News, 22-23/4/01
hyt...@my-deja.com
HANOI (AP, 23/4/01) -- Vietnam's ruling Communist Party said Sunday a moderate
will hold the country's most powerful post.
Nong Duc Manh, an ethnic minority member, replaces an aging conservative as the
Communist Party's general secretary. It has long been rumored that Manh is the
illegitimate son of the late revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh.
Manh, 60, has been speaker of the National Assembly for nine years. Under his
leadership, the assembly, which once rubber-stamped decisions made behind closed
doors, became a forum for televised discussions.
Manh was elected to his new position last Tuesday in a closed-door meeting of
the Communist Party's Central Committee. His appointment was officially
announced Sunday at the close of the party's four-day national congress.
Manh's predecessor, conservative Le Kha Phieu, 69, fought a bruising battle to
remain in power. Phieu, an army commissar, had been heavily criticized over
allegations of ineffective leadership and charges he used military intelligence
to spy on rival Politburo members.
Reforms to open the country's economy further and reduce the role of state
enterprises bogged down under Phieu's direction.
Manh is the first member of a minority group to head the party. His mother, an
ethnic Tay, was Ho Chi Minh's servant and died shortly after giving birth,
officials say. Manh has never directly confirmed or denied rumors that he was
the late revolutionary leader's son.
Manh's choice is expected to help ease ethnic tensions that flared in February
with rare anti-government protests in the Central Highlands over land
grievances, poverty and religious repression.
But Manh faces an uphill battle in trying to improve the image of the Communist
Party, which in recent years has been tarnished by allegations of widespread
corruption and red tape.
A highly touted two-year campaign against corruption, launched by Phieu, was
regarded as largely unsuccessful, with only a handful of senior officials
singled out for reprimands.
In a sharply worded speech to the congress, Huu Tho, head of the Central
Committee's Ideology and Cultural Commission, also warned of the dangers of
increasing abuse of power within the party.
"If opportunism is allowed to develop, the nature of the party will be
threatened and traditional cultural values will be shaken," he said.
Manh has the reputation of being a savvy politician effective in seeking
consensus, which could be useful since Vietnam remains divided on its political
and economic path.
While many officials believe reforms need to be accelerated to keep Vietnam from
lagging further behind its Asian neighbors economically, many also fear the
Communist Party will lose its grip on power if reforms go too far.
The party congress, however, approved an economic report endorsing a
continuation of free-market reforms.
Analysts believe Manh will be more supportive than Phieu of economic reforms.
However, even party reformers caution that Vietnam is unlikely to deviate too
much from its current policy of cautious reform.
"Anyone who assumes the new leadership will continue to follow the current
economic policies," said Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien. "There will be
continuity."
* Vietnam leader to be a force for change
The Times of India, 23/4/01 - Vietnam entered a new era yesterday with its first
leader to have played no direct part in the Vietnam War.
Nong Duc Manh, 60, the new secretary-general of the Communist Party, is also the
country's first leader to have a university degree and the first from an ethnic
minority. His mother was a member of the Tay ethnic group, allied to the Dais in
China and the Thais of Thailand.
Mr Manh, a Soviet-trained former forestry engineer, has pledged to reform the
party by taking "tougher and tougher" measures to stamp out corruption. He has
also said that he wants to broaden Vietnam's "relations with the world".
There have been rumours that he was the love child of Vietnam's revered leader,
Ho Chi Minh, who met Mr Manh's mother in 1940. Mr Manh has previously been vague
about the story, leaving open the possibility of it being true, but when asked
directly about any family link with Ho, who died in 1969, he said:
"Unfortunately my parents died when I was very young. But let me repeat, in
Vietnam all Vietnamese are Uncle Ho's children."
Mr Manh has replaced Le Kha Phieu, 70, an unpopular conservative who was
criticised during his 2? years in office as ineffective and hardline. Mr Phieu
was also tainted by accusations that he abused the Intelligence Services to
protect his position.
