[Vnbiz] Doing politics in the Vietnamese spirit

huong luong huongluongdc at yahoo.com
Fri Jun 8 08:39:00 PDT 2007 

anh Hoanh and others,
   
  I don't know why anh Hoanh has an impression that the Vietnamese is worshiping the White "fathers"...in politics and in other aspects...who is the "white fathers" here and why we call them "fathers"....Looking back Vietnam's history, the French and the American are not the only ones to try to mess up our country, but the Chinese...the inevitable, the long-standing, the back-stabbing "brother" that we are unfortunate to be next door, the one has invaded VN longest, in every single century whom we have a war with. But we still have to play along with Chinese politics.
   
  I truly believe that Vietnam has always had its own spirit that has triumped in the past wars with any external invaders. I don't buy the fact that Vietnam is losing its spirit in international politics....I just think our leaders, or younger politicians become more sophisticated in international politics, learning how to play the game to avoid unnecessary mistakes that might cost the country a great deal (we could avoid the war with the American if we were not a prawn of the cold war game b/t the US-Soviet, we could have reconstructed the country faster to compete with SEA neighbors if we were not bogged down with the invasion of Cambodia due to the ideology of Marcist-leninist expansion led by Soviet - a decade of war with the U.S, another decade of war with the rest of world thru the isolation politically and economically, that has set VN back 20 years behind its SEA neighbors). 
   
  Conflict is avoidable, but not impossible.  Good politicians are the ones to can take away all potential threats and conflicts for the country and the World.  There's new way to love your country now not only by fighting for it with your blood, but with your brain.
   
  I think Competition is no way a friendly game, but could be a healthy game. Competition is a way to make things better and more efficient. If law and orders are established in VN, healthy competition is very possible. 
   
  I consider VN is a place where religious freedom does exist at grassroot level. VN is a country free of ethnic and religious conflicts to a large extent.  I can see a Buddhist can walk in a catholic church in HN to celebrate X-mas Eve. I don't see people fight against each other because of their religious differences in VN ever.  The religion only becomes an issue when people mix religion with politics....i prefer to keep them separate.  There has been some crack down of religious leaders because they use religion as a political tool, not because of their embrace/practice of their religions.  the way I view religion as a way to make all human being become a better person, a place for people to rest their personal faith and peace on....we should not use it as a weapon.  If a religious conflict does happen, blood will follow (see the Islam vs. Christianity, Jewish vs. Islam)
  
Democracy should come from within. It will happen in the country if its people really want it (it did happen in Indonesia in 1998). Do you think a fully-democratic system will work in VN efficiently now where people have a little concept of democracy and how to make democracy work for them? Give it some times, and the Vietnamese will figure out if they want democracy or not, and will figure out a model of democracy they want to establish, and they will fight for it once they are ready as they did fight for the independence decades ago. Any immature democracy will create further mess / instability in the country, in turn, which will undermine all development opportunities we are having right now (look at our democratic neighbor Thailand...and if you study all SEAs, you will see that those countries keep swinging back and force b/t democratic and authoritarian regimes...and they seems to develop better under the latter). Any western-liked model of democracy might not work in
 Vietnam, and Asia-wide.
   
  Democracy is a gradual process. It should be built on the foundation of well-established rule of laws, checks and balances that are missing in Vietnam right now (don't argue with me that checks and balances only exist in democratic nations...look at Singapore). Otherwise, it might be a source of domestic instability and conflicts. It can't happen overnight because its people need to learn to appreciate democracy first, and act in the name of democracy.  If the Vietnamese learn how to take voting obligation more serious, being concerned more about the Government policies that might affect their life in a bigger way rather than worrying about their own little benefits, political process in Vietnam will improve as more quality leaders come in power.
  Of course, it is naive to expect power elites to change for democracy because it is human nature: the love for power. They will hold a strong grip on power as long as they can.
   
  I view democracy is a luxury good.  People can't achieve it unless they are provided with all basic goods first (decent income per capita, social welfare, education are fundamental needs). Then, they might be ready for something better and perceive democracy differently (e.g democracy vs. populism; democracy vs. patron-client relations).
   
