W.Minh Tuan
In Vietnam, journalist Nguyen Phu Trong, Editor-in-Chief of the Communist Magazine, became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, then President, the two highest positions in Vietnam.
Journalist Dinh The Huynh, Editor-in-Chief of the Nhan Dan newspaper, also became the Standing Secretary of the Secretariat, the second highest position in the Communist Party of Vietnam.
President Ho Chi Minh was also a journalist, President Ho Chi Minh himself published the newspaper Nguoi Cung Kho- Le Paria), published in France, wrote, printed, and distributed it himself, existing from 1922 to 1926, publishing 38 issues, criticizing the French colonial government right on French soil.
Colonial France exploited the Vietnamese people terribly, but still had a free press regime, allowing Uncle Ho to publish newspapers right in the capital Paris, to criticize the French colonial government, without being banned, confiscated, or imprisoned.
What a free France, worthy for Vietnam to learn from.
In the US, journalist John Wilkie of the Chicago Times was appointed Director of the US Secret Service – the bodyguard of the US, with the task of protecting the US Presidents.
And now, in 2025, journalist of the American television station FOX Pete Hegshes is being nominated by President Trump will maybe to be the US Secretary of Defense.
In the world, and in Vietnam, journalists are knowledgeable, have broad knowledge, have opinions, have innovative and progressive ideas, so if journalists are appointed to high positions in the State, it is not strange.
The veteran Japanese journalist Watanabe Tsuneo was born in 1926, this year 2024 is exactly 98 years old, and he just passed away in December this year 2024, at the age of 98, at an age that is “rare in the past and present”, as Uncle Ho of Vietnam said.
When he was young, during World War II, when he was about 20 years old, he enthusiastically applied to join the Japanese Communist Party, with the purpose of building a strong Japan according to the communist theory of Marx and Lenin, because at that time, the great Soviet Union had defeated Hitler, and communism spread all over the world, all innocent and naive people listened to the sweet call of communism: Work according to your ability, Enjoy life according to your needs.
There is no lie-deception more wonderful than this lie-deception of communism.
Actually, it is not that Mr. Marx and Mr. Lenin want to deceive the world, because those two bearded men also mistakenly believe that the communist doctrine of from “each one work according to his/her ability, each one live according to his/her needs” is real, and will be implemented with a planned, centralized, state-owned, non-market, non-privatized economy, because those two bearded men believe that private companies only exploit.
Let’s see how the Japanese are eager to work in giant exploitative private companies like Toyata, Honda, Sony, Mitsubishi,,, because they are not only “exploited with high salaries”, but also enjoy all kinds of social benefits such as pension insurance, sickness insurance, insurance for the lonely elderly,,,.
Japanese, American, French, British laws all stipulate that employees working in private companies must enjoy social benefits, such as pension insurance, health insurance, maternity insurance, annual leave, insurance for children, dependents such as fathers, mothers, etc.
Does Vietnam have such a system?
The theory that private companies exploit of the bearded Marx and Lenin is no longer true, which does not mean that there are no exploitative private companies.
There are still bad companies that exploit workers.
But with healthy competition and strict laws, companies naturally have to have a way to treat workers properly to retain workers, and not be inspected and heavily fined by the State.
In Vietnam today, there is a half-baked market economy, so exploitative private companies actually exist, are exploiting Vietnamese workers terribly, but are praised by the State for investing, paying taxes, and creating jobs for Vietnamese people!!!.
Many private companies in Vietnam today are paying their workers dirt cheap, about 6 million VND a month-300USD/per month, while the company owners earn hundreds of billions of VND a month-a million USD a month.
Is that a terrible exploitation, a exploitation to the bone marrow of Vietnamese workers?
The half-hearted, half-market, half-communist market economy in Vietnam today is actually creating a new communist bourgeoisie that is extremely exploiting the Vietnamese workers, and it is very possible that one day not too far away, it will lead to a proletarian-poor revolution in Vietnam, to overthrow the rich Vietnamese tycoons who are pampered and favored by the State and the Party, to rebuild a truly healthy market economy like other countries in the world.
