RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE

 

Religious Intolerance

By Van Nguyen




The State of Vietnam always takes pride in its records of human rights in foreign affairs and political propaganda. Religious freedom is differentially defined as a basic right in the constitution. The official media chines in withpraise. The Communist Party of Vietnam and State are faithful to this principle, promoting the right to religious freedom of the citizen. There is no such thing as political prisoner or prisoner of conscience in Vietnam. The administration abides by international and domestic laws. Curiously enough, peaceful advocates for freedom, democracy, and human rights in the country face harsh treatment, arrest, and imprisonment on criminal charges such as infringements on public disorder and national security. Hundreds of religious leaders, dignitaries, and laymen of all faiths have served terms of prison and/or house surveillance for the protection of the rights to religious worship. Obstruction to international intervention and support is common. Quite a few world rights personalities are barred from entering Vietnam to make contacts with the dissidents or to investigate the rights situation.

International personalities and agencies expressed concerns over such a repressive religious policy. In a letter sent to Nguyen Tan Chieu, the Ambassador of Vietnam to the United States, Msgr. John H. Ricardo President of the Episcopal Commission for International Politics expressed profound disquiet of the U.S. Catholic Church as regards “the violent repression” against the Vietnamese Christians and the detention of the Catholic priest Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly. The letter specifically reminded the latest tragic incidents affecting the Montagards or “the Dega people.”” The majority of these Christians, who had been treated with brutality for years, still suffered violent repression. Concerning the “heart-rending” case of Fr. Nguyen Van Ly, the letter stressed the miserable repressive conditions under which the priest lived his faith and struggled for religious freedom. The letter asked the ambassador to transmit to his government the expression of disquiet of the U.S. Catholic Church with regard to this matter. Abuses of power continually took place. The U.S. State Department, in particular, included Vietnam in list of the countries of particular concern (CPC).

In February 2002, the Commission for Religious Freedom of the Evangelical Alliance in Canada published a report on the situation of human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam. Observations and remarks were made on the character of the single-party rule. The report noted that Vietnam is one of the five communist countries of the world.  It governs its 80 million inhabitants by one of its policies of which the world could realize the tragic condition man suffers in the twentieth century. In the manner of China, it has rejected much of the Marxist ideology that permits the citizen to do private business. The economy makes progress, although half of the population continues to live in poverty. It still hangs up on a Marxist dogma by which it perpetuates the domination of the Communist Party on every aspect of the political and social life of the people, to institute it a principle in the Constitution. Political opposition is forbidden. The freedom of the press does not exist. All mass medias operate under the control of the State. There is no independent justice.  Independent labor unions are outlawed. 

The Constitution of Vietnam contains an article on religious freedom, but it is very much obsolete as compared to the dispositions provided by international rights treaties to which Vietnam is a signatory such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The believers of all faiths face criminal charges from the government for ungrounded reasons. Religious freedom should be practiced in accordance with the arbitrary laws of Vietnam. Decrees on the religion explain in confusion with a multitude of notes and circulars preyed to capricious interpretations by the local authorities who are hostile to the religion. Of most curiosity, when these laws embarrass the government and appear to favorite the believer, the authorities ignore them conveniently and the believers become the object of “administrative arrests” and of condemnations,” the domain where the frail jurisprudence of the country, in a way, stays aside. Moreover, these authorities are clever in the art of utilizing shifts and false pretenses to brutalize and abuse the believer. The Vietnamese “laws” in practice, situate well in the side of international standards. The least legal protection given to the believer is ignored. All religions are viewed as the hostile forces, and advocates for the rights, the enemies to the regime. Pham the Duyet, a Politburo member and President of the Fatherland Front makes more explicit in a conceptual frame of policy, when referring to Christianity, the potential hostile force to the regime, said as follows “America has lost the war with bombs and canons. The enemies of Vietnam have never abandoned the struggle against the revolution of the people. Their new strategy is ‘political evolution,’ and their arms are the tenets of human rights, democracy, and religious freedom. The vanguard of this new attack is the Evangelical Christianity. Just see how the Churches have helped to overthrow the regimes in Europe.”       


On the occasion of the new lunar tear Quy Mui (2003), the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang sent a message to the Vietnamese Buddhists in which he encourages firm resistance against political and religious repression and end in a non-violence struggle for democracy, religious freedom, and respect for human rights.  The religious, aged 85, is the highest dignitary of that important part of Vietnamese Buddhism who refused to rally with the Buddhist Church of Vietnam founded in 1981 under the sponsorship of the Fatherland Front of Vietnam and the Bureau of Religious Affairs. His letter is clandestinely sent since the Quang Phuoc Pagoda in the province of Quang Mgai where he has been exiled since February 1982, as he recalls himself in the opening of the letter.


