[Vnbiz] Vietkieu Policies

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Dear chi Thanh An & CACC,

Thanks, Thanh An, for the Financial Times article.  Let me just talk about
one point mentioned in the article that I lumped together in a vague "list
of exceptions [to the citizen rights]" in my last message--the government's
security concern.

In the old days, about 20, 15 years ago, Vietnam's Vietkieu policy is
governed wholely by hostility and security concern.  Vietkieu were treated
worse worse than foreigners--with all kinds of suspicion and mistrust.  As I
mentioned in this forum previously, in 1997 the Ministry of Justice
submitted a bill to the National Assembly to take away Vietnamese
citizenship of any Vietkieu who had a foreign citizenship at that time. The
attempt was to cut off the Vietkieu from the homeland.  (During that time,
the gungho anti-commies out here also pushed for the theory that Vietkieu no
longer had Vietnamese citizenship.  So the feeling was mutual).  Three days
before the bill was supposed to pass, the Chairman of the Committee on
Overseas Vietnamese in Hanoi asked me to come to the rescue.  I immediately
wrote a long letter analyzing  every thing, faxed to him from Washington DC,
and he immediately hand-delivered the letter to the members of the National
Assembly's permanent office who are working on the bill.  The
troubling provision was immediately dropped from the final bill.

And I have had more than my fair share of harassment for more than a decade
(from running vnforum and vnbiz).  Today, things have changed almost 180
degrees.  Today we have Certificate of Visa Exemption and multi
citizenship is being mentioned seriously.  That is a major major change in
mindset. But there is one thing unchanged during all that time:  That is my
position that (1) all Vietkieu are still Vietnamese citizens until they
relinquished their Vietnamese citizenship under the procedures provided by
Vietnamese law , (2) Vietkieu will play an important role in the development
of our motherland in away that our ancestors have never seen throughout
our history, (3) an effective policy has to start out with the correct
foundation:  Vietkieu are ViVietnamese citizens, with a special long-distant
status (and NOT "foreigners with a special fondness for Vietnam").
These three points I have mentioned to everyone I talked to on Vietkieu
issues and have written many many times in this forum and other Internet
forums for more than a decade.

You realize that in those three points I do not mention the security
concern, although I am fully aware of all the funny things some Vietkieu are
trying to do.  The reason is that, if we do things correctly, the security
concern will solve itself.  First, if the government treats Vietkieu like
Vietnamese citizens (i.e., no funny discrimination) most Vietkieu will
be happy with the motherland.  Witness the change in attitude of Vietkieu
over the years as the government became more open:  The anti-commies ran a
vigorous campaign to stop Vietkieu to even coming home to visit their
parents, but one by one Vietkieu came home, until prominent singers and
artists and former Southern politicians made their homecoming known to the
world.  Today, the issue is no longer visiting home, but we are at a higher
level: How to bring our talents and money to serve our home?

Second, the government's security apparatus (i.e., cong an) has had enough
times to know everything about a very small number of Vietkieu who may
do politics in with a criminal method (i.e. violence, etc).  The Interpol
would be able to take care of that and foreign governments will not tolerate
them either.  Ex:  The US government has recently arrested the Laotian
anti-commie general Vang Pao and his associates in the US for planning
to use violence force against Lao.  Moreover, the Vietnamese security
apparatus is more than competent to handle these people should they try
anything in Vietnam.

Third, we are in the information age, where information is flow freely and
everyone is in a "information market."  The government just has to learn how
to be an effective seller in that market and be happy with other sellers,
then everyone, every citizen, every Vietkieu will be happy.  Example:
Instead of harassing me and my admins as in the old days, this government
has taking many of our discussions in Vnforum and this forum into it policy
planning process (Please see chi Caroline Kieu Linh Valverde PhD
dissertation:  Making a Transnational Vietnam--Money, Music and Modem.  A
huge chunk of the dissertation is about VNForum's effects on Vietnam
policies.  Chi Kieu Linh is publishing a new book on these issues.  I
am looking forward to it, Kieu Linh).  And today, with our VNBIZ constant
harassments against government's officials and policies, we have very strong
supports from inside the country, including many government officials in our
forum.  And the government has told me officially that it appreciated my
effort.  That is a great attitude. It signifies the government's
appreciation of the market of ideas and the decmocratic process.

If the government treats everyone, including Vietkieu, with such a brotherly
democratic attitude in the great market of ideas, we all will win, our
people and our country will win.

In sum, my position on the security issue is that:  Yes, there is always the
security concern.  The police always has a job because there is always
someone who tries to steal and rob and do drugs.  But fundamentals of the
policy have to be understood and practiced well by the government:  A
Vietkieu can only feel at home in their homeland if they are treated like
they are at home, i.e., they are treated like all other brothers and sisters
in the country.  When the majority is happy, the troublemaking
minority should not be a problem.

It is very obvious that many in the Vietkieu government are still at a
loss on Vietkieu policies.  They are trying to ask all kinds of funny
questions:  Like how much money is enough to bring them home?  What kind of
house for them?  What kinds of positions for them? etc.