Mr Phieu, who was not named as a member of the new central committee, handed Mr
Manh flowers and embraced him to applause from party congress delegates. He
said: "I am very glad because my successor has been well prepared and because he
is from the young generation."
Foreign investors, who are frustrated by the slow pace of reform in recent
years, hope for speedier change under Mr Manh, but Phan Van Khai, the Prime
Minister, expressed caution, saying that "relying too much on foreign money
risks instability".
Vietnam chose to remind the world of its Marxist credentials by appointing Mr
Manh on the 131st anniversary of the birth of Lenin.
* Vietnam's new leadership likely to move cautiously after upheaval
HANOI, April 23 (AFP) - The ouster of conservative ideologue Le Kha Phieu from
Vietnam's top job has removed a key brake on the communist regime's economic
reforms, but his successor Nong Duc Manh is unlikely to rush into any changes,
analysts said Monday.
The ruling communist party has always put an enormous accent on continuity and
consensus and the new leader is likely to batten down the hatches after the
bitter behind-the-scenes feuding which led to his appointment, they said.
In his acceptance speech on Sunday, the 60-year-old Manh was careful to say
nothing that might offend either side of Vietnam's longstanding divide between
conservative ideologues and economic reformers, diplomats noted.
His tirade against corruption and other abuses within the party's ranks, whose
eradication he said would be his number one task, would have sat quite happily
in the mouth of his ousted predecessor. "It was vintage Phieu," one diplomat
told AFP.
The ousted conservative made the war on graft a constant refrain although his
critics say he paid little more than lip service to the problem, with a string
of widely publicised crackdowns which were perceived as having targetted minor
officials while leaving the big fish untouched.
By contrast the new party chief made scant mention of Vietnam's 15-year-old
market reforms, which slowed down sharply with his predecessor's appointment in
the midst of the Asian financial crisis of 1997.
He made no reference to the government's International Monetary Fund and World
Bank-backed plans to step up the pace of reforms through the liberalization of
trade and the rationalization of the state-owned industrial and banking sectors.
But diplomats noted that the new party chief had never been a champion of
economic reform -- his career was built precisely on offending neither side of
Vietnam's political divide.
"We really shouldn't expect too many changes in Vietnamese policy," one Western
diplomat said. "Mr Manh is a lifelong apparatchik whose ideological orthodoxy
has never been questioned."
The leading reformer within the regime, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai himself
sounded a note of caution Saturday, insisting that the government would continue
to tread carefully with its market reforms for fear of exposing the
state-controlled economy to destabilising shocks.
"You may know that in some countries when they had a crisis in the economy, it
caused political instability. Vietnam is trying to avoid that," he said.
The eminence grise of Vietnam's reformers, former prime minister Vo Van Kiet,
echoed his protege's comments. "The adjustments we have made must be
step-by-step," he said.
The caution of the new leadership will be all the greater in the face of
persistent rural unrest which was a leading factor in the ouster of Phieu.
A wave of protests among the mainly Christian ethnic minorities of the central
highlands sparked an army crackdown in early February that constituted the worst
violence in years.
The unrest has been all the more shocking for a ruling party which has always
justified its tight control as providing a haven of stability in an increasingly
unstable neighbourhood.
"The scale of the unrest has really shaken them. They've bitten the bullet over
the party leader, but you really shouldn't expect too many other changes,"
another diplomat said.
A Western banker cautioned that it was easy to exaggerate the importance of
individual personalities in a country which had long taken its decisions
collectively.
"It's Vietnam's great strength and also its greatest weakness," the banker told
AFP.
"One the one hand you know that once they have reached a decision, they will
deliver on it regardless of any changes in personnel.
"On the other hand it can take an ice age to get there because they are always
going to move at the pace of the lowest common denominator."
* Vietnam's New Leader Says China Ties to Improve
HANOI, Apr 23, 2001 -- (Reuters) Vietnam's new leader Nong Duc Manh said on
Sunday ties with communist neighbor China would continue to improve under his
stewardship.
