship has often been strained.

Both countries have a long history of advanced civilisation. One of the earliest human settlements in Southeast Asia was located in what today is Cambodia, and the ancient Khmer Kingdom of Angkor was also centred there.

Prior to Cambodia becoming a French colony in 1863, parts of western Cambodia had been part of Siam. Battambang, for example, for 112 years was the major city of eastern Siam, and a major trading centre in the heart of a major rice growing area.

The former Prime Minister of Thailand, (three times) Major Khuang Aphaiwong, was also born in Battambang.

There are numerous factors contributing to the strained relations between the countries. It is important for Thais to know that the Cambodians feel that the Siamese historically took much territory from their country (the sacking of Angkor Wat in the 15th century, for example).

The Thais should also know that the Cambodians strongly feel the Thais have borrowed much from Cambodian culture and civilisation but without adequate acknowledgement. The Cambodians claim that the Thai alphabet, Thai royal language and court customs, and classical dancing and architecture have their roots in Cambodia.

Interestingly Thais in their history books learn just the opposite - that the Cambodians adopted Thai arts, dance, and architecture.

The Thais also have numerous misunderstandings of Cambodians being influenced by the media, films, and drama.

First, many Thais think that Khom and Khmer are different peoples - with the Khom being the people who built the great Angkor empire and magnificent architecture and who are now extinct. They see the Khmer as a different people who now control Cambodia and who committed the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. In fact, the Khom and Khmer are the same people. Also, in general, Cambodians prefer to be called Khmer, instead of the term "Khamen" used by the Thai to refer to them.

Second, many Thai see Cambodia as an extremely poor country with illiterate people similar to a Sub-Saharan African country. They do not realize that there are, in fact, many multilingual and literate Cambodians and that Cambodia has one of the fastest growing economies in the world (7.7 per cent annual economic growth over the past decade).

Third, Thai film and drama often show the Khmer in the stereotypical role of practising black magic. Some Thais may be warned not to visit Cambodia for fear they might be hexed by Cambodian black magic.

Despite such misunderstandings, the two countries are major trading partners, with Cambodia needing many processed goods (such as clothing, cosmetics, and household items) from Thailand, and it in turn buying many natural resources and raw materials (such as fish, agricultural products, and gems) from Cambodia.

In addition, the Thai government has carried on a continuing programme of economic and educational assistance to Cambodia. HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, for instance, has built and sponsored Kampong Chheu Teal High School in Cambodia's Kampong Thom Province, which has grown from a small rural school to become one of the model high schools in the country.

Despite such assistance, a major anti-Thai riot occurred in Phnom Penh in January 2003, because of a rumour that a popular Thai actress Suwanan Kunying, known in Cambodia as Phkay Pruk ("Morning Star"), claiming Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand.

In 2008, new tensions arose related to the ancient temple, Preah Vihear, on the Thai-Cambodian border. This temple itself belongs to Cambodia as the result of a 1962 International Court of Justice decision.

Fortunately there are many materials available to help Thais better understand Cambodia. In terms of appreciating the rich Khmer Angkor civilisation, the Chinese diplomat, Zhao Daguan, left behind detailed reflections of his experiences there in the late 13th century. The Siam Society published a richly illustrated translation of his major work, The Customs of Cambodia. David Chandler's A History of Cambodia (2007) is also an excellent read for those wanting to learn more about Cambodian history from a balanced impartial perspective.

There are also many riveting books told by survivors of the Khmer Rouge such as Chanrithy Him's When Broken Glass Floats: Growing up under the Khmer Rouge (2000). Some modern Cambodian feature films of interest are "The Rice People" (1994), "One Night after the War" (1997), "Enemies of the People" (2010), and "Lost Loves" (2012).

In studying this material, Thai students are not only learning more about their Cambodian neighbours but also using English, the major language for communication in the AEC era.

With respect to science and environmental studies, Thai students should become more familiar with the major central lake, Tonle Sap, which is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia and a huge source of fish and protein for Cambodians. The size of this lake changes dramatically each year as a result of the water flowing from the Mekong River. The Tonle Sap River feeding into the lake amazingly reverses direction each year.

Given how much Thailand and Cambodia share historically, culturally, and linguistically and the greatness of their ancient civilisations, there is certainly potential for them to be amicable partners in the AEC era with mutual benefits for all.

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UN Rights Chief Dismayed By Harsh Sentencing Of Vietnam Bloggers

UN human rights chief Navi Phillay

(RTTNews) - UN human rights chief Navi Pillay on Tuesday expressed her deep concern and dismay over the conviction and harsh sentencing of three dissident bloggers in Vietnam a day earlier on charges of spreading anti-government propaganda.

Pillay noted that the jailing of the bloggers reflected a trend of increasing restrictions on freedom of expression in the South Asian country, especially against those who use the internet to voice criticisms of the state.

"The harsh prison terms handed down to bloggers exemplify the severe restrictions on freedom of expression in Vietnam," Pillay said in a news release issued Tuesday.

On Monday, a Vietnamese court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced three prominent dissident bloggers to prolonged prison terms under article 88 of the penal code for "conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" by posting articles on the website of the Vietnamese Club of Free Journalists.

In a trial that lasted just a few hours, Nguyen Van Hai was given 12 years' jail, while Ta Phong Tan, whose mother burnt herself to death in July after police harassed her family, received ten years. The other blogger Phan Thanh Hai was sentenced to four years. Nguyen's case had been raised by US President Barack Obama during a speech to mark World Press Freedom Day in last May.

Jailing of the three bloggers comes amid crackdowns on political blogs ordered by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. People are increasingly using Internet to expose corruption and nepotism by the ruling Communist party and to express their resentment at the state of affairs in the South-East Asian country, where the press is controlled by the state.

Hundreds of police surrounded the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City on Monday morning to prevent supporters of the convicts from approaching the court. Seven people were arrested before the trial started and mobile phones were barred from the court premises.

Pillay said in a statement that the court's quick decision after only a few hours of deliberation raises questions about the defendants' right to due process and a fair trial, and expressed concern about reports that several supporters were detained and prevented from attending the trial.

In 2009, during the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Vietnam's human rights record, the State had accepted a number of recommendations on freedom of expression, including one to "fully guarantee the right to receive, seek and impart information and ideas in compliance with article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."

Pillay said the verdicts are "an unfortunate development that undermines the commitments Vietnam has made internationally, including during the UPR, to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression."

Incidentally, the United States had demanded the immediate release of three jailed Vietnamese dissident bloggers on Monday. US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in a statement that Washington was "deeply troubled" by the convictions of three Vietnamese bloggers, who she said appeared "to have done nothing more than exercise their right to freedom of expression."

