W.Minh Tuan
On a business trip to Binh Dinh, I met Mr. Kim Ngoc, a famous capitalist in the Central region before liberation. During the Vietnam War, before 1975, Mr. Kim Ngoc was an automobile businessman. Despite the chaos of the war, Mr. Kim Ngoc was still quite successful. He worked hard, treated his company’s employees well, tried to serve customers best, fastest, at reasonable prices, thanks to which he was successful.
After the war ended, Mr. Kim Ngoc lent the Fatherland Front of Binh Dinh province a large house to use as the Front’s headquarters. All the loan documents were complete. In the early 1990s, Mr. Kim Ngoc asked for the house back, but Binh Dinh province did not return it.
Mr. Kim Ngoc was very sad. When he met me in Quy Nhon, he asked me:
-“Why are revolutionaries so fickle?”.
During the war, Mr. Kim Ngoc had also done a lot of work to help the liberation army, and in 1975, he did not evacuate. He hoped that with the new government, he would continue his business. But he was soon disillusioned. The renovation process, then a series of new regulations that were increasingly harsh and restrictive, made it very difficult for him to expand his business.
Once, he confided to me:
-“When I was doing business before liberation, we worked very hard. The money we made was soaked in our sweat and effort. But nowadays, I see people getting rich too easily. Many people get rich quickly after a short time, without doing anything. Do you know why? Because they have connections. They only need to sign a contract, get a license, and overnight, they become rich.”
Mr. Kim Ngoc’s story reflects a reality.
In Vietnam, the words “running projects”, “running quotas”, “running licenses”, etc. have just appeared.
All of these words “running” reflect the evils of bribery, bribery, or using familiar relationships to obtain state licenses, thereby becoming rich. The case of Thang Long Aquarium in Hanoi in 1998-1999 is an example of “running projects”.
If a project can be “run”, then people can become billionaires overnight. They are rich not because of hard work, not because of business talent, not because of good customer service, but because of bribery tricks, thanks to relationships. Their wealth does not make society richer. Their wealth makes society poorer, and social morality is corrupted.
In the South before liberation, during the time of President Nguyen Van Thieu, there were also close relationships with the president, and they became rich. People still mention the general director of the pharmaceutical company Nguyen Cao Thang, the airline businessman Nguyen Tan Trung,,, all of whom prospered thanks to their relationship with Thieu.
However, in the South before liberation, there were still many typical business examples, whose wealth at the same time made society rich. Saigon before liberation had very famous business faces.
In banking, there were Nguyen Thanh Niem, Nguyen Tan Doi, Pham Sanh, Lam Hue Ho.
In transportation, there were Pham Quang Khai, Tang Tai.
Owners of famous factories and companies included Ly Long Than, the owner of famous factories Vinatexco, Vitymex. Mr. Tran Thanh with the famous Vi Huong To instant noodle factory. Father and son Luu Kiet, Luu Tung with the Vykyno agricultural tool factory. Truong Van Khoi had the Viso detergent factory. Then Mr. Vuong Ba Thuc, the owner of Nam A textile company, then the king of bicycles and motorbikes Mai Van Ham, Vuong Dao Nghia, the owner of Hynos toothpaste company,,,.
They were all talented businessmen, hard-working, the relationship between the owner and the worker was like brothers in a family. But after the liberation day, where did they all go?
Their companies were reformed, turned into state-owned enterprises. And they became specialists, technicians. Then they saw their flesh and blood companies losing more and more money, fading away, and the only way to save themselves was to cross the border and leave. If the revolutionaries knew how to truly trust them, knew how to create an open and free business environment, then those businessmen could have become the Hondas, the Toyotas, the Yamahas,,,of Vietnam, to make Vietnam an Asian Dragon, so that the Vietnamese people could have become richer and happier.
In the North, there were also famous national capitalists such as Bach Thai Buoi, Trinh Van Bo, Nguyen Thi Nam. But later, the socialist economy made them stop all their businesses.
Moreover, the patriotic capitalist Trinh Van Bo was devastated by the house loan incident. In 1945, during the Golden Week to raise money and gold for the revolution, Mr. Trinh Van Bo donated more than 1,000 taels of gold, equivalent to more than 40 kg of gold, to the young revolutionary government.
Later, Mr. Trinh Van Bo’s family also donated to the revolution a house on Hang Dao Street, Hanoi, where Uncle Ho wrote the Declaration of Independence.
There was another house on Hoang Dieu Street, which Mr. Trinh Van Bo’s family only lent to the revolutionary government. Later, Mr. Trinh Van Bo’s family asked the government to return that house to his family.
like the case of Mr. Kim Ngoc in Quy Nhon.
But the revolutionary government did not return it.
In 2000, before I went to Japan, Mr. Trinh Van Bo’s wife and son came to Dai Doan Ket newspaper to present their case of reclaiming their house, asking Dai Doan Ket newspaper to intervene.
Mr. and Mrs. Trinh Van Bo had been fighting for their house for more than 30 years, but failed. At that time, I was doing the procedures to go to Japan, I did not want to get into trouble about this case, so I did not dare to write an article defending Mr. Trinh Van Bo’s family. I heard that Mr. Trinh Van Bo’s family later made a revolution, parachuting in to occupy their house on Hoang Dieu street, not far from Uncle Ho’s mausoleum.
I do not know what the outcome was. Perhaps if Mr. Kim Ngoc wanted to reclaim his house in Quy Nhon, he should also make a revolution like Mr. Trinh Van Bo’s family in Hanoi?
The fate of the patriotic bourgeois Nguyen Thi Nam in Thai Nguyen was much more tragic. During the resistance war against the French, Mrs. Nam regularly supported Uncle Ho’s troops, providing them with food, clothing, and medicine. Sometimes, she arranged tables on both sides of the road filled with food and drinks, so that Uncle Ho’s troops could eat them when they marched by, so as not to slow down their progress.
However, when the land reform began in the North, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Nam was the first person to be brought to trial and executed for “having a blood debt to the people”.
After the liberation in 1975, learning from the bloody reform in 1954, the revolutionary government did not carry out a trial and execution, but instead carried out a large-scale, massive “re-education” campaign, with some people being “re-educated” for up to 17 years.
Many people lost their lives in the deep forests and poisonous waters. And then there was the massive border crossing in 1978-1982, leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead at sea, or killed by pirates, women raped. Many people question whether the “no bloodbath” after 1975 was better, more humane than the bloody land reform in 1954?
History will answer this question.
But, what Mr. Kim Ngoc said is very true, today, many people get rich quickly thanks to relationships, not because of any business talent.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung signed Decision No. 1259/QD-TTg to relocate factories, hospitals, schools, and offices out of the center of Hanoi,,, was it for the national interest, or for the interests of real estate tycoons?
History will answer this question.///