IMPLEMENTING GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY: THE VIEW FROM

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 000159 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PGOV KCOR ECON KPAO SOCI PREL VM SUBJECT: IMPLEMENTING GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY: THE VIEW FROM NORTHWESTERN VIETNAM Ref: 07 HANOI 1088 HANOI 00000159 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Government of Vietnam's (GVN) Ordinance on Grassroots Democracy (OGD),which took effect last April, is a small step towards participatory local government within the context of the GVN's top-down, centrally controlled government structure. In a recent visit to provinces in Vietnam's remote and poor northwest, Poloff found local government and Party officials generally enthusiastic about the new ordinance as well as a Ministry of Home Affairs pilot program in which people in some 500 communes would come up with their own candidates for election to local leadership positions. Commune officials said that they now hold meetings from one to three times per month with the people and "their representatives" to go over local economic development project proposals, and leaders from all the communes Poloff visited said they had organized at least one no confidence vote over the past year, with at least one commune Party official forced to resign as a result. Support for local legal aid centers and other good governance projects aimed at educating the people of these and other outlying areas about their rights under the OGD would not only increase citizen's ability to actively participate in the political process but would likely be palatable to the GVN as well. End Summary. Democracy From Above: View From Northwest -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The Communist Party, government and legislature (the National Assembly) have organizational structures that flow from the center to the outlying areas. For example, the Party and its six mass organizations have provincial, district and commune level governing structures. Increasing citizen input at the local level within this context, Hanoi's Ordinance on Grassroots Democracy (OGD) came into effect last April and replaced a 2003 decree on the same topic (Ref. A). The OGD states that villagers can participate in meetings to discuss and propose solutions to local problems. Representatives of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Party's umbrella organization for any and all groups in Vietnam, organize and monitor these meetings, however. ¶3. (SBU) From January 29 to February 1, Poloff discussed implementation of this ordinance with a wide variety of district and commune Party officials in northwestern Dien Bien, Lai Chau and Lao Cai provinces - some of Vietnam's poorest and most remote areas, with significant ethnic minority populations. District Party officials in Dien Bien and Lao Cai told Poloff that they participated in briefings on the OGD at the provincial level soon after the central government promulgated the ordinance. These officials then convened meetings with commune leaders to go over OGD contents. These commune officials were in turn responsible for educating villagers about their rights under the OGD. However, "not every villager" came to these information sessions. One district Party official in Lao Cai admitted that many ethnic minority people living in mountainous areas in his district had "limited knowledge" of their rights under the OGD. ¶4. (SBU) Commune officials across the three provinces said that, in keeping with the OGD, they hold meetings from one to three times per month with the people and "their representatives" (in most cases, local leaders of the Party's mass organizations) to review economic development project proposals. Money for these projects mostly comes from the central government budget because generating revenue locally is difficult, commune officials explained. A Party official in Lao Cai asserted that people in his district know "full well" about the budget for schools and roads. Deciding on which projects to forge ahead with usually was done by consensus. One official asserted that his commune in Dien Bien had never experienced contentious debates about what projects to undertake. No Confidence Votes: One Official Ousted -------------- ¶5. (SBU) According to the OGD, villagers have the right to not only take issue with local administrative decisions, but to propose "no confidence" votes on local Party leaders as well. Commune Party authorities also are required under the OGD to organize one confidence vote on local leaders per year. All communes Poloff visited had carried out the latter kind of vote, with Party officials instructing villagers to come to Party facilities to vote. Two officials (from separate communes) told Poloff that results of the most recent confidence votes showed that over 90 percent voted to retain officials in their positions. In one Dien Bien commune, however, the people voted against a Party official continuing in his position because of a "lack of professionalism and qualifications." The Party forced this official to resign. Communes to Decide on Own Candidates? -------------- HANOI 00000159 002.2 OF 002 ¶6. (SBU) Le Tu Duyen, Director of the Ministry of Home Affairs' Local Affairs Department, told Poloff in Hanoi that his office has put forth a proposal for people in some 500 communes across the country to come up with their own candidates for commune leadership positions. (Note: Currently, the Party's VFF comes up with the list of candidates "in consultation with the people." End Note). According to Duyen, his pilot program idea, which would be implemented over a two year period (2008-09),has gone "to higher levels" for consideration. If approved, the program would commence later this year in some communes, then be expanded gradually to 500 communes. Duyen said the Party has not yet selected the 500 communes that would participate. In 2010, the GVN would evaluate the program to see if it could be applied in every commune in Vietnam. ¶7. (SBU) Some district and commune officials in the three provinces said they were unaware of pilot program details. All welcomed the idea, however. Two officials said that it would be a great "honor" to be selected by the people as a candidate for local leadership. They cautioned, however, that candidates should have the right qualifications and be of "high moral standing." Comment: Small But Significant Step for "Democracy" -------------- -------------- ¶8. (SBU) The GVN's OGD is a small but significant step towards participatory local government within the context of the GVN's top-down, centrally controlled government structure. Of course, when used by the GVN and the Party, "democracy" does not mean the ability of people to freely choose their leaders or representatives but rather central and local accountability to the people. The GVN and Party began to undertake steps in the late 1990's to improve local governance after protests, some of which turned violent, broke out over corrupt land deals. ¶9. (SBU) We rarely hear about villagers from Dien Bien, Lai Chau and Lao Cai provinces demonstrating over, or coming to Hanoi to protest about, corrupt land deals in their communes. While this is perhaps due to low in-migration and low stress on local land and services, more likely many people in these isolated provinces are largely preoccupied with more basic issues like food and shelter, with little time for learning about "grassroots democracy." Support for local legal aid centers and other good governance projects aimed at educating the people of these and other outlying areas about their rights under the OGD would not only increase citizen's ability to actively participate in the political process but would likely be palatable to the GVN as well. MICHALAK