Peaceful protestors in HCM City on June 10
Vu Quoc Ngu*
Tens of thousands of Vietnamese went on streets during the latest weekend (June 9-10) to conduct peaceful demonstrations accross the nation to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones (EEZs) and Cyber Security.
The protest began on Saturday with the participation of around 50 thousands of workers in the Taiwan-invested Pouchen footwear factory in Tan Tao industrial zone in Tan Binh district, Ho Chi Minh City, the biggest economic hub in the Southeast Asian nation.
On Sunday, thousands of people gathered in centers of Hanoi, HCM City, Danang, Nha Trang and other localities, chanting banners to protest the two bills such as “Say No to Bill on EEZs,” “No land lease for China even for One day,” and “No Bill on Cyber Security” as well as “Cyber Security Law means Silencing People.”
The demonstrations were planned during the week after the country’s highest legislative body National Assembly publicized its plan to discuss and approve the two bills on June 12-15 as part of its ongoing one-month sitting started on May 20. The call for urging people to rally circulated in social networks such as Facebook and Twitter although any organizations nor individuals took initiatives. Over 60 millions of Vietnamese people go online and Facebook is the most popular social network in the country with more than 40 millions of accounts.
Vietnam’s security forces responded aggressively to the call for peaceful demonstration. Authorities in provinces and cities sent plainclothes agents and militia to private residences of local activists on Saturday and early Sunday to prevent them from participating in the demonstrations. Many activists said they had to leave their house few days before the weekend and went into hiding to avoid being locked in by security forces.
On Sunday, large numbers of police, militia and thugs were deployed to suppress peaceful demonstrations in Hanoi, HCM City, Danang, Nha Trang and Phan Thiet town in the central province of Binh Thuan. They detained hundreds of protestors and beat others.
Police took full control in Hanoi, however, in HCM City and Nha Trang, protestors still held their rallies until the midnight of Sunday and early hours of Monday. Along with using fists and batons, police in HCM City deployed Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs) to deal with protestors. The devices purchased from the US to equip patrol ships of the Vietnam Coast Guard.
In Phan Thiet, police used tear gas and water cannon to suppress local residents. After one protestor fell unconscious due to police’s assault, protestors got angry and uprised, attacking police’s special units with stones and bricks they found on streets, and occupying the government buildings of Binh Thuan province.
Police was reported to use heavy measures in the early morning of June 11 to take control in Phan Thiet. Hundreds of protestors had been arrested, citizen journalists reported.
While many protestors are still held in police stations in many Vietnamese localities, the freed demonstrators have said that they were brutally beaten in custody after being detained on June 10.
According to legal experts, the bill on Cyber Security, if is approved, will give sweeping new powers to the Vietnamese authorities, allowing them to force technology companies to hand over potentially vast amounts of data, including personal information, and to censor Internet users’ posts. The law aims to silence government’s critics and every Internet users may be criminally charged just for exercising their basic right to freedom of expression, activists said. The US and Canada had urged Vietnam to postpone the vote of the bill to ensure it aligns with international standards while Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called on Hanoi not to approve the bill.
Meanwhile, with the law on Special Economic Zones, Vietnam’s communist government wants to establish three zones namely Van Don, Phu Quoc and Bac Van Phong in the three strategic locations in the three regions of the country, in which foreign investors may be allowed to rent land for 99 years. Activists suspect that the bill is the first step to allow Chinese investors to acquire land and bring Chinese untrained workers to in these locations to turn them into China’s territory.
Vietnam has no need to set up more special economic zones to attract foreign investment, said many senior economists, including veteran chief economist Pham Chi Lan. The country has signed a number of free trade agreements with the EU, the US and other countries so it should focus on implementation of these pacts, they said.
In addition to national security issues with the potential investment from China, these special economic zones will create unfair treatments of companies and people in these locations and other remaining places, according to entrepreneur Le Hoai Anh.
Under the public pressure, Vietnam’s rubber-stamped parliament and its government said they will postpone the discussion and approval of the bill on special economic zones to the next session of the parliament scheduled in October this year.