 In several lines, the religious traces a table of very dim situation of the society. Which, according to him, undergoes a serious crisis?  Moral values are in decline. Social problems multiply; gangs and robbers reign in impunity. Facing this state of things, the Buddhists must not lower their eyes or accept the situation. They must put into application in their ambiguous rule "the six Buddhist principles of the peaceful and harmonious life." The practice of these principles will contribute to building a society founded on “ethic equality," which serves to eradicate the elimination of classes and racial discrimination, and on "social equality and harmony," which serves to elevate the moral values that have increasingly marginalized the Vietnamese peasantry. The Buddhists, the religious said, must heighten their courage and participate in social action in all domains, following the examples of their ancestors.

In his conclusion, the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang observes that, in the history of Vietnam, the Vietnamese Buddhists, religious or laic, living in the country or abroad, wernumerous. He adds that the Buddhists of the Vietnamese diaspora today plays the role of a decisive importance, because the traditional leaders of Buddhism are today in prison or under residence surveillance or prevented from accomplishing their missions. That is why; he calls on the latter to perpetuate the spirit of Vietnamese Buddhism and to make themselves spokesmen overseas for their co-religious fellows, victims of repression in the country  

On April 19, 2004, the Most Venerable Thich Duc Chan of the Institute of the Clergy and the Most Venerable Thich Vien Dinh of the Institute of the Propagation for the Dharma of the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church sent a letter to President Tran Duc Luong and Prime-minister Phan Van Khai requesting the liberation of the religious who had been detained. The letter stressed that the Unified Church always practiced its religious activities within the framework of the law and in conformity with rules and regulations. Nevertheless, throughout a long period of oppression, the religious underwent miserable trials to preserve faith. Authorities perpetually imposed harsh measures even on the highest leadership of the Church. The Most Venerable Thich Quang Do was still placed under residence surveillance. The whole body of clerical hierarchy of the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church was isolated and neutralized. Four religious in charge of religious functions were officially condemned to 24 months under administrative detention. Twenty others among whom were the Patriarch Thich Huyen Quamg and the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do. They were condemned “verbally” and placed under residence surveillance without due legal procedures.

The Communist rule, nevertheless, ignored repeated calls by international rights agencies and groups to implement the rights situations in the country. It continued to imprison and detain individuals for religious activity and advocacy for religious freedom. Independent religious activity remained illegalness’ converts to ethnic minority Evangelical Christianity and members of independent sects of Hoa Hao, Cao Dai and Buddhism faced discrimination, intimidation, and pressure to renounce their faiths.

RELIGIOUS POLICY—THE CHARACTER (III)

 Religious Policy-The Character

By Van Nguyen




 On December 25, 2002, Msgr. Pham Minh Man, Archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City, sent the following letter to the Fourth National Congress of the Committee of Union of Catholicism (formerly Committee of Union of Catholic Patriots).  Comments on the task of the committee and a list of serious critics on social evils in the actual Vietnamese society and the political monopoly of power of the regime that governs it are noticeable. (EDA 368, February 1, 2003)

          To Fr. Nguyen Tan Khoa, President of the Committee

          of Union of Catholicism and the representatives at the 4th Congress of  Vietnamese Catholics for the edification and defense of the Fatherland

      Thank sincerely for the invitation to the Congress that you sent to me. First of all, I send my salutations and wish for peace from Christ to all representatives. My pastoral task is not permitting me to come to participate in the congress. By the intermediary of this letter, I desire to send to all participants these several opinions and, thereby, I would contribute to the prospective task of edification of the country and defense of the fatherland in the actual situation.

      To serve man is the supreme objective of all organizations and social institutions. This affirmation determines man as the object of interest as well as the final goal of all cultural, economic, and social action in the national community. In effect, does it not express the fundamental truth concerning human dignity? It is from this cause of truth are derived the pressing needs and exigencies that should be met with in the actual circumstances whereby we edify a more human society in Vietnam, our fatherland. These needs and exigencies present two tasks that are as follows:

      I. Eliminate corrupt practices of the actual society

      1. Put into work the human values that will permit all citizens to receive welfare, to live in independence, freedom, and happiness in conformity with the dignity as man.

      2- Eliminate the most serious corrupt practices, the alienation of man from the dignity as Man

      Alienation is a phenomenon that deprives of man his dignity. This phenomenon appears and grows in the actual society:     

      - As the habit of consumption immerses man in the circle of artificial and delusive satisfactions;

    

      -as work is organized in this manner, maximum of benefits will be practically translated into means devoid of the consciousness of improving the lives and progress of the workers.

    -as one reverses means to an end, and as man is considered the object of the development, he becomes a means of production;

     -as liberty becomes the right to do what one pleases, it produces  immediate advantage for one’s own , foe one’s own  group, for one’s  own place while liberty  is the right to accomplish what conscience authorizes one to accomplish one’s  task for the common good, and for the interests of the actual generation and the generations to come. When one alienates oneself from human dignity, liberty is mere opportunism or arbitrary means granted by those who hold power and force. Liberty as such, instead of bringing peace, joy, and happiness to everyone, will risk creating accumulations for injustices for the society.

