US embassy cable - 04HANOI51

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HANOI 000051 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, SOCI, VM, DPOL 
SUBJECT:  Listening to the views of "the people" 
 
 
1.  (U)  Summary.  The GVN has set up a comprehensive system 
of offices to receive public complaints, including direct 
contact with local officials on a regular basis.  It appears 
that these offices mostly give guidance on where to go for 
more specific resolution of problems rather than actually 
coming up with solutions.  Land tenure is a major and 
continuing concern for citizens in the provinces along the 
Ho Chi Minh Highway, especially in the Central Highlands. 
Corruption is another recurrent theme; complaints against 
officials in at least some provinces have led not only to 
investigation but also successful prosecution.  National 
Assembly (NA) provincial offices also exist but appear to be 
primarily in an information-gathering mode rather than 
focused on constituent service.  This network, which is 
paralleled in the CPV hierarchy, appears part and parcel 
with an overall push for at least the appearance -- if not 
yet truly the substance -- of greater grassroots democracy. 
More positively, these new functions also symbolize newly 
evolving relations in which the State and Party must 
increasingly be accountable to Vietnamese citizens.  End 
Summary. 
 
2.  (U)  The Government of Vietnam (GVN) and Communist Party 
of Vietnam (CPV) have set up an extensive system to "listen 
to the voices of the people" and, at least in principle, to 
resolve conflicts that lower line officials had failed to 
settle.  During a recent reporting trip along the newly 
constructed Ho Chi Minh Highway (septel), Pol/C and 
congenoff met with provincial officials to discuss these 
mechanisms and their usage. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
Provincial ombudsmen, or at least "receiving the public" 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
3.  (U)  Provincial officials from Ha Tinh to Gia Lai 
provinces described a graduated system of "offices to 
receive the public" (sometimes translated into English as 
"ombudsmen") that handle public complaints and 
dissatisfaction.  Ha Tinh provincial Vice Chairman Ngo Duc 
Huy confirmed that the province had set up its network of 
offices as early as 1998, including the 5-person provincial 
office, district-level offices, and commune-level offices. 
On the 15th of each month, provincial leaders (i.e. the 
Chairman or one of the Vice Chairmen) personally receive 
citizens who feel they have not received satisfactory 
answers.  District-level leaders are expected to be 
similarly available for public audiences on the 10th, 20th, 
and 30th of each month, while commune-level leaders have 
been instructed to set aside one day each week for such 
public sessions.  In 2003, 385 citizens visited the 
provincial office, while another 220 met directly with 
provincial officials (about a third fewer than in 2002). 
 
4.  (U)  Vice Chairman Huy explained that the real purpose 
of these offices and sessions was less to "solve" problems 
than to "help direct" the citizens to the appropriate 
authorities or at least explain legal realities.  "Often, 
they just don't understand the law," he noted.  He and other 
provincial officials admitted problems within the network of 
"low effectiveness," "slowness," and often "weak" cadres at 
lower levels, while nonetheless claiming an "85 pct" success 
rate.  (This appears to mean cases that do not need to be 
forwarded to the Central level.) 
 
5.  (U)  Quang Tri provincial officials confirmed that their 
provincial leaders also set aside one day per month to 
receive dissatisfied citizens directly, but were unsure 
whether the same practices were current at the district or 
commune level.  They stressed, however, that increasingly 
all state organs (including at the Central level in Hanoi) 
had their own separate offices to receive public complaints. 
Kontum provincial officials clarified that the State began 
to require these public offices at the various local levels 
in 1999, and also described a system of monthly audiences by 
provincial leaders (rarely more than eight citizens each 
month; some months, none) and weekly sessions as the 
district level.  Gia Lai officials claimed to have had such 
offices as early as 1990. 
 
6.  (U)  Gia Lai province has a smart-looking building in 
the capital of Pleiku hosting a combined office -- sponsored 
by the provincial people's committee, the provincial 
people's council, and the National Assembly provincial 
delegation -- to receive the public.  However, it is usually 
staffed by only two people, according to provincial 
officials, and receives no more than "a few people" per day, 
if that many.  They also confirmed that the office had "no 
power to solve" problems per se, but that its role instead 
was to help direct citizens into the appropriate channels 
and to "offer advice."  A sign by the front door lists the 
rights and responsibilities of both the office and the 
citizens, including respectful behavior in both directions 
and the need to be "truthful," but also a guarantee of the 
protection of anonymity to citizens making complaints. 
 