Source: RTT Staff Writer 9/25/2012 5:41 PM ET
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U.S. President Barack Obama Addresses the United Nations 

on September 25,2012

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International Outcries to Three Vietnam's Bloggers Harsh Sentence

U.S. State Department:
Press Statement
Victoria Nuland
Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
September 24, 2012

We are deeply troubled by the convictions of three Vietnamese bloggers who appear to have done nothing more than exercise their right to freedom of expression. Nguyen Van Hai (aka Dieu Cay) was sentenced to twelve years, Ta Phong Tan received ten years, and Phan Thanh Hai, four years. All face house arrest following completion of their sentences.

Punishing activists for simply exercising their right to freedom of expression is inconsistent with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These convictions are the latest in a series of moves by Vietnamese authorities to restrict freedom of expression. The Vietnamese government should release these three bloggers, all prisoners of conscience, and adhere to its international obligations immediately.

A free media is essential to an open and just society. As Secretary Clinton has noted, protection of human rights is a necessary step in developing a closer, more mature bilateral relationship.

U.S. Embassy in Hanoi:

Statement on the Trial of Blogger Dieu Cay (aka Nguyen Van Hai)

September 24, 2012

We are deeply concerned by reports that the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court convicted and sentenced blogger Dieu Cay to 12 years in prison for peacefully expressing his political views. The government’s treatment of Dieu Cay appears to be inconsistent with Vietnam’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights relating to freedom of expression and due process.

The Government of Vietnam should release Dieu Cay and his fellow bloggers and Free Journalists Club members Phan Thanh Hai and Ta Phong Tan. As President Obama said on World Press Freedom Day, we call upon all governments to take the necessary steps to create societies in which independent journalists can operate freely and without fear.

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Vietcongs Regime Convicts Three Bloggers

Police and security staff outside the main gate of Prey Nokor (Ho Chi Minh City)'s People's Court, where three bloggers were tried, convicted and sentenced Monday.

HANOI—Three Vietnamese citizen journalists who criticized the government in online postings have been found guilty of spreading anti-government propaganda and given prison sentences ranging from four to 12 years.

The cases against the two men and one woman are some of the highest-profile being undertaken by the country's Communist rulers as they escalate their campaign against bloggers and other pro-democracy activists.

One of the defendants' lawyers, Ha Huy Son, says the three were found guilty of writing online articles "opposing the government" by a court in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday. He says Nguyen Van Hai got 12 years, Ta Phong Tan received 10 and Phan Thanh Hai got four years.

U.S. President Barack Obama recently mentioned the case of Nguyen Van Hai, who wrote under the pen name Dieu Cay, in a speech that called for greater freedom for media around the world. Mr. Hai was critical of the government for its handling of tensions with neighboring China over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

In late July, Ms. Tan's mother self-immolated outside a government office to protest the treatment of her daughter. Ms. Tan, a former police officer, wrote a blog called "Justice and Truth" that criticized alleged police abuse of power.

The three bloggers belong to the "Free Journalists Club," a group of citizen journalists who post their work on the Internet.

Before the verdict, international rights groups condemned the trial and called for the release of the defendants.

"Vietnam's arbitrary use of vaguely worded national-security laws to imprison critics of the government means bloggers are bearing the brunt of this assault on freedom of expression," Brad Adams, Asia director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

source: AP-Sept 24,2012
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Khmer Krom News Alert

Source: VOKK News (http://www.vokk.net) and Prey Nokor News

Mr Chau Heng in jail during his illness

An Giang (Mot Chruok)- on Sept 17,2012 Mr. Chau Heng has been released from the Vietcong prison after being jailed for years on land rights cases. Mr. Chau Heng who led a group of Khmer Krom farmers to demand for the return of ancestral land from the Vietcong authorities. Mr. Chau Heng is free but in serious health condition who can no longer speak and communicate with his family members, relatives, friends.

Venerable LAM YANG(DANG)

Tra Vinh (Preah Trapang) - A Khmer Krom monk LAM YANG(DANG) is being discriminated against by the Vietnamese doctor, by transferring the venerable to a delivery room to stay in among other women. Khmer Krom Theravada Buddhism code-of-conducts prohibit monks in close contact with women. The action by the Vietnamese doctor is in clear of violation of Khmer Krom religious belief and committed racial discrimination against Khmer Krom.

Two Vietnamese Monks who Discriminated against Khmer Krom Monk Danh Ba Sinh

Saigon (Prey Nokor) - Two Vietnamese monks have violated Khmer Krom rights to one's language and identiy by prohibited a Khmer Krom monk named Danh Ba Tinh residing at Chanta Rainsey temple in Saigon from speaking Khmer language during their interactions.
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Viet Nam: Trial against three pro-democracy bloggers to open on September 24

Blogger Ta Phon Tan

Bloggers: Phan Thanh Hai and Nguyen Van Hai

Bangkok-Paris-Geneva, September 21, 2012. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), together with the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR), are deeply concerned at the judicial action against three pro-democracy bloggers. The trial against Mr. Nguyen Van Hai (aka Dieu Cay), Mr. Phan Thanh Hai and Ms. Ta Phong Tan before the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court is due to start on September 24, 2012, after several postponements.

On September 15, 2012, Dieu Cay’s lawyer was officially notified that Ms. Ta Phong Tan and Messrs. Dieu Cay and Phan Thanh Hai would be tried on September 24, 2012. The three outspoken bloggers were charged with “conducting propaganda against the state” under Article 88.2 of the Criminal Code that has been frequently used to criminalise peaceful criticisms. If convicted, the bloggers could be sentenced to up to 20 years’ imprisonment.

The trial has been re-scheduled on several occasions (April and August 2012). Meanwhile Dieu Cay has been in prison pending his trial for 23 months [1] . Mr. Phan Thanh Hai and Ms. Ta Phong Tan have also been in pre-trial detention in Ho Chi Minh City for 23 and 12 months respectively. This prolonged pre-trial detention is a violation of national and international law, including Article 120 of the Vietnamese Criminal Procedures Code [2].

The Observatory and VCHR are extremely concerned that the bloggers will not receive a fair trial. In addition, the family of Dieu Cay has been put under pressure. Indeed, in the afternoon of September 16, 2012, Dieu Cay’s ex wife, along with a sister of Ms. Ta Phong Tan, were reportedly arrested and interrogated at the police station on accusations of causing a traffic incident after they got out of the taxi that drove them to a ceremony to commemorate the 49-day of Ms. Ta Phong Tan’s death. The same day, they were also assaulted by thugs in front of the police. It is to be recalled that on July 30, 2012, Ms. Ta Phong Tan’s mother, Ms. Dang Thi Kim Lieng, immolated herself outside the People’s Committee headquarters in Bac Lieu to protest against her daughter’s unfair imprisonment.

