Organization: Vietnam Insight
Editor: Chan Tran
Address: PO Box 7826, San Jose, CA 95150, USA
Phone: (408) 226-2261
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Date:         Thu, 21 Jan 1993 17:47:55 PST
              USENET." <VIETNET@USCVM.BITNET>
From:         Vietnam Insight <vinsight@NETCOM.COM>
Subject:      VI: Editorial: The frog at the bottom of a well

*******************
The frog at the bottom of a well
*******************

Vietnamese folklore tells us that a frog at the bottom of a well can
only see that part of the sky appearing through the mouth of the well,
and for him, it is the entire sky. This proverb has taught the
Vietnamese people a valuable lesson for thousands of years; that one
must never be like a frog at the bottom of a well, refusing to learn and
limiting one's vision.  But to the Vietnamese communist leadership, this
lesson has never sunk in. After eighteen years of communist rule, which
has totally bankrupted the country, Hanoi's leaders still maintain that
the socialist path is the only way to paradise.

As this obsolete ideology is being abandoned around the world, Hanoi
contends that communism is not wrong; it is only wrongly implemented, and
that they will show the world how it should work (despite the cost paid
by the Vietnamese people).

Hanoi's temptation, however, does not stop at trying to prove right from
wrong but to "liberate" the world, especially the United State, as revealed
by its members' common belief.  Their foolish goal as well as other
arrogant convictions have been the target of ridicule by Vietnamese
people everywhere, who are both witnesses and victims of the inept system.

Typical examples of Hanoi's straight-faced arrogance are its misplaced pride
in its leadership while the country slips to the lowest level of poverty and
most severe social degradation, and its condemnation of capitalism while
begging for aid and investments from the capitalist world. If it were
not so tragic, it would certainly be quite comical!

One of the accomplishments of Hanoi's so-called leadership is "rule by
ignorance": a policy of promoting to key government and administrative
positions people completely lacking in knowledge; feeding and brainwashing
people, especially children, with idiotic ideas and lies; and discriminating
against intellectuals (who were either imprisoned or eliminated in the
past). Its purpose is to turn Vietnam into a well bottom where its
citizens would know nothing else but to nod at Hanoi's orders.

The resulting outcome of this policy is a bankrupt nation, both morally
and economically; a disastrous consequence that will take generations to
overcome. The rebuilding of Vietnam from this level of ruin, even with a
free political system that nurtures people's initiatives and enthusiasm,
will undoubtedly be a monumental task.

Nevertheless, the regime will not admit its faults. It blamed the war,
and the United States' embargo, for the country's poverty, and it now
blames Western influence for Vietnam's social decays. Hanoi never blames
the incompetent policies it implemented. To defend its chosen path, it
blames the communist leaders in other countries for failing the course,
leading to the collapse of communism -- a typical case of the egg being
wiser than the chicken.

The offspring, however, has reasons to be arrogant:

So far, communist rule is still in power in Vietnam: its first lesson is
that the oppressive system must be strong enough to quash the people's
aspirations and will to resist in order to retain its power.

Hanoi's economic reform, which followed the Soviet Union's foot steps
in 1986, appears to be slightly more successful to that of its former
patron: it has not brought the regime down yet and has vitalized
Vietnam's economy to some extent. Yet the real contributing factors to
this partial economic recovery is that Hanoi has never successfully
transformed South Vietnam into a complete state-owned economy. The
South's private market -- outlawed by the regime until recently --
remains an active underground network that keeps the South alive despite
the regime's effort to equate it with the North in poverty.

The people's will to blossom in a free system -- demonstrated by
Vietnam's flourishing economic activities when economic control is
lifted -- is frighteningly ominous to a system that is based on brute
oppression. Out of this fear, the Hanoi leadership has put more pressure
on its political lid. The regime's lame excuse of "avoiding upheaval" to
maintain its status-quo -- arresting citizens for their peaceful
expression of different beliefs -- is nothing but a blatant violation of
the people's rights.

Until the Vietnamese communist regime shreds its arrogance and admits to
its wrongdoings, Hanoi will maintain a prisoner of its fallacy --
forever a frog at the bottom of the well.


--
Vietnam Insight (vinsight@netcom.com)
Chan Tran, editor
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