VZCZCXRO5822
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHNH
DE RUEHHM #0236/01 0910217
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 010217Z APR 09
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5571
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI PRIORITY 3683
RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY PRIORITY 5807

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HO CHI MINH CITY 000236 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  3/31/2034 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM VM
SUBJECT: POLITICAL TITAN SURVIVES CORRUPTION CHARGES; POLICE AND 
REPORTER GO TO JAIL 
 
REF: (A) 06 HANOI 771  (B) 08 HANOI 672 AND PREVIOUS (C) 08 HCMC 739  (C) 08 HCMC 700 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000236  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Charles Bennett, Acting Consul General, EXEC, 
State. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
¶1. (C) Summary:  A former traffic cop, a Cong An (Police) 
newspaper journalist and even a Major General in the MPS have 
become the latest collateral damage in a political power play 
centered around Danang Party Secretary Nguyen Ba Thanh.  Like 
the PMU 18 scandal (reftels), this story highlights the 
contradictions inherent when the GVN's fight against corruption 
impinges upon the power of top CPV leaders.  An apparent revenge 
motive by at least one accuser added drama while blurring "good 
guy/bad guy" distinctions.  In the latest chapter of this nearly 
decade-old saga, political insiders in Hanoi recruited police 
and a reporter to resurrect stories of previous corruption 
investigations against Danang Party Secretary Nguyen Ba Thanh 
(whom politicians in Hanoi consider a provincial outsider) in 
order to block his promotion to a choice spot in the Hanoi city 
government.  Ba Thanh did not get the job but nonetheless 
appears to have survived the corruption charges with sufficient 
power in reserve to exact vengeance on two police officers and 
one reporter who were (knowingly or otherwise) drawn into a 
political clash of titans.  End summary. 
 
The Man Who Owns the Soil and the Air 
------------------------------------- 
¶2. (C) Danang Party Secretary Nguyen Ba Thanh is a controversial 
figure who simultaneously receives praise for the rapid 
development Danang has enjoyed under his long tenure both as 
People's Committee Chairman and now as Party Secretary and sharp 
criticism for his dictatorial (even by Vietnamese standards) 
style as well as for the immense personal fortune he has amassed 
while running Vietnam's third largest city.  Stories of his 
ruthless hold on power are legion.  Developers who were foolish 
enough to undertake landscaping projects without getting Ba 
Thanh's specific approval for the species of trees planted and 
the style of sidewalk paving, for example, have been shut down 
and forced to redo their work.  Prospective investors who fail 
to discuss their plans with Ba Thanh before starting the 
application process uniformly find that permits are never 
issued.  Ba Thanh's approach to governance even includes 
choosing an official city song for Danang that praises 
everything from the soil to the sky, and all the development and 
landscaping in between.  One of the city's many "open secrets," 
however, is that college students and bloggers have come up with 
an alternate version of the lyrics in which everything in the 
city -- with the exception of a single small bird resting on a 
tree branch -- belongs to Ba Thanh.  The bird belongs to current 
People's Committee Chairman Tuan Anh. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Despite Ba Thanh's reputation for dictatorial 
tendencies and corruption, investors who play by the (unwritten 
but well known) rules to discuss projects with Ba Thanh before 
taking concrete steps praise the Danang administration for speed 
with which actions are taken and the city's commitment to 
supporting investors.  Foreign investors attest that the city 
makes aggressive promises and then lives up to them.  In 
addition, a number of local Vietnamese with whom the CG has 
spoken repeatedly over the past few years report that the city 
considerably loosened its grip on typical small and medium 
enterprises in 2008.  Business persons active in Danang told CG 
that Ba Thanh amassed his fortune through land deals for 
development projects and by participating in contracting for 
public works; he is not know to demand or expect kick-backs from 
individual businesses, Vietnamese or foreign.  The positive 
aspects of Ba Thanh's rule, combined with the excellent 
infrastructure that he has tirelessly promoted, helped push 
Danang to the first spot on the Provincial Competitiveness Index 
in 2008. 
 