Why has the US Government not yet recognized that Vietnam has a market economy?
The Vietnamese Party and Government should find out for themselves.
An important reason is that although Vietnam has a market economy, it does not have freedom of the press, which is the most important criterion to prove whether a country has a real market economy or not.
And only a regime that does many bad things more than doing good deeds are afraid of the free press and private press.
A State, Party, government that does more good than bad deeds will welcome the private press and free press.
And while the Vietnamese communist party up to now, in 2025, are still blindly trusting the theories of the two bearded men Marx and Lenin, the young Japanese man Watanabe Tsuneo woke up early, after a few years following the Japanese Communist Party, he left the Japanese Communist Party, and applied to work as a journalist for the Yomiuri newspaper, which was founded in 1874, and had the longest history and the most prestige in Japan at that time, and until today.
After that, Mr. Watanabe Tsunoe was quickly promoted, became a permanent correspondent in the US, and then became Editor-in-Chief of the Yomiuri newspaper, and then Chairman of the newspaper in Tokyo. Under the direction of Mr. Watanabe Tsunoe, the Yomiuri newspaper gradually increased its circulation to 17 million copies a day around 1990-2000-2010-2020, becoming the newspaper with the largest circulation in Japan, and the largest in the world.
Until now, after the explosion of the internet newspaper, the Yomiuri newspaper still has the largest circulation of printed newspapers in the world, about 4 million copies a day in 2024, many times more than major newspapers in the US such as the Washington Post, Times, NewYork Times,,,.
Before 1990, Japan Government had 22 ministries, including very trivial ministries, such as the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, the Ministry of Investment, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Transport,,,.
In 1996, the Japanese Government of Prime Minister Hashimoto and Obuchi established the Administrative Reform Council to advise the Japanese Government on streamlining the State apparatus.
Journalist Watanabe, President of the Yomiuri newspaper, was invited to join the Administrative Reform Council, and he advised the Japanese Government to merge some Ministries and abolish some Ministries.
After the above proposal from the Administrative Reform Council and journalist Watanabe, the Japanese Government quickly streamlined the apparatus, reducing it to only 12 Ministries. And by November this year, 2024, the new Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba had further reduced it to only 9 Ministries, abolishing 3 redundant ministries of former Prime Minister Kishida.
The salary of the Japanese Prime Minister is about 2.4 million yen/month, about 24,000 USD, or about 500 million VND/month.
The salary of a Minister is 1.6 million yen per month – about 16,000 USD, or about 300 million VND/month.
The salary of a Japanese National Assembly delegate is also equivalent to that of a Minister, about 16,000 USD/month, or about 300 million VND/month.
If Vietnam successfully streamlines its apparatus according to the opinion of General Secretary To Lam, the salary of Ministers, Chairmen and Secretaries of Vietnamese Provinces and Cities can easily reach 200 million VND/month, and the Prime Minister, General Secretary, President, and Chairman of the National Assembly can easily reach 300 million VND/month.
The number of Vietnamese National Assembly delegates should be reduced to 100 delegates, with a salary of about 200 million VND/month, so that the delegates can feel secure in their work of representing the people.
We all know that in Vietnam we have the Central Committee of the Party, the Central Committee of the Party, and the Party Congress, these are the real organs of power in Vietnam, so the number of National Assembly delegates should be reduced, not many.
The Central Committee of the Party should have a salary of about 200 million VND/month, to maintain integrity, fight corruption, work with peace of mind, do not need to be servants of the tycoons, and then have to receive a few small envelopes from the tycoons, then be arrested, imprisoned, and have their assets confiscated, it is really pitiful.
General Secretary To Lam has caught correctly the disease of the Vietnamese socio-economic system, the administrative apparatus is too crowded, too cumbersome, ineffective, consuming up to 70% of the State budget, and mainly “Abusing the people”.
Employing talented people without party affiliation as President Ho Chi Minh did, and paying decent salaries to retain talented people, that is the urgent and long-term task of the Communist Party of Vietnam >> of the Vietnam Labor Party. ///