Towards a National Assembly That Makes Laws?

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HANOI 000677

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MLS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV SOCI VM

SUBJECT: Towards a National Assembly That Makes Laws?

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1. (SBU) Summary: In spite of the National Assembly's
evolving role as Government watchdog, its involvement
in Vietnam's lawmaking process remains limited. Both
the GVN and the National Assembly recognize that this
is partially due to the Assembly's lack of resources,
particularly professional staffers. Furthermore, the
National Assembly's tradition of collective decision-
making, combined with disconnects between itself and
the GVN, currently hamstring its ability to draft
legislation. End Summary.


2. (SBU) A notable, and relatively recent, development
in Vietnamese politics has been the expanding role of
the National Assembly (NA). The legislature is
increasingly taking on the job of ombudsman and
Government watchdog, and live television broadcasts of
parliamentarians taking Government ministers to task
has become a regular feature of the NA's semiannual
sessions. However, one area in which the Assembly's
development is lagging is, ironically, in the actual
lawmaking process. The GVN traditionally has the lead
in drafting laws, but is seeking not only a greater and
more effective give-and-take by the Assembly in the
lawmaking process, but also an increased role for the
legislature in the actual formulation of laws.

GVN: "National Assembly Not Involved Enough"
--------------


3. (SBU) According to Pham Tuan Khai, Director of the
Office of the Government's (OOG) Committee for
Legislative Affairs, one significant problem is the
"lack of participation early on" by NA members in the
lawmaking process. Legislators should involve
themselves more proactively in the drafting process to
allow both the GVN's law drafters and NA
representatives to reach a common approach regarding
the spirit, and eventual implementation, of new laws.
In some cases, members of the Assembly get involved too
late, which leads to the GVN's inability to incorporate
their ideas into draft laws before the NA is scheduled
to formally approve them. "We expect the National
Assembly to fully participate in the drafting process
in order to minimize unexpected and last-minute
changes," which can sometimes prevent GVN agencies from
effectively implementing laws once they are passed,
Khai asserted.


4. (SBU) Another problem is the scarcity of capable
professional staff members in the National Assembly,
Khai continued. In many cases, NA staffers who attend
drafters' meetings fail to take advantage of the
opportunity to add their insights into draft laws, and
their lack of expertise and policy understanding has
sometimes led to problems.

But When It Does Get Involved...
--------------


5. (SBU) For now, the majority of draft laws are
prepared by various Government agencies, Khai
continued. He emphasized that, in the long run, there
must be a formal mechanism to facilitate parliamentary
participation in the drafting process to improve the
efficacy of Vietnamese law and the effectiveness of its
implementation. Offering one example of how "things
can go wrong," Khai noted that the NA formulated on its
own and passed an Ordinance on Population in January
2003 that allowed couples to decide the size of their
families and the number of children they want. The
National Assembly's "unexpected liberty" in creating
this ordinance contradicted GVN policy and, in fact,
"harmed the GVN's long-term efforts to promote family
planning projects, which had proved to be very
effective in controlling birth rates." The
implementing decree for the ordinance that the GVN
subsequently announced (in September 2003) requires
couples to follow the small-family model of one or two
children, contravening the letter and spirit of the
National Assembly's ordinance. To resolve this
contradiction, the GVN has formally requested that the
NA revoke this ordinance, Khai explained.


6. (SBU) However, the NA sometimes "gets it right,"
Khai continued. In a "model of National Assembly
participation in the lawmaking process," Khai noted
that the NA's Committee on Science, Technology and
Environment has taken the lead in coordinating the

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drafting of the Electronic Transactions Law, presiding
over meetings of representatives from various
Government agencies to discuss the bill. This is a
good example of how the NA can be more active in
legislative affairs by playing a coordinating role and
helping to deal with the issue of different GVN
agencies trying to protect their own interests and
turf. To formalize its participation in the lawmaking
process, the NA should come up with a mechanism on its
own, because legislators "would probably oppose any GVN-
proposed mechanism," Khai wryly noted.