What's a Dictator to Do? 
------------------------ 
¶4. (C) Despite his demonstrable success in developing Danang, Ba 
Thanh's reputation as an absolute dictator who not only brooks 
no dissent but also gives no leeway to underlings and even 
colleagues (multiple People's Committee Chairman have left 
during his tenure as Party Secretary) appear to have hurt his 
longer term career prospects.  While Ba Thanh has certainly made 
a mark in Danang, he has been unsuccessful in gaining a 
promotion.  At 56 years old and after 15 years in a single 
province with no Hanoi assignments, Ba Thanh has reached the age 
where he will probably face forced retirement when his tenure as 
Danang Party Secretary ends in 2010 unless he secures a 
follow-on assignment/promotion.  With a follow-on assignment, Ba 
Thanh would be allowed to serve to the end of the (usually five 
year) appointment. 
 
¶5. (C) Ba Thanh -- and many political observers -- thought he 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000236  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
had found his onward assignment: a newly-created position of 
Deputy People's Committee Chairman of Hanoi in charge of 
developing the newly annexed (and largely rural) areas of the 
city.  Rumors of Ba Thanh's evidently successful lobbying 
efforts with the Central Committee of the CPV began circulating 
early in the summer of 2008.  The deal appeared to have been 
sealed last July when the Central Committee of the Communist 
Party recommended Ba Thanh to the People's Committee of Hanoi 
for the position.  In a very unusual move, however, the People's 
Committee of Hanoi did not accept the recommendation and chose a 
local politician instead. 
 
¶6. (SBU) To bolster their rationale for ignoring the CPV's 
"recommendation" of Ba Thanh, city leaders in Hanoi needed a 
stronger rationale than their distrust of outsiders.  According 
to GVN officials from Danang who now work in both Hanoi and 
Danang, the reason given for refusing to give Ba Thanh the job 
was concerns over unresolved allegations of corruption.  Shortly 
after Ba Thanh's nomination in July 2008, blogs and newspapers, 
including the very conservative "Cong An" (Police) newspaper, 
published numerous articles detailing a 2007 corruption 
investigation in which Danang police charged that Ba Thanh 
received four billion VND in bribes from two companies managing 
land confiscation and clearance for a major infrastructure 
project.  Letters from a land rights activist who had written to 
the Prime Minister about Ba Thanh's alleged wrongdoings and who 
later died under mysterious circumstances also began 
circulating.  Stories also cited the long history of corruption 
charges against Ba Thanh, including official investigations 
stretching back to 2000. 
 
¶7. (C) A Singaporean banker and nine-year resident of Danang who 
was involved in many land development and infrastructure 
projects in the city recently helped bring these events into 
focus.  According to the banker, while Ba Thanh's corruption is 
well known inside the CPV, no action has ever been taken - or is 
likely to be.  First, Ba Thanh's corruption is not considered 
excessive and did not appear to be interfering with his 
effectiveness in developing his city.  In addition, he shared 
the wealth with numerous political backers.  The charges against 
him were resurrected, however, because numerous senior 
politicians from Hanoi resented the idea of a provincial 
outsider running a major part of their city. 
 
When Water Buffalo Fight, Fleas Die 
----------------------------------- 
¶8. (C) While news coverage of the corruption investigation 
against Ba Thanh quickly died down once he had been passed over 
for the job in Hanoi, the saga did not end.  As in the PMU 18 
scandal (reftels), what was at heart a battle among political 
titans within the CPV turned into a pogrom against the pawns who 
had been enlisted in the campaign, although in this case "pawns" 
is not entirely accurate since the list of victims includes a 
very senior member of the MPS.  On February 24, 2009, Danang 
city police announced plans to prosecute former MPS Chief 
Inspector and Major General Tranh Van Thanh for his involvement 
in a campaign to discredit Danang Party Secretary Nguyen Ba 
Thanh.  The Major General stands accused of working with a 
former Danang traffic cop named Dinh Cong Sat and Cong An 
(Police) newspaper journalist, Duong Ngoc Tien, to disseminate 
false information about corrupt land deals carried out by Ba 
Thanh. 
 
