RELIGIOUS POLICY—THE CHARACTER (II)

Religious Policy-The Characyrt

By Van Nguyen 






Demands from Religious Dignitaries

On December 27, 2000, four religious dignitaries, the Reverend Nguyen Van Ly of the Archdiocese of Hue, the Reverend Chan Tun of the Redemptorits Order in Saigon, the Most Venerable Thich Thien Hanh of the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church, and the Honorable Le Quang Liem, chairman of the Elders Council of Pure Hoa Hao Buddhism, signed in a declaration tabulating the consequences resulting from the repressive policy on religions of the Communist Party of Vietnam and demanding for the respect for the rights to religious freedom.,  

“Since its conquest of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975, the Communist Party of Vietnam has imposed an inhuman policy as regards the religions of the country.

--Numerous institutions and proprieties belonging to diverse religions—Cao Dai, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hoa Hao Buddhism, and the Evangelical Christianity-- have been shamelessly confiscated, nationalized, and placed at the disposition of the communist rule.

--Numerous documents of judicial character have been promulgated to hog-tie, limit, and suppress religious activities in an inconceivable manner that has never been seen in the history of the country

--Numerous maneuvers of amalgam and of false accusations have been finagled to assign to house surveillance and imprisonment religious leaders who oppose the repressive and destructive religious policy that has been pursued from 1975 until these days.  

 --Numerous maneuvers of intimidation have been perpetuated to undermine the religions from within, to divide their ranks and politicize their objectives such as revealed from hidden schemes operated within the Churches --Cao Dai, Roman Catholicism, Evangelical Christianity, and Buddhism, notably the crafty design that splits up the Buddhist Church into two separate sects, the Buddhist Church of Vietnam and the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church. Most recently, in 1999, the five million Hoa Hao Buddhists ought to endure repression under the direction of a puppet “Commission of Representatives” consisting of 11 members of the Communist Part created by the authorities. This is a monstrous anomaly that has never been seen in the history of religions.  

Facing this cruel policy, which is aimed to strangle the religions, all the Churches of Vietnam have persistently perused a non-violence resistance to demand for the right to religious freedom and have been determined to struggle until they obtain genuine religious freedom as have the Churches in the vast majority of civilized countries in the world.

That is why, nowadays, in line with progressive movements for the rights of the human person, we, the signatories to this declaration, believe that time has come to launch appeal to demand the Vietnamese communist authorities  

1.To scrupulously respect the right to veritable religious freedom in such essential domains as the total freedom and independence of religious leaders in the choice of faith, in the formation and the nomination of priests and in the performance of their own responsibilities in accordance with the needs and spiritual tenets suitable to each faith; to respect the right to religious faith of all Vietnamese citizens by suppressing from now on any mention to religious entity of a citizen in administrative documents so that the citizen could enjoy total peace with regard to regions identity, and no one would see himself discriminated because of religious faith and would enjoy all favorable conditions to live his faith and will no longer suffer repression with such discriminatory measures in the situation as he has been nowadays.                                                                                                                                  

2. To restitute the rights to ownership to diverse Churches their institutions and properties which, for 25 years, have been confiscated, nationalized, and used as properties of the State, or “ceded” to the State under coercion  or  by likely unreliable documents that still in existence or may be lost due to the war. In the latter case, the population should stand as a witness to judge the degree of reliability of the documents and verify the origin of the documents accordingly.  

3.To put an end to crafty maneuvers or posts aiming at stifling and strangling the religions; to put an end to all attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of the religions; to dissolve diverse State-created committees in all forms that operate abnormally and that are only ancillary instruments of the communist State.   

4. To free without condition the religious, seminarians, religious personalities already condemned or still imprisoned in detention centers.

5. To respect diverse provisions of the International Human Rights Convention of September 24, 1982, the covenant to which the Communist State of Vietnam has been admitted membership.”

As far as the laws on religions are concerned, the International Buddhist Information Bureau in Paris said recent decree-laws further lend hand to the authorities to impose stricter control on beliefs and religions in a country where religious activities are solely monitored in places where religious groups function under government-directed executive boards. The government recognizes 31 religions representing 11 diverse religions including the Buddhist Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Evangelical Christian Churches, (State-created) Cao Dai, and (State-created Hoa Hao Buddhism. Non-sanctioned religious groups such as the Christian House Churches or various sects of the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church are outlawed. The Patriarch of the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church Thich Quang Do called these decrees the “harsh” police measures, which are destined to curtail religious freedom in the country.

The authorities have systematically repressed Buddhist organizations since the North Vietnamese took control of the South in 1975. Religious laws and policies are abounding with empty rhetoric and promises. There is nothing but vain hope. Successive policies by the Communist Party and Government of Vietnam generally do not match up realities, if not implacable and mandatory. They are coercive, imposing rules and regulations on the religion, forcing the believers to serve the political goals set forth by the Communist leadership. Inconsistent and confusing decisions, orders, and decrees either by the Party or the government succeed one after another but produce no change. The inconsistency and confusion inherent in the laws substantiate complex difficulties, popular conflicts, and opposition, thus leading to conflict and unrest.  As a consequence, the Ninth Congress and the Seventh Plenum of the Communist Party, drawing lessons from the troubles in the Central Highlands, tried to modify the policy on religion, hoping to remedy the situation. The ordinance promulgated by the National Assembly and the decree by the prime minister that followed equally failed to meet with the needs of all Churches and the aspirations of the laity of all faiths, however.