Dear Compatriots inside and outside of Vietnam,
We, the undersigned, representing hundreds of Vietnamese democracy
activists inside Vietnam and all those Vietnamese citizens yearning for True
Democracy for Vietnam, hereby unanimously proclaim the following:
I. The Current Realities of Vietnam
1. In the August 1945 Revolution, the entire Vietnamese nation made a
choice for national independence and not socialism. Vietnam’s Declaration of
Independence on September 2, 1945 did not contain a single word about
socialism or communism. The two mainsprings behind the success of that
Revolution were the Vietnamese people’s aspiration for national
independence and also the desire to fill the power vacuum that existed after
the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, following their overthrow of the
French colonial administration on March 9, 1945.
It is thus clear that the Vietnamese communists had abandoned the main
objective of the August Revolution. As a result, the Vietnamese peoples’
aspiration for self-determination was disregarded. There have been two
occasions, one in 1954 in North Vietnam and the other in 1975 in all of Vietnam,
when there were good opportunities for the Vietnamese nation to set a new
course towards a true democracy. Sadly, the Communist Party of Vietnam
(CPV), failed to take advantage of those opportunities. This failure is due to the
well-known fact, as propounded by Lenin, that once a dictatorship of the
proletariat has been installed, its very first function is to foster violence and
repressive terror!
2. On September 2, 1945 in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, President of the
Interim Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, solemnly declared to
the [Vietnamese] nation and the world that: “All men are created equal,
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, among them the
Right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” undying words taken
from the U.S. Declaration of Independence of 1776. Interpreted broadly, this
sentence can mean that all nations are created equal and that they are entitled to
Life, Freedom and Happiness. The 1791 French Declaration on Human and
Civil Rights also proclaims: “All people are born free and have equal rights,
and they must remain free and equal in all rights.” These are undeniable
truths…” (This quote is taken directly from the September 2, 1945 Vietnamese
Declaration of Independence)
2
Nevertheless, the communist government of Vietnam began to
trample upon these sacred rights the moment they came to power.
3. By February 1951, the Vietnam Workers Party (VWP, now rechristened
the CPV) proclaimed in a Manifesto at its Second Party Congress
that: “The ideology of the VWP is Marxism-Leninism.” This was something
that was even more clearly expressed in the Party Bylaws, under the rubric of
“Goal and Leading Principles”: “The Vietnam Workers Party takes the
ideology of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin and the thought of Mao Zedong in
combination with the revolutionary realities of Vietnam to be its ideological
foundation and compass for all Party activities.”
Since then, especially in the North after 1954, and in the entire country
after April 30, 1975, the specter of Communism has been imposed on the
Vietnamese nation. For all practical purposes, this specter has been used to
deprive the Vietnamese people of all their human rights. And even today, its
overwhelming influence is evident in the spiritual as well as the material spheres
of the Vietnamese nation.
II. Universal Laws Affecting All Societies
1. History has demonstrated that under every totalitarian regime, whether
communist or non-communist, all democratic rights and freedoms are
mercilessly repressed, the difference being only in the degree of repression.
Unfortunately, to this day the Vietnamese nation is still one of the few that is
under the rule of a totalitarian communist regime. This fact is unabashedly
declared in Article 4 of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) Constitution,
which says: “The CPV… follows Marxism-Leninism and the thought of Ho
Chi Minh, and it is the leading force of the state and society.” It is on the
basis of this article that democratic rights and freedoms of the Vietnamese
people have been extremely curtailed.
2. The power structure in Vietnam rejects competition and totally
minimizes the possibility of its replacement by something else. This record
has helped accelerate the degeneration of government, and its transformation
from what it started out to be. Because there are no rules and principles
regarding fair competition in the current political culture of the country, election
after election, people have not been allowed to choose the most deserving
individuals and political parties to represent them. For that reason the
leadership, management and operational set-ups become ever more corrupt, and
can now be compared to a creaky piece of equipment from the center down to
the localities. As a result, Vietnam is now a nation that fas fallen way behind
other nations in the region and in the world. In the prevailing environment, this
shameful national performance and other nation-wide problems are beyond
correction. The problem of all problems, the source of all evils, resides in the
3
fact that the CPV is now the one and only political force leading Vietnam! The
realities of history have shown that any country, once it has fallen into the orbit of
communism, ends up in ruin and misery. The Soviet Union itself, the very
cradle of world communism, has, together with other former Eastern European
countries valiantly overcome its own weaknesses to rediscover the correct
path leading them forward.