     

    II. Eliminate the second of the most serious social corrupt practices, an unjust and alienating regime.

     The system "apply for-approval" is typical of an unjust and alienating regime. It is the generator of injustices and rights alienation for the following reasons:

     -The system "apply for-approval" transforms the rights of the citizen to liberty into a slavery submission to the power held by the State, the power with which the State decides as it pleases, to bestow the citizens of the country a favor under the form of authorization. Thus, this system deprives the citizens of the country of their liberty, and, at the same time, it transforms the State of the people; from the people, and by the people into a State of slaves at the service of a suzerain master who holds in his hands the rights of the citizens of the country and bestows them its favor as he pleases and in accordance with his whims and wishes.

      -According to the press, it is that system "apply for-approval" that provokes the evasion from the public funds 50% of financial resources and 50% of what remains, which disappeared right at the time the funds were granted. That means that the small minority of those who hold force and power benefit from 75% of the public funds of the nation and only 25% is provided for more than 70 million people. Such a reality creates serious instances of injustices in the society, and thus never ceases to enlarge the gap that separates the rich and the poor in the interior of our people. The same is true with the spread of systemic peculation at the high echelon of the bureaucracy that rages in our society. It is an immensely insurmountable obstacle to the development of the country and an impediment to the promotion for the dignity of man to be a value.

     II. Put into practicethe  human dignity to render the society ever more human

     1- Put into practice the respect for the  human dignity and the hu

     This task requires that all organs and all institutions, in their social relations, pay full attention to and respect for Man. The task should be done at the heart all cultural, economic, and social activities, that is, all activities should be oriented toward the development and progress of mankind and coordinated within  an integral body, spirit and soul, the three dimensions that constitutes the dignity and personality of man. It seems that the educational system, in our actual society, is inclined to move toward the transmission of specialized knowledge rather  than the development of the human person. An orientation as such risks forming generations of destitute, crippled, and handicapped people for the nation.

      2- Social development and human progress must be founded on the Truth

      A society can be considered as orderly and humanly oriented only when it is founded on the truth. The base truth lies in the human relations. That is, all men are treated equally as man. It requires that one renounce discriminations—partial treatments-- that one eliminates all forms of dictatorship and that one repudiate dishonesty and intrigues—the vices that outspread nowadays in all domains of the life of man and society.

      3- Make a value the spirit of solidarity in the national community

      The spirit of solidarity can only be solidly edified and developed on the base of the respect for man and his rights, the respect for his legitimate independence, the respect for the right to self-determination of the civil organization, and the respect for the moral values of our cultural traditions. The spirit of solidarity must be placed above the interests of any particular organizations and groups. It should be put into practice to the service of the lasting development, of the constant progress of man, and of the family and the society.

      4- Make a value the spirit of complementarity in all social organizations

     The edification, solidarity and union in the bosom of the nation could only bear fruit in so far as al social organizations will put into action the spirit of complementarity. That is the characteristic of the true organization whereby the association at the superior level should not interfere in the internal affairs of the one at the inferior level and encroach on its competency and autonomy. On the contrary, it coordinates its own activities with those of other social organizations at the lower levels. In the interior of all social organizations the practice of the spirit of complementarity, all citizens, civil associations, religious or not, and without distinction of classes, are free to take initiatives to  conduct their activities for the service of the development and progress of man and the family, and of the reinforcement  of juridical foundations of the nation. The spirit of complementarity prevents any organization or social collectivity, be it the highest one, such as the State, from the monopoly of power as far as the national development is concerned, This axiom construes the common task of the entire people and of diverse social components of the national community. Besides, the monopoly of power only leads to dictatorship, absolutism, bureaucracy, protectionism, oppression and injustice—the calamities that debase human dignity and raise obstacles to the development of the country.

      Complementarity, as it is conceived above, is the foundation necessary for the edification of a democratic society and a State of the people, from the people, and to the service of the people. Without this foundation, the State, instead of being an organization to the service of the people, becomes an apparatus of tyrannical domination while the people, instead of benefitting the statute of a master, is no more than a blind and passive instrument to the service of this apparatus. A reversal of this epithet alienates man from human dignity and disintegrates the society,

      5- Make a value the consciousness of the public good and the will to serve

      First of all, the consciousness of the common good is the necessary condition to the exercise of the right to liberty s of the citizen, the making of human dignity a value. From the cause of reason, the service to the common good requires that tasks are to be organized by the State. The latter core administration must create conditions which guarantee the rights of every citizen and every social organization to benefit from freedom and the dignity as man, which are values essential to the development of the country.  Also, it must eliminate unjust regulations and measures that are contrary to the cultural traditions of our nation. The regime "apply for-approval" is a type-example of unjust regulation. A million and more abortions that take place every year results from the typical example of a measure that is contrary to the moral principles whose past and present consequences have endangered our nation in an uncertain future.

        I think that the Catholics wish that the representatives contribute to the edification and defense of the fatherland in an appropriate manner, according to conscience and in conformity with the commitments of the Catholics, along with other motive-drives that help to enrich the culture and the spiritual forces of the Vietnamese people. I wish your Congress a New Year and new progress and acquirements.

Sincerely,”