W.Minh Tuan
When comrade To Lam became President of Vietnam from May 22, 2024, a position that is heavily formal, usually used as a stepping stone before retirement, comrade To Lam only showed discretion and gentleness, with the same common quality of the leaders of the Party and State of Vietnam: “When sitting in the Presidium chair, do not talk much privately with next sitting persons”.
However, when comrade To Lam became General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, from July 18, 2024, comrade To Lam almost became a different person, he was open, active, agile, with a bright smile, and most importantly, he showed the amazing courage of the number 1 leader of the country, which is the courage to think, to do, to take responsibility.
Immediately after assuming the position of General Secretary of Communist Party of Vietnam, Comrade To Lam immediately initiated the second Doi Moi, which was to streamline the Party and State apparatus, merge ministries, departments, branches, merge provinces, abolish district-county levels, merge and reform Ward-Commune levels.
In 1986, Comrade General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh initiated the first Doi Moi, accepting a market economy, a multi-sector economy, accepting the private companies; allowing foreign investment; accepting prices regulated by the market, not by the State; but not accepting private press-media, although in fact there are currently many press agencies that are actually managed and controlled by the private sector, but hiding under the shadow of the State.
Since 1986, Doi Moi 1 has been around for 40 years, Vietnam’s socio-economy has developed remarkably, and people’s living standards have increased significantly.
However, the level of development of Vietnam compared to neighboring countries such as China, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, etc. is still far behind, both in terms of living standards, per capita income, and in terms of civilization and culture. Vietnamese people still swear, curse, behave uncivilized, litter, destroy the environment, cheat, and rip off tourists, both Vietnamese and foreigners, more than neighboring countries.
And the level of corruption is unmatched in any other country in the world, because there are 2 State Presidents, 1 former Prime Minister, 1 National Assembly Chairman, dozens of Provincial Governors, Ministers, and dozens of police generals who have been corrupt, violated ethical lifestyles, and have been arrested, imprisoned, dismissed, or fired.
There is no country in the world that has 2 Presidents, 1 former Prime Minister, 1 National Assembly Chairman, dozens of Provincial Governors, Ministers, dozens of police generals who have been corrupt, accepted bribes, and disciplined like our heroic country of Vietnam.
A heroic Vietnam that won 3 victories over the Yuan army, defeated the Chinese invaders, defeated the Song army, the Ming army, the Qing army of China, then defeated France, defeated the US, defeated Pol Pot, defeated Chinese expansionism on the northern border, yet now has 2 Presidents, 1 former Prime Minister, 1 National Assembly Chairman, dozens of Provincial Governors, Ministers, dozens of police generals who have been corrupt, violated moral lifestyle, arrested, imprisoned, dismissed, fired.
Then the level of civilization, culture, Vietnamese people swear, curse, have uncultured behavior, litter, destroy the environment, restaurants, shops, taxis,,, cheat, rip off tourists, both Vietnamese and foreigners more than any other country in the world.
Many foreign tourists come to Vietnam once and are scared shitless, swearing never to come a second time because they are cheated, ripped off, no different from being robbed blatantly.
During the French colonial period, Vietnamese people still had a culture of politeness, civilization, modesty, elegance.
Then the communist regime entered Northern Vietnam, the virtues of politeness, civilization, modesty, elegance gradually disappeared, replaced by the virtues of uneducated, rudeness, vulgarity, swearing, cheating, and rip-off.
In the South Vietnam before Liberation Day in 1975, the Vietnamese in the South, both the Northerners and the Southerners, were still polite, modest, courteous, and gentle.
Then the South Vietnam was liberated in 1975, and the same people in the South, both the Northerners and the Southerners, who were previously polite, modest, courteous, and gentle, gradually lost all those virtues, and instead, they became like the Northerners who were aggressive, rude, cursed, littered, cheated, and ripped off customers.
Even when Vietnamese people today go abroad, in beautiful Italy, dozens of Vietnamese people stand with their genitals exposed and pee on the side of the road, right next to the public toilet, without going to the toilet, making foreign tourists scared to uncontrollable peeing inside their trousers, when they saw it, so they didn’t need the toilet at that time too.
Therefore, when General Secretary To Lam assumed the highest position of the country in July 2024, he saw the weaknesses and strengths of the Vietnamese State and the Vietnamese people, and he saw the need for a second Renovation, bold, strong, fundamental, and thorough, no less than the first Renovation, even stronger and more thorough. That is, we must make the Party and State apparatus operate more effective, more compact, and on that basis, can increase salaries for State officials to maintain integrity, fight corruption, retain talented people, and make good use of talented people.
General Secretary To Lam was the Minister of Public Security, the agency that investigated and discovered all large and small corruption cases in the Communist Party of Vietnam, so he understood very well that the leaders of the Party and State of Vietnam, with a meager salary of only about 20 million VND/month, but with a lot of power, then corruption, request bribery, and receive bribery are natural things that will happen.
To fight corruption, to clean up the Party and State apparatus, salaries must be increased.
And to increase salaries, the apparatus must be reduced, the number of useless workers must be reduced.
The current Party and State apparatus of Vietnam, from the Central to local levels, communes and wards, is about 3 million people, including teachers, doctors, health workers, kindergartens and preschools. If we add more than 500,000 soldiers of Vietnam army, and about 300,000 police and militia, it is about 4 million people.
Japan has a population of more than 123 million people, the state apparatus is only about 2 million people from the central to local levels, the army is only about 230,000 people, half of the army of Vietnam. So of course the salary of the Japanese army is much higher than that of Vietnam.
Look at the General parade rehearsal of Vietnam in 2025 to prepare for the parade of National Day on September 2, 2025, it shows that Vietnam is wasting money on old weapons, both expensive and outdated, such as tanks, armored vehicles, warships, submarines, and airplanes. As for Japan, with a defense budget of about 50 billion USD, 10 times that of Vietnam, they are focusing on developing drones only, not developing tanks, warships, airplanes, submarines anymore, which drones are cheap, effective, and modern. A drone missile costs only 1,000 USD, can destroy a tank worth 1 million USD.
A drone worth 1,000 USD can destroy a plane worth 5 million USD, destroy a submarine worth 100 million USD.
With such a mindset of saving the defense budget, the salary of the Japanese army can increase to about 2,000 USD/month to 5,000 USD/month for each soldier, 10 times that of Vietnam.
Therefore, in Vietnam, if we do not streamline the apparatus as General Secretary To Lam is boldly initiating, we cannot increase salaries, we cannot fight corruption.
With important leadership positions of the country, such as the Four Pillars of the Court – General Secretary, President, Prime Minister, Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam, the current salary is only about 30 million VND per month, how can we fight corruption.
Therefore, 2 Presidents, 1 Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam and Ministers, Provincial Chairmen, Provincial Secretaries have just received bribes, and were dismissed and imprisoned.
Currently, by the end of August 2025, the State apparatus of Vietnam has reduced the number of agencies, organizations by about half, from 63 provinces and cities to 34 provinces and cities, abolished more than 600 District-County levels, merged the Ministries by about half, from more than 20 Ministries to 14 Ministries, merged the communes from more than 10,000 communes and wards to about 3,000 communes and wards.
The Party and State staff has thus been reduced to about 100,000 people, and will be reduced even further.
But such a reduction is still too little.
Let’s do as our ancestors did.
During the Ly Dynasty, from year 1010 to 1225, in peacetime, the Ly Court only increased salaries, promoted, and recruited more staff once every 15 years.
In the following Dynasties, it was almost the same.
During the Nguyen Dynasty, year 1802-1945, there were only 32 provinces, the State apparatus was lean and compact, with only a few hundred thousand employees, including the army. 1 high-ranking mandarin, a great official, similar to a Minister today, and 1 Governor General, similar to a Provincial Chairman today, had enough income and allowances to support a staff of 50 people, including secretaries, guards, chefs, and various types of waiters, calculated in VND today, with a total income of about 1 billion VND/month.
Only then could the Nguyen Dynasty maintain integrity, and have talented and honest mandarins such as Pham Quynh – the father of musician Pham Tuyen, professor and doctor Pham Khue, Mr.Pham Khac Hoe, Mr.Tran Trong Kim, lawyer Phan Anh, Mr.Bui Bang Doan, etc.
Ministers today only have a few secretaries, with salaries of more than 20 million VND, and cannot maintain integrity.
General Secretary To Lam is initiating the second Doi Moi process, streamlining the Party and State apparatus, and now it has only been a few months since it started from July 2025, and the results are still modest.
We hope that the Second Reform of the Streamlining of the Apparatus by General Secretary To Lam will continue to be stronger, more determined, and more effective, from 4 million employees will be reduced to about 2 million employees, reducing the army, reducing the police, reducing teachers, reducing doctors, but people’s health will increase, not having to go to the hospital as much, reducing the party apparatus, reducing the Party Committee, reducing the Party meetings, increasing work, from there we can increase salaries – ensure the integrity of the party and State apparatus, ensuring that our Vietnam has a clean, strong party and State apparatus, with bright, intelligent, educated, intellectual, and knowledgeable faces, not dull, dark, and poor nong van den like today.///