3. We all understand that no one can remake history, but it is possible to
redirect its course. What is even more important is that through history’s
lessons, one can find the correct orientation for the nation’s future. The path
chosen by the CPV for the Vietnamese nation was designed in haste, and
thoughtlessly imposed. That is why today, it is necessary to choose once again
a new path for our nation. And a path chosen by the entire nation must
necessarily be better than the one chosen by just one person or one group
of persons. Given that the CPV is, after all, only one component of the nation, it
should not claim to speak on behalf of the entire nation! Considering that for
almost half a century, from 1954 to 2006, the ruling party in Vietnam has
usurped the voice of the nation, it is by no means a legitimate government!
Why? Because there had simply not been a single free election during all that
time in Vietnam.
On the basis of the above realities and the stated universal laws, being
fully conscious of our responsibilities as citizens, and faced with the nation’s fate,
we would like to declare the following to our Compatriots both inside and outside
of Vietnam:
III. Objective, Methods and Significance of Our Struggle
1. The highest objective in the struggle to fight for freedom and
democracy for the Vietnamese nation today is to make sure that the present
political regime in Vietnam is changed in a fundamental way, not through
incremental “renovation” steps or, even worse, through insignificant touch-ups
here and there. Concretely speaking, it must be a change from the monolithic,
one-party, non-competitive regime that we have at the present time to a
pluralistic and multiparty system; one in which there is healthy competition, in
accordance with the legitimate requirements of the nation, including at least a
clear separation of powers among the Legislative, Executive and Judicial
branches of government. This would be in tune with international criteria and
the experiences and lessons Mankind has learned from highly respected and
successful democracies.
The concrete objective is to re-establish the following fundamental
rights of the people:
- The Freedom of Information and Opinion as defined in the United
Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified on
4
December 16, 1966, and endorsed by Vietnam on September 24, 1982, Article
19.2: “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of opinion; this right shall
include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all
kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form
of art, or through any other media of his choice.” This means that political
parties, organizations and individuals all have the freedom to express their
opinions through the printed media, radio, television and any other mass media
without having to wait for prior approval by the government.
- The Freedom of to Assemble, form Associations, Political Parties,
Vote and Stand for Elected Offices as defined in the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, Article 25: “Every citizen shall have the right
and the opportunity (a) to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly
or through freely chosen representatives; (b) to vote and to be elected in
genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage
and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the
will of the electors.” This means that political parties of every orientation are
allowed to fairly compete in a genuine pluralistic and multiparty democracy.
- The Freedom to participate in Independent Labor Unions and the
Right to Legitimate Strikes in accordance with the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ratified by the United Nations on
December 16, 1966, Articles 7 and 8: “The States Parties to the present
Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and
favorable conditions of work…, the right of everyone to form trade unions
and join the trade union of his choice, subjects only to the rules of the
organization concerned, for the promotion and protection of his economic
and social interests…[including] the right to strike…” These Labor unions
must be independent of, and in practice, not subservient to the state.
- The Freedom of Religion as defined in the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, Article 18: “Everyone shall have the right to
freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include the
freedom to have or adopt a Religion or Belief of his choice, and the
freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or
private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice
and teaching.” These religions must also operate independently; they cannot
be made the instruments of the state.
2. The method of this struggle must be peaceful and non-violent. The
Vietnamese nation must itself be actively engaged in it. Of course, we are
extremely thankful for the warm and ever more effective support of all our friends
in the world. Using modern information media and through ever larger
international exchanges, we will seek in every way to help our compatriots to
fully understand the issues involved. Once this has been achieved, they
surely will know how to act appropriately and effectively.
5
3. This struggle is meant to make the Right Cause triumph over the
Bad Cause, and, Progress over Backwardness. There are popular
movements that are currently trying to use the laws of life and the tendencies of
our time in order to defeat those evil forces that are trying to go against these
tendencies and laws. Whether the CPV marches hand-in-hand with the Nation
or not will depend on whether it is objective, fair, enlightened and modest enough
to accept the principle of equality in a fair competition. The one-party political
regime must be once and for all buried in the dustbin of history. From such
a departing point, the Vietnamese nation will be able to find its best citizens and
the most capable political organizations after each election to lead it. The “total
triumph of the right cause” principle will be established, and one’s individual life
will become better, our society more humane, and our Compatriots will live
together on more friendly terms.
We hope that this Manifesto would foster the positive contributions of
our compatriots living outside of Vietnam and the support of our
international friends. We are sincerely grateful and call on the United Nations,
national parliaments, governments, international organizations and our friends all
over the world to continue supporting enthusiastically and effectively this fully
legitimate struggle. This will soon help bring our Fatherland, Vietnam, to stand
shoulder-to-shoulder with civilized, moral, prosperous and free countries in
today’s community of Mankind.
