Article: What Is Wrong With Vietnam?

The Wall Street Journal reported on August 28, "the appalling treatment of staff of the Dutch bank ABN-AMRO, caught up in what even Vietnamese regulators say were legitimate business transactions. The story highlights how, for all its strides toward a market economy, this Communist state is still not always a safe place to do business. In Hanoi, Tom O'Dore, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce Vietnam, says 'This particular case reeks of human-rights abuses.'"

"They're criminalizing what appears to be a legitimate business transaction," Mr. O'Dore says.

"This is very bewildering in a country that's trying to get into WTO and sends an inappropriate message to the U.S. Congress."

Vietnam is trying to enter the WTO and they are trying to get most favored trade status from us here in the USA. They are taking a lot of steps to make themselves look as free and normal as European democracies but the truth is difficult for them to cover over.

Despite some window dressing appeals to the west, like releasing prisoners that they can easily re-arrest just after they get whatever they want from us, the leaders of Vietnam do not seem to completely grasp how shallow their small acts of kindness seem when they arrest someone like Mr. Do for weeks without a formal charge.

Yes, Vietnam has been releasing prisoners to impress the west with their "reforms of government. Vietnam has released, in fact, more than 5 thousand prisoners; but only 4 of them are prisoners of conscience, and most of the rest are communist officers who were sentenced to jail for their "crimes of corruption."

Vietnam's record on Human Rights is no joke. Cong Thanh Do, like most Vietnamese-born Americans who return to Vietnam, was visiting family. Often the parents and grandparents stay behind in Vietnam and American family members naturally want to visit.

We don't hear much about Vietnam. They have no missiles. They pose no apparent threat to their regional neighbors. But the leaders in Vietnam terrorize their own people and this places them into a special category that should interest all of us. Religious repression continues in Vietnam. In Vietnam, police are allowed to hold suspects without charges for more than a year.

The case of Cong Thanh Do stands as testament to how far Vietnam still has to travel before foreign governments can have faith in their words; as opposed to their continued actions in opposition to normally accepted international norms of civility and freedom.

Vietnam seeks entry into the World Trade Organization. Some in America say WTO entry will make Vietnam institute more relaxed laws toward those now deemed dissidents.

But WTO entry is no panacea, with China's 2001 accession failing to halt its abuses.

In the case of the staff of the Dutch bank ABN-AMRO, The Wall Street Journal said, "In the free world, governments don't go around abducting a competitor's staff over a business dispute. Until state-owned companies are forced to live with the consequences of bad business deals -- or resolve disputes through the legal system -- Vietnam can never expect to become a full-fledged member of the world business community."

In the case of Cong Thanh Do there is simply no excuse for the conduct of Vietnam. Mr. Do only wants to leave Vietnam and return to his home in the United States.

Vietnam needs to start behaving as other civilized nations act. And Vietnam needs to start acting in accordance with its own long-term self interests.

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