  We can't sit there and blame superpowers or realists in international relations. It is the nature and the principle of int' politics: every country is working for their national interests and security. We are not different if we would have the same level of economic and military power....we would act exactly like them. And international politics today is more complex than decades ago: it is a mix of realism and constructivism.  The best policy might be to put our brains at work to have an optimal foreign policy that will benefit the country in term of economy and security. 
   
  Therefore, I don’t think younger Vietnamese politicians compromise the country’s interests and independence in international arena. I see Vietnam is one of fearless nations in spirit, but full of hospitability.  Maybe that is “Vietnam’s charm” that makes many foreigners feel good/welcomed when they visit VN, not the fear as anh Hoanh mentioned. And remember that Vietnam has no history of a slave country or being slaved.  We were occupied for centuries, but we have our own glorious history, heritage and culture. Then, slave mentality does NOT exist in the way the Vietnamese behave or live their lives. Plus, Asian culture in general is a high-context culture, mean avoid any direct confrontation, but does not mean compromising.
   
  Just share with CACC some thoughts. DonÂ’t grill me please J
   
  Peace,
  Huong
Tran Ba Thien <tranbathien at gmail.com> wrote:
  [ Vietnam Business Forum ]

Hi brother Hoanh,

good idea
Tran Ba Thien
tranbathien at gmail.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tran Dinh Hoanh" 
To: 
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 11:16 AM
Subject: [Vnbiz] Doing politics in the Vietnamese spirit


>[ Vietnam Business Forum ]
> 
> Dear CACC,
> 
> I have just had a long talk with a younger professional who asks me
> for advice on Vietnam politics. I though I should share with you, the
> younger intellectuals, what I have just shared with my friend. So
> here it is.
> 
> 1. Today, too many people still have the slave mentality of
> worshiping their great white fathers. This mentality goes back to the
> time of the French, the Vatican, the American. Today, such mentality
> is still prevalent. For people with such mentality, Washington DC or
> Paris or Rome some western capitals are where the power of Vietnam
> reside.
> 
> 2. In the same vein, there are idiots in foreign countries (such as
> in Washington DC) who will always want to mess around with our
> country, just because they can do that and get away with it.
> 
> 3. There are people who continue to fight the old war that was
> supposed to be over in 1975 and they will do the fight under any kind
> of pretext, from human rights to democracy to religious freedom.
> 
> Avoid these people and avoid becoming one of them. If you are not
> vigilant, you can be bought much easier than you think.
> 
> We have to do politics within this fundamental principle: All
> Vietnamese are brothers and sisters. We do not do politics as
> enemies. If we compete, that is friendly competition between
> brothers/sisters.
> 
> No political systems, no political theories, no political principles
> are as important as the idea that all Vietnamese are brothers and
> sisters.
> 
> And the Vietnamese have to act as honorable Vietnamese. Don't kiss
> foreign ass while trying to beat upon your brothers and sisters.
> 
> Have as many friends around the world as possible. But treat them as
> equal friends, not as the great white fathers, especially when you
> attempt to beat upon your bothers and sisters. That is simply he`n
> ha.
> 
> That would be my advice. If we stay faithful to these principle, we
> will bring our country to greatness. And we will bring our country to
> greatness. Trust me.
> 
> Have a great day!
> 
> Hoanh
> 
> -- 
> Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
> Washington DC
> _______________________________________________
> To subscribe/unsubscribe, please contact admins at
> vnbizadmin at vietlinks.net
> Info at http://mail.saigon.com/mailman/listinfo/vnbiz
> Archive at 
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vnbiz/
> or http://groups-beta.google.com/group/VNBIZforum/
> or http://mail.saigon.com/pipermail/vnbiz
_______________________________________________
To subscribe/unsubscribe, please contact admins at
vnbizadmin at vietlinks.net
Info at http://mail.saigon.com/mailman/listinfo/vnbiz
Archive at 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vnbiz/
or http://groups-beta.google.com/group/VNBIZforum/
or http://mail.saigon.com/pipermail/vnbiz


       
---------------------------------
Ready for the edge of your seat? Check out tonight's top picks on Yahoo! TV. 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.saigon.com/pipermail/vnbiz/attachments/20070608/5886445c/attachment-0001.html

More information about the Vnbiz mailing list