The flag has helped Vietnam win two wars against the French and Americans, which were considered to be among the most bloody conflicts of the 20th century. Under the leadership of the Communist Party, Vietnam has achieved national independence and reunification.

On the path to Socialism
Some 20 years have passed since the nation started the renovation process and opened its doors to the world as the result of the historic Sixth Party Congress in 1986.
Today, the Communist Party has vowed to continue to be “consistent on the path toward socialism” despite tremendous political and geographical changes in the world.
This, international observers say, is obvious due to the spectacular achievements in economic growth and poverty reduction the nation has gained over the past two decades under the ruling Party.
These achievements were helped along immensely by the private sector, which is still in its infancy but has contributed to more than a half of Vietnam’s gross domestic product.
However, the society has recently been urging the Party to implement stronger reforms to gear up economic growth and comfort private business.
As part of the answers which came out last week, the 10th Party Congress officially approved the policy to permit Party members to become private entrepreneurs.
Nong Duc Manh, the Party’s re-elected Secretary General, told hundreds of foreign and domestic reporters during a press briefing last week that the entrepreneur issue was an important policy of the Party.
“We have reviewed those Party members who have been doing private business over the past 20 years of doi moi (reform). Some are good businessmen who create jobs for labourers,” said Manh.
“Along with their own income, they have also contributed to socio-economic development.”
Manh added: “For the time being, Vietnam has set a major target to rid itself of poverty, so Party members need to act and do [business].”
Manh’s statement means an end put to the discussions over the past year about the topic of whether Party members are allowed to do private business or not.
During unprecedented and open forums, straight and essential questions were raised over theoretical matters of socialism, class struggle, exploitation of man by man and exploitation of added value.
“At present, we are still studying these theoretical issues… and the theoretical issues need to be made clearer. We should not contain development trends in practical life when these theoretical issues are not made clear,” said Ta Huu Thanh, vice head of the Central Committee’s Economic Commission.
“Our ultimate target is to ensure social equality and non-exploitation of man by man. In order to achieve this, [we] have to create materials and liberalise production capacity,” Thanh said.

Admittance of the practice
Carl Thayer, a professor of politics from the Australian Defence Force Academy, and a prestigious expert on Vietnamese affairs commented that the change in Party rules to permit Party members to become private entrepreneurs was “a good decision suitable to the country’s reality when many Party members and their families are involved in private businesses”.
Since the Enterprise Law came into effect six years ago with financial and technical assistance from the international community, the number of Vietnamese private businesses has increased significantly to near 200,000.
The most outstanding feature of the law is to minimise licensing procedures that do not require business owners to declare their class status and Party membership.
This move, to a large extent, has given many Party members opportunities to set up their own companies.
A recent report estimated that around 5,000 of the 3.1 million Party members across the country have established their own businesses. Significant parts of this number are the children and grandchildren of the first communist generation of nation builders.
Nguyen Huu Vinh, the son of a devoted communist, made the brave decision to set up his own company, V Protection and Investigation Company (VPI), six years ago.
In 2000, police colonel Vinh, submitted a letter of retirement to his management at the Ministry of Public Security to take the opportunity to set up his private firm.
His decision surprised his family and relatives. His father was a member of the Party’s Central Committee and former ambassador to former Soviet Union. Vinh’s cousin was also a member of the Politburo.
“Their initial reaction to me was quite circumspect,” Vinh recalled.
The day Vinh received his business licence, the first thing he did was to put his Party membership card into the wardrobe. He did not attend meetings of the local Party cell. Vinh said he could not accept that an exploitive capitalist and a communist could co-exist inside him.
“When I received the Party card 18 years earlier, I cried with pride. But when I put the card into the wardrobe that day, my eyes were not wet. I was determined to have my own business.”
Vinh said that in the beginning, he did not know how to react to those people calling him cadre. “But nowadays, I’m able to say, dear sir, I’m not a your cadre anymore.”
Vinh did not submit an application to move out of the Party and he was also not required to leave the Party for setting up his private business. However, his membership was certainly suspended according to the Party rule as one’s membership is cancelled if he/she has not attended a Party cell for six months.
Meanwhile, unlike Vinh, many others tried to remain in the Party while also setting up their own enterprises.
One among these private entrepreneurs, who have attracted special public attention, is Le Kien Thanh, the son of the Party’s late Secretary General Le Duan. Duan was the prominent and talented Secretary General who took part in leading North Vietnam against the Americans more than 30 years ago.
Now at the age of 51, Thanh has a 30-year Party membership and is the owner of several companies.
In 1990, when Thanh came up with the idea to set up his own business, he was faced with two options: to remain a Party member and not have his own business, or vice versa.
“I cried in front of my father’s altar and said that for all my life I never want to get rid of the Party,” he recalled. “But I think I need my own legitimate business to have a well-off life and to help the people. It is also a man’s reason for living.”
“If my current Party cell does not allow me to do private business, I will move to another. I will only move out of the Party when there is nowhere in this country to attend Party meetings.
“I do hope the Party that I join does not ban me for aiming for a prosperous life,” he added.
Thanh is now the general director of Hanoi-based Thien Minh Company Ltd., which he set up 16 years ago. He is also the chairman of three other joint-stock companies in property, noodles, office equipment and hotels in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Besides busily working in his companies, Thanh continues to attend the Party cell at his residence.
Unlike Thanh and Vinh, Pham Tuan Phuong had to hide his own private company from his cadres while trying to maintain his party membership at his local Party cell.
In 1983, at the age of 19, young soldier Phuong was accepted into the Party when he served in the army and was based in Cao Bang province, near China.
Three years ago, Phuong set up Vietnam Auction Company in Hanoi, which employs 20 workers. Phuong, however, did not declare this to his local Party cell in a ward of Hai Ba Trung District.
“Some cadres at my Party cell asked me what I do now and I told them I stay at home. I think there will probably be a reaction to me because I have my own business, and I have violated the Party rule,” Phuong said.
“I know many try to join the Party not for the communist ideal, but for their own interests,” he added.
“But I try to remain a Party member because I need to have an ideal to live up to and trust in.”

