W.Minh Tuan
In 1986, our Party began to carry out the Doi Moi process. In 1987, General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh wrote short articles “Things to do immediately” published in Nhan Dan newspaper.
It can be said that Comrade General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh understands the power of the press very well, so even though he is the most senior leader of our Party and State, Comrade Nguyen Van Linh still has to use the tool of journalism to influence the Party and State apparatus from the Central to local levels, so that that apparatus can perform its functions properly and meet the legitimate aspirations of the people.
At that time, in 1987, I was a reporter for Dai Doan Ket newspaper. I and a group of reporters were assigned by Editor-in-Chief Nguyen Ngoc Thach to do a series of investigative reports on the negative incident in Dong Tien commune, Chau Giang district, Hai Hung province, now Hung Yen province.
The group of reporters, including Head of the Department Dang Ngoc, Member of the Editorial Board Le Van Ba, and an officer of the Central Fatherland Front, were assigned by the Chairman of the Central Front, Lawyer Nguyen Huu Tho, to strengthen the Dai newspaper.
Uniting for this investigation are Mr. Pham Van Hoat, from near Dong Tien commune, and I, reporter Minh Tuan.
After 6 months of secret and strenuous investigation to obtain documents and evidence, we wrote a series of investigative reports “The Truth in Dong Tien Commune”.
Immediately, Comrade General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh wrote an article “Things to be done immediately”, published in Nhan Dan newspaper, supporting our newspaper Dai Doan Doan.
After that, it took nearly another year, until the beginning of 1988, for the matter to be concluded and clarified.
Dai Doan Ket newspaper was right, the Dong Tien Commune Party Committee Secretary was wrong, and the person covering up for the commune Secretary in this commune, Provincial Party Secretary Le Duc Binh, lost his position.
In this Dong Tien case, a number of police officers from the Economic Police Department, Hai Hung Provincial Police secretly helped us get many important documents about the negatives of this Dong Tien commune.
No one dared to help us publicly, because the Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and member of the Party Central Committee were the ones who directly covered and supported the Commune Secretary. Provincial Party Secretary Le Duc Binh at that time covered Dong Tien commune not because he had any benefits in this commune, but just because he did not want Hai Hung province to lose face, because he still wanted to get higher position again.
It’s a pity that because of bureaucracy, the Provincial Party Secretary lost his position after the Dong Tien incident, along with the Commune Secretary.
I and the group of Dai Doan Ket newspaper reporters received the First Prize of the Vietnam Journalists Association for this Dong Tien case.
In this case, comrade Tran Xuan Bach, member of the Politburo, was appointed by the Politburo to chair the meeting between the Central Fatherland Front, Dai Doan Ket newspaper, and leaders of Hai Hung province, to settle the case.
This is an example of how courageous journalism has helped the Party control the Party apparatus from the central to local levels.
Also during that 1987-1988 period, newspapers such as Tien Phong, News Week, Labor, etc., focused on making investigative reports on the negative cases of Thanh Hoa Provincial Party Committee Secretary Ha Trong Hoa.
At that time, a brave police officer also secretly helped the press, who was Deputy Director of Thanh Hoa Provincial Police Hoang Ngoc Nhat. Comrade Hoang Ngoc Nhat was later transferred to the Ministry of Public Security, as General Director of the General Department of Logistics of the Ministry of Public Security.
Provincial Party Secretary Ha Trong Hoa also lost his position after this incident.
In 1999, I did investigative reporting on the Thang Long Aquarium incident. Thanks to that investigative report, General Secretary Le Kha Phieu dismissed Deputy Prime Minister Ngo Xuan Loc for his responsibility in this case.
I received the Second Prize of the Vietnam Journalists Association for this Thang Long Aquarium case.
There are many examples showing how courageous journalism has helped the Party clean up the Party and State apparatus.
When it came to the North-South High-Speed Railway Project in 2009 and 2010, on the contrary, the cowardly press harmed our Party and State, and caused unspeakable damage in knocking down the High-Speed Railway Project, that is extremely beneficial to this nation.
I resigned from Dai Doan Ket newspaper in 2000, and at the end of that year, I settled in Japan, working as a Vietnamese language lecturer at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and a few other universities in Japan.
Occasionally, I still write articles and send them to several domestic newspapers, especially Pham Huy Hoan’s Dan Tri newspaper.
Because I live in Japan, I have information that many of our Party and State leaders who visited Japan have asked the Japanese Government to help Vietnam to build a North-South high-speed railway.
This is a project that will have long-term benefits for the entire Vietnamese nation for many hundreds of years.
The Japanese side, after considering many reasons and studying possible conditions in Vietnam, agreed.
I also know that when Russian President Putin visited Japan, he also asked the Japanese side to help Russia build the Shinkansen high-speed railway across Siberia, but the Japanese side did not agree, and still has not agreed to this day, because the Japanese side is still waiting for the other side Russia of how does Russia resolve the 4 Kurin islands case?
And especially now that there is a war in Ukraine, Japan is certainly far from helping Russia build a trans-Siberian high-speed railway.