Dieu Cay, one of the founders of the Club of Free Journalists, is known for his writings calling for greater respect for human rights and democratic reforms. He is also known for his criticisms of China’s claims over disputed islands in the South China Sea. In January 2008, Dieu Cay and other activists staged an anti-China demonstration in Ho Chi Minh City. Before their arrests, Phan Thanh Hai had published a number of articles on his blog, including one that criticised and called for the repeal of Article 88 of the Criminal Code, while Ms. Tan had blogged about police abuse and violations of human rights by the State.

This crackdown on Internet activists has been continuous since 2008, including numerous arbitrary arrests and detentions [3]. In addition, the Vietnamese government has drafted a new Decree on Management, Provision, and Use of Internet Services and Information on the Network that, if passed in its current form, would grant the authorities expansive discretionary power to censor, control and possibly criminalise Internet use in Viet Nam. Moreover, last week, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung ordered a crack down on three prominent blogs advocating for pro human rights and pro democratic reforms and denouncing corruption cases and called for the arrest of those associated with these sites. In June 2012, the UN Human Rights Council adopted by consensus a resolution affirming that the right to freedom of expression on-line must be protected, and called on States to “promote and facilitate access to the Internet”.

The Observatory reiterates its call on the representatives of the diplomatic and international community in Hanoi to send observers to the trial of the three bloggers and to publicly and privately urge Viet Nam to drop all charges against Ms. Ta Phong Tan, Mr. Nguyen Van Hai (Dieu Cay) and Mr. Phan Thanh Hai, and release them immediately and unconditionally.

Source: http://www.fidh.org/Viet-Nam-Trial-against-three-pro-12207
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Vietcongs Power Struggles

Contributed by David Brown - Thursday, 13 September 2012

Intra-party rivals may pull Dung down

Vietcong PM Nguyen Tan Dun

Prime Minster Nguyen Tan Dung's grip on Vietnam's government is weakening. The Vietnamese premier is under attack by intra-party rivals who don't like his rich friends and fault his management of the economy. If Dung goes down,
important changes in Vietnam's management of economic and social issues are likely to follow.

As a rule, Vietnam's Communist Party doesn't wash its dirty linen in public. Its spokesmen work hard to maintain the party's aura of competence and infallibility. Party members don't gossip with outsiders about party matters. Decisions
made by the party's Politburo or its Central Committee are portrayed as unanimous.

Article 4 of Vietnam's constitution is very clear about the Communist Party's monopoly of political power: the CPV "is the force assuming leadership of the State and society." About one Vietnamese in 30 -- some 3 million altogether -- are members. There are party committees in every village and every city neighborhood.
The CPV renews its leadership at party congresses that cap months of alliance-mending and horse-trading. Typically this is not a winner-take-all event, but rather one that aims at updating the internal balance among factions and interests while retiring aging leaders bloodlessly.

In the run-up to the 11th Congress held early last year, according to diplomats and a number of Western academics, senior party official Truong Tan Sang mounted a vigorous bid to supplant Dung as prime minister. He failed and the congress granted Dung a second five-year term. Sang's consolation prize was the largely ceremonial post of president.

National Assembly chairman Nguyen Phu Trong was named CPV general secretary.
Now there are signs that Sang and Trong are maneuvering to break Dung's grip on the levers of policy and patronage. The two can point to a lengthening list of mishaps and failures. They can channel public exasperation with bouts of inflation and the excesses of the nation's nouveau riche.

Many years have passed since the CPV led victorious wars, first against France, Vietnam's colonial master, and then against a rival southern regime heavily backed by the United States. For a new generation, the party's claim to lead rests heavily on its ability to deliver social stability and economic growth. It succeeded brilliantly after its 1986 decision to implement "market socialism" -- policies which under the general term doi moi or "renovation" gave birth to a thriving private sector and Vietnam's emergence as one of the world's workshops.  National income grew at an annual rate of seven percent for two decades, quintupling per capita incomes and planting the notion that any smart and adaptable young person could prosper.

In recent years, however, growing pains have become evident. In his National Day message on September 2, President Sang frankly acknowledged some of them: Our economic development is unsustainable and the balance of our macro economy unstable, while the quality of the growth rate, productivity, efficiency and economic competitiveness remains low,he said. Coupled by these weaknesses is the limitation in mobilization and effective use of available resources for development. Our economic growth tends to develop widely, though not deeply. Regarding culture and society, he continued, there remain many challenges, some of which have become hot topics. The environment is polluted; Limitations in the quality of human resources and infrastructure hinder our development. There remain many hidden factors that can potentially cause political and social instability and threaten our
national sovereignty.

Most foreign financial analysts would endorse Sang's critique. At least since Fitch Ratings slashed Vietnam's credit rating in July 2010, citing "deterioration in the nation's finances and a banking system increasingly vulnerable to systemic stress," analysts have tended to be bearish on their one-time favorite.
Dung's critics, domestic and foreign, single out his failure to bring the managers of state-owned enterprises to heel. The prime minister was much taken by the notion that Vietnam could become world-competitive in sectors such as coal and minerals, oil and gas, shipping and shipbuilding. Large loans by state-controlled banks were channeled to state companies in these sectors, which, though reorganized as conglomerate monopolies, preserved a corporate culture and bloated payroll reminiscent of Soviet heavy industry.

These companies expanded rapidly and then, overextended, were hammered by the 2007-09 global financial crisis. The shipbuilding corporation Vinashin required rescue in July 2010. Two years later the giant state shipping company and port operator, Vinalines, was failing under a similar mountain of debt.

These two conglomerates are just the standouts. Most state-owned firms are deeply indebted to the nation's banks, both state-owned and private, which with government encouragement flooded them with funds, particularly in 2009. Hanoi sought to avoid a recession by expanding credit. It got instead a vicious bout of inflation that is only now being brought under control. Meanwhile, bad debts on banking sector books are unofficially estimated now to be ten percent or more of total loans.

Nor were the banks victims. They were collaborators, as is becoming particularly clear in the wake of the August 18 arrest of Nguyen Duc Kien, a banking and finance tycoon known as a confidant of the prime minister. Though formal charges are still pending, Kien is said to have engaged in "illegal trades."

The general feeling in the financial sector is that Kien is hardly unique; in fact, the sort of very highly leveraged deals that he favored are said to be common in Vietnam's interlocked, thinly capitalized and remarkably opaque financial markets. "Misconduct is a generalized characteristic of [Vietnam's] financial institutions large and small," said Jonathan Pincus. Pincus in particular should know -- he and his colleagues at the Harvard Kennedy School Vietnam Program have been advisors to Dung's government for years. Their advice has been listened to politely and then largely ignored.

