Vietnam: The Stewardship of Nong Duc Manh

Southeast Asian Affairs 2003, pp. 313-26 VIETNAM The Stewardship of Nong Due Manh Carlyle A. Thayer Introduction In April 2001, at the Ninth Congress of the Vietnam Communist Party (VCP) , Nong Due Manh replaced Le Kha Phieu as Secretary General. Manh came to office after nine years of service as Chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee. Reform of the National Assembly and its legislative capacity in order to transform Vietnam from arbitrary one-party rule into a "law governed state" has been a major goal of the VCP. It is designed to pre-empt domestic opposition and to maintain the VCP in power. Manh represents the ideological centre of the Vietnam Communist Party. He had served on the Politburo for two full terms before his elevation to the top leadership post. The position of party Secretary General is not as powerful as it once was. The era of the party strongman is long over. It passed with the death of party leader Le Duan in mid-1986 after more than a quarter century at the helm. Since then, no party leader has served two five-year terms. Reformist Nguyen Van Linh only served one term in office (1986-91). His successor, Do Muoi, was elected to serve two terms but stepped down after only six years (1991-97) . His replacement, Le Kha Phieu, served out the remaining four years of office but failed to secure election to a full five-year term. As Chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee, Manh has had the task of turning party strategic guidance into pragmatic and workable outcomes. Manh successfully managed the reform of the National Assembly, transforming it from a rubber stamp body into a legislature that has come to play an increasingly important role in Vietnam's political life. Manh thus brings to his present position not only seniority but extensive experience in political brokerage, such as forging consensus when discordant voices are raised. This chapter reviews political developments in Vietnam Carlyle A. Thayer is Professor of Politics, School of Politics, University College, The University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, and concurrently Deakin University's On Site Academic Co-ordinator at the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies, Australian Defence College. 314Carlyle A. Thayer during 2002 with a view towards assessing Nong Due Manh's stewardship as party leader. The Policy Process: The Party Since the Ninth Party Congress, the VCP Central Committee has met in executive session seven times. This is well above the average of two meetings per year set out in party statutes. While the frequency of meetings is not without precedent, it does suggest an activist agenda on the part of Secretary General Nong Due Manh. The previous Central Committee (eighth tenure) met twelve times in five years. As party Secretary General, Manh influences the agenda of each plenary session, including delivering the opening and closing addresses at each meeting. During 2002, the VCP Central Committee held three plenary or executive sessions: the fifth, sixth, and seventh. These are numbered consecutively after each national congress. The Fifth Plenum met from 18 February-2 March and adopted five resolutions.1 These are summarized below. The Fifth Plenum also reviewed policy towards the reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the campaign for "party-building and rectification" and anticorruption . The Fifth Plenum had to grapple with the difficult question about the role of the co-operative and private sectors as well as SOEs in what is now termed Vietnam's "socialist-orientated market economy". In two of its resolutions, the Fifth Plenum gave priority to the development and consolidation of the co-operative economy over the next five years, and decided that the development of the private sector was a longer-term proposition. The Plenum called for taking the collective economy out of the doldrums by encouraging higher growth rates so that the collective economy would constitute a larger proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) . The Plenum identified the Vietnam Union of Co-operatives and the Vietnam Fatherland Front as key bodies to implement this new directive. In sum, socialist ideology still biased the party in favour of the state...