From: vinsight@netcom.com (Vietnam Insight)
Subject: VI: Human Rights on the Roadmap
Originator: anh@media-lab.media.mit.edu
Organization: SCV Relay
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 20:00:29 GMT

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Human Rights on the Roadmap
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With the recent opening of Hanoi's war archives, the final conditions on
the U.S. "Roadmap" to normalization of relations are on the verge of
being resolved.  As the day diplomatic relations between the United
States and Hanoi are established draws near, we should take a closer
look at this roadmap and its conditions.

The Roadmap is a timetable for normalizations which hinges on two
issues: the Cambodian crisis, and the MIA issue.  There must be
significant progress on both fronts before relations can be established.
While these are both noble and worthy goals, never is freedom and human
rights for the Vietnamese people mentioned in this document.

Supporters of unconditional normalization, for which even the Roadmap's
modest stipulations were excessive, would argue that placing human
rights on the agenda is inappropriate.  From their perspective, the way
to bring democracy to Vietnam is to open the door, to bring the country
prosperity and to expose it to the outside world.  Then, they say, when
the Vietnamese people realize how much better their lives could be, the
pressure on the Hanoi regime will build to the point that it has no
choice but to reform.  The worst thing we could do, in their eyes, is to
continue isolating Vietnam.

Unfortunately, the problem is not that simple.  First of all, this theory
is insulting and patronizing to the Vietnamese people, as it is based on
the mistaken notion that the Vietnamese people somehow need the West to
teach them how to hate Communism.  This is not true; the people of
Vietnam are acutely aware of the fact that they are being oppressed, and
that their loss in life could be far better than the misery and
destitution that they are forced to endure now.

This is not to say that normalization of relations will not have some
destabilizing effects on the Hanoi regime; it will.  For instance,
improved lines of communications will be more difficult for the regime
to monitor and control, making it easier for Vietnamese overseas to send
news of events around the world back home.  Unfortunately, any benefits
to the Vietnamese people from normalization will be greatly outweighed
by its costs.

Hanoi has one overriding concern, and that is to maintain political
control of the country.  Time and again, Hanoi has categorically ruled
out any meaningful political changes in Vietnam.  In order to maintain
control of the political scene, the regime has been forced to make some
compromises on economics.  The Vietnamese economy is on the verge of
collapse, and Hanoi is desperate for aid.  In other words, no matter how
destabilizing it may be, Hanoi feels that it has more to gain from
normalization of relations than it has to lose.

We believe that freedom and human rights should be preconditions to any
discussion on normalization of relations.  Hanoi accuses people such as
U.S. Senator Bob Kerry, who would change the Roadmap to include freedom
of the Vietnamese people, of being unfair, of moving the target on the
Roadmap. In a sense, they are right, it is not exactly fair to change
the rules in the middle of the game. But what is more important, being
fair to the Hanoi regime, or doing what is right for the Vietnamese
people? The Hanoi regime has no rights that are of any concern when
compared to the rights of the Vietnamese people. This is not a game, it
is the real world, and there are far more important issues at stake than
being fair to a regime which does not deserve it.

The kind of "constructive engagement" being touted by supporters of
normalized relations has, at best, a mixed record.  Constructive
engagement's latest and most notable disaster, China, is a good case in
point.  What have 20 years of open doors accomplished in China ?  There
have certainly been impressive economic reforms, but politically, the
regime in Beijing is every bit as brutal and oppressive as it was 20
years ago.  Anyone who doubts this fact need only think back to June 4,
1989.  Vietnam deserves better than this.


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