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What's on the public's mind? 
---------------------------- 
 
7.  (U)  According to various provincial officials, the 
major subject of complaint centered around land tenure, 
typically squabbles within a family, between two families, 
or between a family and local authorities seeking to use 
land for other purposes.  In a few places, officials cited a 
few other problems, such as: 
--  charges of corruption among officials, especially over 
land allocation or requisition.  Officials in Gia Lai 
province as well as in Quang Nam's Dong Giang district 
denied, however, that there had ever been any such 
complaints in their areas.  Gia Lai provincial vice chairman 
Le Viet Huong nonetheless admitted having received some 
"anonymous letters" with such allegations, and Gia Lai 
National Assembly delegate Tran Xuan Hai separately admitted 
"some" cases of citizens protesting corrupt practices, 
including four in 2003 that had led to two prison sentences 
for five state enterprise officials; 
--  non-receipt of promised benefits like retirement pay, 
compensation for traffic accidents, etc.; and, 
--  "wrong behavior" by officials.  Kontum officials 
reported a 2003 case in which a deputy commune chief was 
fired as a result of complaints lodged against him through 
the public complaint process, while two other district-level 
cadres remain under investigation from such complaints. 
Other provincial officials noted that, in some cases, public 
complaints centered less on "wrong" behavior than on 
"laziness" or inactivity by local officials.  Gia Lai 
officials claimed no such cases in 2003 but recalled a 2002 
case in which an official was cited for having sex with 
prostitutes and was punished with "reeducation through 
labor." 
 
8.  (U)  Officials in the Central Highland provinces of 
Kontum and Gia Lai specifically denied that there had ever 
been any public complaints about restriction on religious 
belief or efforts to convince or force people to renounce 
their faith.  They claimed to be unaware even of any such 
allegations and affirmed that there was not and had never 
been any official program to seek renunciations of faith. 
They pledged that the provinces would "fine" any local 
officials caught engaging in such activities. 
 
9.  (U)  Gia Lai provincial vice chairman Huong further 
described the 2001 demonstrations as having been 
orchestrated by "outsiders," rather than reflecting any 
local dissatisfaction over land, religious policies, or 
official behavior.  He claimed that those Montagnards 
fleeing into Cambodia were only "seeking a better life," and 
he promised that those who returned would receive "help" and 
not suffer discrimination or punishment.  He admitted that 
they at least potentially would lose land use rights, 
however.  He first claimed that "nobody" had been arrested 
after return, brushing off press reports of trials in such 
cases as "different" in that those individuals had "violated 
the law," mostly for having illegally crossed national 
borders. 
 
--------------------------------- 
What about the National Assembly? 
--------------------------------- 
 
10.  (U)  One of the hallmarks of the 11th National Assembly 
(elected in May 2002) has been the designation of almost 120 
"full-time" delegates --  including at least one per 
provincial delegation -- among the 498-member body, and the 
mandate to establish a permanent NA office at the provincial 
level.  According to Ha Tinh provincial officials, there has 
been a NA office there since 1998, which mostly "collects 
opinions" of the electors about various issues and schedules 
"fact-finding trips" by the delegates to the localities, 
especially before and after each NA session.  They noted 
that the NA office's role was primarily to "help delegates 
understand local economic and social conditions" rather than 
to service constituents' needs or solve their problems. 
 
11.  (U)  In contrast, Quang Tri provincial officials 
described their two-year old NA delegation office as 
"running interference" with various provincial and local 
agencies on behalf of constituents, primarily on health, 
education, social, and cultural issues.  Constituents also 
have urged the NA office to promote more local investment 
and to obtain additional infrastructure, such as to mitigate 
damage from flooding.  Kontum provincial officials also 
reported that constituent interest focused heavily on more 
state investment and on expanding educational opportunities. 
Quang Nam officials pointed specifically to the construction 
of the new Ho Chi Minh Highway as an outcome of constituent 
demands upon NA delegates in the province, while admitting 
that NA delegates usually visited the district-level at most 
twice a year.  Gia Lai officials similarly reported that 
"opinions" of constituents collected through the NA 
provincial delegation tended to focus on economic and social 
issues, notably transportation and health. 
 
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Comment 
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12.  (U)  The CPV and GVN have over the past several years 
highlighted increased grassroots democracy as a major goal. 
The existence of this network of public complaint offices -- 
which are mirrored on the CPV side through a similar network 
at all levels -- helps at least to provide an venue for 
disgruntled citizens to vent steam, as well as an 
opportunity for direct contact with both appointed and 
elected officials.  What is somewhat surprising along the Ho 
Chi Minh Highway was the extent to which officials described 
these offices fairly frankly as primarily buck-passing 
agencies, with little or no genuine power to resolve any 
disputes or any overarching authority over provincial or 
local units that may be creating local dissatisfaction. 
Another notable feature was the extent to which land tenure 
-- disputes over land use rights and/or unhappiness over the 
way the State in many cases is perceived as having trampled 
on individual land use rights -- was one of the enduring and 
apparently still sensitive subjects of complaint.  That 
said, most provincial officials indicated that voter 
opinions about the Land Law adopted by the NA in late 2003 
were virtually non-existent, indicating either a continued 
lack of interest in or understanding of the actions of the 
NA, or a persistent belief that local land issues would be 
decided by local officials regardless of any changes in 
national law.  The GVN and CPV both appear committed more to 
the appearance than the genuine substance of Western-style 
grassroots democracy in action, which does not come as a 
surprise.  Nonetheless, the existence of these offices 
reflects an newly evolving relationship between Vietnamese 
citizens and the State and Party, in which the latter are 
expected to be more and more accountable or at least 
responsive. 
PORTER