Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Foreign investors have been flocking to Viet Nam en masse armed with big ideas on how to tap into South East Asia 's fastest growing economy. Most are attracted by rapid socio-economic development, a young and highly skilled low cost labour force, a platform of social and political stability that allows investments to mature in a low risk environment.

The country where generations - both old and young - have worked together in unity, has made a number of accomplishments and has often won praise from friends from abroad for what the country has managed to overcome in such a short period of time. Unfortunately, there is a small minority of the public that seems intent on destroying what has been built after the two-decade long renewal process.

Viet Nam, although by and large a peaceful country, has fallen victim to a group of radicals that seem driven to fracture the unity we commonly share, to relive painful divisions that have long since healed and in a country they have known since birth.

This group have conspired with criminal and even terrorist organisations that have been responsible for kidnappings, bombings and assassinations, to undo much of the progress the country has made in building a strong, secure and equal society.

Apart from notorious opponents of the government, there recently emerged Nguyen Van Dai, Tran Khai Thanh Thuy and Le Thi Cong Nhan, who have shown themselves to be the loudest of extreme elements.

Nguyen Van Dai was arrested on March 6 and charged with "disseminating slanderous and libellous information against the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam". Dai, working as a lawyer, abused his right to freedom of speech by posting information on the Internet and giving interviews to overseas Vietnamese owned radio stations in which he painted a biased and distorted picture of the country and its internal affairs.

He himself wrote the charter for a splinterest party, “Democratic Party 21,” that chief aims were to create dissention, unrest and eventually to overthrow the government.

In addition, Dai campaigned for a global boycott of Vietnamese products and denial of Viet Nam's membership in the World Trade Organisation and the US 's Permanent Normal Trade Relations status.

Authorities have pointed to Dai's ongoing relationship with the outlawed terrorist group, the “Viet Nam Reform Party,” where he has been found to be active in establishing training courses for the group by using his Thien An Law Office in Ha Noi, as a base.

According to statistics provided by the security agency, Dai, labelled as a “theorist” of the so-called “Viet Nam Democracy Movement,” has so far received over 60,000 USD in funding from reactionary groups of US-based Vietnamese.

The money in large part has been used to fund a scam where the “Viet Nam Committee for Human Rights” group offered law school students scholarships to study in Bangkok, Thailand. There, they attended 'education' workshops that produced anti-government elements operating inside the country.

Dai instructed staff from his Thien An law office to travel to the north-western, Central Highlands and southern provinces to contact several Protestant clergymen and their followers who have also showed hatred to the government.

Here they compiled “evidence” of Viet Nam's suppression of Protestantism and transferred them to the US-based “Committee for Religious Freedom in Viet Nam,” another crony organisation of old thugs and gangsters operating on US soil, and to several staff of the US embassy in Viet Nam. Of course this evidence was doctored, distorted and all in all fabricated to further the aims of Dai and his group.

Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, who was dismissed from her workplace for serious breaches of discipline and ethical regulations, was meanwhile handed the task of the hatchet work for this operation. Thuy has staged herself as a “tireless campaigner for the overthrow of the Vietnamese government.”

She was found to post nearly 200 pieces of libellous and slanderous disinformation pieces of rhetoric on the internet that gave grossly distorted views on socio-economic development, politics, human rights and the right for the universal vote in Viet Nam.

She even called for members of the public to embark on general strikes, mass street demonstrations, immolate themselves and cause explosions. Thuy has repeatedly challenged the police to arrest her in a bid to earn fame and generate financing from overseas donors.

In March, Thuy phoned into a radio show applauding the “Viet Nam Reform Party” extremist group's demonstration in front of the Vietnamese Embassy in Canada. During the call, Thuy urged listeners to embark on a campaign of kidnappings and abductions of Vietnamese diplomats abroad.

Another member of the chain of command is Le Thi Cong Nhan, who was born in 1979. In mid-2006, Nhan joined the “Viet Nam Progression Party” and voluntarily became its spokesperson. More rebellious than her seniors, Nhan made sweeping statements proclaiming a fight to the bitter end with the government, “to fight the Vietnamese State until the end of her life” being one of her more common catch phrases.

Turning a deaf ear to warnings from the government that said they would allow free speech but would not tolerate libel, slander, the incitement of hatred or violence, Nguyen Van Dai, Tran Khai Thanh Thuy and Le Thi Cong Nhan have continued to display a wonton disregard for the law and the welfare of the Vietnamese public at large.

More than 85 million Vietnamese people are working together to build a country that has known too much war and hardship. We have been tireless in our efforts to open up and win friends from the international community. It is truly disheartening and greatly disturbing to see these efforts eroded by a handful of Vietnamese nationals, who were not alive to see where we have come from, the progress we have made and where we are going. As an independent and sovereign nation we should not be brow beaten by vocal extremists into non-action.

But the law will not allow a tiny minority to harm the interests of the vast majority is in direct contrast to what we believe in as a nation and as a people. The Ha Noi People’s Procuracy on April 23 has decided to bring Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan to trial for “disseminating slanderous and libellous information against the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam” in accordance with Article 88 of the Criminal Code.

VNA