Assembly Agrees It Needs More Staffers
--------------


7. (SBU) According to Nguyen Sy Dzung, Deputy Director
of the Office of the National Assembly (ONA),both
Vietnam's Constitution and the Law on the National
Assembly's Organization allow delegates play a leading
role in the lawmaking process by submitting their own
bills. However, the Assembly's current composition and
structure make this difficult. Lacking professional
staff and the resources to do "policy analysis," the
legislature is often under pressure to "just pass" the
GVN's proposed bills and let the Executive Branch come
up with the necessary regulations and implementing
decrees, he acknowledged.

"Assembly Makes an Effort to Play Lawmaking Role...
-------------- --------------


8. (SBU) When it comes to the NA's own legislative
initiatives, National Assembly members often come up
with their own "ideal laws," which sometimes prove to
be impractical or unacceptable to the GVN, senior
Assembly staffer Nguyen Chi Dzung said. On the
specific example of the Population Ordinance raised
above by the OOG's hai, he defended the stand that the
NA took, assrting that the ordinance was in accordance
with international conventions. NA members do not wantto revoke Assembly ordinances and other laws that the
GVN dislikes. When it comes to family planning issues,
they believe that the GVN agencies involved should be
able to come up with solutions to educate Vietnam's
citizens, rather than punish them, he asserted.

...But the GVN Does Not Make It Easy"
--------------


9. (SBU) On the issue of Assembly commentary on GVN-
drafted legislation, in many cases the Government will
submit bills to the National Assembly that "say only
the right things" and are "too broad and vague," Chi
Dzung continued. This effectively prevents NA members
from making any critical comments. Moreover, the GVN's
subsequent implementing decrees either do not fully
represent the spirit of the original bill or advance
only a particular GVN agency's interests. In order to
resolve this problem and facilitate the true discussion
of GVN-proposed bills, many NA delegates, including
Chairman Nguyen Van An, have formally requested that
draft laws submitted to the NA be accompanied by draft
implementing decrees.

Collective Decision-Making an Obstacle
--------------


10. (SBU) The criticism that NA representatives are too
"passive" at legislation drafting meetings is
"unreasonable," Chi Dzung said. Emphasizing what he
referred to as "the primary principle guiding the
operation of the National Assembly -- 'collective
decision-making,'" Chi Dzung said NA staffers or
members who attend drafting meetings are not supposed
to speak on behalf of any single NA committee, let
alone the whole NA. They attend these meetings to get
a better understanding of the GVN's approaches to keep
NA committees and delegates informed as well as prepare
them for formal discussions of GVN-proposed bills
during Assembly sessions, he said.


11. (SBU) Again stressing the collective decision-
making principle, Chi Dzung noted that the NA should
not take the lead in "coordinating GVN drafting
efforts" by chairing GVN legislation drafting meetings.
GVN drafters themselves must be able to assume this
burden and defend certain legislation's feasibility.
Nobody, even ranking NA officials, can speak on behalf

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of the whole NA. Any items on the agenda of a NA
session, especially draft laws, must be collectively
and thoroughly debated and approved by the Assembly as
a whole, he underscored.

Comment
--------------


12. (SBU) As both our GVN and NA interlocutors
acknowledge, until the Assembly addresses its human and
other resource issues, it will be difficult for the
body to be more proactive in the lawmaking process.
Another obstacle is the conflict between the GVN's
desire to have the Assembly, or individual Assembly
members, play a greater role in the drafting of
legislation and the legislature's reluctance to buck
its tradition of collective decision-making. Perhaps
the Assembly's plan to increase the number of its full-
time delegates to as much as 50 percent of its total
membership (from its current level of 25 percent) will
further strengthen its lawmaking role. In the
meantime, however, scarcity of resources and ongoing
disconnects between the GVN and the Assembly are likely
to limit the range of the legislature's lawmaking
activities. End Comment.

MARINE