From: giao@informix.com (Giao Tien Vu)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Subject: Re: Doing business in VN
Date: 25 Jul 92 02:46:30 GMT
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.

In article <1992Jul24.155141.4285@kpc.com> garrick@kpc.com (Garrick Le) writes:
>
>mtruong@ccs.carleton.ca (Minhtri Truong) wrote:
>>         The reason the Communists want to do business with
>>capitalists now is because they are desperate for money.  The regime
>>is now seemingly adopting capitalism to save itself, i.e., to survive,
>>and not because it wants to make the Vietnamese people rich and happy.
>>So if you do business with Vietnam now, you are helping the current
>>regime consolidate its power structure whose underlying ideology
>>remains extremely contemptuous of values such as individual freedom on
>>which capitalism is based.
>I can't agree more.
>>          Moreover, I think that what the majority of us want to see
>>in Vietnam is not so much capitalism as social justice and democracy
>>and a more humane environment.  Capitalism has a highly economic
>>connotation.  What we want is more than just economic improvement.
>IMO,social justice ,democracy and humanity are all achievable under a
>capitalistic society.For instance,America nowaday can be considered a
>good example of such.It just that I did not elaborate in my previous
>posting what I meant as the form of capitalism that I advocate.
>>Capitalism should be viewed as a by-product of freedom and should be
>>kept in check by certain social principles. Otherwise, it could
>>involve pretty ruthless exploitation.
>>
>>Tri'
>I am not certain which one is a by-product of which,between freedom
>and capitalism.Freedom could as well be a by-product of capitalism.
>It all depends on the evolution of capitalism of a particular society/
>country.
>Anyway,thanks for your meaningful words.
>

I would like to point out that in Europe, capitalism came first.  Freedom
came later owing in no small part to the influence of the wealthy
merchants on the governments (to ease commerce).  In England, the merchants
became the power during and after the British revolution and the Cromwell
rule.  In France, the bloody revolution happened in part because of the
ruling class' inability to adapt to the dawning of industrialization.

Freedom of the citizenry, of course, should be the goal of any
conscientious government.  It should be achieved with clear-cut programs
of improvements, not haphazard plans.  The awful truth has always been that
unless there is a well-thought-out set of laws at the outset of any
democracy, that democracy is doomed to fail.  The freedom would only become
the privileges of the few.  The rest would not be protected by the laws
and suffer all the injustices (because they could not afford the cost of
securing their rights).  Such set of laws could not be achieved a short
amount of time (look at what the quick adoption of Chinese law code did to
Vietnam in the 19th century).

The key to have freedom and democracy is to find a way to have a well-fed,
well-educated population.  A population that does not have to rely on
stealing, bribing, lying to survive day-to-day.  A country that has enough
financial resources to develop a self-sustaining economy, a healthy
educational program, a sense of equality between people (morally, not
necessarily financially).  Until that is achieved, I'm skeptical that any 
quick fix can do the job.

Giao
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese