From: vinsight@netcom.com (Vietnam Insight)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Subject: VI: Defected Vietnamese Scholar Issues Warning Statement to Hanoi
Date: 6 Oct 92 20:21:36 GMT
Reply-To: vinsight@netcom.com
Organization: SCV Relay
Originator: daemon@media-lab.media.mit.edu



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Defected Vietnamese Scholar Issues Warning Statement to Hanoi
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After seeking political asylum in Canada July this year, Hanoi's
prominent research scientist, Dr. Nguyen Phan Canh, recently issued a
statement of warning to the Vietnamese communist leadership.

Dr. Canh's statement reflects the popular cry for democratic
changes in Vietnam regardless of which side of the war people came
from.

Dr. Canh was born and educated in North Vietnam. His status as a
professor of Hanoi Polytechnic University and Prague University tells
much of his privilege in an educational system that is open to a
selected few. Yet his patience for changes in Vietnam has worn thin
waiting for the Hanoi leadership to revamp.

In voicing his opposition, Dr. Canh said he hopes to awaken a regime
that desperately cling to the idea that communism works in spite of the
fact that one communist regime after another has collapsed in recent years.

DR. CANH'S WARNING STATEMENT

By deciding to seek political asylum in 1992, I wish to express my
dissatisfaction as a citizen of the Vietnamese leadership's stubborn
pursuit of communism and to alert Hanoi of its grave consequences.

1. It might take years for us to figure out why mankind has had to endure
the communist era, but the disastrous nature of this historical period
is unquestionable. Since its birth in Russia in 1917 until its demise in
Eastern Europe in 1989 and in the Soviet Union itself in 1991, what has
Communism brought to mankind?

There are many ways to describe the ideology, but whether it is a
"beautiful yet utopian thought" as expressed by Boris Yeltsin, or "the grand
deceit and madness" as declared by Zbigniiew Brzezinski, all definitions
of communism agree that Communism is wrong.

Clearly, anyone with some degree of communication freedom cannot
disagree that communism, as a global factor, died years ago. Even
descendants of this ideology, who have also been victims of the ideology
for the last 75 years, understood this disaster more than anyone else
this and were wise enough to send it to its grave with minimal damages
to their people and their dignity. The Soviet Union and its Eastern
European counterparts have closed their dark chapter of history and are
busily preparing for a new century. Discussions of communism have become
obsolete.

Unfortunately, in Vietnam globe where communism is not our fathers'
creation, the Vietnamese government has refused to take this opportunity
to lead the people out of the tragedy of the century. It continues to
adhere to communism. This is absurd, if not criminal.

2. It may take a while to really understand why Vietnam has to suffer
from communism, but the destruction caused by this ideology is clearly
indisputable.

The inhumanity that has resulted from the communist regime is foreign to
the nature of the Vietnamese culture and tradition. Immediately after
the ideology was introduced into Vietnam, the country became a victim of
internal conflicts, leading to the most destructive civil wars
(1946-1954 and 1954-1975) ever experienced in the nation's history. The
country witnessed two unprecedented mass exoduses in 1954 and 1975 with
millions of people fleeing their homeland in search of freedom. The once
unified people of Vietnam, who had been galvanized by a culture of 4,000
years and a proud history of relentless struggle against foreign
aggression, has been deeply divided by communism-initiated hatred.

The consequence of this is a Vietnam ranked third among the poorest
countries in the world, a Vietnam which is a disgrace to the Vietnamese,
and a Vietnam bankrupt of culture and pride.

3. For decades Vietnamese intellectuals, artists, and citizens from all
walk of life and in various ways -- from the most tactful criticism
within the boundaries of the law to open opposition leading to
imprisonment and death -- have tried in vain to persuade those in charge
to avoid this disaster. That's why we know the first and foremost
requirement for a solution for Vietnam is the termination of Communism
on this land. Only then can the country have genuine economic reforms
for prosperity and progress to regain its place in the international
community. Only then can the Vietnamese people preserve and maintain
their traditional values and restore their society to civilization.

Being a second copy (1930) of international communism, the Vietnamese
communism doesn't fade away with the "Original" and other "Copies" and
thus can easily give itself the impression it can teach the "Original"
how Communism works! However if one examines the sociopolitical cycle
of the Vietnamese history, one cannot but see the death knell of
Communism in Vietnam. Experiences in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
demonstrate that when a Communist regime fails to withdraw itself in time
from the international arena, people will teach those in charge a lesson
of what intelligence is.

I therefore convey these words, for I understand well this is also the
wish of every Vietnamese citizen and scientist today.


-- 
Vietnam Insight (vinsight@netcom.com)
Chan Tran, editor
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese