Within the context of renovation the Directive No.
37/CT-TG on religions, the Communist Party and State could not dissimulate worries
about the rising dissent among diverse religious circles, especially various
Buddhist sects operating in Hue, The administration apparently sought to soothe
stubborn opponents. Among other things,
it eulogized: “Beliefs and religions are spiritual needs of part of the population.”
In a sense, it recognizes the legitimacy of religion. A religion is an organization that belongs to the people, comes from the people
and works for the people. It is the spiritual med of the people. That is the concept
of Ho Chi Minh thought, of one of the ideological tenets the Communist Party
the State have ever cherished. The
Directive reminded the fact that right after the proclamation of independence
on September 2 1945, President Ho Chi Minh cited, among other pressing needs,
the urgent task is to solidify national
union, to unite the believers and
non-believers. President Ho Chi Minh had declared: “The colonialists and
landlords practiced a politics of division separating our compatriots of
beliefs from those of non-beliefs, to be able to govern our people more
aggressively. He suggested to the government to proclaim the right to liberty
of beliefs and the union of the believers and non-believers. Ho Chi Minh.
Complete Works, Vol. 4, pp. 8-9). That orientation from the directive, in the
views of the authorities, has been applied in the unanimity and in conformity
with various changing circumstances. Therefore, the Vietnamese Communist Party
and State have repeated numerous directives and enacted multiple decrees in
order that this orientation be put into practice, suitably and effectively.
The Control
To anticipate questions and objections, the
directive consolidates its position, arguing that he management of religious
activities, the State, has its objectives which cadres should achieve to
guarantee the legitimacy pertaining to the liberty of belief and religion as
well as the liberty of non-belief and non-religion of the people. But, the State at the same time ought to
maintain public order and have authority over the religions to prevent evil
doers from taking advantage of the religions and abusing the rights to liberty
of religion to sabotage national integrity. The history of diverse nations and
the history of Vietnam as well have proven this. The believers of diverse
religions also know this. Save for the
enemies that maliciously use religion as a means to defame the sacred character
of religion and discredit the authenticity of religious faith. The fight
against evil doers who use religion for
illicit purpose is then an urgent need. It is equally a pressing task of the cadres and all true
believers as well.
To achieve this objective, the Directive 37 of the
Politburo stressed that the government would bring in complements to all
existing decrees. It would then prepare an executive order on the religion and
presented it to the Permanent Committee
of the National Assembly for promulgation. This order would serve as the
compass for the management of all religions, thus creating favorable conditions
for the legal functioning of religious activities. It was in the spirit that
the government promulgated the Decree 26 of April 19, 1999 whose main objective
was to complete the Decree 69/ HDBT of 1991 which would nevertheless remain in force while awaiting
the promulgation of the new legislation on religions.
This new law, to the observer, was essentially a
move towards establishing a more elaborate law on religions, prepared by the
State Bureau of Religious Affairs and nominally adopted by the National
Assembly. The hope for a real and true
law for religions nevertheless remained
a dream. As usual, no sooner had an old law been abrogated than a new one of the same nature came into being.
Remarks
The Decree 26/1999/ND-CP, the authorities believed,
reflect perfectly the spirit and thought as regards religion of Ho Chi Minh
expressed in his speeches in September 1945 when the country entered the period
of national reconciliation and the Communist Party sought to calm down
religious leaders to build national union in face of foreign aggression. In a soothing tone, the six-point directive of
the Politburo heightens the respect for and guarantee of liberty of religious
belief and non-belief, into a solid union under the Party’s leadership to accomplish their civic tasks, to protect the
interests of the Vietnamese socialist fatherland, maintain independence and national
suzerainty. The Communist administration again,
guarantees a legal status for the believers. The cultural and moral values
of religion are respected and promoted.
The promises of the State are nevertheless
unconvincing. In the fact place, they are mere empty promises. The believers were fully aware of the
two-edged twist of words the State always devises to veil its hidden intention. People would
easily get trapped and fall prey to its vile schemes. This intention is
self-evident as the Party admonished with warnings and threats the believers
right in this directive with these terms: “the dealings of evil doers that lie under
the cover of religious activities, endanger public order, cause harm to
national independence. sabotage the politics of national union, that oppose the Party and State of the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam, that infringe on moral values and the ways of life and
culture of the nation, and that alienate the clergy and the faithful from civic
duties. These evil-doers all will be judged according to the law. Superstitions
will be criticized
The Decree 26/1999/ND-CP renews the ideological
interpretation expressed in other preceding directives and laws on religions..
Compared with the Decree 69 of 1991,
there is no real novelty that could be found in the Decree 26. The political
nature of the two decrees is virtually the same. The difference is that many articles
in the latter decree are more specific. Democratic liberty in it is defined
clearly, and the responsibilities vested in the State are prescribed with
concrete substance. Article 1 of the
Decree 69 states: “The State guarantees the
liberty of belief and the liberty of non-belief of the citizen.” But, Article 1
of the Decree 26 adds the word “religion” : “The State of the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam guarantees liberty of belief and religion as well as the liberty
to belief or non belief or non-religion pf the citizen.”
Distinction
between Belief and Religion
Belief belongs to the domain of conscience, of
sentiment, and of thought. Religion belongs to a much more vast domain,
comprising activities as well as the physical structures. The Decree 26 thus
contains new dispositions concerning religious activities and organizations.
Beyond its precepts as regards belief and religion, the State assured the
religion the protection of the law.
Article 8 specifies that “The religious organizations whose ideals of life aim
to realize religious orientations and whose rules of organizations are in
conformity with the laws those that are authorized to function by the chief of
government or the Bureau of Religious Affairs and are protected by the law.”
Article 2 affirmed: “The State protects the places of cult of religious
organizations.” There are still other articles of the Decree 26 that imply the basic principle
according to which the State and the law will protect and guarantee the liberty
of religious activities and facilities of the religion within the framework of
the State and the law.
Prior authorization for religious activities are
nevertheless necessary., Le Quang Vinh, the Chief of the State Bureau of Religious
Affairs argued that, considering the real meaning of the term “liberty,” there is practically no contradiction between
liberty and application for authorization. In the world, there exists no
country in which the authorities tend to eliminate the procedure of application
for authorization. That formality, on the contrary, helps to differentiate what
is legal from what is illegal. Therefore, the State exercises general rules of
law to protect, guarantee, and defend
the legality of the authorization process. When you apply for authorization,
you are protected. Do not apply for
authorization is to reject a very precious right, the right to be protected.
Thus, is there anything abnormal in the act of applying for authorization ?
Reactions from
the Catholic Conference of Bishops
The Decree
26/1999/ND-CP met with resolute reaction from the highest Catholic clergy. In
its letter of communication to the government, the Episcopal Conference of
Vietnam expressed its opinions as regards the Politburo’s directives concerning
the religions. Before that, during its annual convention in October 1999, the
bishops had publicly pronounced that they could not keep silent on the two
latest government legal documents since they triggered discontent in diverse
religious milieus of the country. A letter of communion was issued after that
although the Bureau of Religious Affairs suggested that the affairs be buried.
The authorities contested that the intervention on the part of the bishops in a
form of a letter with its considerations should be expressed through open
communication, instead and that this communication should be transmitted to the
competent authorities.
The letter is entitled “General Considerations of
the Vietnamese Episcopal Conference as regards the Decree 26/1999/ND-CP of
April 19, 1999 to the Government,” It was dated October 16, 1999, the last day
of convention of the Episcopal Conference of Vietnam. The directives of the
Politburo evidently holds a firm position as regards religions and religious
politics as well. The viewpoints of the Episcopal Conference in the letter of
communication are not much less resolute. and, thus, must not be ignored. It
was nevertheless a hard-fought encounter on the part of the bishops. At
intervals, the bishops expressed their solidarity with other religious
congregations of the country. Prior to the conference, the Cardinal President
of the Episcopal Conference had hesitated to sign the appeal to the civil
authorities. He had to wait until the October Episcopal convention when the
bishops adopted an attitude on this subject.
Files and documents with evidence in the areas of education, culture,
and charitable works were well instituted. In the same way, the general
attitude of the authorities towards the religions and the society, in general,
should be put under consideration before
a final draft was executed.
Summarizing, the letter attested the facts that 1.
Many people of diverse religions feel the same impression, as it is known,
that, in the domain of religious freedom, the Decree 26 `is not an aperture but
a shutter [to religious freedom; 2. Many articles of the decree, instead of
creating favorable conditions for religious activities, intentionally foster complications and difficulties; 3. The Decree 26 bars the
way to the establishment of the legal
bases that allow the religions to contribute to the building and development of
the country, particularly in the fraternal and spiritual domains, closing doors
to all efforts of the religions to extend their social works. By appropriating
the properties and confiscating their lands, forbidding, until the present
time, the Catholic Church to acquire land, the State practically debarred the politics of privatization of the State
(EDA 297). and 4. The Decree 26, fails
to create favorable conditions for the religions to contribute to the
enhancement of the democratic spirit in the administration of the State and
implementing the organs of the State to effectively carry out the functions of the State to the service of
the people.
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