2006/4/17
By Grant McCool, HANOI, Reuters
Corruption shadows Vietnam's ruling Communist Party as it convenes this week to decide on leadership, broader economic reforms and further international integration over the next five years.
A multimillion dollar bribery and gambling scandal that led to the Transport Minister resigning and the arrest of his deputy on April 4 prompted a top official to acknowledge corruption was a threat to one of the world's few communist governments.
"Bureaucracy, corruption and wastefulness are serious," Phan Dien, 68, of the elite 15-member Politburo, said at a pre-Congress news briefing on April 13. "They are a threat to our society and a threat to the survival of our regime."
He said the Party wanted to improve procedures to select honest, high caliber personnel to govern the poor Southeast Asian country of 83 million people. Party membership is about 3.1 million, the Party said. Vietnamese and western observers expect some changes among the top posts of General Secretary, President, Prime Minister and others at the five-yearly Party National Congress, which starts on Tuesday and ends on April 25.
Anti-corruption campaigns, especially before the Congress, have been a feature of one-party rule, political analysts said. But they said Transport Minister Dao Dinh Binh's resignation to take responsibility for officials' stealing millions of dollars from a state road and bridge building unit, reached higher.
"Some top leaders are serious about fighting corruption, but you can't rule out other people who might try to use the case for more political ends," said analyst Martin Gainsborough, director of a project for the University of Bristol, England, in Vietnam.
"Corruption could be a lot worse, and it is not as bad as Russia, Philippines and Cambodia, for example," he said.
The major streets of the capital Hanoi are filled with fluttering red banners with yellow hammer and sickle insignia to welcome nearly 1,200 delegates. The national red flag with a yellow star flies on many buildings.
The opening and closing ceremonies will be televised live, but debates and voting in closed sessions will determine membership of the Politburo, Central Committee and other posts.
Members will vote on whether or not Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh, President Tran Duc Luong and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai should stay in office. Manh was chosen in 2001 and Luong and Khai have served two consecutive five year terms.
The party is traditionally secretive about leadership selection and officials declined to comment on those positions.
A multimillion dollar bribery and gambling scandal that led to the Transport Minister resigning and the arrest of his deputy on April 4 prompted a top official to acknowledge corruption was a threat to one of the world's few communist governments.
"Bureaucracy, corruption and wastefulness are serious," Phan Dien, 68, of the elite 15-member Politburo, said at a pre-Congress news briefing on April 13. "They are a threat to our society and a threat to the survival of our regime."
He said the Party wanted to improve procedures to select honest, high caliber personnel to govern the poor Southeast Asian country of 83 million people. Party membership is about 3.1 million, the Party said. Vietnamese and western observers expect some changes among the top posts of General Secretary, President, Prime Minister and others at the five-yearly Party National Congress, which starts on Tuesday and ends on April 25.
Anti-corruption campaigns, especially before the Congress, have been a feature of one-party rule, political analysts said. But they said Transport Minister Dao Dinh Binh's resignation to take responsibility for officials' stealing millions of dollars from a state road and bridge building unit, reached higher.
"Some top leaders are serious about fighting corruption, but you can't rule out other people who might try to use the case for more political ends," said analyst Martin Gainsborough, director of a project for the University of Bristol, England, in Vietnam.
"Corruption could be a lot worse, and it is not as bad as Russia, Philippines and Cambodia, for example," he said.
The major streets of the capital Hanoi are filled with fluttering red banners with yellow hammer and sickle insignia to welcome nearly 1,200 delegates. The national red flag with a yellow star flies on many buildings.
The opening and closing ceremonies will be televised live, but debates and voting in closed sessions will determine membership of the Politburo, Central Committee and other posts.
Members will vote on whether or not Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh, President Tran Duc Luong and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai should stay in office. Manh was chosen in 2001 and Luong and Khai have served two consecutive five year terms.
The party is traditionally secretive about leadership selection and officials declined to comment on those positions.
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