[Vnbiz] Future Leaders for Vietnam

Mon Jul 17 15:19:09 PDT 2006

Xin chao CACC,
   I have not read the full article yet, but I would like to comment on anh
Hoanh's preamble.

   Although it is starting to change, and the new leadership reflects some
things I have been saying in this forum for about 3-4 years now, the "yes
men" still have the numbers in the Party - and THAT is important. Anh Hoanh,
from my understanding (and long-term involvement in Vietnam [16 years: but
as a foreigner], the "yes men" are arrogant and the 'challengers' to the
"yes men" lack confidence. FOR NOW!

   I see no paradox in this. A reformer in a new government post must "shore
up" his/her position within the hierarchy of the political elite BEFORE they
can stop being a "yes man".

   Although it is probably not directly applicable to Vietnamese politics
right now, an Australian Parliamentarian from the reigning government is
able to openly disagree, publically - through the media, for all to
see/hear, with the party platform. They will probably be "sent to the back
bench" (Australian English meaning the politician will be reduced to having
no influence on the strategic or tactical workings of the 'day-to-day'
business of the party, i.e. they will lose all influence).

   Let NONE of us who live in this beautiful country misunderstand that the
reason we all have seen people in the family's of important politicians
behave arrogantly is BECAUSE of the arrogance of their power source.

   I said about 4 years ago that it will change, NOW it is!

Shane
-------------------------------------
Mr. Shane Wall
Principal

shane.wall at translingualexpress.com
Mbl: +84 (090) 9484 753
Tel: +84 (8) 820 9143

www.translingualexpress.com

-----Original Message-----
From: vnbiz-bounces at mail.saigon.com [mailto:vnbiz-bounces at mail.saigon.com]
On Behalf Of Tran Dinh Hoanh
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 2:00 AM
To: vnbiz at vietlinks.net
Subject: Re: [Vnbiz] Future Leaders for Vietnam

[Vietnam Business Forum]

Dear cac chi Nga, Thu Huong, Le Thuy & CACC,

Below is an article I have just received from a friend about this leadership
issue.  It is written by a foreigner who has been working in Vietnam for a
number of years.  Since the author wishes to remain anonymous, I shall adopt
this article as my message, with a little bit of commenting here.

One of the thing mentioned in the article is the leadership's "arrogance."
I would change that to "lack of confidence."  The leadership's lack of
confidence, per my observation, has 2 causes:
(1) Unknown territories:  Managing a peace time economy, in a global
cooperation/competition game, is absolutely new territory to many Vietnamese
leaders.  When you walk into the unknown, in which you feel that you are not
well-versed, you just lose your confidence.  (2) Leaders are indeed more of
a "yes-man."  The Vietnamese culture puts such a strong emphasis on
producing"yes-men" that most "leaders" grow up in that social educational
frame.  So they are not confident enough to try new ideas, to walk into new
territories.

And when you don't have enough confidence, you act arrogantly. Confidence
generally goes with calmness and humbleness.

Other than this comment, I think the rest of the article is very good.  Here
it is to share with everyone.

Have a good day,

Hoanh

PS:  BTW, I appreciate this kind of honest article.  Honesty is the best
medicine.  I hope that other expats will share their feelings like this.  If
you guys want to stay anonymous (to be really honest), then just send the
message to be.  I will forward it to the forum and keep the authorship
confidential. _____________

The longer I am in Vietnam, the less I have to say. This message will be
brief and on the philosophic side since I believe that is what is most
useful to all concerned. In my forty odd countries of work experience,
Vietnam is unique. I have never witnessed a country where the people have so
much capability and potential while the government system functions at such
a low level. The gap between the two is greater than in any other country in
which I have worked. This feature leads me to question why this is the case.
The answer, if one can find it, is at the heart of Vietnam's reform
challenge.

My own view is that the current government mechanism in Vietnam suffers from
two psychological features, which are seriously interfering with its
capacity to learn and catch up with the region. The first feature is a
legitimately earned deep mistrust of foreigners. Vietnam has had such poor
experience in its encounters with outsiders for two millennia that its
official system automatically adopts a posture of mistrust and of keeping
out the outsider. The second feature is a certain, again legitimately
earned, arrogance on the part of senior officials. This arrogance probably
stems from the many great defeats the Vietnamese have handed down to foreign
invaders over the millennia, the most recent of which is currently the most
powerful country in the world. These two qualities, in principle, are good
qualities in modest doses. But taken to excess, they can turn into
dysfunctional characteristics insofar as the development of the country is
concerned. It is my personal view that this is the case. These two qualities
have been taken to excess and so long as this is the case they are a net
negative rather than a positive for Vietnam's future.

