From: becherer@suna0.cs.uiuc.edu (Max Becherer)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Subject: Re: Normalization w/ Hanoi
Date: 29 Sep 92 17:14:40 GMT
Organization: Saigon.COM PubAccess UNIX(tm), Sillicon Valley CA  (408)739-1520



Van Dao MAI writes...

>I smell this American fascist as a very typical little North American
>who understands everything but what beyond his nose. With all the 
>illnesses of the so-called Western democracies, North American will
>be soon sold out on their American dream. 
>
>A country like Vietnam cannot afford a democracy of the Western style.
>Looking what Western companies have done to Thailand, the Philippines,
>etc ... The human condition of an average American or Australian or 
>French is simply pathetic. This is condition is infinitely better than
>what many Westerners plan for third world countries. I have seen
>young Australian kids becoming empty-headed. They knows only how
>to look for Coca Cola, food and sex. As I beleive that Australia is
>still a much better country for kids to grow up in, I have little
>doubt that other countries like the US, France, Italy, etc ... are 
>much worse. 
>
>Plato has pointed out clearly that democracy has many illnesses. The
>major illness is that it is characterised by the wish of the mobs who
>do not necessarily know what good for them. Therefore democracy tend
>to suffer disunity, selfishness, and waste of resources. Third world
>country cannot afford a democracy of Western style. They need to lift
>their intellectual ability higher to equal or better than that of the
>most advanced Western society before a democracy becomes practical.
>Japan did not advance because of Democracy! she advanced because of
>nationalism, humility and hatred for the Western arrogance. Germany
>did not advance by democracy. She advances by the will to suceed and
>the strength of the German hearts and minds.
>
>Vietname may suffer humility now. However, she will rise! She will 
>learn the best of the skill that Western cultures can offer. She will
>maintain her poetic culture. She cannot afford the rotten kind of 
>democracy of the West. She may have her own form of democracy that
>will goes beyond the taste for flesh and bones of the Western facists.
>She will not be the play ground of the West similar to what Thailand,
>Philippines, South America, etc ... have always been. The regime
>in Vietnam may not be the most desirable on Earth now. However they
>have the interest of the motherland at heart. The old generations
>are dying out rapidly. The younger generation will be better. Let's
>hope that they will not learn all the illnesses of Western cultures
>(the North American culture in particular).
>
>Van Dao MAI
>Wollongong University

    Mai,

    A Fascist, am I ?   That's an interesting accusation, comming from 
someone who praises the achievements of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in 
the same breath.  People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

    You are right when you say that democracy is flawed, but it is by far the
best system of government that has been developed to date.  Why ?  Because,
when properly implimented, it prevents the government from amassing too much
power and becomming oppressive.  Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts
absolutely.  The worst enemies of democracy are the kind of ignorance,
decadence and apathy you inveigh against, because they destroy the 
effectiveness of government and open the door to tyrants.  That is how 
Adolph Hitler (who you seem to admire) came to power.

    I am no fan of Western (and especially North American) culture.  You
are right, American culture is decadent to the extreme.  Being a product of
this society, I can write a much, much longer list of problem plagueing it 
than you will ever be able to.  Vietnamese culture is definately better than
that of the United States, and it would be a tragedy if Vietnam became 
another Phillipines.
    But is democracy to blame for this ?  Long before they were democratic, 
Western countries were decadent.  Their power was built on colonial empires,
i.e. on the blood and bones of millions of non-Europeans (and sometimes other
Europeans, when they fought over plundering rights). The attitudes that this 
ugly past fostered played a major role in the decadence of Europe, and by 
extension, the United States.  Democracy is one of the few really good things 
that developed from European culture, despite, not because of, the culture's 
inherent nature.

     So, now we get to the topic of the VC.  You seem to feel that their 
motives are pure.  I beg to differ.  If the clique in Hanoi REALLY has the
best interests of the Vietnamese people in mind, then...

   ...why are they selling the nation's resources to Western interests at rip-
   off prices ?  
   
   ...why did they sell Vietnamese into slavery to pay their war debts to the
   Soviet Union ? (The Siberia gas pipeline was largely built by Vietnamese
   slaves, I can document it.)

   ...why did they allow the Soviet Union to build military bases on 
   Vietnamese soil ?

   ...why are they inviting the United States to occupy the now-abandoned 
   Soviet bases ?  American military bases!  Few things have as disastrous
   an impact on a nation's culture than the presence of an American base!
   Just look at the Phillipines.

   ...do Vietnamese teachers make more money selling their bodies than their
   knowlege ?

   ...why are the people so poor that theft has become a common way to make 
   ends meet ?

   ...why do refugees who have fled this regime prefer life in a Hong Kong
   prison, or starving in a UN camp to living under the Communists ?

   ...why must they threaten and use force to make the Vietnamese people
   obey them ?

       Let's strip away the VC's mantle of romantic myth and see them for what 
   they really are: a dictatorship committed to perpetuating its own power, 
   regardless of the cost to the nation and people of Vietnam.  Their ideology
   and false nationalism are a tattered facade to make them seem more 
   palatable.  They are not fundimantally different from any other tin-horn 
   dictatorship; their propaganda sounds nicer, that's all.  It is a sugar 
   coating for a poison pill.

   So what DOES Vietnam need ?  Vietnam needs to be rid of totalitarianism
in all its forms.  She needs a well-conceived democratic government, a solid
education program to counter the effects of decades of war and communist 
neglect, and sound economic policies.  She needs intelligent, well-educated 
Vietnamese overseas to return and help with the rebuilding. 
   I share your optimism for Vietnam's future; Vietnam has tremendous 
potential: she is situated on some of the busiest trade routs in the world, 
she has abundant natural resources, millions of intelligent, hard-working 
people, and a wonderful cultural heritage which can benifit not only vietnam, 
but has lessons to teach the world as well.  There is no reason why Vietnam 
shouldn't surpass France or Great Britain economically, and socially.  
Vietnam is a country which should be a success, but has failed miserably 
because of the type of govenment she has. There is another country in SE Asia 
whose potential and government are both similar to Vietnam; that country is 
Burma.  The Burmese Road to Socialism, as the junta in that country calls it, 
is actually the Burmese Road to Catastrophe, and Vietnam is currently on it.  
Only when the Hanoi regime is overthrown and Vietnam steered off the 
disastrous path the Communists have placed it on, will her bright future
become a reality.



Refer comments, suggestions, flames to

                 Max Becherer    becherer@cs.uiuc.edu

       Nothing Evil lasts forever -- the Future belongs to the Free.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese