ENEQUALITIES

ENEQUALITIES

By Van Nguyen

   Uncertainties are pervasive in every aspect in the social life of the people. It is self-evident in the corrupt practices in the conduct of public affairs of the officialdom. It is equally manifest in social inequalities, ills, and perils, a reflection of disdain for and disrespect to the population. As a result of ill-conceived economic reforms under the People’s Democracy (1975-1985), the economy worsened, leading to the retrogression in the lives of cadres, workers, and state employees. The magazine “Cong San” (The Communist), in March 1987, acknowledged that until December 1986, the real salary of workers and State employees only values at about 30% of that in October 1985. The Labor Company of Mines in Hon Gai, North Vietnam disclosed that the real salary of mine workers remained at 35% of that of 1985. The mineworker lived on a monthly salary of 3,139 dong.  Nevertheless, he was practically paid only 925 dong. He and his family could survive on meager diet from 7 to 10 days. The conditions of living of the intellectuals, im general, were much more deplorable. On the average, a mlddle level state employee was paid 600 dong monthly   It was less than the income of a soup vendor

    During June-August, 1986, 15,700 workers of the Company for Rubber Plantations in the Western High Plateaus quit jobs. The Sixth National Party Congress in December 1986 found it necessary to issue a stern warning against opportunism, individualism, corruption, and a desire for special prerogatives and privileges. A report to the congress urged the Party to intensify the class struggle to combat the corrupt practices that engaged those who "had lost class consciousness." Official efforts were heated to purify the corrupt ranks and file officials of the working class. However, they failed to combat the responsive chord. The proceedings of the Sixth Congress left the inescapable impression that the regime was barely surviving the struggle between socialism and capitalism and that an early emergence of a Communist class structure was unlikely.

    As ideally envisioned, the socialist sector was expected to provide 70 percent of household income, and the "household economy" or the privately controlled resources of the home were to make up the balance. In September 1986, cadres and workers were earning their living mainly through moonlighting and, according to some Vietnamese source, remained on "the state rolls only to preserve their political prestige and to receive some ration stamps and coupons." The source further disclosed that the society's lack of awareness of class struggle was reflected in the party's membership, among them only about 10 per cent were identified as from the working class (Cima, 1989: 112).

    Son Tra reported in the weekly “Tuoi Tre Chu Nhat” (The Youth Sunday”, November 2, 1990, how a weaver and her family survived under “doi moi” (renovation). “What are they going to do to survive?  The hard pressure for money burdens on her family. Her 18-year-old daughter, a weaver like her, ran away from home. The job is chancy. The factory is planning to lay off hundreds of workers, mostly women workers. “ No jobs! That is the most restless anxiety of thousands of most workers and craftsmen. Not only that. The production is slumbering. The living conditions under which Nguyen Thi Hoang Anh and her husband live are another example they got married a year ago.  Hey saved several ounces of gold and bought a loom. In the beginning, they earn a good living due to working on contract with a textile cooperative at Bay Hien, Saigon. The textile industry is then in abeyance. The business is dying. The businessman is bankrupt, and the contract worker’s business dies accordingly. Nguyen Thi Hoang Anh and her husband work for other weavers. They gain approximately 100,000 dong a month all day and night to support a family of five members, including 3 children; the oldest of them is not yet 5-year-old. “  

   Son Tra noted, in his account of the gap between the rich and the poor in Ho Chi Minh City, as follows: “While the poor people rake for every cent in heaps of garbage, a class of “mandarins of the revolution” indulges in luxurious living. Abuses of power pervade the officialdom, and injustices create anger and discontent, resulting in a serious problem. The occupation  of public estates of party members and cadres takes place in almost all big cities and townships even the center of Ho Chi Minh City where the fight against and the annihilation of corrupt practices is on the rise. Those slogans are mere catchwords for propaganda used to cover up illegal favors for protégés and screening them from crimes and mistakes.

   There is brazen truth linked to almost all rank and file officials of the Party and State. Many of them are not only allocated public facilities for habitation and leisure but also served by men-on-duty and public servants! These privileges have never been scrutinized in the searchlight of renovation as if public properties were reserved for the privileged class! The budget spent for this kind of luxury is really astounding.  If we rent a four-seat sedan plus a driver in Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi for one day, we have to pay from 70,000 d0ng to 100,000 dong, depending on what the makes are. As regards house rentals, in business quarters such as Hang Dao Street tin Hanoi or Le Thanh Ton Street in Ho Chi Minh City, a businessman has to pay30, 000 per month for each square meter. Redesigning, we will see how colossal the State debt paid for all the allocations under the “bao can” (cadre’s protection policy) will be!

   There is, of course, no equality of wealth between the rich and the poor [even in a classless society as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam aspires to come up to!] However, no particular class is entitled to favors without the control of the society. Social objections will become increasingly intense as the commodity economy requires all citizens to familiarize themselves with the measurement of every ounce of raw materials, every minute of work, and every square meter of estates, facilities, and factories. The question is to open a bookkeeping account for national properties, the budget paid for each State agency and each state official in such a way that the people will be able to duly tolerate errors and mistakes. Every legal payment must be approved by the legislative body. The nominal salary should not be used as shield for an act of indecent conduct or a cover for an unjust allocation of public property or interests, and, worse still, for the protection of corrupt practices that are decaying the officialdom and breaking down the State (H. Son Tra, 1990).

      Le Ha Van depicted the utter misery the true “class of workers” in the Socialist country suffers under renovation. They are mostly homeless and do up garbage for living. They are commonly called garbage excavators.  Waste materials are like silver and gold to them. An old person is observantly working beside a rubbish-heap at Hoang Van Thu Park (Saigon). Her rheumy eyes which are used in place of a flash light are searching through the heap that has been dug up with fingers by a younger and stronger “excavators” who have come previously. A filthy smell expires. She says: “Waste paper is sold at 1’000 dong (approximately 10 cents) per kilogram, nylon bags may be sold at 1,500 dong, and paper bags and bottles can be sold only at 500 dong.”       

     “Excavators” are mostly young people. They are from suburban wards of Tan Binh Precinct and Hoc Mon District. That “army” work from midnight to dawn when luxurious Saigon restaurants are gradually transforming their plain figures into the picturesque scenes of neon signs and perfume. With a bicycle and two bamboo-latticed baskets or sacks, the garage gatherer rushes for garbage cans along the sidewalk, turns them upside down, gathers anything he could sell, and leaves for the “market place. Garbage gatherers are everywhere, in the center of Saigon, in Cho Lon (Saigon Chinatown), or Hang Xanh Street. Gia Dinh Township.

   Policy ambiguities and poor dissemination, sudden change in policy can mean that what is generally perceived as legal one day becomes illegal the next. Sometimes, it is not easy to change one’s situation as the new policy requires. The economic renovation has its setbacks. Getrud Winkie reported in the French magazine “Le Monde Diplomatique” in July 1995 that Vietnam’s economy is viable, but not everyone enjoys its achievements. There is an absence a social orientation in the economic development. It neglects other sectors of the country’s life, thus creating a distant detachment between the rich and the poor.