The Chinese side also asked Japan to hand over all the secrets The technology to build high-speed railways was donated to China, but Japan only gave a part.
Currently, China has successfully built high-speed railways, and also exported projects abroad, but compared to Japan’s Shinkansen train technology, China’s technology is still inferior in many aspects.
I asked a few Chinese people in Japan, they said that sitting on the Chinese high-speed train felt quite shaky, a bit scary, and not at all as smooth and save and relax as the Japanese Shinkansen.
The Japanese side agreed to transfer all know-how of smooth, safe and modern Shinkansen train technology, along with Japan’s modern management, operation and ticketing system to Vietnam.
The Japanese side is not at all worried about Vietnam’s counterpart capital capacity, as well as Vietnam’s construction, management and administration capacity.
The Japanese side is only worried about one thing: Vietnamese people’s awareness and attitude, and politeneses of taking the train.
However, the Japanese side also said that the consciousness of people traveling by train will gradually change over time.
At the National Assembly session in early 2009, I read the domestic press and saw that Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung, on behalf of the Government, submitted the North-South High Speed Railway project.
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung at that time said very confidently before the National Assembly, “The North-South high-speed railway cannot not be done“, and the Government has calculated all debt repayment options and will be able to repay the debt.
However, one extremely strange thing is that the entire domestic press at that time gathered to attack the high-speed rail project, calling it a luxury, expensive, and impossible to repay,,.
I still remember the opinion of a National Assembly delegate, using the brewery to compare the high-speed rail project, that the brewery only takes 5 years to recover capital, while the highway takes tens of years.
Oh, a nation that heroically defeated the Tong, Yuan, Ming, Qing, France, America, Pol Pot, and China, but now they are cowardly and afraid of building a high-speed railway, afraid of not being able to pay their debts, and especially think the railway project is too far-fetched.
Why, don’t we Vietnamese people deserve to enjoy a luxurious life? If we keep selling baskets and baskets, the buffalo goes first and the plow follows forever?
Look at the Vietnamese railway trains today, when they pass through Thong Nhat Park – Hanoi, see how old, dirty, and unkempt they are.
The French nearly 100 years ago, when building Vietnam’s railway, if they had such cowardly and short-sighted calculations, how would they dare to build a railway, and now, we Vietnamese do not have a railway to use?
When the Japanese agreed to lend us ODA capital to do this project, they were not strict about repayment.
I still remember Mr. Pham Van Mien, in 2006, when he was still Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the People’s Public Security newspaper (after that, Mr. Pham Van Mien was already the Editor-in-Chief of the People’s Public Security newspaper), going to Japan on his business trip with other Vietnamese journalists.
From the hotel in Tokyo, Mr. Mien called my house in Tokyo and basically said, “Minh Tuan, I’m so sad, from Tokyo to Kyoto, only a few journalists can take the Shinkansen train, I can’t go, I have to go by plane.”
In the past, during the subsidy period, Vietnamese people were very happy to be able to fly. But now, Vietnamese people “don’t want” to fly, but want to take Japan’s Shinkansen high-speed train.
Mr. Mien is right to be sad, because if you have the opportunity to sit on Japan’s 250 km/h Shinkansen bullet train, you will see the joy of riding the Shinkansen. It’s quiet, spacious, beautiful, luxurious, safe, comfortable, and extremely punctual.
American movie actor Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger, when he was Mayor of California, visited Japan, and rode the Shinkansen, and really liked the Shinkansen, and he wanted to build a Shinkansen in California. Unfortunately, he resigned as Mayor, so the Shinkansen project in California had to stop.
At that time, in early 2009, I wrote an article and sent it to a familiar newspaper in Hanoi, supporting the Project, with the thought that if there was an article saying the opposite, supporting project, it might help people’s opinion, Congress, and the press will rethink again.
But no, that newspaper replied to me, “Brother, all the newspapers are saying not to do it, but now you say we should do it, I’m so scared, I don’t dare say the opposite.”
My article was not published.
I explained to the newspaper that the Politburo has supported it, the Government has supported it, so what is there to fear?
But no one dared to say the opposite.
Then on June 19, 2010, our brave National Assembly voted to reject the Project.
Such a shallow vision, take the brewery to compare. The project has benefits for hundreds of years, has an impact on the entire national economy, the single and double benefits are worth trillions of dollars.
But, someone only seeing tens of billions of dollars in debt, how can the country “stand shoulder to shoulder with the powers of the five continents”, as President Ho Chi Minh wished?
The cowardly press has harmed our Party and the Vietnamese people like that.
If our country has a private press, there will certainly be brave and talented private newspapers supporting the Party.
Unfortunately, our Party still bans private newspapers, so many dedicated and talented journalists who want to publish in private newspapers to support the Party still cannot publish.
As for the Party’s cowardly press, it harms the Party. The US has said that the 20th Century was the Century of the Automobile, the 21st Century was the Century of the Railway.
What Americans say is wrong.
The 20th century was the Century of Alcohol and beer.
The 21st century is also the century of alcohol and beer.///