Lâm Le Trinh
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM OUR
VIETNAMESE YOUTH ?
For the past two decades, it is traditional on April 30th
of every year for the American media, the Hanoi government and the
Vietnamese diaspora to commemorate the end of the Vietnam war, each
in its own way. In spite of assurances to the contrary by
Washington, the United States is still suffering from the "Vietnam
syndrome". The communists in Hanoi are haunted by the
perceived threat of "peaceful evolution". And the
Vietnamese immigrant community is struggling to form a unified bloc.
So many questions which remain unanswered today.
Two facts are clear:
First of all, who would have thought, 27 years ago, when the Northern
troops invaded South Vietnam, that the all-powerful Soviet Union
would collapse in 1989, taking down with it its Eastern European
satellites? No-one could have predicted either how quickly the
people would become disenchanted with Marxism, while Ho Chi Minh's
doctrine finds itself powerless to get the country of its impasse?
Ho and the party shamelessly exploited the love of the Vietnamese for
their country and put patriotism at the service of international
Communism. This was the most scandalous abuse of trust in the heroic
history of our unhappy nation. And today, Vietnam is in an impasse,
at all levels, political, ideological, cultural, economic and social.
The second important fact is that the old men of the Politburo,
die-hard champions of the "development of socialism at all
costs" as well as the nationalists hardliners who want "to
get rid of Marxism to the last man" are inevitably on their way
out. In Vietnam and abroad, there is a dangerous generation gap
which needs to be bridged. Two generations of Vietnamese have seen
the day since the end of the war, two generations who do not feel
hatred or resentment and are as indifferent to building up Marxism
as they are to its destruction. Many of these youths ask themselves
"Who am I? Where do I come from? Who can help me? Who should I
believe?"… in their painful yet exciting search for
identity.
These two facts highlight the problem of transition between
generations. It is the rebirth of Vietnam that is at stake. The
differences of views and opinions between young and old need to be
addressed. The young generation (forty and younger, and
three-quarters of the population) is responsible for the
reconstruction of our country. These new young leaders have to make
a choice between good and bad, progress and stagnation. They are
free to judge and act. They must choose wisely: final objectives,
direction, means, modes of action, speed of implementation. In
Vietnam, the struggle between communists and nationalists which has
gone on for over half a century, has become a fierce confrontation
between democratic and totalitarian forces. Final objectives have to
take into consideration national sovereignty, multipartism, respect
for human rights and social justice. In other words, the
authoritarianism of a single party and class struggle, which are so
important to Hanoi, are quite unacceptable.
With the technological know-how it has acquired, the new Vietnamese
generation in the diaspora represents a national resource of great
value. The problem is how to win over the hearts and minds of these
young people who have no ideological links with the past and who are
looking to the future. They must look objectively at the experience
and deeds of the older generation from both sides of the divide,
weigh them and draw from them the necessary lessons. And they have
to do this in order to solve the diversions and contradictions,
not the feeling of hatred, that exist between the two sides after
thirty five years of ideological war and foreign intervention.
It is time for the two sides to put an end to the mutual
recriminations and propaganda war. On the other hand, preaching
democracy is not all. It has to be practiced first by those who
call themselves the supporters of democracy before it can be
developed in our country.
During this transitional period, the new generation needs the
unconditional support of its elders. Realistic, open and honest
debate about what went wrong in the past must take place. To go back
to the source is the best way towards progress. This way, we will
discover the life force of our country and we will be able to start
again. It is counter-productive to try and excite emotions and force
the issue when we can accomplish so much more through reason. We
must trust our youth and respect their competence and common sense
and the experience of democracy that they have acquired through
living and growing up in free countries.
Towards the end of 1994, during a literary symposium in Paris,
writer Duong Thu Huong had remarked that "The Vietnamese people
has vast experience of fighting foreign invaders but no experience
of fighting domestic invaders". History has indeed
demonstrated time and again that Vietnam, a tiny nation, has
successfully repelled foreign invaders. Contrary to Duong Thu
Huong's statement, it has also known many civil wars, under the Le,
the Trinh, the Tay Son and more recently between the Communist North
and Nationalist South. The Gianh and Ben Hai rivers have often been
dividing lines in our country. All the invasions Vietnam has known,
either foreign or domestic, have tried to rob the people of its right
to self-determination and to impose on it a slave mentality. The
right to self-determination is the supreme right of a people, not
the absolute right of those who seize power.
The domestic invasions in Vietnam were aimed at occupying territory
and dominating its inhabitants. Ho Chi Minh and his party set up the
worst kind of dictatorship because their goal was to put the
Vietnamese people under communist control and to morally destroy it
through materialist atheism. For seven decades, Ho and his disciples
tried to create, through brainwashing and propaganda, the "new
Vietnamese man", a rootless follower of Marxist-Leninism, an
enemy of religion, a propagandist for the social class struggle.
Before 1985, the Communists ruled the country with the slogan "Long
live the proletariat, death to the capitalists!". With the
advent of Ñoåi Môùi in
1985, they created a new social class - the "red"
capitalists - who went on ruling the impoverished nation. Those who
had once called themselves the "servants of the people" now
formed a mafia of arrogant, corrupted bourgeois, more cruel than the
former colonialists.
****
Our main preoccupation should not be "When is the Vietnamese
Marxist government going to collapse?" (that will happen soon
enough!) but rather: "Are we ready to replace that regime with
better institutions? If so, which ones? What have we done so far to
prepare ourselves?"
Our other concern is that the supporters of democratization in
Vietnam do not seem to agree on the urgent necessity to play an
active part in the behind-the-scenes talks that are presently being
held between Hanoi and the world powers (the United States first
among them).
Most Vietnamese dream only of this: have enough to eat, to be
protected from the abuses of the rulers, to be free to honor one's
ancestors and to move around, to own a patch of rice-field and to be
free to elect one's representatives. Those who can make this dream
come true will have the unconditional support of the Vietnamese
people and thus gain legitimacy.
Instead of relying on foreign aid, why not try to help ourselves?
The Vietnamese is hard working, has courage to spare and is modest in
his wants. The country has ample resources if they can be managed
wisely. Why not wake up and strengthen the conscience of the people?
Once unified and energized, it can be an irresistible force.
History has shown that any alliance with a foreign power - however
formidable - ends up in failure if it does not have popular support.
Democracy is viable only if it takes root among the people.
Democracy cannot be imported. Political regimes and ideologies are
ephemeral. The people alone remains, indestructible.
This is our last chance. If Vietnam meets with another failure, it
will fall farther back into poverty and under-development. If this
happens, it will take our young generation much much more time to
catch up and look civilized nations in the eyes. History will not
forgive. All Vietnamese will carry the blame, whichever side of the
divide they are on, whatever age they are.
Lam Le Trinh
(Read others articles in Vietnamese, French and English by the
author at http:www.centralsation.net/lamletrinh)