Capitalists exploiting the worker?
Stories of the three private entrepreneurs and the Party members reflect a dilemma in society. They are representatives of the country’s emerging private sector, where, like anywhere else in the world, the majority of talented people in society are concentrated.
Many have questioned in the past why those talented people, who work hard for a prosperous life, have to leave the Party or hide their legitimate business to remain a Party member?
And to a larger extent, how does Vietnam’s socialism aim at “rich people, strong nation and an equal, democatic and civilised society” differ from developed countries?
Anyway there is a social consensus that a Party member is also a citizen and thus they should have the right to do business as stated in the constitution.
This is a big change in today’s social perception, as the private sector — including individual and household businesses, private capital, state capital, and foreign invested enterprises — did not really exist in Vietnam before the Sixth Party Congress in 1986.
Nowadays, the sector creates more jobs than state-owned enterprises and contributes to more than half of Vietnam’s GDP.
And the private bosses have been officially recognised by the government when they were given the Entrepreneurs’ Day on October 13, which put them in line equal with other classes of the society such as the worker, farmer, teacher and doctor.
Party Secretary General Manh said private businesses need to make use of their capital, intellect, and hard work to make their businesses effective. “These things are also their labour not simply exploitation of man by man,” Manh said.
VPI’s Vinh said he was loved and respected by the 20 employees working for his company. “The essential matter is that they do not consider me as a labour exploiter.”
“I feel I am living the most meaningful days of my life ever - the days which are worth living,” Vinh said.
Private director Thanh said his company now provides between 500 to 700 jobs for local people, whose lives are being improved in line with the company’s development.
“I think that in order to be firm and strong, the Communist Party or any other party will have to go in-line with the people’s will and meet practical requirements,” Thanh said.
“The wars are far behind us… and the people and Party members like me all want to develop a prosperous life by doing business and production,” he added.
The Party is obviously aware of this matter when 88 per cent of the ninth Party Central Committee members voted to permit the Party members to become private entrepreneurs.
The Party’s move, according to observers, would help the government to reach the target of having 500,000 private businesses by 2010.
But there remain questions and a reluctance to allow private entrepreneurs to become Party members. There are questions about the character of the Communist Party when it accepts private bosses into its ranks.
“Regarding this matter, there will be very strict regulations,” Manh said.
Many have said that the fast growing private sector should be given representation in Vietnam’s political system. But this is a matter of time.
Carl Thayer of the Australian Defence Force Academy said this was a problem for Vietnam to resolve. “Over time this will change its [the Party’s] fundamental character.”
VPI’s Vinh said that before his father’s death, at the age of 92, last year, the old man completely supported Vinh’s decision. Vinh now spends profits of his company supporting his first son’s study in Germany, the homeland of the father of Communism, Karl Marx.
“I do hope my son’s life will be better than mine,” he said.

Source: Vietnam Investment Review, 1-7/5/2006