W.Minh Tuan

Mr. Sau Phong Nguyen Minh Triet is the former Secretary of Song Be Provincial Party Committee. After that, Song Be was split into two provinces, Binh Duong and Binh Thuan, and Binh Duong is said to be the province with the fastest growing economy in the country under the leadership of “Mr. Sau Phong”.

But public opinion only really knew much about “Mr. Sau Phong” when in January 1997, Mr. Sau Phong was assigned to be Deputy Secretary of the Saigon Party Committee. At that time, “Mr. Sau Phong” was 55 years old. No local secretary has ever been appointed to lead Saigon.

There are many rumors about the future position of “Mr. Sau Phong”.

In Hanoi at that time, there was a lot of information that “Mr. Sau Phong” would only be Deputy Secretary of Saigon temporarily for a short time, then would become Secretary of Saigon and then join the Politburo. That is a stepping stone, so that later he can go to Hanoi to make it bigger. Our Party’s cadre work often has quite thoughtful personnel preparations. If anyone is in the sights of the Politburo, that is, in the “structure” that will be the future leader, then that person will rise like a kite.

At that time, I heard rumors that comrade Sau Phong would definitely become Prime Minister, or even General Secretary.

It is said that it is the Central personnel estimate.

In 1997, comrade Le Kha Phieu became General Secretary.

If by the 9th Congress in 2001, comrade Le Kha Phieu is still General Secretary, then comrade Sau Phong will be Prime Minister. And if comrade Le Kha Phieu ceases to be General Secretary, the position of General Secretary will belong to comrade Sau Phong.

Those were the rumors back then in Hanoi.

General public opinion is very supportive of comrade Sau Phong, because with the example of Binh Duong province developing so quickly, both in the domestic economy and in attracting foreign investment capital, it is likely that the Binh Duong model will be multiplied to the whole country, if Comrade Sau Phong becomes Prime Minister, or General Secretary.

Furthermore, he is still young and has a lot of potential.

However, that expected personnel was reversed.

When Comrade Sau Phong became Deputy Secretary of Saigon in 1997, Comrade Truong Tan Sang was Secretary of Saigon. Saigon under the leadership of comrade Truong Tan Sang, the Nam Cam gang thrived.

At that time, it was said that the Central Committee’s plan was to send comrade Truong Tan Sang to Hanoi to hold some position. Then Comrade Sau Phong will replace comrade Truong Tan Sang as Secretary of Saigon.

But people did not see comrade Truong Tan Sang go to up to Hanoi. That’s why Comrade Sau Phong returned to be Deputy Secretary of Saigon from January 1997. By December 1997, Comrade Sau Phong had to go to Hanoi to work as Head of the Central Mass Mobilization Committee, and that was a reasonable reason, so that the Central Committee can bring comrade Sau Phong into the Politburo, waiting for the right time.

Finally, comrade Truong Tan Sang also went to Hanoi to become Head of the Central Economic Commission. Thanks to that, in January 2000, comrade Sau Phong was able to “release” and return to Saigon, to become Secretary of Saigon, to prepare for a new promotion step.

But by then, the opportunity had passed. After more than 2 years as Head of the Central Mass Mobilization Commission, which is also a formal position, every opportunity was missed.

In April 2001, at the 9th Party Congress, at that time, Comrade Sau Phong had only been Secretary of Saigon for more than a year, and could not immediately return to the Central Committee to make things bigger. So comrade Sau Phong settled down as Secretary of Saigon for 6 years, until 2006, on the occasion of the 10th Party Congress.

But at that time, comrade Sau Phong was already quite old.

In 2001, Comrade Sau Phong was 59 years old. If he became General Secretary or Prime Minister, he would still be quite young. We should remember that Comrade Nong Duc Manh became General Secretary in 2001, when he was 61 years old. But in 2006, comrade Nguyen Minh Triet was 64 years old, and he was at a loss for any position.

At the 10th Congress in 2006, comrade Sau Phong-Nguyen Minh Triet accepted the position of State President, also a formal position, mainly receiving international guests.

When he first took office as President, comrade Nguyen Minh Triet gave a very good interview to the press. He cited Uncle Ho’s saying:

“Whatever is beneficial to the people, we must do our best.

Anything that is harmful to the people must be avoided as much as possible.”

In a meeting with overseas Vietnamese people, President Nguyen Minh Triet also had a very good and bold saying:

  “If you don’t want to build socialism or communism, that’s okay. But first, you must be a patriot.”

No Party or State leader has ever dared to say, “If you don’t want to build Socialism or Communism, that’s okay.”

Only comrade President Nguyen Minh Triet dares to say that.

But it can be said that the position of President also has little power.

According to the Constitution, the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. But according to the Party Charter, the General Secretary is the Secretary of the Central Military Commission, essentially the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. So the President’s position as Commander in Chief of the Army is just written on paper for fun.

Comrade Nguyen Van An, former Chairman of the National Assembly and former Politburo member, also mentioned this ridiculous thing in Vietnamnet newspaper.

Therefore, when comrade State President Nguyen Minh Triet goes on a business trip Abroad, he is very leisurely and relaxed, in no hurry, completely different from the heads of state of other countries.

During trips abroad, sitting on the plane, the President would play trump card with several accompanying staff members. It’s fun.

Comrade President Nguyen Minh Triet is a common man. On business trips from Hanoi to Saigon, or back to Hanoi, the President often flies on commercial planes with civilians, only sitting in economy class.

It is said that on one such flight, a southern woman went to Hanoi to complain about some injustice and recognized President Nguyen Minh Triet sitting on the same plane. This poor woman asked to meet the President, right on the plane, and asked to submit a complaint letter. Comrade President Sau Phong enthusiastically accepted her application, but whether or not her case can be resolved is unknown.

At the 11th Party Congress in 2011, comrade Nguyen Minh Triet was 69 years old, exceeding the age limit set by the Party, so comrade Sau Phong comfortably retired.

Comrade Tu Sang is younger, he should replace Comrade Sau Phong as State President.

Suddenly remembered some verses of famous of general Dang Dung in the post-Tran period year 1300s :

“The head turned silver but country’s revenge has not yet retaliated,

Dragon river shown with moonlight”.

Our country now has peace, but the people are still not prosperous and happy, not truly free or democratic, corruption is still rife, interest groups are rampant, even “unrequited enemies”, but my head is already gray.

Perhaps that was also the thoughts of comrade Nguyen Minh Triet when he left the official position to retire and enjoy leisure:

“Sometime drink wine in early morning,

Sometime take tea at noon,

Sometime watch flowers bloom,

Sometime wait for the moon to rise”.///