We, the undersigned, representing hundreds of Vietnamese democracy
activists inside Vietnam and all those Vietnamese citizens yearning for True
Democracy for Vietnam, hereby unanimously proclaim the following:
I. The Current Realities of Vietnam
1. In the August 1945 Revolution, the entire Vietnamese nation made a
choice for national independence and not socialism. Vietnam’s Declaration of
Independence on September 2, 1945 did not contain a single word about
socialism or communism. The two mainsprings behind the success of that
Revolution were the Vietnamese people’s aspiration for national
independence and also the desire to fill the power vacuum that existed after
the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, following their overthrow of the
French colonial administration on March 9, 1945.
It is thus clear that the Vietnamese communists had abandoned the main
objective of the August Revolution. As a result, the Vietnamese peoples’
aspiration for self-determination was disregarded. There have been two
occasions, one in 1954 in North Vietnam and the other in 1975 in all of Vietnam,
when there were good opportunities for the Vietnamese nation to set a new
course towards a true democracy. Sadly, the Communist Party of Vietnam
(CPV), failed to take advantage of those opportunities. This failure is due to the
well-known fact, as propounded by Lenin, that once a dictatorship of the
proletariat has been installed, its very first function is to foster violence and
repressive terror!
2. On September 2, 1945 in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, President of the
Interim Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, solemnly declared to
the [Vietnamese] nation and the world that: “All men are created equal,
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, among them the
Right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” undying words taken
from the U.S. Declaration of Independence of 1776. Interpreted broadly, this
sentence can mean that all nations are created equal and that they are entitled to
Life, Freedom and Happiness. The 1791 French Declaration on Human and
Civil Rights also proclaims: “All people are born free and have equal rights,
and they must remain free and equal in all rights.” These are undeniable
truths…” (This quote is taken directly from the September 2, 1945 Vietnamese
Declaration of Independence)
2
Nevertheless, the communist government of Vietnam began to
trample upon these sacred rights the moment they came to power.
3. By February 1951, the Vietnam Workers Party (VWP, now rechristened
the CPV) proclaimed in a Manifesto at its Second Party Congress
that: “The ideology of the VWP is Marxism-Leninism.” This was something
that was even more clearly expressed in the Party Bylaws, under the rubric of
“Goal and Leading Principles”: “The Vietnam Workers Party takes the
ideology of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin and the thought of Mao Zedong in
combination with the revolutionary realities of Vietnam to be its ideological
foundation and compass for all Party activities.”
Since then, especially in the North after 1954, and in the entire country
after April 30, 1975, the specter of Communism has been imposed on the
Vietnamese nation. For all practical purposes, this specter has been used to
deprive the Vietnamese people of all their human rights. And even today, its
overwhelming influence is evident in the spiritual as well as the material spheres
of the Vietnamese nation.
II. Universal Laws Affecting All Societies
1. History has demonstrated that under every totalitarian regime, whether
communist or non-communist, all democratic rights and freedoms are
mercilessly repressed, the difference being only in the degree of repression.
Unfortunately, to this day the Vietnamese nation is still one of the few that is
under the rule of a totalitarian communist regime. This fact is unabashedly
declared in Article 4 of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) Constitution,
which says: “The CPV… follows Marxism-Leninism and the thought of Ho
Chi Minh, and it is the leading force of the state and society.” It is on the
basis of this article that democratic rights and freedoms of the Vietnamese
people have been extremely curtailed.
2. The power structure in Vietnam rejects competition and totally
minimizes the possibility of its replacement by something else. This record
has helped accelerate the degeneration of government, and its transformation
from what it started out to be. Because there are no rules and principles
regarding fair competition in the current political culture of the country, election
after election, people have not been allowed to choose the most deserving
individuals and political parties to represent them. For that reason the
leadership, management and operational set-ups become ever more corrupt, and
can now be compared to a creaky piece of equipment from the center down to
the localities. As a result, Vietnam is now a nation that fas fallen way behind
other nations in the region and in the world. In the prevailing environment, this
shameful national performance and other nation-wide problems are beyond
correction. The problem of all problems, the source of all evils, resides in the
3
fact that the CPV is now the one and only political force leading Vietnam! The
realities of history have shown that any country, once it has fallen into the orbit of
communism, ends up in ruin and misery. The Soviet Union itself, the very
cradle of world communism, has, together with other former Eastern European
countries valiantly overcome its own weaknesses to rediscover the correct
path leading them forward.
