US embassy cable - 05HANOI1883

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HANOI 001883 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, VM, DPOL 
SUBJECT: VIETNAM'S GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY DECREES 
 
Reftel: 04 Hanoi 1454 
 
1. (U) Summary: Vietnam's grassroots democracy decrees 
represent a fundamental change in governance at the local 
level.  The decrees, first issued in 1998 and revised in 
2003, require local governments to act in a more open 
manner; posting budgets, taking comments on land use and 
economic development plans, holding votes on mandatory 
contribution to local infrastructure development projects, 
and elections for village chiefs, among other requirements. 
Implementation of these changes has been mixed.  Many local 
officials are not well trained about the decrees and lack 
the manpower to implement them.  Typically they are 
implemented better in urban areas, where better-educated 
citizens push for their rights, than they are in rural ones. 
Where well-implemented, the decrees have resulted in a more 
transparent system of local government.  Vietnam's top down 
control of budgets and infrastructure projects make many of 
the initiatives ostensibly permitted by the decrees 
impossible to achieve in reality.  Nonetheless, grassroots 
democracy is a trend that cannot be rolled back and promises 
to continue to expand transparency and accountability at the 
local level.  End Summary. 
 
The First Grassroots Democracy Decree 
------------------------------------- 
 
2. (U) The first grassroots democracy decree was issued in 
May 1998, prompted largely by extended and violent protests 
by small farmers against government officials in Thai Binh 
Province the previous year.  The Thai Binh unrest was 
provoked by a number of grievances, including corruption 
among local officials, land disputes, high taxation rates, 
non-market based rice prices and compulsory labor 
contributions to national infrastructure projects.  Drafted 
in accordance with the Party's guideline that "the people 
know, the people discuss, the people do, and the people 
monitor," the decree enacted, at least on paper, fundamental 
changes to the manner in which local governments operated. 
Among these were requirements that authorities must publicly 
post new State laws and local government budgets, consult 
with citizens on land use and economic development plans, 
and that citizens themselves would decide the levels of 
contribution (often in terms of donated labor) for public 
works. 
 
3. (SBU) Grassroots democracy has recently gained a great 
deal of political support, at least at the national level. 
In the 2001 Ninth Party Congress, delegates widely praised 
the decree as a fundamental step in encouraging economic 
development at the local level.  However, the 1998 decree 
was reportedly drafted quickly and many of its provisions 
were open ended, limiting its impact.  To Kim Lien, a 
program manager at the Asia Foundation's Hanoi office, 
suggested that this lack of specificity allowed some 
"motivated" localities to make rapid changes.  More common 
was the reaction of officials who were reluctant to consult 
with citizens on what they considered to be issues too 
complex for them to understand, Lien noted. 
 
The Current Grassroots Democracy Decree 
--------------------------------------- 
 
4. (U) The 1998 decree was replaced in July 2003 by the 
second grassroots democracy decree (officially Decree No. 79 
on Promulgating the Regulation on the Exercise of Democracy 
in Communes).  As with its predecessor, the second 
grassroots democracy decree is divided into a series of 
categories based on the obligation of local authorities and 
role of the people. 
 
"Works to be informed to the people," include commune 
development plans, land use plans, commune budgets, poverty 
alleviation plans and results of corruption investigations. 
This is to be done through public posting of written 
documents, explanations through village loudspeaker systems, 
and meetings between commune-level People's Council 
delegates and their constituents, among other means. 
 
"Works to be discussed and directly decided by the people" 
include infrastructure and public welfare projects, 
including schools, roads, and health facilities, 
establishing boards to oversee the construction of public 
works, and the protection of security, order, and 
environmental sanitation.  Discussions and voting on these 
activities are to be coordinated by the Fatherland Front. 
 
"Works to be discussed by the people and decided by the 
commune administration" include draft resolutions of commune 
People's Councils, commune-level socioeconomic development 
plans, zoning issues, compensation for appropriated land, 
and employment programs.  These discussions are to be 
organized by the Fatherland Front. 
 
Finally, "works to be supervised and inspected by the 
people" include the implementation of commune People's 
Council resolutions, settlement of complaints and cases of 
corruption.  This is to be enacted by direct invitations to 
the people to review issues or cases, or through individuals 
submitting questions or receiving reports through their 
"representative organization" (such as their trade union, 
the Women's Union, or the Fatherland Front). 
 
The Decree also requires that once every six months, village 
meetings must be held to discuss population issues, poverty 
alleviation, public and social order, and the implementation 
of people's council resolutions.  Villages also name a 
village chief by direct election.  The chief coordinates 
meetings and activities at the village level in conjunction 
with the Fatherland Front, and reports on citizens' concerns 
to the commune level people's committee. 
 
5. (SBU) Ngo Thi Tam, Deputy Director of the Department of 
Local Authorities at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), 
described the first grassroots democracy decree as "not 
complete," and said the new decree more thoroughly outlined 
the responsibilities of local officials to implement 
grassroots democracy, and the ways in which local citizens 
should become involved in its implementation.  The second 
decree specified in more detail the types of projects that 
citizens are to be informed of, stated that citizens' 
decisions are to be made by majority vote, described more 
fully the manner in which people are to supervise projects, 
and made commune level people's committee chairmen 
specifically accountable for the implementation of the 
decree. 
 