"I can reconfirm here that the relationship between Vietnam and China in the
time to come will develop further," Manh told a news conference shortly after
being confirmed as the next secretary-general of Vietnam's ruling Communist
Party.
Many observers had predicted Manh would take over as party chief partly because
his predecessor, Le Kha Phieu, had been too close to China and was seen by
critics in the party to have given too much away in territorial negotiations
with Beijing.
A passage in a socio-economic strategy adopted by the party congress called for
"population settlement in crucial regions, frontier areas...and islands in
conformity with national defense and national security", and this was also seen
as potentially troublesome for Vietnam-China ties. Vietnam and China are among
several countries with territorial claims over the Spratly Islands, which are
believed to be in an area rich in oil.
Vietnam already has a civilian and troop presence in the archipelago, but it is
unclear how many islands they occupy.
Manh said Vietnam's relations with China had been improving steadily in the past
decade since normalization of relations, which followed a brief but bloody
border war in 1979.
"These relations have been growing well and recently the leadership of the two
countries have agreed upon principles... friendly neighborliness, progressive
cooperation, prosperity and stability," he said.
Manh said Vietnam would seek to develop relations with all countries
irrespective of their ideology, and without compromising its "no interference in
internal affairs" stance.
"Vietnam is ready to be a friend and a reliable partner in the international
community striving for peace, national independence, democracy and social
progress," he said.
"We have been opening, and we will continue to open our doors to all countries,"
he said.
* Philippines Navy Spots Chinese, Vietnamese Boats in Spratlys
Apr 23, 2001 -- (BBC Monitoring) Text of report in English by Philippine
newspaper Philippine Daily Inquirer web site on 23 April.
Several Chinese and Vietnamese fishing boats intruded into Philippine-controlled
waters in the disputed Spratlys chain of islands in the South China Sea, the
navy today charged. About 10 Chinese boats and four Vietnamese vessels laid
anchor off three Philippine-occupied islands, the navy report said. Several were
seen near Thitu Island and one each off Nanshan Island and Second Thomas Shoal
early this month, it said.
Thitu is the largest of islands controlled by the Philippines in the Spratlys
where a small military contingent is stationed.
The four Vietnamese vessels were seen off the islands of Northeast Cay [also
known as Parola Island], Nanshan and Commodore Reef between late last month
until early April.
The report said some of the vessels were still in the area while others had
already left.
Apart from the Philippines, China and Vietnam, the potentially oil-rich Spratlys
are also claimed in whole or in part by Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan. China and
the Philippines agreed in a bilateral meeting in Manila early this month to
refrain from making any actions or provocative statements that could escalate
tensions in the South China Sea.
* New Hanoi leadership could be boost for trade pact
HANOI, April 23 (Reuters) - The naming of a new Vietnamese leadership at the
weekend could bring an easing of tensions with the United States and boost
prospects for early ratification of a bilateral trade pact, analysts say.
But the fate of the market-opening agreement remains largely in the hands of the
Bush administration and its decision on whether to package it with other trade
legislation, something that could delay ratification up to two years. Vietnam's
ruling Communist Party on Sunday named reform-leaning National Assembly head
Nong Duc Manh its new secretary-general, the country's most powerful leadership
post. Among those promoted with him was Trade Minister Vu Khoan, who signed the
trade pact with Washington last July when the Clinton administration was in
power.
Manh has pledged to embark immediately on implementing a long-term economic
programme with ambitious growth targets, the success of which is tightly tied in
with both accelerated economic reform and the U.S. trade pact.
U.S. and other foreign businesses operating in Vietnam and others wishing to
invest here are eager to see the pact ratified soon.
This possibility is threatened not only by Bush's trade agenda but by concerns
in the United States about Vietnam's rights record, especially on religion.
Analysts see Manh as a person better attuned than his conservative predecessor
Le Kha Phieu to handle Hanoi's tricky relationship with Washington, one still
lumbered with the weighty baggage of a long war and U.S. rights criticisms. Manh
is Vietnam's first leader from an ethnic minority background and the first with
a university degree.