Another strand in the web that seems to be tightening around the prime minister is the Politburo's decision, announced in June, to transfer institutional responsibility for combating corruption from the government to the party itself. This lines up nicely with a party internal criticism and self-criticism campaign that was launched in February to identify and weed out members exhibiting "degraded political ideology, ethics and lifestyles."

A last bit of circumstantial evidence is provided by the remarkable rise of an online blog that calls itself Quanlambao and says its mission is to "wipe out corrupt cliques that monopolize the nation's economic and political life." The blog's authors are unknown, its tone is stridently populist, and its stock in trade is blistering Prime Minister Dung and his close associates -- in particular retired police general Nguyen Van Huong, identified by the blog as Dung's chief agent for dirty tricks.

The Quanlambao blog first appeared in early June. By mid-July, it was reporting 10,000 "new visitors" daily. It was the first to break news of the banker Nguyen Duc Kien's arrest, twelve hours before the National Police made their own announcement. In the next 10 days, daily hits on Quanlambao reached just short of a million, an unheard of level in Vietnam's blogosphere.

Inevitably, the appearance of this remarkable blog and the apparent failure of the agency charged with such things to take "counter-measures" has prompted speculation that the people behind it are intraparty enemies of Dung or Chinese intelligence services, or perhaps both.

What might follow if these diverse phenomena do in fact foreshadow an attempt to remove Nguyen Tan Dung as Prime Minister?

To oust Dung, his critics would have to muster a majority of the 14 member Politburo which in turn would have to be confirmed by a vote of the party's Central Committee, a 175 member, broadly representative group. That would be a seismic event - turnovers of power normally come in the course of party congresses held every fifth year. Nor is it at all sure that Dung's critics could prevail in a showdown. Many of the party elite owe their positions to the patronage of the prime minister and his allies.

In this scenario, Dung's opposition would portray themselves as reformers determined to rein in corruption and influencepeddling.

Their common conviction would seem to be that "instability" will follow if the party and government cannot restore ordinary citizen's belief in the essential decency of the regime, in its ability to manage economic challenges and to distribute the fruits of growth fairly.

Instability is their bete noire -- it means to CPV leaders political protest that is organized outside of regime control and turns against the party. Though the Vietnamese have watched developments in Burma with interest bordering on amazement, Dung's ouster would not presage a loosening of political controls. The opposite is more likely -- both Sang and Trong are regarded as conservatives, leaders who see the notion of political "opening" as a Western-sponsored plot to overthrow the leadership of the Communist Party.

(David Brown is a retired US diplomat with wide experience in Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam.)
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Smith’s Vietnam Human Rights Act Passed by U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, Sep 11 - WASHINGTON, D.C. – A bill to promote democracy, freedom and human rights in Vietnam—“The Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2012”— authored by U.S. Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04), was approved by the House of Representatives in a voice vote Tuesday night.

“It is imperative that the United States Government send an unequivocal message to the Vietnamese regime that it must end its human rights abuses against its own citizens,” said Smith on the floor of the House. He is a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who chairs its Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights. “H.R. 1410 would institute effective measures towards improving human rights in Vietnam. As reported by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, this bill prohibits any increase in non-humanitarian assistance to the Government of Vietnam above Fiscal Year 2011 levels unless the government makes substantial progress in establishing a democracy and promoting human rights.”

Smith introduced the bill, H.R. 1410, to promote freedom and democracy in Vietnam. The legislation would set restrictions on U.S. aid but allow humanitarian assistance to continue. H.R. 1410 prohibits U.S. non-humanitarian assistance to the Government of Vietnam over current levels unless increased U.S. dollars for programs including economic, environmental and military initiatives are commensurate with U.S. funding for human rights and democracy programs in Vietnam.

It also prohibits non-humanitarian aid unless the President certifies to Congress that Vietnam has dramatically improved its human rights record, specifically including the release of all political and religious prisoners, and protects the right to freedom of assembly, religious expression and association. Human rights activists and victims of ongoing abuses at the hands of the Vietnamese Government testified before Smith’s human rights panel earlier this year including Anh “Joseph” Cao, former Member of the U.S. Congress, Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, the Executive Director of Boat People SOS, and Human Rights Watch. Smith referenced Thangs testimony on the House floor.

source: http://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=308055
Refer to the Statement by the Committee led by Chris Smith.
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Vietnam Dissident Bloggers Warn: We Fight on despite 20-year Jail Threat

Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung targets three political blogs in further crackdown

An arrest warrant carrying the threat of a long jail sentence for the people behind three dissident blogs in Vietnam has been issued but bloggers Dan Lam Bao (not his real name) and Tran Hung Quoc said they would not give up - no matter what the government threw at them.

"We have no choice. Twenty years in jail to reclaim our rights as human beings is a price we are willing to pay if that is what it takes," said Dan.

A string of similar cases has already resulted in the death of the mother of one blogger, who set herself on fire in protest at the detention of her daughter in August. Dang Thi Kim Lieng, 64, died on the way to hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

Her daughter, Ta Phong Tan, a former police officer who wrote a blog on social issues, was arrested in September 2011 on charges of propaganda against the state.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has turned up the pressure on bloggers and ordered police to crack down. He specifically targeted Dan Lam Bao, Quan Lam Bao and Bien Dong.

Nguyen said the bloggers should be seriously punished. "They slandered the country's leadership, fabricated and distorted information, agitated against the party and the state, and caused suspicion and mistrust in society," he said.

According to Enemies of the Internet by international watchdog Reporters Without Borders, Vietnam is the second worst country in the world for internet freedom, just behind China.

Arbitrary detention

Human Rights Watch has accused the government of "arbitrarily" detaining dozens of netizens "because of their work as citizen journalists, environmental advocates, anti-corruption crusaders and human rights defenders."

If arrested the bloggers working with Dan Lam Bao (People Doing Journalism), Quan Lam Bao (Officials Doing Journalism) and Bien Dong could add to the growing number behind bars.

Bloggers claim that the government is responsible for even more sinister methods to shut them up. "Policemen close to the PM made death threats to us," said Tran Hung Quoc, editor of Quan Lam Bao.

"[Authorithies] summon bloggers - especially those who are well-known - for interrogation and then threaten them to set an example and intimidate those who may be thinking of supporting the free movement of independent media or joining our independent blogging community," added blogger Dan Lan Bao, who preferred to remain anonymous for security reasons.

The Communist party, which has run the country since the end of the Vietnam War in the mid-70s, finding it harder to control the voices of dissent that are fast spreading across the web.

A report by market research company Cimigo revealed that Vietnam has the fastest growing internet population in southeast Asia. One in three Vietnamese has access to the internet.