Implementation Varies... 
------------------------ 
 
6. (SBU) Spreading understanding of the grassroots democracy 
decree remains a major challenge.  Implementation falls 
under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which 
conducts training programs for district and commune 
officials on the decree.  Citing a 2004 study, the GVN 
claimed in press reports that the grassroots decree was 
being implemented in 100 percent of the nation's communes. 
Mrs. Tam acknowledged that implementation varied from place 
to place and cautioned that development of citizen 
participation at the lowest levels is "a long term process," 
but "the Government is fully committed to it." 
 
7. (SBU) Ms. Lien of the Asia Foundation questioned the 
effectiveness of the GVN's training efforts.  She said that 
the claim of "100 percent implementation" simply meant an 
official from each commune had participated in some level of 
training about the decree.  The Asia Foundation had 
initially cooperated in such training, but found that the 
MHA tended to provide long, complex lectures for groups of 
70 or so officials whom it then expected them to become 
trainers for other officials. 
 
8. (SBU) According to one 2004 Party analysis, grassroots 
democracy was being implemented "effectively" in only 38 
percent of communes.  Ministry of Home Affairs oversight of 
the effectiveness of implementation of the decree rests 
largely on measuring quantitative factors.  All officials 
are required to keep files on their efforts to spread 
understanding of the decree, and the MHA judges how active 
they have been by reading accounts of training programs or 
looking at the quantity of information sheets prepared and 
distributed to the participants, Mrs. Tam explained.  Tam 
acknowledged that some local authorities did not welcome the 
additional oversight of their activities, but characterized 
this as "not a major problem."  "People are aware of the 
grassroots Democracy Decrees, and if they don't believe that 
they are being implemented, they can file complaints with 
higher level officials," she explained.  Mrs. Lien said that 
the Asia Foundation had generally found that these days, 
local officials were not hostile to the further oversight 
the decree provided, but rather did not understand it and 
even after training were at a loss as to how to implement it 
effectively. 
 
9. (SBU) Pamela McElwee, a United Nations Development 
Program contractor, said that her research had shown that 
grassroots democracy had been quite well implemented in 
urban areas where the population is better educated, but 
things were little changed in rural ones.  In Vietnam's 
cities, some citizens had taken the time to read and 
interpret the decrees, and push local authorities to 
implement them appropriately.  In less well-educated rural 
areas, however, "little has changed."  McElwee also noted 
that the decree gave officials and mass organizations many 
new duties, but did not provide incentives to allocate 
additional funds or personnel to carry this out.  As a 
result, how well the decrees were implemented depended on 
the individual motivation of local officials. 
 
... as does Impact 
------------------ 
 
10. (SBU) McElwee described the situation in Ho Chi Minh 
City as a "best case scenario" for the results of the 
decree, but admitted that results there fall short of what 
the decree seemed to allow on paper.  In Ho Chi Minh City, 
local authorities regularly hold meetings to explain plans 
or decisions, and new programs are set forth in a "clear and 
transparent manner," she said.  The high population density 
of Ho Chi Minh City made such meetings easier to attend, and 
combined with the relatively well-educated population, this 
led to a sense of "bottom-up pressure."  McElwee noted, 
however, that while budgets and infrastructure projects are 
theoretically to be reviewed and decided by the people, 
official funds are distributed through a highly centralized 
system in all of Vietnam.  As a result, the ability of local 
officials or citizens to enact in new initiatives is very 
limited. 
 
11. (SBU) Nonetheless, McElwee believed that the decree had 
"opened the door to a level of discussion that did not exist 
in the past."  She saw one of the biggest impacts in the 
ability of international NGOs and donors to engage in 
projects with local officials to set up local initiatives 
and community organizations.  (Note: The USG is currently 
funding a USD 31,000 Human Rights and Democracy Fund Project 
in conjunction with a Vietnamese NGO to develop and carry 
out a more effective and comprehensive training course for 
commune-level officials and mass organization members on the 
grassroots democracy decree.  The NGO will also set up local 
legal advice organizations where citizens can find out more 
about their rights.  These organizations will be advised on 
a volunteer basis by university students studying law. 
Reftel.) 
 
12. (SBU) Looking to the future, Mrs. Tam of the MHA 
suggested that the next step for grassroots democracy will 
be to raise it to a law, a process that would involve it 
being openly debated in the National Assembly (decrees are 
issued directly by the Prime Minister).  Mrs. Lien suggested 
the Government is currently considering the possibility of 
furthering grassroots democracy by allowing referenda on 
specific subjects.  Ms. McElwee reported that officials she 
had met with mentioned moves to enact direct elections of 
commune-level People's Committee Chairmen, and perhaps 
removing the Fatherland Front's role in vetting candidates. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
13. (SBU) The two grassroots democracy decrees represent a 
fundamental move towards a more open and transparent 
governing system at the level that affects the majority of 
citizens.  The functional result of this change has 
progressed slowly, perhaps glacially in rural areas, but 
these are reforms that cannot be rolled back.  We recognize 
that this is democracy in a Vietnamese sense: greater 
opportunities for public participation, but still within the 
context of a one-party system.  Still, the Mission is 
pleased to be able to fund a project that serves to deepen 
the impact of grassroots democracy in Vietnam. 
 
MARINE