The communist-controlled parliament is expected to conduct voting on the bill on cyber security on June 12.
Vietnam’s communist governments does not welcome spontanous public demonstrations on most issues, including the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea. In recent years, security forces have suppressed many peaceful demonstrations and persecuted and jailed a number of activists for their participation under allegation of “causing public disorders.”
The demonstrations on June 10 were the biggest protest in Vietnam for many years in both term of the number of participants and the locations which occured. Along with showing patrioritism because China would be the biggest earner from the government’s plan to establish three special economic zones in three strategic locations for the national security amid increasing China’s aggressiveness in the South China Sea, the demonstrations also showed the social disatisfaction to the country’s issues of systemic corruption, serious large-scale environmental pollution, deep social unequality, and the government’s weak response to the Chinese violations of the country’s sovereignty in the resource-rich sea.
Writing on his Facebook account, independent journalist and historian Huy Duc said “Hopefully, the authorities are not too afraid about what happened today. If they can still see that the people only express their views peacefully, that means they still haven’t abandoned them. Observing today’s protest, I see that the people don’t harbour ‘political ambition’. They only need to be heard, to be respected by a government that put the people’s and national interest first.”
Meanwhile, Prof. Jonathon London from Holland wrote“The weekend protest not only reflected many people’s suspicion and anger, but a bigger reality that we already know: for a long time, the Vietnamese people hope for, need and deserve decisions of national importance that must be arrived at through an open, transparent process, even better if they are civilised, pluralistic and democratic in nature. Only then Vietnam can grow.”
On his article posted on the website of the unregistered Independent Journalist Association of Vietnam, Dr. Pham Chi Dung from HCM City said “… The protest on 10 June 2018 means that, for the first time since 1975 [when the communists took over South Vietnam and ruled the whole country since], an action that directly challenged the ruling government had been taken.”
“An Arab spring’ has started to emerge in Vietnam, the former member of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam said.
Veteran novelist and former communist soldier Mr. Nguyen Ngoc said in his interview to the Free Asia radio (RFA) said “I decided to join the protest… I protest against the Special Economic Zones law and the cybersecurity law. The SEZ law will severely impact national security, and the cybersecurity law kills off people’s right to freedom of expression, freedom to speak out. This will lead to a nation that is lacking in creativity, everything will be pushed back to the past, while we need to advance towards the future. A people that go against human civilisation, the consequence of this is just horrific!”
Vietnam and China have long history of disputes as the latter country invaded the former for a thousand of years, and in the last ten century, China’s dinasties sent their armies to attack Vietnam 22 times, according to a historian. In 1979, China sent around 60,000 soldiers to invade six northernmost provinces of Vietnam, killing tens of thousands of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians and destroyed entire infrastructure there. In 1988, China also invaded several islands and reefs controlled by Vietnam in the Truong Sa (Spratlys). In recent years, China has turned these reefs and islands into artificial structures and deployed modern missiles and other military equipment there in a bid to turn the East Sea into its own lake.
The ruling Communist Party of Vietnam, in order to maintain its power in the country, treats China as its closest political ally. The communist government in Hanoi has verbally protested China’s violations.
Hanoi has systemically suppressed anti-China protests and persecuted anti-Sino activists. Many of them have been convicted and sentenced to lengthy imprisonment in trumped-up politically motivated cases.
If Vietnam’s government continues to rely on violence to deal with local residents, severe consequences may occur and the country may fall into internal struggle. The government should use dialogue while local civil society organizations could act as the third party to mediate between angry protestors and the government to calm down situation.
Vietnam’s government needs to carry out drastic political reforms to allow free election for choosing capable officials, and respect human rights in a bid to solve social disatisfaction. If the ruling party insists in maintaining the country under a one-party regime, the country’s issues cannot be setled and the nation will fall in violence.
