On June 19, the Central Steering Committee for Anti-corruption, headed by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), held a nationwide online conference to review the 1-year operation of the steering committees for corruption prevention at the provincial level.
Anti-corruption is a campaign initiated and led by Trong himself. The current provincial anti-corruption steering committees all follow orders from the central agency, and specifically from his direction.
In the past 1 year alone, 2,196 documents have been advised, promulgated, and directed by the steering committees to focus on leading, directing and organizing the implementation of anti-corruption work in Vietnam. This proves that the anti-corruption localities follow the instructions from above, but they cannot do it themselves. This is characteristic of an authoritarian state. Everything needs a new direction to do, but subordinates do not dare to decide on their own.
The rule of law is a state in which all levels only need to comply with the law, subordinates can refuse to receive instructions from superiors, if such instructions are wrong and illegal. Someone said that, it is unclear when Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong is no longer in the seat of power, will local anti-corruption agencies be able to fight corruption themselves?
Before February 1, 2013, the position of Head of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption was in the hands of then Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. During the time when Nguyen Tan Dung held this position, Mr. Dung turned it into a tool to cover for the interest group that he himself led. After winning this position, Trong cut a lot of firewood and threw it into the furnace. However, Trong only cut firewood from “the neighbor’s house“, and he kept the firewood in his house. Thus, Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung once held the position of Head of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-corruption, to cover for his faction, then, Trong not only covered for his faction, but also used it to hit the opponent’s side.
So far, it can be said that Mr. Trong has been somewhat successful in fighting corruption, however, for the prevention of corruption, Mr. Trong has completely failed. As evidence, the officials who were cut down by Mr. Trong, replaced them by another corrupt person. The Communist Party is not clean at all, even in small matters.
Mr. Nguyen The Thao destroyed Hanoi, replaced by Mr. Nguyen Duc Chung, then Mr. Nguyen Duc Chung went to jail for corruption. ] Chung was replaced by Chu Ngoc Anh, who was also imprisoned for corruption. In Ho Chi Minh City is no exception, Le Hoang Quan caused a sky-high injustice for Thu Thiem people and was replaced by Nguyen Thanh Phong. And Nguyen Thanh Phong was also disciplined for wrongdoing he caused when he was Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee.
The problem of the Communist Party is in this institution. The institution is not transparent, so it creates opportunities for officials to hide behind the curtain to grab people’s assets. It can be said that among Communist officials, there are corrupt families and corrupt people. There is no concept of “integrity” in the Communist government apparatus. Because if they live on salary, district officials earn less than bricklayers, so where do they get the money to build mansions, buy luxury cars and buy expensive Swiss watches?
When conducting the preliminary conference, Mr. Trong let the press turn on at full capacity, praising the achievements in anti-corruption. Many people admit that Mr. Trong is the strongest anti-corruption officer compared to the previous General Secretary, but no matter how strong, the prevention work has not been a bit successful.
Corruption prevention is very important but if it is not successful, no matter how the system is resisted, it will not be clean. Thus, Nguyen Phu Trong’s anti-corruption work only brought his own name, not the people.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