3. We all understand that no one can remake history, but it is possible to
redirect its course. What is even more important is that through history’s
lessons, one can find the correct orientation for the nation’s future. The path
chosen by the CPV for the Vietnamese nation was designed in haste, and
thoughtlessly imposed. That is why today, it is necessary to choose once again
a new path for our nation. And a path chosen by the entire nation must
necessarily be better than the one chosen by just one person or one group
of persons. Given that the CPV is, after all, only one component of the nation, it
should not claim to speak on behalf of the entire nation! Considering that for
almost half a century, from 1954 to 2006, the ruling party in Vietnam has
usurped the voice of the nation, it is by no means a legitimate government!
Why? Because there had simply not been a single free election during all that
time in Vietnam.
On the basis of the above realities and the stated universal laws, being
fully conscious of our responsibilities as citizens, and faced with the nation’s fate,
we would like to declare the following to our Compatriots both inside and outside
of Vietnam:
III. Objective, Methods and Significance of Our Struggle
1. The highest objective in the struggle to fight for freedom and
democracy for the Vietnamese nation today is to make sure that the present
political regime in Vietnam is changed in a fundamental way, not through
incremental “renovation” steps or, even worse, through insignificant touch-ups
here and there. Concretely speaking, it must be a change from the monolithic,
one-party, non-competitive regime that we have at the present time to a
pluralistic and multiparty system; one in which there is healthy competition, in
accordance with the legitimate requirements of the nation, including at least a
clear separation of powers among the Legislative, Executive and Judicial
branches of government. This would be in tune with international criteria and
the experiences and lessons Mankind has learned from highly respected and
successful democracies.
The concrete objective is to re-establish the following fundamental
rights of the people:
- The Freedom of Information and Opinion as defined in the United
Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified on
4
December 16, 1966, and endorsed by Vietnam on September 24, 1982, Article
19.2: “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of opinion; this right shall
include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all
kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form
of art, or through any other media of his choice.” This means that political
parties, organizations and individuals all have the freedom to express their
opinions through the printed media, radio, television and any other mass media
without having to wait for prior approval by the government.
- The Freedom of to Assemble, form Associations, Political Parties,
Vote and Stand for Elected Offices as defined in the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, Article 25: “Every citizen shall have the right
and the opportunity (a) to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly
or through freely chosen representatives; (b) to vote and to be elected in
genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage
and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the
will of the electors.” This means that political parties of every orientation are
allowed to fairly compete in a genuine pluralistic and multiparty democracy.
- The Freedom to participate in Independent Labor Unions and the
Right to Legitimate Strikes in accordance with the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ratified by the United Nations on
December 16, 1966, Articles 7 and 8: “The States Parties to the present
Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and
favorable conditions of work…, the right of everyone to form trade unions
and join the trade union of his choice, subjects only to the rules of the
organization concerned, for the promotion and protection of his economic
and social interests…[including] the right to strike…” These Labor unions
must be independent of, and in practice, not subservient to the state.
- The Freedom of Religion as defined in the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, Article 18: “Everyone shall have the right to
freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include the
freedom to have or adopt a Religion or Belief of his choice, and the
freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or
private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice
and teaching.” These religions must also operate independently; they cannot
be made the instruments of the state.
2. The method of this struggle must be peaceful and non-violent. The
Vietnamese nation must itself be actively engaged in it. Of course, we are
extremely thankful for the warm and ever more effective support of all our friends
in the world. Using modern information media and through ever larger
international exchanges, we will seek in every way to help our compatriots to
fully understand the issues involved. Once this has been achieved, they
surely will know how to act appropriately and effectively.
5
3. This struggle is meant to make the Right Cause triumph over the
Bad Cause, and, Progress over Backwardness. There are popular
movements that are currently trying to use the laws of life and the tendencies of
our time in order to defeat those evil forces that are trying to go against these
tendencies and laws. Whether the CPV marches hand-in-hand with the Nation
or not will depend on whether it is objective, fair, enlightened and modest enough
to accept the principle of equality in a fair competition. The one-party political
regime must be once and for all buried in the dustbin of history. From such
a departing point, the Vietnamese nation will be able to find its best citizens and
the most capable political organizations after each election to lead it. The “total
triumph of the right cause” principle will be established, and one’s individual life
will become better, our society more humane, and our Compatriots will live
together on more friendly terms.
We hope that this Manifesto would foster the positive contributions of
our compatriots living outside of Vietnam and the support of our
international friends. We are sincerely grateful and call on the United Nations,
national parliaments, governments, international organizations and our friends all
over the world to continue supporting enthusiastically and effectively this fully
legitimate struggle. This will soon help bring our Fatherland, Vietnam, to stand
shoulder-to-shoulder with civilized, moral, prosperous and free countries in
today’s community of Mankind.