*Vu Quoc Ngu is director of independent non-profit Defend the Defender. Contact him at Twitter @NguMSc
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June 12, 2018
Vietnamese Hold Nationwide Demonstrations on Sunday to Protest Two Bills on EEZs, Cyber Security
by Nhan Quyen • [Human Rights]
Peaceful protestors in HCM City on June 10
Vu Quoc Ngu*
Tens of thousands of Vietnamese went on streets during the latest weekend (June 9-10) to conduct peaceful demonstrations accross the nation to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones (EEZs) and Cyber Security.
The protest began on Saturday with the participation of around 50 thousands of workers in the Taiwan-invested Pouchen footwear factory in Tan Tao industrial zone in Tan Binh district, Ho Chi Minh City, the biggest economic hub in the Southeast Asian nation.
On Sunday, thousands of people gathered in centers of Hanoi, HCM City, Danang, Nha Trang and other localities, chanting banners to protest the two bills such as “Say No to Bill on EEZs,” “No land lease for China even for One day,” and “No Bill on Cyber Security” as well as “Cyber Security Law means Silencing People.”
The demonstrations were planned during the week after the country’s highest legislative body National Assembly publicized its plan to discuss and approve the two bills on June 12-15 as part of its ongoing one-month sitting started on May 20. The call for urging people to rally circulated in social networks such as Facebook and Twitter although any organizations nor individuals took initiatives. Over 60 millions of Vietnamese people go online and Facebook is the most popular social network in the country with more than 40 millions of accounts.
Vietnam’s security forces responded aggressively to the call for peaceful demonstration. Authorities in provinces and cities sent plainclothes agents and militia to private residences of local activists on Saturday and early Sunday to prevent them from participating in the demonstrations. Many activists said they had to leave their house few days before the weekend and went into hiding to avoid being locked in by security forces.
On Sunday, large numbers of police, militia and thugs were deployed to suppress peaceful demonstrations in Hanoi, HCM City, Danang, Nha Trang and Phan Thiet town in the central province of Binh Thuan. They detained hundreds of protestors and beat others.
Police took full control in Hanoi, however, in HCM City and Nha Trang, protestors still held their rallies until the midnight of Sunday and early hours of Monday. Along with using fists and batons, police in HCM City deployed Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs) to deal with protestors. The devices purchased from the US to equip patrol ships of the Vietnam Coast Guard.
In Phan Thiet, police used tear gas and water cannon to suppress local residents. After one protestor fell unconscious due to police’s assault, protestors got angry and uprised, attacking police’s special units with stones and bricks they found on streets, and occupying the government buildings of Binh Thuan province.
Police was reported to use heavy measures in the early morning of June 11 to take control in Phan Thiet. Hundreds of protestors had been arrested, citizen journalists reported.
While many protestors are still held in police stations in many Vietnamese localities, the freed demonstrators have said that they were brutally beaten in custody after being detained on June 10.
According to legal experts, the bill on Cyber Security, if is approved, will give sweeping new powers to the Vietnamese authorities, allowing them to force technology companies to hand over potentially vast amounts of data, including personal information, and to censor Internet users’ posts. The law aims to silence government’s critics and every Internet users may be criminally charged just for exercising their basic right to freedom of expression, activists said. The US and Canada had urged Vietnam to postpone the vote of the bill to ensure it aligns with international standards while Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called on Hanoi not to approve the bill.
Meanwhile, with the law on Special Economic Zones, Vietnam’s communist government wants to establish three zones namely Van Don, Phu Quoc and Bac Van Phong in the three strategic locations in the three regions of the country, in which foreign investors may be allowed to rent land for 99 years. Activists suspect that the bill is the first step to allow Chinese investors to acquire land and bring Chinese untrained workers to in these locations to turn them into China’s territory.
Vietnam has no need to set up more special economic zones to attract foreign investment, said many senior economists, including veteran chief economist Pham Chi Lan. The country has signed a number of free trade agreements with the EU, the US and other countries so it should focus on implementation of these pacts, they said.
In addition to national security issues with the potential investment from China, these special economic zones will create unfair treatments of companies and people in these locations and other remaining places, according to entrepreneur Le Hoai Anh.
