Fight for the right to choose in Vietnam

By Diem H Do

For many months, the ruling Communist Party in Vietnam had been promoting the National Assembly election that was held on Sunday as a sign that the Southeast Asian country is opening up quickly. With up to 10% of the 500 seats offered to non-communist candidates, the one-party dictatorship tried hard to bill this election as a sign of gradual democratic reform.

Notably, this was not the first time the party had offered seats in the legislature to independent candidates. However, the real trick was in the selection process for these independent candidates by the Communist Party. Although technically anybody could run, candidates first had to be selected before they even had the chance to be on the ballot. This selection process was controlled entirely by the Communist Party. Thus the party in essence decided from the start who could run or should be eliminated.

Once candidates were selected to be on the ballot, whether they won or not was a different matter, because the party controlled the entire balloting process. Since elections in Vietnam have never been independently monitored, election officials and workers are overwhelmingly Communist Party members. And because there are no opposition parties providing the necessary checks and balances, the ruling party was completely free to decide unilaterally the outcome of this election.

It will be days before the "official" results are known. But even with 10% of the 500-seat National Assembly consisting of so-called "independent" members, with 90% of the legislature under communist control, calling this democratic reform is a farce. For months, the democracy movement in Vietnam called for a boycott of this election. The Communist Party retaliated by launching the worst crackdown in the past 20 years against peaceful dissent.

One after another, democracy activists were sentenced to years in prison simply because they advocated giving people the right to choose freely and fairly. It is a mockery of justice when a dozen activists are sent to prison on fabricated charges of "spreading propaganda against the government". Others are still awaiting trial, accused of "plotting to overthrow the government", a charge that carries the maximum penalty of death.

All of this comes at a time when the Vietnamese communist government has been embraced by the international community as the guiding force behind a fast-growing and stable economy. But the world must not forget that this is a regime that is extremely corrupt and does not truly represent the Vietnamese people. The regime stays in power by terrorizing its own citizens and through fraudulent elections like the one on Sunday in which it farcically claimed a 99% turnout.

For many years, the Vietnamese democracy movement has waged a grassroots and peaceful campaign to end the Communist Party dictatorship. The goal is simply to give the Vietnamese people a chance to choose their own government freely and fairly.

It is easy for the world to get caught up in the debate of a market economy versus a centrally planned one, or the conflict between business interests versus human rights. But the crux of the matter for Vietnam's 85 million citizens is the right to choose their own destiny, free from fear or intimidation.

And for that, instead of embracing a corrupt dictatorship, the international community should do the right thing: stand alongside the Vietnamese people and fight for the right to choose freely.

Diem H Do is chairman of Viet Tan (www.viettan.org), a political party aiming to achieve democracy in Vietnam through peaceful means.