Vietnam to sack deputy PM, but is it progress?

By Michael Mathes

HANOI (DPA): The communist party's recent decision to oust Ngo Xuan Loc from his post as Vietnam's deputy prime minister may have other senior cadres feeling the pinch of a penetrating campaign aimed at rooting out graft in the top echelons of power.

But is it a sign of reform?

Diplomats who follow Hanoi's complex tangle of one-party politics are intrigued by the speed with which the criticism and self-criticism campaign launched earlier this year has shown results.

"Six months into the campaign and they're sacking people. That's fast," one western diplomat noted.

Two other senior cadres -- former State Bank governor Cao Si Kiem and recently deposed customs chief Phan Van Dinh -- are also to be disciplined and face possible legal action by the National Assembly, Vietnam's legislative body, which meets later this month.

The moves have allowed party chief Le Kha Phieu, widely thought to be untainted by allegations of corruption, to show a tough face when dealing with what he has called Vietnam's greatest scourge.

Phieu also may be flexing his muscles in the party's internal power struggle by neutralizing Loc, a protege of Do Muoi, the former party chief who still wields considerable power and has been known to be at odds with Phieu.

Many observers are convinced that Vietnam's strained leadership is looking increasingly inward and focusing on rooting out specific bad apples or rogue elements within its own ranks rather than looking at the larger picture.

"This is a time when reforms are needed, but nobody's talking about them," said one exasperated European after attending a diplomats-only briefing on a crucial party plenum which concluded Thursday.

Indeed, party sources confirmed that the 170-odd members of the Central Committee, the powerful party body which convened the plenum, declined to discuss vital subjects of economic integration and institutional reform.

Of timely concern is the stalled U.S.-Vietnam trade agreement, a potent symbol of Hanoi's ambivalence about opening its markets to the rest of the world and embracing the world economy.

Foreign investment remains in the cellar, with most investors grumbling about lack of transparency, waffling financial policy and no serious commitment to rule of law.

Instead the party bickered at length about intra-party rivalries, argued the need for domestic investment, and debated about which cadres to sacrifice at the anti-corruption altar.

"This is a healthy process," said Vu Mao, director of the National Assembly office and a senior Central Committee member. "We should make these high-ranking people accountable for their positions."

The cause in itself is noble, diplomats concur, but such a feat is near on impossible given the current climate of bewilderment that permeates the system in Vietnam.

"Basically everybody got put into the criticism mincer and someone got spat out," one Western diplomat indelicately told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

Most would argue that Loc is not a bad place to start cleaning house. A former minister of construction at the epicenter of a national "cement fever" scandal in the mid-1990s, Loc has been under a cloud of suspicion for years and his power gradually marginalized despite continued support from his mentor Muoi.

But his ouster, say observers, may instill a climate of individual culpability which will deter more outspoken and liberal leaders from instituting much-needed economic reforms.

With the specter of punishment and possible legal action now hanging over three of Vietnam's top cadres, fewer party leaders will be willing to stick their necks out for change, said one analyst who, like others, asked not to be identified.

"It's worrying," the Western diplomat said. "Until you see concrete moves to address transparency issues then you won't see any decrease in corruption regardless of how much self-criticism you have."

"Appealing to the better nature of cadres just doesn't work."