Mistrust of the outsider works against the very policy that the leadership
of the country is trying to pursue, which is to link up with and benefit
from contact with the outside world. But if the basic posture is one of
mistrust, then the policy cannot work. The Vietnamese official will not let
the outsider enter into his mental world such that he can benefit from an
outside perspective. And the outsider soon learns he is not trusted and
therefore that it is useless to attempt to offer his perspective.

Arrogance has a similar effect of cutting off the benefit of contact with
outsiders. If the Vietnamese system believes it already has the answers, or
at least that it knows better than the outsider, then there is no purpose in
outside technical assistance. Sadly, in my view, this is too often the case
in Vietnam. I should mention that these two qualities are much more
pronounced in men than women. But then it is the men who occupy the high
posts and who make the decisions in the state mechanism.

The point about these two psychological traits is that they are seriously
impeding any growth or learning that the Vietnamese system might otherwise
experience. Until these characteristics are better recognized, researched
and ways found around them, foreign assistance in Vietnam will continue to
be wasteful with minimal impact.

Assuming there is some validity to my observations, what might be done about
it? At one level, nothing can be done until the Vietnamese officials and
their system are prepared to deal with the issue. At another level, one
could say that over time as Vietnam increases its contact with the outside
world, these qualities will take on a more normal 'middle of the road'
dimension. But this would be very much a hands-off approach on the part of
the donor community. It would be more constructive to explore ways with
Vietnamese officialdom on how the donor community can support the
development of a more rapid self-awareness so that the Vietnamese system can
deal more quickly with these two dysfunctional qualities.

There are two levels at which this can be addressed, i.e. the macro level
and the project level. At the macro level, the donor community could be
assisting Vietnam by documenting other countries' experience in dealing with
foreign assistance and in learning from others. Singapore is a good example.
It did not rise so quickly by claiming it knew better than other countries.
On the contrary, it fully admitted that other countries must know better
than it because they were so much better off and it deliberately set out to
learn as much as it could from other countries' and their experts'
experience. It took a humble view of itself, accelerated contact with
foreigners and sponged up as much advice and know-how as it could. The
result is known around the world. In one generation, Singapore went from
third to first world country.

Another idea the donor community might try is to retain or bring back from
time to time, selected former representatives of donor agencies who were
able to gain the trust and confidence of Vietnamese officials. These trusted
officials could be used to bridge gaps and cultural divides that are
interfering with the planning and implementation of donor programs and
projects. They might also hold informal roundtables with high Vietnamese
officials to discuss these two problems and how best to overcome them.

At the micro or project level, there are a number of things that might be
done to approach the problem. Addressing these two qualities should be built
into the design and implementation of all project interventions. This means
there must be much more time devoted to discussing these issues openly with
Vietnamese officials and deciding how to address them. In fact, this should
become part of the overall goal of every project intervention, i.e. to help
Vietnamese officials see that their mistrust and arrogance are blocking them
from reaping the benefits of technical assistance. There should be workshops
to discuss the issue and help hold a mirror up to the Vietnamese so they can
see it for themselves.

All of which is to say that in spite of what I perceive to be my
understanding of the problem, I have failed in my time to assist my
Vietnamese colleagues, as much as I would have liked. For this I am
saddened. But time is on the side of Vietnam. With increasing outside
contact and a new generation coming forth, prospects are good for overcoming
these two dysfunctional behavioural traits. I remain optimistic for the long
run.

_______________

On 7/16/06, Tran Le Thuy <tranlethuy at netnam.vn> wrote:
>
> [Vietnam Business Forum]
>
>
>
> Dear anh Hoanh and cac anh cac chi,
>
> "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. "
>
> I agree with anh Hoanh that there should be more "solution 
> journalism". And this is what I am seeking for in VNbiz. We have top 
> experts here and we have people who are passionate for development of 
> Viet Nam. I hope there will be more and more people find feasible, 
> constructive answers and solutions in this forum.
>
> Keep on the good work !
>
>  Thuy
>
-- 
Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
Attorney of Law
Washington DC
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