Of the three target sites, Dan Lam Bao publishes mainly political articles. Quan Lam Bao has a more sensationalist approach to political news and often targets the PM and his private life. Bien Dong is dedicated to Vietnam's long-standing quarrel with China over territory in the South China Sea.

Before the arrest warrants were issued, the government, whose censorship firewall was easy to breach, said experts, used cyber attacks against dissident blogs.

"We have been attacked continuously through IT technology since a week after we were born," said Tran.

"Authorities employ various means such as DDoS [distributed denial of service attacks], viruses, firewalls and spyware," said Dan.

The campaign against them has backfired, however, and since the arrest warrants were issed, the audience for the three blogs rocketed.

"Thanks to the prime minister's care, we have had more than 1.5 millions views. He elevated us from being an unofficial source to the status of bright star in the web firmament," said.

Prepared to face repression

Dan Lan Bao's daily number of visitors doubled to 500,000 on the day the warrants were issued, the bloggers claimed.

"[We] are prepared to face repression and imprisonment rather than lead the life of a dumb muzzled dog that dares not to bark and remains subservient to those who abuse their power," was one comment posted on the Dan Lan Bao page.

"No one can stop us fighting against the corrupt organisations that rule our country," echoed Tran.

They urged Western governments to help their campaign.

"No one can win a battle alone. We need the West to do more and more to help freedom of speech in Vietnam," said Tran.

"This government does not care about how much suffering it inflicts on our people but it does care much about foreign investments, economic deals and trade with third countries. Possible diplomatic and economic sanctions imposed by the West for human rights' violations are a big deal to authorities," Dan said.

The crackdown on the blogs might be a consequence of the stock market tumble that followed the arrest of tycoon Nguyen Duc Kien, the founder of one of Vietnam's largest banks, said observers.

Kien was arrested in August for suspected economic violations.

Dan Lan Bao had speculated that Kien's detention was not due to financial wrongdoings but because he fell victim to a power struggle at the top of government.

The prime minister is reportedly at odds with President Truong Tan Sang and the PM's daughter is said to be close to the arrested banker.

"The prime minister's order against us is a sign of victory for our struggle for free expression and independent media as we must have been touching the right spots to trigger this reprisal," said Dan.

Tran added: "If we have to die for a better Vietnam, we would be ready for it."

Source: By UMBERTO BACCHI, International Business Times, u.bacchi@ibtimes.co.uk
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Vietnam economy struggles to overcome malaise

In this photo taken Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012, a street vendor cycles past the Central Bank of Vietnam in Hanoi, Vietnam

BAT TRANG, Vietnam - Four years ago, Le Van Tho borrowed $200,000 to build a new ceramic factory on rice fields bordering Hanoi. But with the economy slowing, orders have slumped this year and she recently laid off almost half her workers.

It's also a grim picture down the road: bowls, statues and flower vases gather dust in export showrooms as shoppers in a recession-hit Europe and sluggish United States stop spending.

Once seen as an emerging Asian dynamo racing to catch up with its neighbours, Vietnam's economy is mired in malaise, dragged down by debt-hobbled banks, inefficient and corrupt state-owned enterprises and bouts of inflation.

Vietnam's one-party Communist government has promised reforms, but it appears unwilling to give up the reins of an economy that has delivered fortunes to top officials and their business partners.

House prices have crashed by up to 50 per cent in some places from the boom years and jobs are reportedly drying up for school leavers. Foreign investment has dropped 34 per cent this year over the same period last year, according to government figures, put off by the economic instability, poor infrastructure and rising wages.

Small and medium-sized enterprises like those in Bat Trang are struggling to stay in business, their stock piling up and unable to get credit.

"Things aren't as good as we hoped for," said Tho, as she supervised a team of workers carving statues, dipping mosaic tiles in glaze and firing up a gas-fired kiln.

The slowdown is adding to pressures on the Communist Party, whose legitimacy is in large part staked on its ability to deliver ever greater prosperity to the country of 87 million people.

While few predict economic meltdown or that the slowdown could weaken the party's grip on power, authorities have stepped up a crackdown on dissidents, bloggers and trade union activists over the last year, according to international human rights activists.

The government is also at pains to appear that is tackling corruption and impunity. The state-controlled media have been unusually direct in highlighting cases of corruption involving party officials and their families. President Truong Tan Sang has made a series of interviews and speeches pledging action.

"It is the command of the people," he told Tuoi Tre daily recently. "We even have to accept painful measures because it is the survival of the party, of the regime and the bright future of this country."

Until 2010, the economy had been growing by more than seven per cent on average from 2001, lifting millions out of poverty and leading some to predict the country would follow countries such as South Korea and Singapore in leaping to developed world prosperity within a generation.

The boom transformed what had been a mostly rural nation scarred by war and economic isolation into one dotted with busy towns and cities, their streets clogged with motorbikes and other signs of rising prosperity.

But growth was just over 4 per cent in the first half of 2012, and is predicted to be around 5 per cent for the next two years. That rate would be the envy of many developed economies, but in Vietnam it means treading water given that average incomes are still low, inflation often far outpaces growth and the country lacks decent schools, hospitals and other basic infrastructure.

"We are seeing a step down from the dynamism over the past decade or so," said Christian de Guzman, a Moody's Investors Service analyst on Vietnam. "The development of the banking sector and some of the institutions that are associated with more developed, market-oriented economies have not come into fruition," he said, predicting "relatively sluggish" growth unless the government reforms pick up pace.

The cracks in the economy were exposed last month when authorities arrested two former senior executives at one of the country's largest banks for financial crimes, triggering a run on the lender.

The central bank pumped cash into the system to ensure the bank was able to pay its customers, and fears of contagion were averted. But not before the stock market swooned as investors worried they were seeing the start of a banking crisis or destabilizing power struggle within the secretive political elite.

The current problems in part date back to the 2009 and 2010, when the government encouraged state-owned enterprises — which account for up to 40 per cent of the economic activity in the country — to borrow money during the global economic crisis to try and create jobs.

But the conglomerates, many of them run by politically connected officials, expanded into areas where they had little expertise and speculated in the property market, which has since crashed. A government commission has said that the level of bad debt in the banks has reached around 10 per cent, though many outside analysts believe the figure could be higher.

In 2010, state-owned ship builder Vinashin came close to collapse with debts of $4.5 billion, dramatically underlining some of the pressure points in the economy. Last week, authorities arrested the former head of another large indebted state-owned enterprise after an international manhunt.

Still, many analysts remain skeptical the government has the will to fully clean up.

"Can you separate political influence from economics? Until you can, you are not going to get reforms," said Prof. Carlyle Thayer, an expert on Vietnam from the University of New South Wales. "It's a pessimistic view, but if the bankers are friends with the higher-ups, then implementation will be difficult."