No, they are wrong questions.  No Vietkieu I know says anything about money,
or housing, or position.  We don't care.  If we want to stay in Vietnam, we
are smart enough to find our own job, our own housing, our own position,
like anyone else.  (The guy who asks for these things are probably not smart
enough to find them himself).

We want to feel like we are at home, among our brothers and sisters. We
don't want to be treated better than any of our brothers and sisters at
home, and we don't want to be treated worse.  We just want to feel at home.
"Feel at home."  Is that clear?

Have a great day!

Hoanh



On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 3:36 AM, Pham Thi Thanh An <thanhan2505 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> [ Vietnam Business Forum ]
>
>
>  Dear CACC,
>
>
>
> I run across this Financial Times article on the same issue that we
> discussed. It is, however, analysed on the global scale from different
> angles. A broadened view, I guess, with examples of how different countries
> deal with the matter, is what I want to share with you here.
>
>
>
> Have a nice day, everyone!
>
>
>
> Thanh An
>
> email: thanhan2505 at gmail.com
>
> ___________
>
> *The world must adapt to diasporas*
>
> By Michael Fullilove
>
> Published: February 14 2008 19:36 | Last updated: February 14 2008 19:36
>
> In 2006, I walked with Marco Fedi, a newly elected member of the Italian
> parliament, into the Chamber of Deputies in the Palazzo Montecitorio in
> Rome. What was unusual about this scene was that Mr Fedi is an Australian.
> He serves in the Italian parliament – participating in Italian debates and
> voting on Italian laws – as a member of the Italian diaspora.
>
> Diasporas – communities that live outside, but maintain links with, their
> homelands – have been with the world at least since the Jews were exiled to
> Babylonia. But in recent years they have become larger, thicker and
> stronger. Italy's extraordinary innovation in electing diaspora MPs is only
> one example of the world's growing diaspora consciousness.
>
> Diasporans are becoming more interested in their origins; homelands are
> revising their opinions of their diasporas and stepping up engagement
> efforts; host countries are worrying about fifth columns and foreign
> lobbies.
>
> This trend is the result of five factors, all connected with
> globalisation: the growth in migration; the revolution in transport and
> communications technology, which is quickening the pace of diasporans'
> interactions with their homelands; a reaction against global homogenised
> culture; the end of the cold war, which increased the salience of ethnicity
> and created new space in which diasporas can operate; and policy changes by
> governments on issues such as dual citizenship, which license people to lead
> transnational lives.
>
> The strengthening of diasporas has important implications for global
> economics, politics and security. The world is becoming aware of the awesome
> economic power of remittances: in 2006, for instance, total remittances to
> developing countries were probably three times the size of the world's
> combined foreign aid budgets.
>
> Diasporas are becoming more prominent and controversial players in host
> country politics. Homeland capitals are reaching out to their diasporas:
> creating diaspora institutions; ministering to their religious needs, as
> with Turks abroad; and engaging them in politics, as in Italy, where
> diaspora MPs helped to vote Silvio Berlusconi, former prime minister, out of
> office last time.
>
> The spike in diaspora consciousness also raises security issues. Diasporas
> provide foot-soldiers for ethnically based criminal networks and can foster
> extremism back home. On the other hand, diasporas can also support young
> people who might otherwise fall prey to more dangerous forms of identity
> politics, such as jihadist Islamism. Finally, if diasporas can pose security
> threats, they are also subject to them. In many places, demand for consular
> protection is surging and homelands such as China are meeting it. Such
> states are likely to bump up against each other as they seek to protect
> distant citizens.
>
> The tightening of diasporic connections complicates life for governments.
> Many governments are displaying bipolar tendencies in relation to diasporas,
> exhibiting equal generosity to their emigrants and meanness to their
> immigrants. Homelands are keen to work with their diasporas, but they are
> not good at operating extra-territorially and their diaspora policies tend
> to be clunky and ineffective. In the short term, homelands should be modest
> and pragmatic about their outreach efforts.
>
> Host countries will also need to be realistic, by accepting that many of
> their people possess plural national affiliations. Like the "mixobarbarians"
> of Byzantine times, who had qualities of both Hellenes and barbarians, many
> of us now live in frontier regions (whether physical or virtual) and hold
> overlapping identities. Governments should be careful to separate broad
> issues of identity, therefore, from urgent but narrower issues of security.
>
> There are implications, finally, for the international system. The world
> would profit from understandings on a number of diaspora issues, including
> the cost of remittances, the permissibility of long-distance politicking and
> the protection of nationals. A famous international relations analogy likens
> states to billiard balls, zipping around the table, clicking against each
> other and bouncing off the cushions at predictable angles. This is a wholly
> inadequate description of the international system as it now operates.
> Diasporas are like "world wide webs" emanating from states, with dense,
> interlocking strands spanning the globe, connecting people with distant
> places and governments, binding countries together and pulling them into
> each other's way.
>
> *The writer directs the global issues programme at the Lowy Institute in
> Sydney. This piece is based on his new paper, World wide webs: Diasporas and
> the international system*
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Tran Dinh Hoanh, Esq., LLB, JD
> Washington DC
>
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