Understanding the Foundations of
the Vietnamese Communist Oppressive Policies

Dân Chu Forum’s Analytical Summary
drafted in 1993 by Vònh Thanh

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The Communist Party of Vietnam strangles the Law

Communist Control of Citizens

Religious Repression

Hanoi's Holocaust: Re-education Camps and Prisons

Economic Proscription

Vietnamese Children and the Communist Indoctrination

The CPV's Institutionalized Corruption

The Communist Party of Vietnam strangles the Law

The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) is positioned at the apex of absolute power in Socialist Vietnam.  It places party members in important posts of all organizations and enterprises to secure the Marxist domination over all strategic positions in society.  The decorative National Assembly is simply an instrument for the CPV to legitimize its policies.  Although Hanoi's Constitution provides that `(t)he National Assembly is the highest representative body of the people, the highest state authority...' and `... is the only body vested with constitutional and legislative authority', its members are `excused from meetings almost all year-round' and leave the law-making authority in the hands of CPV officials.  And, whenever the representatives convene to consider legislations tabled by the CPV, they quickly pass those without any question or debate.

            Nguyen Cong Hoan, a disillusioned Communist leader, revealed that, even as an Assemblyman, he was not allowed to express his own view.  His speeches were pre-prepared by `someone else' and he was not permitted to meet with foreign reporters without his `team leader's prior approval'  (i). [i]   Besides the National Assembly, other organizations such as Mat Tran To Quoc (Fatherland Front) and the Association of Patriotic Writers operate merely to popularize the CPV's policies.

            In an article in December 1991, Hanoi's Fatherland Front member Ho Ngoc Nhuan bitterly denounced the idleness and incredible silence of the National Assembly members in light of the country's serious problems.  Nhuan naively wondered when the decorative Assembly would take action to resolve Socialist Vietnam's current economic and political deadlocks (ii). [ii]

            In response to the growing `controlled criticisms', the CPV leaders decided to change the Constitution and the National Assembly.  However, their intention was neither to permit a democratic election nor to grant the Assembly representatives the right to exercise their legislative authority freely.  Rather, their aim was to put a new coat of autonomy on the decorative National Assembly to fabricate the existence of liberty and democracy in Socialist Vietnam.

            In 1992, Hanoi created and implemented a new Constitution that reaffirms the Communist Party's political monopoly and socialism as the `correct and sole direction' for Hanoi's economic plan.  Subsequently, a new election for the National Assembly was duly held.  Unlike the results of the last election which a few non-Communist elements were `elected', the July 1992 election introduced only faithful party members into this decorative legislature.  Many well-known former members of the National Assembly such as leftists Ngo Ba Thanh and Nguyen Xuan Oanh were dropped by Hanoi.

            The National Assembly's 1992 election results demonstrate the senior party officials' frustration over the chronic economic failures and their calculated move to consolidate the CPV's grip on power.  More than ever, Hanoi tries to show that the election results represent the Vietnamese people's views.  And, therefore, a complete control of the National Assembly gives senior party officials the absolute authority to