Freedom in Viet Nam

In Viet Nam nowadays, basic human and civil rights are listed sufficiently in the Constitution. But they are almost defined vaguely or inadequately, restricted or rescinded by statutes, edicts, decrees and resolutions… In other words, they don't exist in real life for the real citizens.

1- We haven’t had freedom of speech, information or press.

The communist party and government thoroughly grasp all means of communication. All the newspapers and magazines (about 700), all the radio and television stations (about 100) in VN are under the control of the communist party. No private press or independent opinion! Now, the government is intriguing to control even the blogs and bloggers.

The government holds the monopoly in educating, and in compiling the textbooks. Almost all different kinds of schools belong to the state. The Churches are merely able to manage the nurseries with their own beliefs. By stuffing ours heads with materialistic dialectics (i.e. the socialism, Marxism, poison of humanity), the communist party has caused a lot of damage and disaster to the minds and souls of our people, especially the young.

Nobody can hold "reactionary" thinking or opinions without interference, threat, repression, and even imprisonment. Nobody can "seek, receive and impart information and ideas of any kind, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice" (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 19. International Covenant on Civil and Political Right, art. 19).

Therefore, with many others, we the four catholic priests, father Chan Tin, father Van Ly and ourselves, are fighting to claim back the right of education. On February 20, 2006, we made a statement urging the government to respect the freedom of speech and information. Simultaneously, we made a declaration for this right, which became a world-wide petition with over 1000 signatures.

And to affirm that right, on April 15, 2006 we began to publish a bimonthly named Freedom of Speech without the permission of the government. Of course, this magazine that lasts until now (the latest number, 64, dated December 01, 2008)- is distributed on paper, fee-free and underground all over Viet Nam.

2- We haven't had freedom of assembly and association.

All the associations in VN must get admitted to the VN Fatherland Front, a peripheral structure or a hand of the communist party. The associations of journalists, writers, artists and peasants… are under the control of the state and headed by the communist party members. The communist party wants to apply this to all religions. Consequently, it has created many state-run churches. By doing so, the VN Communist Party (VCP) wants to degenerate the conscience and the right senses of all the people, all believers, especially all dignitaries, so that they support and accept the communist ideology and regime. Gradually, they will lose the ability to protest against the falseness and the cruelty of the regime. Any church or congregation that has attempted to free oneself from that yoke, that cage and that furtive education, was repressed violently

In VN there are no free labor union and no independent trade syndicate! The recent strikes of about 100,000 workers have proved that. The labor-unionists in VN are actually the watcher-aides of the party. In a 8-points proposal posted on the internet in February 18, 2006, many representatives of the Vietnamese workers, asked for the dissolution of the labor syndicate set up by the communists. This movement -with its leaders now in prison- is worthy of support by all good-will men and all democratic governments.

3- We haven't had freedom of election

The freedom to vote doesn't exist in VN. Going to vote is a mandatory obligation. From 1945 to 2008, twelve National Assembly elections were organized by the VCP, all applying the principle that "the party chooses the candidates and the citizens vote", which means all the candidates for whom people vote are either party members or selected by the party. Therefore, when being elected, they are not the representatives of the people but the executors of the party's policies. Consequently, the Vietnam National Assembly is the means of implementation for the VCP, but not the Organization of Independent Power of Legislation.

Therefore, we are fighting to terminate the fourth article of the Vietnamese Constitution, because this article gives the absolute and eternal power to the communist party. We are fighting to unmask the real face of Ho Chi Minh, who is the primary source of suffering and disaster for our people and the last basis on which the Vietnamese government relies to continue their power. We are organizing and campaigning to boycott the one-party election and to claim for the poly-party election. On October 17, 2005, we made an appeal for this. The ultimate purpose is to dissolve the communist and despotic regime, a cause of regression and degradation for our country. On May 20, 2007, both us, we boycotted the election of the National Assembly by refusing to vote.

4- We haven't had freedom of religion

In Viet Nam nowadays, the churches, with permission given by the government naturally, can build the places of worship, organize the ceremonies, welcome the representatives of the religious supreme authority, go abroad to study or participate in conferences, even open the seminaries or religious institutes under the control of the government. We think that real religious freedom doesn't essentially consist of these, but actually consist of the following:

- the liberty of founding the religion, church or congregation, without the permission or the sanction but only with the recognition of the government, which must recognize this religion or church after its registration.

- the independence of the churches to establish their structures, to recruit, to train their personnel, to ordain, to promote, to transfer their clerics, to designate, or to appoint their hierarchies and leaders.

- the ownership of the land. (In reality, all individuals and collectives, such as churches, have only the right of use towards the land. In monopolizing the ownership of the land, the government hope to put all citizens and communities under its yoke, maintaining the unjust mechanism “demand-grant”. That is the cause of many present complaints (about million cases), of many conflicts between the government and the people, the churches about the lands).

- the promulgation of the religion to the people, the participation of the churches in the life of the society -by establishing and managing the schools of all grade levels, from nurseries to universities, by owning and running press, radio, television, website, publication house, and by founding and managing centers of charitable activities, such as medical clinics and hospitals.

Regretfully, the churches in VN don’t have these liberties. Therefore, we are fighting for the termination of the Ordinance on Religion and Belief issued in November 2004 and the Decree of Implementation of this Ordinance issued in March 2005. With this control on religious practices - by establishing guidelines for religious denominations to register their activities and seek official recognition - to us, they are legal documents constituting a measure to repress the religion by law. They easily make all our religious activities illegal and degenerate our religion gradually.

We hope that the People, the Parliament and the Government of the Unites States, well- known world-wide as the country and for the love of freedom and democracy, will support our cause. Thank you.

Hue, December 10, 2008, Human Rights Day,

60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Peter Nguyễn Hữu Giải and Peter Phan Văn Lợi, catholic priests