This should create a more positive impression in the United States, where
Vietnam has drawn strong criticism for its crackdown on recent ethnic unrest in
the Central Highlands region.
POSITIVE SIGNAL
"It's too early to say if Manh's promotion will actually make any difference to
the problems in the highlands, but as a general signal, it seems positive," a
Western diplomat said. "That may benefit the whole (trade) process because it's
a general signal and that's generally what people in the U.S. are going to be
picking up, not the specifics."
Analysts blame Phieu and his bitter struggle to retain power for a stepping up
of anti-U.S. rhetoric in Vietnam's state media in recent weeks.
This has included strong denunciations of Washington for granting asylum to 24
minority people who fled to Cambodia to escape the highlands crackdown and
criticism of U.S. handling of the spyplane standoff in China.
Carl Thayer, of the Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Hawaii, said
this sort of overt criticism could be expected to ease. "It was drumbeat to try
to keep Le Kha Phieu in power. I don't think that's going to continue. It will
be turned down. "It's going to take time for the propaganda to back down, but I
see less confrontation and if the Vietnamese play it right there will be a
period of goodwill that will help the trade agreement.
Thayer said Manh had a great opportunity now to change impressions in the United
States, both through his policy towards the highlands and religious dissidents
like Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest put under restriction in March. Ly's case
raised particular concerns in the United States as the restriction order was
placed on him for testimony he gave to the Commission on International Religious
Freedoms, an advisory body to the U.S. Congress.
"It will be interesting to see what Manh does," Thayer said. "He does now have
the opportunity to diffuse that situation." Manh ought to be in a better
situation than his predecessor to appreciate foreign concerns about human
rights.
"He's been overseas and as National Assembly chairman, he's received a lot of
parliamentary groups and so will be aware of American and other country's
concerns first hand.
"I'm optimistic, I think this is a honeymoon period. If he moves appropriately,
and all instincts say he will, the trade agreement should sail through congress
without being derailed."
* Vietnam Shrs End Dn 1.27% On Record High Turnover
HANOI (Dow Jones, 23/4/01)--Shares on Vietnam's Securities Trading Center Monday
closed down 4.02 points, or 1.27% lower, at 313.74 points on volume of 319,600
shares and 2,000 bonds, a STC official said.
Turnover was at a record high of 16.845 billion dong ($1=VND14,548), much higher
than the previous day's VND6.628 billion. Activity was dominated by
Refrigeration Electrical Engineering, which fell VND900 to close at VND46,800 on
trade of 156,300 shares.
Cable and Telecommunications Materials, or Sacom, also dropped VND900 to close
at VND47,000 on trade of 106,000 shares.
Haiphong Paper ended up VND1,500 to close at VND84,000 with 16,000 shares
traded.
Shares in Transforwarding Warehouse closed VND500 higher at VND73,500 on trade
of 40,600 shares.
The market's newest issue, Long An Food Processing, ended up VND700 at VND39,200
after trade of 700 shares, with 600 shares newly issued Monday.
Government bonds were untraded.
The Bank for Investment & Development of Vietnam's BID1_100 bond closed
unchanged at VND94,200 a bond after trade of 1,000 bonds.
The bank's second bond, BID1_200, closed unchanged at VND98,200 each on trade of
1,000 bonds.
Vietnam's next trading day is Wednesday.
Apr 23 Apr 20 % Change Closing VN-Index 313.74 317.76 -1.27
Trade Value (VND Bln) 16.845 6.628 +154.1 No. Of Shares Traded
319,600 122,000 +162.0 No. Of Bonds Traded 2,000 1,200 +66.7
* "Vietnamese Emotions II: Work by Trinh Tuan"
Absolutearts.com, 23/4/01
2001-04-21 until 2001-05-13 Thavibu Gallery Bangkok, TH Thailand
Trinh Tuan uses lacquer paintings as a medium to express inner feelings and
emotions. His subjects are sometimes shown single, depicting loneliness or
perhaps sadness. Often his paintings show a man or woman with warm feelings for
each other, or at times the opposite. They seem to have emotions inside which
they are unable to release.
