[Vnbiz] Corruption-fighting Vietnamese granny gets award Mon Jan 21, 8:34 PM ET

[Tai Phan]

Corruption-fighting Vietnamese granny gets award

Mon Jan 21, 8:34 PM ET

BERLIN (AFP) - A Vietnamese grandmother whose 25-year battle against
corruption has made her the target of death threats received a prestigious
award from Transparency International on Monday.


Le Hien Duc has shown "personal strength and courage... to break the
corruption cycle", said Transparency's Chair Huguette Labelle at a ceremony
in the German capital.

The 75-year-old retired primary school teacher spends her days in
Hanoiworking through a stack of complaints from Vietnamese people who
have been
asked to pay bribes by local officials, policemen and companies.

She sends petitions to the authorities in the search for justice, sometimes
harrying officials with repeated phone calls in a one-woman campaign
financed by her monthly pension of about 70 dollars.

"This award is a great honour for me and for those affected by corruption,
many of whom have contacted me for sympathy and help," Duc said after
accepting the Integrity Award, given to individuals who have made an
outstanding contribution to the fight against graft.

"I am not powerful, I am just a retired teacher who has dedicated her whole
life to the fight against corruption."

Her stance has made her many enemies, but Duc brushes off the numerous death
threats she has received.

"People are always threatening to knock me down with a motorbike or a car
but I am not afraid," she told journalists before the prize-giving ceremony.

"An official from the United Nations Development Programme has tried to
persuade me to have a bodyguard, but I have turned down the offer.

"I am old but I can look after myself. My only fear is that if I am killed
the work I have been doing will stop.

"If we do not fight corruption, the poor will suffer most."

Vietnam ranks 123rd most corrupt out of 179 nations in Transparency
International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index, a closely watched
survey of business people and experts that lists Denmark as the 'cleanest'
and Somalia as the worst.

The other winner of this year's Transparency award was Mark Pieth, a Swiss
criminal law professor credited with playing a leading role in securing
international implementation of the Anti-Bribery Convention drawn up by the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) think-tank

Cobus de Swardt, Transparency's Managing Director, said the Convention was
"widely regarded as the gold standard for monitoring mechanisms" and had
"helped to stem the supply side of corruption".

Under Pieth's leadership, the OECD body that monitors corruption in business
"has the courage to criticise even the most powerful, including the United
Kingdom, Germany and Japan," de Swardt said.
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