¶9. (C) Both Sat and Tien had already come under fire for their 
role in a previous case against Ba Thanh.  Sat was arrested in 
December 2007 for "distributing banned materials" while 
journalist Tien was arrested in March 2008 for "abusing 
democracy to harm GVN interests."  According to the Singaporean 
banker, Major General Thanh had previously been warned against 
pursuing charges against Ba Thanh but no action was taken due to 
his rank and his own set of backers.  Following Ba Thanh's 
humiliation in July of 2008, however, he wanted vengeance and 
convinced other senior CPV members that (as in the PMU 18 
scandal), MPS officers as well as reporters had to be shown that 
could not be allowed to become involved in political squabbles. 
While the trial for both Sat and Tien had previously been 
scheduled for September 2008, in August it was postponed 
officially because both defendants had suddenly decided to point 
to Major General Thanh as the officer who instigated the expose 
during pre-trial hearings. 
 
Old Grudges Die Hard 
-------------------- 
¶10. (C) This twisted tale of corruption, politics and revenge 
has even deeper roots.  A well-connected reporter told ConGenOff 
that Dinh Cong Sat blamed Ba Thanh for his dismissal from the 
Danang police force after Sat was accused of moonlighting as a 
security officer for his family's transportation company.  As 
revenge, Sat began disseminating information about Ba Thanh's 
corrupt land dealings to land rights activists and journalist 
Duong Ngoc Tien, who in turn wrote several articles about Ba 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000236  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
Thanh's alleged wrongdoings in Cong An newspaper, leading to the 
2007 investigation. 
 
¶11. (C) The choice of MPS Inspector General, Major General 
Thanh, to resurrect the charges against Danang Party Secretary 
Ba Thanh was no coincidence.  Major General Thanh has deep roots 
in Danang as well as a reputation for honesty.  Before taking 
over as the MPS Inspector General, he had been chief of the 
Danang police.  In 2000, then Colonel Thanh arrested a 
construction contractor for corruption in the development of the 
Han River bridge.  The contractor admitted to police that he had 
bribed Ba Thanh and other officials in his business dealings and 
was sentenced to 13 years in prison.  Ba Thanh's involvement, 
however, was never brought to light, and both the reporter and 
the Singaporean banker independently related that Party 
Secretary Ba Thanh tried to punish the MPS chief for 
interfering.  While Major General Thanh survived the incident, 
both sources state that Party Secretary Ba Thanh did succeed in 
having General Tran Van Van Thanh transferred out of the Danang 
police department.  Despite Secretary Thanh's vendetta, General 
Thanh continued to advance and eventually was promoted to become 
as Inspector General for the MPS.  Because of his past history 
with Secretary Thanh, he was an ideal candidate for Secretary Ba 
Thanh's opponents to recruit. 
 
¶12. (C) Unfortunately for Major General Thanh, the case against 
Secretary Thanh had not been prepared carefully enough to 
withstand the type of scrutiny that Secretary Ba Thanh arranged. 
 In the 2000 investigation, for example, General Thanh had 
personally interviewed some of the key witnesses against 
Secretary Ba Thanh, including the contractor who was convicted. 
In recording his testimony, however, General Thanh typed up a 
statement for the contractor to sign rather than having the 
witness write it out in his own hand.  While having suspects and 
witness sign prepared statements is a very common practice, in 
this particular case it left General Thanh vulnerable.  When 
Secretary Ba Thanh's agents reportedly contacted many of the 
original witnesses who testified about both the 2000 and 2007 
corruption charges, they "miraculously" changed their stories 
entirely and now swear that General Thanh fabricated false 
statements that he forced them to sign without reading. 
 
The Conclusion: No Happy Ending 
------------------------------- 
¶13. (C) Comment:  In this complex tale of politics and 
corruption, no one is innocent and everyone loses, except for 
those in the Hanoi city government intent on keeping Danang 
Party Secretary Ba Thanh out of their city (and even that is 
subject to change).  While Secretary Ba Thanh appears successful 
in securing vengeance against those who acted to thwart his 
political progress, he still lacks an onward promotion.  Given 
his well-known corruption and relative isolation in Danang, if 
he does not secure another post he could even find himself in 
hot water once his power and influence decline.  The MPS 
officers, having outlived their usefulness as whistleblowers, 
now face prosecution and jail time, in Sat's case for carrying 
out a personal vendetta against Secretary Ba Thanh but in 
General Thanh's case for doggedly pursuing what he believed to 
be a valid case against a corrupt but influential politician. 
And as with PMU 18 scandal, the media ranked among the fleas 
squashed during this battle of titans.  End comment. 
 
¶14. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Hanoi. 
BENNETT