VZCZCXRO7665
RR RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHHI #0159/01 0450414
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 140414Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY HANOI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7158
INFO RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH 4281
RUEHZS/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 000159 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KCOR ECON KPAO SOCI PREL VM
 
SUBJECT: IMPLEMENTING GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY: THE VIEW FROM 
NORTHWESTERN VIETNAM 
 
Ref: 07 HANOI 1088 
 
HANOI 00000159  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Government of Vietnam's (GVN) Ordinance on 
Grassroots Democracy (OGD), which took effect last April, is a small 
step towards participatory local government within the context of 
the GVN's top-down, centrally controlled government structure.  In a 
recent visit to provinces in Vietnam's remote and poor northwest, 
Poloff found local government and Party officials generally 
enthusiastic about the new ordinance as well as a Ministry of Home 
Affairs pilot program in which people in some 500 communes would 
come up with their own candidates for election to local leadership 
positions.  Commune officials said that they now hold meetings from 
one to three times per month with the people and "their 
representatives" to go over local economic development project 
proposals, and leaders from all the communes Poloff visited said 
they had organized at least one no confidence vote over the past 
year, with at least one commune Party official forced to resign as a 
result.  Support for local legal aid centers and other good 
governance projects aimed at educating the people of these and other 
outlying areas about their rights under the OGD would not only 
increase citizen's ability to actively participate in the political 
process but would likely be palatable to the GVN as well.  End 
Summary. 
 
Democracy From Above: View From Northwest 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The Communist Party, government and legislature (the 
National Assembly) have organizational structures that flow from the 
center to the outlying areas.  For example, the Party and its six 
mass organizations have provincial, district and commune level 
governing structures.  Increasing citizen input at the local level 
within this context, Hanoi's Ordinance on Grassroots Democracy (OGD) 
came into effect last April and replaced a 2003 decree on the same 
topic (Ref. A).  The OGD states that villagers can participate in 
meetings to discuss and propose solutions to local problems. 
Representatives of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Party's 
umbrella organization for any and all groups in Vietnam, organize 
and monitor these meetings, however. 
 
¶3. (SBU) From January 29 to February 1, Poloff discussed 
implementation of this ordinance with a wide variety of district and 
commune Party officials in northwestern Dien Bien, Lai Chau and Lao 
Cai provinces - some of Vietnam's poorest and most remote areas, 
with significant ethnic minority populations.  District Party 
officials in Dien Bien and Lao Cai told Poloff that they 
participated in briefings on the OGD at the provincial level soon 
after the central government promulgated the ordinance.  These 
officials then convened meetings with commune leaders to go over OGD 
contents.  These commune officials were in turn responsible for 
educating villagers about their rights under the OGD.  However, "not 
every villager" came to these information sessions.  One district 
Party official in Lao Cai admitted that many ethnic minority people 
living in mountainous areas in his district had "limited knowledge" 
of their rights under the OGD. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Commune officials across the three provinces said that, in 
keeping with the OGD, they hold meetings from one to three times per 
month with the people and "their representatives" (in most cases, 
local leaders of the Party's mass organizations) to review economic 
development project proposals.  Money for these projects mostly 
comes from the central government budget because generating revenue 
locally is difficult, commune officials explained.  A Party official 
in Lao Cai asserted that people in his district know "full well" 
about the budget for schools and roads.  Deciding on which projects 
to forge ahead with usually was done by consensus.  One official 
asserted that his commune in Dien Bien had never experienced 
contentious debates about what projects to undertake. 
 
No Confidence Votes: One Official Ousted 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) According to the OGD, villagers have the right to not only 
take issue with local administrative decisions, but to propose "no 
confidence" votes on local Party leaders as well.  Commune Party 
authorities also are required under the OGD to organize one 
confidence vote on local leaders per year.  All communes Poloff 
visited had carried out the latter kind of vote, with Party 
officials instructing villagers to come to Party facilities to vote. 
 Two officials (from separate communes) told Poloff that results of 
the most recent confidence votes showed that over 90 percent voted 
to retain officials in their positions.  In one Dien Bien commune, 
however, the people voted against a Party official continuing in his 
position because of a "lack of professionalism and qualifications." 
The Party forced this official to resign. 
 
Communes to Decide on Own Candidates? 
------------------------------------- 
 
 
HANOI 00000159  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) Le Tu Duyen, Director of the Ministry of Home Affairs' 
Local Affairs Department, told Poloff in Hanoi that his office has 
put forth a proposal for people in some 500 communes across the 
country to come up with their own candidates for commune leadership 
positions.  (Note: Currently, the Party's VFF comes up with the list 
of candidates "in consultation with the people."  End Note). 
According to Duyen, his pilot program idea, which would be 
implemented over a two year period (2008-09), has gone "to higher 
levels" for consideration.  If approved, the program would commence 
later this year in some communes, then be expanded gradually to 500 
communes.  Duyen said the Party has not yet selected the 500 
communes that would participate.  In 2010, the GVN would evaluate 
the program to see if it could be applied in every commune in 
Vietnam. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Some district and commune officials in the three provinces 
said they were unaware of pilot program details.  All welcomed the 
idea, however.  Two officials said that it would be a great "honor" 
to be selected by the people as a candidate for local leadership. 
They cautioned, however, that candidates should have the right 
qualifications and be of "high moral standing." 
 
Comment: Small But Significant Step for "Democracy" 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶8. (SBU) The GVN's OGD is a small but significant step towards 
participatory local government within the context of the GVN's 
top-down, centrally controlled government structure.  Of course, 
when used by the GVN and the Party, "democracy" does not mean the 
ability of people to freely choose their leaders or representatives 
but rather central and local accountability to the people.  The GVN 
and Party began to undertake steps in the late 1990's to improve 
local governance after protests, some of which turned violent, broke 
out over corrupt land deals. 
 
¶9. (SBU) We rarely hear about villagers from Dien Bien, Lai Chau and 
Lao Cai provinces demonstrating over, or coming to Hanoi to protest 
about, corrupt land deals in their communes.  While this is perhaps 
due to low in-migration and low stress on local land and services, 
more likely many people in these isolated provinces are largely 
preoccupied with more basic issues like food and shelter, with 
little time for learning about "grassroots democracy."  Support for 
local legal aid centers and other good governance projects aimed at 
educating the people of these and other outlying areas about their 
rights under the OGD would not only increase citizen's ability to 
actively participate in the political process but would likely be 
palatable to the GVN as well. 
 
MICHALAK