Dong Tam Department: Is it time for the Vietnamese government to ‘re-revolutionize’ the land?

Follow-up to the first instance session on the case of ‘murder’ and ‘anti-public service’ accused by the authorities and we are trying to hear from 29 defendants in Dong Tam commune, My Duc district, Hanoi city in the daily event. On January 9, 2020, economist Bui Kien Thanh said that this trial, despite tough final sentences, will not solve the cause of the problem.

The problems of dispute, the conflicts over land arise from broader roots, said the economist, and the communist party, the state, the government today, and even here in the XIII Congress, must be a revolution in the reform of the laws of property, lands and lands to return the property to the people of Vietnam.

Speaking to BBC News on September 8, 2020 from Hoi An City in Vietnam, Bui Kien Thanh said:

“This is a fundamental issue of land ownership for the people of Vietnam. Because my ancestors are thousands of years old, or at least since Le Thanh Tong entered the south with so many people. To expand the kingdom, the land was the people’s land The king recognized that the claimed land was owned by the people.

“For hundreds of years, or thousands of years like that, but suddenly in 1975, the new state of Vietnam issued a law saying that the land belongs to all the people but is under the unified state administration. These are terms that in my opinion are the total expropriation of the property of the land by the people. It’s something I find unreasonable for lovers, status and history. “

And the economist who advised the Vietnamese government and state on international development and integration policies for decades continued:

“” And how many other things like that will lead, for example, Dong Tam to say now that the land in Dong Tam since 1980 was the land of defense, but what it was like before? Who gave the defense, the army of that land?

“There must be an agency that naturally takes the land away from the people and then gives it to the defense, and then the defense says it’s the defense land, but the question is, what was it like before 1980?

“So I think about democracy, private property rights and land ownership in Vietnam, the more I need to study, I see Vietnam’s land law, including requisition law, coercion etc … related to that, undemocratic and really inhuman for the people, for the country, for the grandparents, the Ancestors.

“So it is not just about Dong Tam, there are many other places, including Thu Thiem etc … and many other things, now the state naturally grants me the right to grant this person the right to use this land. giving the other rights to use the land, the ownership of this and that, the question is, what rights do you have to grant that?

“It is possible that someone here in the name and usurping the management of the people, recognizes democracy, then made him the owner of the land of the people, that is not possible.

“Therefore, I repeat not only the Dong Tam issue, but the whole country of Vietnam now has such an unreasonable problem, so I advise those with charges to have the right to quickly study again to pay for private property. of the land and land for the people, this property applies to the entire town.

“But it is impossible to use the term that the land is owned by all the people, that the state can unify to administer, what kind of administration can take the land, the land and the pond from the people, it does enough. things, then you give that person possession, you give that person possession … that’s not possible, according to me. “

Before the question, as in the case of Dong Tam, is brought to trial by the authorities, if the sentences are passed, the final sentences that no matter how heavy it is for the defendants, are the local population and farmers, So is it possible to fully resolve the underlying problem of conflicts and heated disputes over land ownership as has been happening in Vietnam for a long time? Bui Kien Thanh replied:

“It does not solve the problem at all. Because the State stole the property of the land from the people, now the people are resentful, frustrated because they cannot be solved, they take measures to fight, then acts of violence like those of now are they different from feudalism, from capitalism somewhere before bringing troops and soldiers to seize land that is owned by the people?

“So, in my opinion, it is to be calm to think, the struggles of people like in Dong Tam are carried out, plus the state and the government have to think about the origin of the property of the time. grandparents, ancestors of people like? It is not about imprisonment or severe punishment, but that is it.

“In my opinion, that approach has not been solved and it will not solve that problem in this whole country of Vietnam.”

Faced with the question of what the state should do, what should the government prioritize to do, what to amend the policies, laws and ways to ultimately solve the aforementioned problem and avoid conflicts like En Dong Tam in Hanoi, as controversial as in Thu Thiem and many other places, Hoi An economists say:

“In my opinion, it is necessary to fundamentally correct the land law, repeal the current land law and recognize that land ownership belongs to the people and is administered by the people, not by the state that acquires that right. from the hands of the people, to administer their land, that is, the people, as now.

“You say the manager but you go in, you get the people and then you assign him to this person, you give the authority to that person, you revoke, coerce, confiscate, you return to the others …, obviously It is the way that causes controversy, complaints , struggles, violence … and it is an excuse for the State to use violence, not the spirit of the law and the real power of the rule of law, of the law.

By the way, I also add that in the world there are also times when the government and the state accept the right to violence, which is called the law of uprising, or the “law of insurrection.” French network, the people recognize the right to violence of the French people, but the Vietnamese state now does not recognize that right.

“So these are the basic issues that Vietnam needs to review and I propose that all officials and authorities of the National Assembly, as well as the government, carefully study the legal issue of Vietnam to implement the law. Hong Duc from Le Thanh Tong has investigated to have legal problems on earth since the ancestors’ times, but it is impossible to suddenly issue a series of laws, guidelines and policies as from 1975 to now and then appropriated by people like that. “

When asked if the above proposal is feasible, especially among the leaders of the party, the state and the Vietnam Association, there are opinions that there are interest groups or manipulation groups. Politics is so powerful that the party and state themselves must admit, Bui Kien Thanh said:

“I see that even with only a few months left, until the XIII Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the problem here is still to be solved, still to be solved.

“Still feasible or not, we have to look at the responsibilities of those who have to protect the interests of the people.

“Once you said that you could make a revolution to successfully rob the government during the August Revolution, you could make a revolution to overthrow the feudalism or colonialism of France, which you later declared to do. Network to bring a democratic, republican, independent, free and happy country, why can’t the law that many consider illegal, unreasonable, be revolutionized? how that?

“In fact, the current land law of the Vietnamese state, in my opinion, is an illegal law, not just a matter of stopping at unconstitutional.

“So, it is what you, the government, the government, must do. But when you do it, of course, there are difficulties and obstacles, encountering opposition from interest groups, Manipulation of political manipulation groups, etc. It is normal, but the duty of managers, state leaders, if they claim to be by the people, of the people, for the people, then the duty of the head of the country is to do something that is appropriate and reasonable for the people.

“It is not that a law exists forever, but it is so unreasonable,” economist Bui Kien Thanh told BBC News Vietnamese on September 8, 2020 from Hoi An.