General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam recently once again emphasized the direction “All power must be strictly controlled by mechanisms” and affirmed that corruption has never been dealt with so strongly and strictly as now. An observer of political commentary asked where is Trong’s responsibility when tens of thousands of party members have committed wrongdoings and have been disciplined in the past decade.
Saying no goes hand in hand with doing
On August 22, at the Conference of the Central Steering Commission on Anti-Corruption, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said that “All power must be strictly controlled by mechanism, power must be bound by responsibility, power goes there, responsibility goes there, the higher the power, the greater the responsibility; abuse of power must also be held accountable and handled for violations.”
Having to “lock power into the mechanism cage” is a motto and direction of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, mentioned by him in a meeting with Hanoi voters in 2016. Since then, the saying is repeated many times in the essays of the newspaper networks that are the mouthpieces of the Party and the state.
In 2016, Mr. Pham Minh Chinh, then head of the Central Organizing Commission, also repeated Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong’s words: “We are also building a ‘cage’ to trap power. Definitely controlling power…”
Lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, from Germany, told RFA that Trong’s words and actions do not go hand in hand. While always mentioning the “mechanical cage” to control power, it was he who broke the Party’s rules to stay as General Secretary in the third term, despite being too old and violating Article party rules.
Therefore, according to Dai, although Trong stated that “all power must be controlled,” there is currently no mechanism or regulation that can control his power:
“Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong’s saying not to go hand in hand with doing. He is a violator of the Party Charter. According to the Party Charter, there is no right to extend to the third term of the General Secretary’s post, which is a very clear violation.
It shows that the Communist Party of Vietnam is not only dictatorial to the people, but they are also dictatorial to even those within the Party.
We have seen Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong violates the Party Charter so the Party Charter has no effect to bind Mr. Trong’s power.
Even if the Party Charter doesn’t control his power, nothing can control his power.”
According to the Charter of the Communist Party of Vietnam issued in 2011, Article 17 stipulates that “Comrade General Secretary shall hold the post of General Secretary for no more than two consecutive terms.”
Responsibilities of Mr. Trong
Also in this conference, Party Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong also affirmed that “Never before have we dealt with corruption and negative acts so strongly and seriously.”
Since Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong became the head of the Communist Party of Vietnam in 2011, there have been 170 senior officials of the Central Government, including 33 members, former members of the Party Central Committee, and more than 50 members of the Party Central Committee. General officers in the armed forces were disciplined. This is the number stated in a conference summarizing 10 years of anti-corruption and anti-corruption work in the period 2012-2022, on June 30.
From the beginning of the 13th National Congress term in 2021 up to now, the Central Inspection Commission has disciplined 50 officials of the Central management level, including eight incumbent members and former members of the Party Central Committee, 20 officers of the general rank in the armed forces.
During the same period, nearly 168,000 party members were disciplined, including more than 7,390 party members, were disciplined for corruption.
Mr. Nguyen Khac Mai, former Director of the Research Department – Central Committee for Mass Mobilization, commented to RFA on the state of corrupt and negative officials under Nguyen Phu Trong as follows:
“In Trong’s time, it was upgraded to state corruption, before it was just grassroots corruption, but since Trong’s time, it has developed into groups that manipulate the state, use state policies, and use state institutions to rob the people. That’s why people have a very good saying:
Mr. Trong has a newly built furnace
He uses wood from the trees he planted.”
According to lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, Mr. Trong should have been responsible for allowing too many corrupt party members to occur during more than 10 years as the leader of the Communist Party of Vietnam:
“Although before each Party Congress, he always emphasized the need to resolutely prevent any person with moral degradation, lifestyle, or corruption from being a member of the Party Central Committee.
And he, as the General Secretary and head of the personnel subcommittee of the Party Congress, means that all candidates for the Central Committee are directly controlled by him.
But as soon as the last 13th congress took place after more than a month, Mr. Tran Van Nam, Binh Duong’s secretary was removed from all positions.
Obviously, Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong must bear the highest responsibility. Because he was unable to screen and select clean cadres to join the Central Committee.
This represents another problem there are no good people to choose from. He can only choose the less corrupt officials, the more corrupt officials, or those from his own faction to enter the central government.”
According to the Party’s Charter, before each Party Congress, the Politburo will submit to the Central Committee for a decision on the nomination of candidates for high-ranking state leadership positions before the Politburo officially introduces the candidates for the National Assembly to consider, elect or approve according to its competence.
In December 2021, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong requested that in the near future, the policy that the leaders select and introduce cadres should be responsible for the nomination of their cadres.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