Under the public pressure, Vietnam’s rubber-stamped parliament and its government said they will postpone the discussion and approval of the bill on special economic zones to the next session of the parliament scheduled in October this year.
The communist-controlled parliament is expected to conduct voting on the bill on cyber security on June 12.
Vietnam’s communist governments does not welcome spontanous public demonstrations on most issues, including the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea. In recent years, security forces have suppressed many peaceful demonstrations and persecuted and jailed a number of activists for their participation under allegation of “causing public disorders.”
The demonstrations on June 10 were the biggest protest in Vietnam for many years in both term of the number of participants and the locations which occured. Along with showing patrioritism because China would be the biggest earner from the government’s plan to establish three special economic zones in three strategic locations for the national security amid increasing China’s aggressiveness in the South China Sea, the demonstrations also showed the social disatisfaction to the country’s issues of systemic corruption, serious large-scale environmental pollution, deep social unequality, and the government’s weak response to the Chinese violations of the country’s sovereignty in the resource-rich sea.
Writing on his Facebook account, independent journalist and historian Huy Duc said “Hopefully, the authorities are not too afraid about what happened today. If they can still see that the people only express their views peacefully, that means they still haven’t abandoned them. Observing today’s protest, I see that the people don’t harbour ‘political ambition’. They only need to be heard, to be respected by a government that put the people’s and national interest first.”
Meanwhile, Prof. Jonathon London from Holland wrote“The weekend protest not only reflected many people’s suspicion and anger, but a bigger reality that we already know: for a long time, the Vietnamese people hope for, need and deserve decisions of national importance that must be arrived at through an open, transparent process, even better if they are civilised, pluralistic and democratic in nature. Only then Vietnam can grow.”
On his article posted on the website of the unregistered Independent Journalist Association of Vietnam, Dr. Pham Chi Dung from HCM City said “… The protest on 10 June 2018 means that, for the first time since 1975 [when the communists took over South Vietnam and ruled the whole country since], an action that directly challenged the ruling government had been taken.”
“An Arab spring’ has started to emerge in Vietnam, the former member of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam said.
Veteran novelist and former communist soldier Mr. Nguyen Ngoc said in his interview to the Free Asia radio (RFA) said “I decided to join the protest… I protest against the Special Economic Zones law and the cybersecurity law. The SEZ law will severely impact national security, and the cybersecurity law kills off people’s right to freedom of expression, freedom to speak out. This will lead to a nation that is lacking in creativity, everything will be pushed back to the past, while we need to advance towards the future. A people that go against human civilisation, the consequence of this is just horrific!”
Vietnam and China have long history of disputes as the latter country invaded the former for a thousand of years, and in the last ten century, China’s dinasties sent their armies to attack Vietnam 22 times, according to a historian. In 1979, China sent around 60,000 soldiers to invade six northernmost provinces of Vietnam, killing tens of thousands of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians and destroyed entire infrastructure there. In 1988, China also invaded several islands and reefs controlled by Vietnam in the Truong Sa (Spratlys). In recent years, China has turned these reefs and islands into artificial structures and deployed modern missiles and other military equipment there in a bid to turn the East Sea into its own lake.
The ruling Communist Party of Vietnam, in order to maintain its power in the country, treats China as its closest political ally. The communist government in Hanoi has verbally protested China’s violations.
Hanoi has systemically suppressed anti-China protests and persecuted anti-Sino activists. Many of them have been convicted and sentenced to lengthy imprisonment in trumped-up politically motivated cases.
If Vietnam’s government continues to rely on violence to deal with local residents, severe consequences may occur and the country may fall into internal struggle. The government should use dialogue while local civil society organizations could act as the third party to mediate between angry protestors and the government to calm down situation.
Vietnam’s government needs to carry out drastic political reforms to allow free election for choosing capable officials, and respect human rights in a bid to solve social disatisfaction. If the ruling party insists in maintaining the country under a one-party regime, the country’s issues cannot be setled and the nation will fall in violence.
*Vu Quoc Ngu is director of independent non-profit Defend the Defender. Contact him at Twitter @NguMSc