Vietnam: The Fascists’ “Democracy”
We hereby share an article that we received per e-mail, published on Serve the People (Vietnam).
Recently, a “general election” was held in Vietnam.
The fact that the “elections” in Vietnam are only a farce is well-known to our compatriots. People either go vote randomly for whatever candidate, or ask someone else to vote on their behalf (recently, there was a case in which one person voted for 12 others!).
However, to some young people voting for the first time, some phenomena that have been happening for a long time come off as surprising. That’s why they have been raising their voice and reporting on those phenomena, steering up the national public opinion. Some of those aforementioned phenomena are:
- Some people reported that, when their family member take their ballot papers to the voting station, the officials there took the ballot papers to “help” them vote;
- Many voters were supervised when casting their votes;
- In some places, the officials forced the voters to vote as they were told;
- In many places, local administrations “advised” people to vote for certain candidates;
- In some places, the supposedly “secret” ballot box is made with transparent materials;
All of those aforementioned reports have demonstrated the purely-formal nature of our election. It is very easy to see how “democratic” our government is, even if we don’t mention their repression against the working masses when they demand to improve their livelihoods, or the land seizures the government conduct against the peasants.
The State also proudly boast about their near-100% voter turnout. To the revisionist-fascists, their loyal running dogs and some Western “Leftists”, this means that Vietnam is a nation where the people have a lot of trust in the government and participate actively in politics.
Reality is often disappointing. In truth, “one man, many votes”(¹) is the common practice. The local governments also tries to pressure people into voting in any way they can think of. Some universities (such as Hanoi University of Education), threatened disciplinary actions and “police intervention” if students don’t vote. This is not new either. Since 2016, many universities and colleges have also forced their students to vote in this way. They even carry the ballot box to old, bed-ridden people in their home to force them to vote.
Before the start of the elections, there was a series of police crackdown on people “slandering and spreading lies about candidates” (most of these so-called “candidates” are actually current regional office-holders, or police officers). Recently, in outer Hanoi, someone have also denounced two “candidates” — current office-holders, for their involvement and cover-ups of land seizures. It is unclear whether this person was arrested for “slandering”.
So, one more time, great Lenin’s teachings were proven. In capitalist society, “democracy” means “democracy for the few, for the owner-classes, for the rich”; and “freedom” is “freedom for slave-owners”.
Even the deaf and the blind can see that the ruling regime is not just a pseudo-democracy, but also a fascist regime. They stand with foreign corporates when workers go on strike; they actively help the feudal landlords to seize lands from peasants; they suppress the working masses vehemently when they struggle for their livelihoods. We must not forget the workers who were arrested for “agitation” and “enticing labour strike”, the death of comrade Le Dinh Kinh — a respectful senior Communist and the struggle of the peasants of Dong Tam (²), or the people of Cu Kuin, who were repressed by riot police with tasers while protesting the pollution of their water source.
This means that the people of Vietnam doesn’t have their own government, which means they have nothing. Therefore, the basic task of the Revolution is to take back all power to the people, to form a genuine democracy.
However, the Communists doesn’t demand “political plurality and a multi-party system” (³), or the “separation of power”. No matter how much “check and balances” they have, a “liberal democracy” is still in the hand of the big bourgeoisie, and they will fascisticize it and infringe on the people’s rights whenever they felt the need to, as demonstrated by the political developments in America these two years.
The people can only secure their rights and life when they have self-rule and control their own government. “Except power, all is illusions”. If the masses don’t have power, their rulers are the ones who decide what they get to have and what they don’t. Even if the masses revolt and secure something for themselves, but doesn’t take power, the ruling classes still can find away to take that thing back from the masses.
Therefore, what the Communists demand is self-governance for the working people. This mean that the toiling masses must hold power themselves, to determine their own fates and defend their own rights.
For “political power grows from the barrel of a gun”, the only way we can achieve that is to agitate the entire masses into a protracted people’s war, creating a “vast sea of armed masses” to gradually seize power and secure self-governance. That is the only way to establish a genuine democracy — a regime in which the masses are the rulers, and themselves the armed protectors of that regime, not the “separation of power” nor any giant police apparatus.
That is a long and arduous process. Without a correct line, that is an impossible task. That is why the toiling masses of Vietnam need a highly disciplined leadership with a correct line. Only a Marxism-Leninist-Maoist Communist Party can fill in that role.
Therefore, we must use all our strength to fight towards the reconstitution of our beloved Communist Party of Vietnam, to smash this “democracy” of the slavers, in order to establish a people’s democracy and take back our independence, self-governance and for our lives.
ADDENDUM
(¹) People in Vietnam often let their family member vote on their behalf, for whatever candidate. This is mainly so they won’t be harassed by the government to get them to vote.
(²) This is in reference to Dong Tam peasant revolt. Since 2017, the village of Dong Tam have been involved in a land dispute with the government itself. The government claims that 47 hectares of the villages’ farming land were actually military land.
Dong Tam villagers, under the leadership of Mr. Le Dinh Kinh (1936-2020) — a widely respected village elder who have joined the Labor Party (previous name of the Communist Party) in the 60s and was the leader of the village’s Communist Party cell in the 80s, have waged a legal struggle against this.
On 15th April, 2017, the government invited 5 representatives of the village to a negotiation on the land problem there. The government then arrested these people without a warrant. The villagers retaliate by capturing 38 polices and officials.
From 20th to 22nd April, the government compromised and engaged in negotiations with the villagers.
On 22nd April, some military officials have asked Mr. Le Dinh Kinh (81 years old at the time) to go on a land survey with them, regarding the disputed land. They then beat, cuffed, gagged him, apprehended him to a police station. Only after an hour, he was taken to a hospital with his captors branding him as a “dangerous agitator”. Only after 2 days did he get his needed operation. He couldn’t walk for 2 months after that.
After three years of more escalations and developments, with the people repeatedly reaffirming their stances and rights (“Fight, fail, fight again, fail again, fight again . . . until their victory; that is the logic of the people”), and the government denying them of it, on 9th January, 2020, the government of Hanoi amassed three thousands police in anti-riot gears to storm the village at midnight. The villagers revolted and fought back with farming equipments, bricks and molotovs, killing 3 fascists. Many people were apprehended, Mr. Le Dinh Kinh was beaten and shot dead by the fascist forces.
The government also tried to frame other innocent villagers that did not revolt for “conspiracy against the government”, including Mrs. Du Thi Thanh, Mr. Kinh’s elderly widow. They forced her to confess that their family held grenades. After she reaffirm many times that she didn’t even know how a grenade or a molotov cocktail look like, they beaten, kicked, slapped her.
Many revolting peasants, including Mr. Kinh’s sons, are on death row, or are still in jail today.
(³) A slogan of the Vietnamese anti-government Liberals.