The country's leaders have for the most part tried to blame the downturn on the global economic crisis. They have, for now, succeeded in taming inflation, which has hit over 20 per cent two times in the last three years. The exchange rate is stable and foreign exchange reserves have increased.

But the property market has yet to show signs of recovery.

Like many other Vietnamese, Nguyen Quang Nam thought he could make some quick money in property. Two years ago, he borrowed from the bank to buy two plots of land near Hanoi for $700,000. But he now can't sell for less than half that, and has trouble keeping up with his loan repayments.

"I wanted to sell to cut my losses, but it's difficult to find someone with that much money to buy," he said. "The property market does not look very good in the coming months or even years."

For businesses in Bat Trang, change can't come soon enough.

Factory manager Phan Anh Duc said that four years ago up to 40 containers a day used to leave the area, heading to overseas markets. Now just one does, he said.

"No one is buying, either at home or abroad," said Hien, a women at an export showroom who didn't want to give her full name. "It's been so long, I can't remember when the last order was."

Source: BY CHRIS BRUMMITT, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SEPTEMBER 11, 2012
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News Alert from Kampuchea Krom!

On September 10, 2012 the Vietcongs authorities have ordered all Khmer Krom residents of the Cau Ngang (Phno Dach) district, Tra Vinh (Preah Tra Pang) province, Mekong Delta (South Vietnam) to take down all TV satellites that receive signals directly from Cambodia.  

These Cambodian TV signals are mostly religious and cultural shows broadcasting in Cambodia to all Khmer inland and abroad, however the Khmer Krom locals in the Mekong Delta are banned by the Hanoi regime from watching.  It is a double standard policy implemented by the repressive Hanoi regime, because Vietnamese overseas in Cambodia can still receive Vietnam TV signals while Khmer Krom in the Mekong Delta prohibited from receiving broadcasting signals in Cambodia. This action by Vietnam contravenes the Cambodia-Vietnam friendship treaties which Vietnam frequently boasts about.

This is a clear violation of Khmer Krom's fundamental rights to freedom to information, expression, press and to one's cultural identity, enshrined under the UN's Charters and Vietnam is a party of.   

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Vietnam: free expression in free fall

By Geoffrey Cain, Sept 6,2012

Dissent has suffered a crackdown in Vietnam in recent years, with bloggers often being the main target. Geoffrey Cain asks what has prompted this backlash against free speech

In Vietnam, protests have boiled to a level unprecedented since the start of this decade. Last month, the fight for free expression hit an unexpected climax. The mother of imprisoned blogger Dang Thi Kim Lieng killed herself in a self-immolation, protesting her daughter’s upcoming trial and sending an uneasy hush over the government. The hearings were supposed to commence on 7 August — a full four years after the blogger was first detained — but since the suicide the trial has been delayed indefinitely.

But this was merely the latest paroxysm in a state-led retaliation against freedom of speech that picked up in mid-2008. With demonstrations flaring up over land disputes and against Chinese naval aggression in the South China Sea, the Communist Party has been striking back against dissidents on the streets and online.

Bloggers have been the primary target, as the state tries to prevent them spreading videos of police brutality, writing critical articles and promoting demonstrations on their websites. As of this year, at least 17 Vietnamese bloggers are behind bars, according to Human Rights Watch. That makes Vietnam the second-worst jailer of netizens after China. Many of them have been imprisoned for writing about topics the government deems sensitive, such as land grabs by local property developers and the South China Sea dispute.

“They say every writer has scissors in the back of his mind,” one pro-democracy blogger told me, who asked not to be named. “You never know when the party will strike to make an example of you.”

What’s prompted the swift backlash against free speech? In the 1990s and early 2000s, Vietnam’s market reforms were enriching people from outside the traditional power center of Hanoi, a development that bolstered all sorts of new and critical voices under the one-party banner. The Communist Party wanted to keep the trend going as proof that it was cleaning up its act before joining the World Trade Organisation in 2007. Leaders declared that corruption, in particular, was a plague that could hold back the economy, and tasked its journalists and writers with uncovering malfeasance in the government and business.

As a result, the country witnessed a blossoming of print investigative journalism that led to the arrests of gangsters and and corrupt government officials, and by the mid-2000s a nascent blogging movement. In a nation where all newspapers remained fully or partially government-owned, the growth of the internet meant that the flow of information was increasingly out of reach from members of the Politburo, the party’s all-powerful body that sets the country’s direction. The crackdowns, of course, haven’t stopped Vietnam’s boisterous bloggers and journalists, and not all of them end up in trouble — unless they touch on topics related to high-level politics.

Even though Vietnam’s 1992 Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, writers and bloggers eventually took their role as the “fourth estate” too far for the tastes of the Party. They encountered a sharp reversal after the PMU-18 scandal of 2006, when journalists and bloggers revealed that officials in the Ministry of Transport were gambling away millions of dollars in donor aid. In 2008, two prominent reporters were imprisoned for two years for their writing. The Party’s strike back was also prompted by a growing pro-democracy movement in the mid-2000s, when hundreds of brave Vietnamese signed a multi-party manifesto circulated online. Since then, any hopes for political dissent in the blogosphere or in print have been thwarted.

Vietnam expert Carl Thayer notes that the rise of To Huy Rua, a socialist ideologue who acts as an interlocutor with the Chinese Communist Party, has coincided with stronger measures targeting against intellectuals and dissidents. (His assertion is backed by the American cables unveiled by Wikileaks.) Rua heads the party’s information commission, giving him sway over issues of ideology and public discourse.

Historically, free-thought crackdowns pick up around the time the Communist Party holds its congresses every five years, when factions fight over the new leaders and they want information tightly controlled. The latest restrictions are unusual because, despite intermittent relaxations since the mid-2000s, the government has pretty much kept up the pace. In June, officials unveiled a draft of the new Internet Decree, which would require bloggers to publish their contact information online. It’s not yet clear when the bill will be passed.

The move is one more attempt to rein in all those new voices in Vietnamese politics who have garnered enough clout to contest one-party rule. And as those leaders try to reassert control over which criticisms are acceptable, they’re facing even more of a pushback from the writers and bloggers who are promulgating the protests and dissent.

Geoffrey Cain, a freelance journalist, has covered Asia for Time, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Policy. He is an editor at the New Mandala, the Southeast Asia blog at the Australian National University. He tweets at @geoffrey_cain
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A Vietnam for Tomorrow: Change at Home before Changing Abroad

Before Vietnam can assume any role on the international stage, it must first change at home

This past Monday, Dang Thi Kim Lieng, mother of Ta Phong Tan, died after setting herself on fire to protest the detention of her daughter. Ta, a blogger and former police officer, was arrested for conducting propaganda against the state—an all too common charge as of late. Standing trial in August alongside fellow bloggers Nguyen Van Hai (also known as Dieu Cay) and Phan Thanh Hai, each risks 20 years in jail if convicted. Unable to help her daughter, Mrs. Dang could only voice her opposition through self-immolation.

Human rights, and by extension Vietnam’s domestic policy, cannot be divorced from its foreign policy. Yet the Vietnamese government hopes to convince its critics, particularly the US, that such a separation is possible. Tragedies such as that of Mrs. Dang and the continued detention of human rights and democratic activists simply underscore the deteriorating situation in Vietnam.

To be blunt, the Hanoi government does not respect the will of its citizens and thus it cannot be said that the government’s actions on the international stage are in any way indicative of the will of the people. Reform is on the mind of Vietnamese citizens, yet the government continues to crack down on such efforts. Not surprisingly, the US has continued to refuse to lift its ban on arms sales to Vietnam until these problems are addressed.
Despite the appearance of increasing closeness between Vietnam and the US, the latter will continue to maintain its distance as long as Vietnam remains a single-party state and human rights conditions fail to improve. Only Hanoi’s wariness of Beijing and the South China Sea disputes have kept Vietnam from joining hands with China. Nevertheless, the desire not to upset both countries has Vietnam continuing its political balancing act between the two.

Special relationships over strategic partnerships

Vietnam has wisely pursued an independent path, seeking to build relationships beyond the US and China. Rather than putting all of its eggs in one or two baskets, Hanoi has decided to spread them across continents. Establishing strategic partnerships is an important aspect of Vietnam’s idealistic goal of being friends with everyone. Unfortunately, strategic partnerships are not friendships.

Although China is a strategic partner of Vietnam, it can hardly be said to be a close friend. One need only examine the South China Sea disputes for evidence of this. Indeed, on paper Vietnam can lay claim to having many partners; but in times of crisis, how many will stand by its side?

Vietnam’s hope of being friends to all is not inherently wrong, but it is naïve. When one’s friend (the United Kingdom) includes a friend’s opponent (Russia), it can raise questions regarding one’s intentions and reliability. Vietnam has many “friends,” yes, but how many can it truly call a friend?

Simply amassing partnerships will not suffice. Vietnam needs friends, countries it can rely upon in times of need. Such special relationships are difficult to establish because it requires trust, a commodity in short supply under the current Vietnamese government.

With whom should Vietnam establish special relationships? Ideally, Vietnam should seek closer ties with countries that share its values. The question is therefore what values does Vietnam represent? Is it those of the government or the people? In a democracy, the government would fairly represent the will of the people and so the two can be discussed together. However, such is not the case with Vietnam, where the government and the people are often philosophically divided on this issue.

It is increasingly evident that the Vietnamese people are seeking change, demanding respect for human rights and even democratic reform. These are the values of the people, values that more closely resemble those set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The people have little in common with the government, which has made every attempt to stifle democratic progress in order to maintain the Communist Party’s grip over Vietnam.

Until such time that government truly represents the people, Vietnam will be prevented from establishing a lasting special relationship with any nation, treated instead at a distance and with suspicion.

Working as part of a greater whole

But let us assume these changes have taken place: could Vietnam act as a pivot for both the US and China? Perhaps yes and perhaps not, but Vietnam should instead dedicate its efforts to uniting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which has the potential to reshape the region but, in its current state, has failed to live up to this potential.

The recent conference in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, was the first to conclude without a joint statement delivered by Asean in the pact’s 45-year history. Central to this failure of unity is the South China Sea disputes, which has divided the organization.

To remain relevant in the future, Asean must change and adapt to current circumstances. Given its voluntary nature—member states are not bound—the effectiveness of the group is dependent on its members’ goodwill. Given the vast diversity of the states, the interest of member states are likely to diverge. A unified front must therefore be established on the ground of shared values, not unlike Vietnam. What is the role of Asean in the future, and how can it achieve these goals? That remains to be seen, for the most pressing issue is for member states to commit to ASEAN and realize its potential.

Asean is without a leader to rally around. Indonesia may prove to be this leader, but there is a chance for a new Vietnam to act as the group’s conscience, to voice real concerns when it is unpopular to do so, and to suggest unpopular decisions when the alternative fails to address these concerns.

If Vietnam should act as a pivot for the US and China, it should do so as part of Asean. There is an opportunity for Vietnam to improve and reinforce its foreign policy credentials as part of ASEAN, where it can acquire the capabilities and influence necessary to play a larger role on the international stage. There is a path on which Vietnam can follow to become a leader, but it must first change.

(Khanh Vu Duc is a Vietnamese Canadian lawyer in Ottawa, focusing on various areas of law. He researches on International Relations and International Law.) ...Read more>>>

Former US State Secretary, Suu Kyi sons among 2,000 removed from Myanmar(Burma) blacklist

Yangon: Former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Aung San Suu Kyi’s sons and two dead US congressmen were among 2,082 names removed on Thursday from a Myanmar government blacklist that gives an insight into the paranoia of its former military junta.

Late Philippine President Corazon Aquino, US singer-turned-politician Sonny Bono and Kim and Alexander Aris, the sons of Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, were some of the prominent names taken off a list stacked with journalists, academics, human rights campaigners and exiled Myanmarmese activists.

Its publication on the website of the Office of the President (www.president-office.gov.mm/) is the latest sign of surprise openness by a quasi-civilian government that has legalised protests, abolished media censorship, freed hundreds of political prisoners and embarked on economic reforms since coming to power in the former Burma in March 2011.

No reasons were given for why they had been blacklisted, but many were critics of the reclusive and thin-skinned generals who ruled Myanmar with an iron fist for 49 years and persecuted politicians, reporters and dissidents.

The list included plenty of discrepancies, including individuals mentioned several times under different name spellings. British historian Timothy Garton Ash appears as “Gartonash, Timothy John”, while some unknown individuals had only one name, like “Mr. Nick”, “Li Li” and “Mohammad”.

The announcement said exiled Myanmarmese removed from the blacklist of 6,165 companies, organisations and individuals would be allowed to return. It did not say which remained.

Others removed include retired diplomats once based in Myanmar, the director of Human Rights Watch Brad Adams, late US congressman Tom Lantos, Suu Kyi’s former physician Khin Saw Win and Yuenyong Opaku, the lead singer of popular Thai rock band, Ad Carabao.

One notable name is John Yettaw, a Vietnam War veteran jailed in 2009 after swimming across Yangon’s Inya Lake in home-made fins to warn Suu Kyi of an assassination plot, resulting in the extension of her house arrest.

Among journalists taken off were British author and documentary maker John Pilger, CNN’s Dan Rivers, the BBC’s Sue Lloyd-Roberts and Reuters photographer Adrees Latif, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his photo of a Japanese photographer shot dead in Yangon during a crackdown on 2007 pro-democracy protests.

Authors were also mentioned, like Bertil Lintner, whose books on Myanmar include Outrage: Burma’s Struggle for Democracy, which detailed the military’s savage crackdown on the 1988 protests that first brought Suu Kyi to prominence.

“I feel good, of course, to be able to visit the country I have written about for so many years,” said Lintner.

source: Gulfnews.com August 30,2012
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US, Southeast Asian navies begin annual joint exercises

The navies of the US, the Philippines and four other Southeast Asian countries on Tuesday kicked off this year’s Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training (SEACAT) exercises in a bid to enhance their interoperability in addressing maritime threats.

Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand also joined SEACAT 2012, which will be held until Sept. 2.

Navy spokesman Col. Omar Tonsay said the exercises are being conducted in Malacca Strait, Sulu Sea and Subic Bay.

The exercises are being held two months after the nuclear-powered US submarine USS Louisville made a port call at Subic.

Louisville is the second US attack submarine that visited the Philippines since Washington bared plans to enhance its presence in the Asia Pacific. The first was USS North Carolina which docked in Subic Bay last May.

Another US vessel, the hospital ship USNS Mercy, also docked in Subic last month to replenish its supplies.

About 200 Filipino sailors from the Naval Forces West and Naval Forces Northern Luzon, four ships and an islander aircraft are involved in the event. The US Navy ship USS Safeguard is also participating in the activity.

“They will participate together with the US Navy in a scenario-driven fleet training exercise against terrorism, transnational crimes and other maritime threats,” Tonsay said in a statement.

The exercises focus on real-time information exchange, coordinated surveillance operations, tracking, and visit, board, search and seizure of target vessels.

“This activity will involve surface, air, and special operations units in the conduct of surveillance, tracking, and boarding of the COI (contact of interest) from the different participating navies within their respective maritime territories.” Navy chief Vice Adm. Alexander Pama said.

A maritime interdiction operations scenario will be conducted at the Subic Bay and at the Sulu Sea.

Coast Watch stations of the participating countries will also be used to exercise their capabilities in surveillance, tracking, communications, and operations.

“With this training, the Philippine Navy will be able to enhance regional coordination, information sharing, and combined inter-operability capability with participating navies in the region,” Tonsay said.

He claimed the activity would also improve the maritime security capability of the military.

SEACAT is an annual exercise conducted at vital sea lanes in Southeast Asia to secure the area from terrorists, poachers, and transnational lawless elements.

It aims to promote regional coordination, information sharing and interoperability in a multilateral environment. -

Source: August 28,2012 Alexis Romero - The PhilStar
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The U.S. shouldn’t sell out human rights in Vietnam

By Allen S. Weiner, Published: August 26

Allen S. Weiner is a senior lecturer in law at Stanford Law School, where he serves as director of the Program in International and Comparative Law. He has filed a petition with the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention challenging the legality of the arrest and detention of 17 Vietnamese activists last year.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced in Hanoi last month that the United States would sign a new regional trade agreement, the ­Trans-Pacific Partnership, with Vietnam by year’s end. Vietnam’s desire to promote economic development through expanded trade is understandable, and U.S. interest in supporting Vietnam’s economic advancement is commendable. But even as Vietnam seeks to move forward economically, its political system remains mired in a repressive and authoritarian past. Indeed, Clinton’s announcement came shortly before the one-year anniversary of the first stage of the Vietnamese government’s detention of activists whose “crime” has been to advocate governmental action on a broad range of human rights and social justice issues, including environmental, health, legal, political, land and corruption-based concerns. More than a year later, almost all remain in detention; one is under house arrest. Real progress in Vietnam will come only when political reform and respect for the rule of law accompany economic progress.

Over the past year, the Vietnamese government has arrested members of an informal network of social and political activists. The detainees are affiliated with the Roman Catholic Redemptorist Church in Vietnam — a reflection of the pattern of discrimination against religious minorities in that country. Eleven of the petitioners are accused of being members of Viet Tan, a Vietnamese pro-democracy party. The detainees have endured a range of human rights abuses, including violations of their fundamental rights of expression, assembly and association. In addition, the arrests and detentions of these activists violate their rights to due process and fair trials guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international legal agreements; violations of international standards include warrantless arrests and lengthy pretrial detentions without the filing of charges. After their arrest, the detainees were held incommunicado for months. Some were even convicted through “trials” at which they were not allowed a lawyer. Today, most of these petitioners are languishing in jail without outside contact or basic knowledge as to why they were arrested and are being held. They have had limited access to family members, or in some cases, no contact with relatives at all.

In keeping with a growing pattern of such human rights abuses by the Vietnamese government, these activists were arrested for violating criminal laws that ban “activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration,” the “undermining of national unity” and participating in “propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”

The detainees are all online journalists, bloggers or others who have participated in training activities related to citizen journalism. They have written blog posts, signed petitions and joined nonviolent protests related to a range of issues, including calls for multiparty democracy and opposition to large-scale bauxite mining projects that would cause irreparable environmental damage and displace local residents. In short, they are engaged in legitimate forms of political expression.

Such political expression is protected under international human rights law and under Vietnam’s Constitution, which provides in Article 53 that citizens “have the right to take part in managing the State and society, in debating on general issues of the whole country or of the locality.” Article 69 of the Vietnamese Constitution holds that citizens “are entitled to freedom of speech and freedom of the press” and have “the right of assembly, association and demonstration in accordance with the law.” Instead of protecting these rights, however, the Vietnamese government has been using the law to prohibit basic freedom of speech, assembly and association.

To her credit, Clinton raised concerns about Vietnam’s human rights record during her recent trip, including the detention of activists, lawyers and bloggers whose only crime is the peaceful expression of ideas. “I know there are some who argue that developing economies need to put economic growth first and worry about political reform and democracy later, but that is a short-sided bargain,” she said.

The United States must go beyond a rhetorical defense of human rights in Vietnam. Our country should not contribute to the “short-sided bargain” Clinton warned of by promoting deeper commercial ties without simultaneously insisting that Vietnam honor its international human rights obligations. U.S. officials should demand that Vietnam can start by releasing the activists arrested last year and others who have been detained solely for seeking a voice in their country’s future. The United States should not reward Vietnam by including it in the Trans-Pacific Partnership while the government in Hanoi uses its legal systems to stifle dissent and perpetrate human rights abuses

Source: The Washington Post
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