The technique of lacquer paintings came to Vietnam around A.D. 1450 when a
Vietnamese Mandarin was sent to China to learn about this particular form of
art. The lacquer painting technique has hit a renaissance due to a group of
artists in Vietnam who have taken the difficult art form into the 21st Century.
It is a very meticulous work to produce a lacquer painting, and the process can
take several months to complete. First, a piece of board is being prepared and
polished to serve as a template. The lacquer substance is then applied and
polished, often in 8 - 10 layers. Colours, silver and gold leaf, mother of
pearl, eggshell and other substances are applied between the layers of lacquer.
The process is very time consuming and requires a lot of skills. It is difficult
to know the final result and have full control of the colours, even with many
years of experience.
This is the second exhibition by Trinh Tuan at Thavibu Gallery. He is a young
artist, 39 years old, but already a Professor at the Hanoi Industrial Fine Arts
College and a Member of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association with several shows
abroad, such as in China (1996), Japan (1996, 2000), Germany (1997), Singapore
(1997, 2000), Denmark (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000), France (1998), Laos (1999),
Australia (1999), Argentina (1999), USA (1999), Thailand (1999, 2000, 2001),
Israel (2000), Netherlands (2000), and Taiwan (2000).
* Beijing Arrests Catholic Bishop - 79-Year-Old Is Part of China's Underground
Roman Catholic Church
Washington Post
BEIJING, April 23 - Beijing police have arrested Shi Enxiang, a 79-year-old
bishop in China's underground Roman Catholic Church, according to the
Connecticut-based Cardinal Kung Foundation. Shi, the bishop of Yixian in China's
northern Hebei province, had been in hiding from Chinese authorities since 1996.
He was arrested on April 13 on a visit to Beijing, the foundation said. Shi was
ordained a bishop in 1982. He has spent a total of nearly 30 years in jail and
was most recently incarcerated between 1990 and 1993.
China's citizens are promised freedom of worship by their constitution. But
China's communist leaders have always been suspicious of organized religion,
which it views as a potential threat to the legitimacy of the state. But they
have grown particularly wary of non-approved religious activity during the past
several years as ordinary citizens have turned to belief systems beyond
communism to bring meaning to their lives.
Although Beijing claims to permit a variety of faiths, including Buddhism,
Taoism and Christianity, it recognizes only five churches - each of which is
required to register with and submit to oversight by the State Administration of
Religious Affairs.
China's communist leaders have established a state-sanctioned church for Chinese
Catholics, run by Beijing-appointed prelates who reject the legitimacy of the
pope. An estimated 12 million Chinese loyal to Rome worship at clandestine
prayer meetings often held in private homes.
Last year, authorities in a number of Chinese provinces demolished churches and
places of worship used by scores of Protestant groups, and thousands of
privately built temples for folk worship. The government has launched a
no-holds-barred crusade against the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which claims
millions of believers.
The Stamford-based Cardinal Kung Foundation monitors the adversities of Roman
Catholics seeking to exercise their faith in China.
The group said Chinese police also have arrested several priests this month. The
group said Li Jianbao, 34, a priest in Hebei's Macheng county, was arrested
during a visit to Inner Mongolia. Another priest, Lu Genjun, 39, was arrested
shortly before Easter and sent to a labor camp, the organization said.
Also in April, Chinese authorities arrested two other priests - one in Fujian
province and one in Jiangxi province - and sentenced a priest from Hebei to
three years in a labor camp.
In its annual report on human rights, the U.S. State Department has condemned
China for a crackdown on Christians who worship outside the official churches.
The Vatican's tentative efforts to reach out to China's so-called patriotic
church have stumbled on a host of issues, including the papacy's recognition of
Taiwan.
When Pope John Paul II canonized the first Chinese saints last year, bishops
from the state-sanctioned church proclaimed the 120 honored by Rome as martyrs
to be "traitors" and imperialist agents.