[Vnbiz] Future Leaders for Vietnam

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Dear Thu Huong & CACC,

Superb question, THu Huong.  I am glad that you have an opportunity to
attend young leadership workshops like that.  This is a golden
opportunity, Thu Huong.  I am sure, as you have seen already, you will
be exposed to people and ideas at an amazingly exceptional level.

Young leadership building is a major part of education in many
countries.  I myself involved in building young leaders in many parts
of the world.  Huong's question is very crucial:  Where do Vietnamese
future leaders come from?

In our culture, we do not really try to produce leaders.  We try to
produce two types of people.  (1) Followers (conformers): People who
accept order, say "yes" to authority, and conform to the rule, be it
Confucian rule like Tam Cu+o+ng Ngu~ Thu+o+`ng, or Catholic rules like
the Pope is God is representative of God on earth, or the Party rules
from the Communist bosses like Marxist-Lenism is the way to heaven.
And (2) warriors, people who die in battle with a smile on their lip.
These two goals complement each other well, because good warriors are
the one who simply say "yes" to an order to fight and then fight to
the death.

But the modern concept of leader is not a focus of our culture at all.
 It is actually anti-Vietnamese-culture to think critically and
independently, to question your parents or your Party bosses, to say
"Oh, before giving you an answer, I need to understand this first.
Could you please explain it for me."

The result is that we as a nation have a lot of faithful warriors and
not too many good leaders.  That explain why we are outstanding in war
(when everyone just does one thing: accepting an order to fight, and
fighting till we win or die, but terrible in peace, when we have to be
on our toes constantly, have to constantly be creative, to come up
with new ideas, new goals, new focus, new strategies, to think
analytically, to be confident to open new roads into unknown
territories.  Many many more things to think about, many unknown
territories to explores, many issues to focus, other than just "fight
and die on the battle field."

Look around our nation and we can see that.  We see thousands and
thousands of problems and issues, we see complaints and problems every
day in the newspapers, but how many articles we see discussing
solutions for anything.   And our "leaders" would simply sit on a
blatant prominent outrageous problem for years and years like nothing
happens.   They too have been trained to not see a problem and just to
say "yes" to the problem itself.

Even in this forum, among the most educated and intellectual forums
for the country, I raise, say, education problems, how many responses
I have?   And talking about education, probably we are the most
qualify forum in the country for this, with professors from many
universities and students who have studied years and years both in
Vietnam and abroad.  I am not complaining; I am pointing out one
simple truth that as a nation we do not focus on producing leaders and
do not have many good leaders (at all levels of our society).

As a matter of fact, many parents worry about children thinking
independently.  They are afraid of rebellious behavior.  At the
country level, all efforts always aim to force people to think the way
the leadership wants, rather than help the people think independently,
critically and analytically.  Everyone in power, from the family to
the society, is more concerned about conformity and "staying the same
old way" rather than confident and analytical thinking and behavior.

In this forum, I intentionally lead the forum to produce leaders:
Confident and independent thinkers and doers who have the courage to
stand up, put forth hard questions, bring out tough answers, and move
to make their answers a reality.

In any event, things are moving in the right direction.  At least, we
can see that now, we hear a lot about problems.  Only 15 years ago,
you couldn't hear problems.  Newspapers simply had to say that
everything was well and good.

Next thing, think about solutions, confidently, independently, analytically.

And we need to bring more of youth leadership building into Vietnam.  I will.

Have a great day!

Hoanh


On 7/14/06, Thu Huong <meocon24 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> [Vietnam Business Forum]
>
>
>
> Dear anh Hoanh and CACC,
>
> I remember not long ago anh Hoanh asks some questions
> about university education and our thoughts as
> overseas students about the system at home. I want to
> share with brothers and sisters in our community about
> what I am experiencing right now and the burning
> thoughts that have been on my mind for the last two
> days.
>
> I am currently in Hong Kong, participating in a
> one-month leadership training program entitled "China
> Tomorrow: Perspectives from three different cities:
> Hong Kong, Singapore & Beijing". This program is
> organized by the Lee Shiu Center of Inter-Cultural
> Learning, Chung Chi College, Chinese Uni of HKong.
> Very interestingly, as a Vietnamese, I was granted the
> chance to participate in this program, together with
> students from mainland China, Hong Kong, US and
> Singapore to discuss the future of China. I am
> probably one of the very few who are not ethnically
> Chinese and trying hard to grapple with conversations
> in my super limited Chinese. Exciting challenge.
>
> I have been here for only two days and I had sat
> through six talks by some of the most influential
> people in the HK's economic sphere. Amidst passionate
> discussion about China's future, perhaps this is the
> first time I have thought seriously about the future
> of our country. Around me are intelligent, confident
> and passionate Chinese who dare to speak their minds
> and dare to stand out. This program aims to vigorously
> nurture future leaders for China through series of
> talks, lectures, seminars, high-table dinners and
> visits in the three cities. We discuss areas of
> government & law, education & culture, social services
> & economic development of the rising China. What
> surprises me is that Chinese students are more
> open-minded than I thought. They discuss openly about
> democracy and communism, about Confucianism &
> Christianism, about the East & the West & the rising
> of the Middle Kingdom again.
>
> In me there seems to be fear. Perhaps when there is
> this huge guy almost twice as tall as you are sitting
> next to you, it's normal to feel a bit of fear? I
> wonder where the future leaders for Vietnam would come
> from. I wonder if there are leadership training
> programs in Vietnam at the moment. I wonder if those
> overseas students like me would decide to come back
> and when to come back, as staying overseas is never
> the same as going back to build the country (though we
> may be able to contribute in different ways of
> course). I wonder if there would be like-minded
> philanthropists like the Hong Kong Mr. Lee Shiu and
> his wife (the two people who founded the center & the
> program) in our country.
>
> Please share with me your thoughts on this. As a
> student, I realize there are so much more for me to
> learn, especially about history ( I have not been
> taking history classes for eight years now & I'm
> ashamed of my lack of knowledge while attending these
> seminars). There are so much more for me to learn from
> successful working adults like the many brothers and
> sisters in this forum. Please share, as I will be
> through this program for another 28 days, your
> thoughts on these issues, and especially about the
> future of Vietnam, and the source of our future
> leaders.
>
> Have a great day ahead,
>
> Warmest,
> Huong
>
>
>
>
>
>
> TH
>
>
-- 
Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
Attorney of Law
Washington DC