Identifier | Created | Classification | Origin |
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08HANOI632 | 2008-05-30 09:11:00 | CONFIDENTIAL | Embassy Hanoi |
1. (C) In response to "rampant corruption," GVN leaders have undertaken a national drive to convince people to follow Ho Chi Minh's "moral example." A central-level Party steering committee, which includes several Politburo members, meets regularly to assess the campaign's progress. However, CPV and GVN insiders are skeptical the drive has had much impact, telling us it is "form over substance." The campaign may, in fact, merely be serving to remind Vietnam's citizens that their current leaders' lifestyles are quite different from their revered late leader's austere ways. End Summary. The Ghost of Ho Chi Minh -------------------------- 2. (SBU) The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) has expended much effort over the last four months to get Party officials and the public to follow Ho Chi Minh's "moral example." The CPV launched the nation-wide drive on February 3, the anniversary of the CPV's founding. A Politburo resolution says the campaign's purpose is to "preserve moral quality, reform manners, practice thrift and combat wastefulness and corruption" among Party members and the public at large. 3. (SBU) As a sign of the importance the CPV places on the project, it established a central-level steering committee, which includes CPV General Secretary Nong Duc Manh and Politburo members Truong Tan Sang and Nguyen Phu Trong, to oversee the campaign and assess its progress. The CPV also created committees in government ministries as well as at the provincial, district and commune Party levels. All of these committees are to increase citizen awareness of the late leader's life by organizing Ho Chi Minh story-telling events, sponsoring training on his "working manner," adding courses on his "moral example" to high school curriculums and promoting "criticism and self-criticism" studies among Party members. 4. (SBU) The national-level committee also has produced documentaries about the late leader's life-style that have aired twice per week on national television and organized press conferences providing updates on the campaign, which is scheduled to last four years (until 2011). In addition, the national-level steering committee held a two-day conference last February to review campaign progress. At this conference, the Party highlighted the campaign's "successes," which mostly were just recitations of how many people had participated. 5. (SBU) In commemoration of Ho Chi Minh's life, the Party also put on several events across the country on May 19, their revered leader's birthday. In attendance at the Hanoi event were President Nguyen Minh Triet, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, General Secretary Manh and National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong. At the event, Secretary of the Hanoi's People's Committee and Politburo member Pham Quang Nghi said the Vietnamese people had "inherited a valuable heritage from President Ho Chi Minh: his thoughts, theories and revolutionary ethics." In Vietnam's largest city, Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Dua urged the public, in a City Hall address, to follow Uncle Ho's example by putting "the nation and people's interest ahead of their own." "Form Over Substance" -------------------------- 6. (C) The Ho Chi Minh Political Academy's (the Party's training ground for up-and-coming leaders) Nguyen Van Nghia told us the Party launched the campaign in response to public criticism about "rampant corruption" within the CPV and Government. The Ministry of Culture and Information's Nguyen Van Hoa and the CPV External Relations Commission's Nguyen Van Hoa added that, while the CPV worries about corruption because it hurts the Party's legitimacy, the campaign is "form over substance." Hoa said war veterans, teachers, students and Party and Government officials "seem reluctant to participate." The general lack of enthusiasm for the campaign and the fact that no one is forced to participate make it easy "to see why not many people" are taking part, he added. 7. (C) Dr. Nguyen Van Thanh, Research Director at the Government Inspectorate (GI), told us that, in carrying out the campaign, the Party is trying to improve its image. Ordinary people often associate Party officials with expensive cars and large houses and tracts of land, he said. HANOI 00000632 002 OF 002 Corruption is "almost everywhere" in State agencies, which has led to repeated complaints to the GI, Thanh added. It "makes sense" for CPV leaders to undertake efforts to get Vietnamese from all walks of life to follow Uncle Ho's example, he concluded. Comment: Cynicism Abounds -------------------------- 8. (C) Party propaganda about the need to follow Ho Chi Minh's example is ubiquitous in Vietnam. However, the drive to get more people to act like their late leader may be having the opposite of what Party leaders intend: instead of burnishing the CPV's image, the campaign has reminded the public that Vietnam's current crop of leaders have followed a path very different from the one taken by their revered late leader. End Comment. 9. (SBU) This cable was coordinated with the Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City. MICHALAK |