Thai Binh uprising: Beginning of the end to VN's communism

In late July, reports emerged that there had been protests in Thai Binh province about 50 miles away from Hanoi. The large scale protests involved thousands of local farmers and began since May. But local authorities had tried to keep the lid on the case, isolating the area and barring journalists--both Vietnamese and foreign--from contacting local residents.

According to clandestine sources from Vietnam, farmers from 52 villages in six provinces staged protests continuously during the past two months before provincial and city government offices. Protesters brought along food supplies and necessities, including portable toilets, to avoid charges from authorities of littering in public spaces.

The protests have been carefully organized. Families in the area sent their representative to join the protest with elderly and children in the front line, followed by invalid veterans and members of the "revolutionary families" whose sacrifices during the Vietnam War are well recognized by the regime. Retired cadres marched next and young people were last in the demonstration.

The initially peaceful protests against tax demands and official corruption turned violent after officials reportedly refused to address the concerns. When the crowd of protesters reached around 5,000, Hanoi ordered the crackdown. Protesters became enraged; officials were beaten. In one area, near Quynh Phu district, houses of local government workers were burnt down. Some officials and their families were said to have been moved to neighboring provinces for their safety. In one commune a state prosecutor was held briefly as hostage to negotiations. Unconfirmed reports said the number of officials killed was up to five, including the party head at Thai Thuy.

At the high point of the protest, there was a complete absence of the regime's bureaucracy in the 52 villages and wards; local police were chased out by protesters, who at points declared provisional local control; but such efforts had been short-lived. An official, who declined to be identified, told the Reuters news service on Aug. 27 that residents in Quynh Phu district area with some of the worst disturbances had erected loudspeakers and appealed for support from neighboring communes.

Three months after the outbreak of protests, the situation remains highly charged. Reuters reported that Hanoi deployed 1,200 members of a special police force around hot-spots in coastal Thai Binh province; while daily protests by groups of women, elderly people and children were continuing outside the People's Committee headquarters in the provincial capital.

But residents said the police had not moved to intervene and suggested they were under direct orders from Hanoi not to take action that might spark further trouble. This confirms the report that Vietnamese Communist Party chief Do Muoi ordered the security forces and police not to kill any one during the authority's crackdown to avoid further inflammation.

Still there was news of an elderly person who died at a hospital as a result of a scuffle.

The massive protests in the cradle of the communist revolution have been taken very seriously by the Vietnamese Communist Party, prompting it to send Politburo member Pham The Duyet, who was born in Thai Binh, to soothe the masses' anger. Mr. Duyet reportedly has visited the area twice since the outbreak of unrest.

The regime has also adopted a soft approach to restoring calm, admitting some mistakes of local officials, "arresting" the local leadership of the party and government. But residents suspect these measures are only a way to soothe popular anger and help higher officials to escape the ire. In another move to scare protesters, authority arrested more than 100 people and wrung forced confessions of their wrongdoing on local television. Official corruption stands at the heart of the unrest. Residents charge that funds for construction of a bridge as well as much international humanitarian aid were stolen. Farmers in Quynh Phu village were the first to demand local officials to publicize financial records regarding the building of a bridge in Thai Binh, but their request was turned down. The wave of anger spread to Thai Thuy and 50 villages nearby, paralyzing the whole area, even during the National Assembly election on July 20.

Corruption surrounding the bridge construction was only one reason for the farmers to vent their deep-seated resentment of a system which has not delivered on promises 22 years after the war's end. In 1946, farmers had to pay four types of taxes. In 1997, the farmers--just as poor--must pay 21 types of taxes. The gap between poor farmers and rich officials is significant, similar to the gulf between Vietnamese and the colonialists of yesteryear. Incidentally, it was this kind of income disparity that people in Thai Binh helped so hard to get rid of in this past.

Meanwhile, in the south, along the Mekong river, farmers are fighting against the official low price for rice, leading to more than 5 million tons of rice in the area resting unsold. Facing the threat of massive protest in Saigon, state representatives have tried to reduce the anger by purchasing one ton of rice at a better price; but the rest of the crop still awaits a solution. All the while, there have been an unprecedented 57 labor strikes in the country during the first eight months of this year.

As life hardens for workers and farmers--eighty percent of the Vietnamese population lives in rural areas which faces increased taxes, a decline in commodity prices and growing unemployment--farmer and labor unrests are going to be Hanoi's main headaches in the months ahead.