The Political Influence of Civil Society in Vietnam

Presented by Hang Nguyen

Agenda

Background

Associational approaches to civil society

Political civil society

The controversy over bauxite mining

Civil society in dispute: the 2012 Nhan Dan article

Constitutional reform: opening Pandora’s box?

Conclusion

Background

History of local social autonomy based on clan and religious structures

National and regional political systems have been uniformly autocratic and relatively centralized

Firm control of NGOs and other social organizations

Low ratings on political freedoms, corruption and human rights

Formal civil society >< Informal civil society

Associational approaches to civil society

Civil society organizations (CSOs)

Mass organizations: Party-controlled at the central level

Professional organizations: rely on international donor funds

Vietnamese NGOs: diversity of networks

Community-based organizations: much less attention from government, commune level

“umbrella organizations”: state-initiated entities with multiple functions (represent, register and manage NGOs)

“straddlers”: organizations that are part-state, part nonstate

Political civil society

Not all of these protesters oppose the Communist Party: many focus on improved treatment and services from the system

No overlap between the CSOs and the dissidents, bloggers, and demonstrators described in a political-oppositional approach

Political engagement can happen through “mere” service delivery as well as policy advocacy

The Party-state and “social organizations”

Communist Party avoid ‘civil society’ term

Social organizations

Socio-professional organizations

Political-social organizations (mass org. included)

No organization is independent - political control:

Social stability

National security

Civil society is apolitical >< poses a security risk to the Party’s monopoly on power

The controversy over bauxite mining

2007, Nov: approval for Vinacomin, state-owned mining company, to exploit bauxite ore in the Central Highlands

Involvement of the Chinese mining company, Chalco -> public debate in 2008-09

At least three networks:

NGOs, professional organizations, state-affiliated partners

Activist within the Party-state, including current and retired army officers

Bloggers and activists in central Vietnam

The controversy over bauxite mining

Dispute

Protective nationalism, keeping resources out of foreign hands

Damage to the ecology, forests, and agriculture

Against current leadership, question the legitimacy of government

‘Officials will listen to anything except political criticism [against the Party]

After April 2009, there was no discussion of bauxite in media for over 18 months.

Virtual network had indirect value by adding technical information and a broad, international view of the issue

Civil society in dispute: the 2012 Nhan Dan article

Article on August 31, 2012:

Conflated organized and informal forms of civil society as ‘a trick of peaceful evolution’

A ‘plot’ by anti-Party forces to implement a Western-style democratic system in Vietnam.

NGOs confirm an apolitical narrative of Vmese civil society

PM ordered the closure of three blogs, which had been outspoken in their personal criticism of PM, bloggers were sentenced to long prison terms

Constitutional reform

January 2013: released a draft of a revised Vietnamese Constitution for public comment

Jan. 19: a group of 72 intellectuals posted an entire alternate draft with radical changes -> supported by over 14,400 people by May 2013 received limited coverage in official media

Formation of a National Election Commission and a State Audit Office

Article 4: stipulates the guarantee of the leadership of the CPV -> criticism of policies was possible, anything except direct opposition to the Party

Constitutional reform

25 February: General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong accused unnamed critics of ‘political, ideological and ethical decadence’ for suggesting the removal of Art. 4, advocating a multiparty system, and proposing the nonpoliticization of army

A journalist for a state-owned newspaper posted the real decadence was not different political ideas but rather corruption within the Party.

Draft changes: land rights, free education, health care and gay marriage

‘gradual political fence breaking’

Conclusion

Both organized and informal expressions of civil society are increasingly active in Vietnam

Constitutional revisions – VNGOs as well as informal and virtual activism

The Party-state’s policies both enable and restrict civil society development

Improvements in transparency and cooperation among groups

Joint campaigns, or full-scale social movements

Response from the Party-state >< increased repression by the security apparatus.