Vietnam’s anti-corruption campaign is full of forbidden zones, not as party chief says

Minister of Public Security To Lam is in forbidden zone

Since starting Vietnam’s anti-corruption campaign, General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPVNguyen Phu Trong has affirmed “Strictly, there is no forbidden zone, no exception in anti-corruption.” And this saying has been repeated in the press over the years. This is a brand promotion campaign for the party and its chief, rather a statement of determination.

So far, Nguyen Phu Trong’s furnace has burned long enough for analysts to summarize and see if his statement is true or not. Someone said that, so far, people have not found that the statement of the late President of the Republic of Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu is wrong. Because, what the Communist Party exhorts, they do not follow.

The most obvious forbidden zone is “our side” in the anti-corruption campaign. Dinh La Thang, Tran Bac Ha, etc. were tracked down by Trong, while Minister of Public Security To Lam was involved in the case of Mobifone buying AVG but Trong has not touched him while in the same case, Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan and his successor Nguyen Bac Son, both were sentenced to prison. That’s how Trong created the forbidden zone, the privilege that he bestowed on his disciples, who were loyal to him.

The second prohibited area is the case of former President Nguyen Xuan Phuc. In his removal from the state president post, some people still believe that there was an agreement between Trong’s faction and Phuc’s faction about the latter’s withdrawal from politics, in exchange for his wife and children not being probed for criminal charges. Why so?

According to some analysts, it is up to the Ministry of Public Security to investigate whether Phuc’s wife Tran Thi Nguyen Thu is involved in Viet A. Only the police have enough expertise to thoroughly investigate Viet A’s links with officials. The party’s Central Inspection Commission only inspects the Party side, they are not qualified enough to investigate her involvement with Viet A. Therefore, must have the results of the police investigation or the court to make a decision, then Thu is innocent. What about a Party inspection agency that does enough investigation to confirm that Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s wife and children are not involved? This affirmation is either a lie or a compromise on both sides. People are inclined to the possibility of the two sides making compromise before the resignation of former President Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Political games are tricks, insiders can flip if not public. Therefore, former President Nguyen Xuan Phuc took the opportunity to create a forbidden zone to prevent Nguyen Phu Trong’s faction from breaking his word. This forbidden zone created, can be seen as an “accident” for the party of the General Secretary.

In the case of the Hanoi City Police, the Hanoi People’s Procuracy, and the Hanoi People’s Court, they all exhorted prosecution against. Le Thanh Than, but no one dared to issue arrest warrant. This is also a kind of forbidden zone. This forbidden area is because Mr. Trong himself issued the “pardon.” It was the piece of paper with 4 verses of Nguyen Phu Trong’s poem that created such a forbidden zone.

There are also many other forbidden zones. For example, the case of VinGroup “shaking hands” with Viet A Corp to establish VinBiocare, ready for Covid-19 vaccine production. So far, it has been revealed that this is a devil’s handshake, not producing any vaccine but only creating conditions for Viet A to grow, to do unethical and illegal things. So far, who owns 80% of shares in Viet A is still a forbidden area that the Ministry of Public Security does not dare to touch.

Those are the emerging forbidden zones, there are many other forbidden zones that are difficult to list. So creating forbidden zones in fighting corruption is like creating a bunker for corruption to hide. In reality, it is not as General Secretary Trong.

Thoibao.de (Translated)