(Excerpt from issue 1 of the Youth Journal published in Hanoi)
A young friend in Dac Lac wrote me an emotional letter about the case of young Nguyen Manh Huy and asked the question: The youth fight resolutely to defend the right to go to school of their peers, how about the grown-ups? Another young friend, from Tan Bien (Tay Ninh), asked a similar question.
I cannot and I have no legal right to represent the group so-called old to answer. I ask to answer in my personal capacity, in a newspaper on New Year's Day, as an open letter sent to those who are concerned about the instances almost alike that of young Nguyen Manh Huy.
First of all, I'd like to tell about the following circumstance in which I got involved and of which I have made mention in a newspaper article: Young Vu Duc Khoi "violated school regulations" because he took entrance exams to two schools and was admitted to both schools. He selected the school of Medicine and Pharmacy where he attended classes for two years then was sent down. Several persons flocked together to help him - the Director of Special Affairs for Student Selection of the Ministry of University Education, the Education Department of the City Committee, the dean of both schools where the young student took his entrance exams, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Health, the Deputy Minster of the Ministry of University Education - (currently a Minister) - but another Deputy Minister of the Ministry of University Education (fortunately, he was recently removed from office because of certain negligence in the selection of students) coldly shook his head. Thereupon Khoi resigned himself to staying home for three years! The reason for this shaking of the head was as simple as the attitude of a physician of questionable conscience who had to deal with a critical case but who said : "The prognosis of the patient does not meet the criteria to be admitted to this hospital"! The regulations of the Ministry of University Education stipulate: A student who takes entrance exam to two schools shall be stripped of the rights to attend school; and this rule must be enforced...
I am not acquainted with Khoi; I've never met him even; I only have received his request for help. It seemed his case had been solved by the new Minister of University Education - comrade Tran Hong Quan. Perhaps on this occasion, let's together thank the comrade Minister. At least you have helped to provide society with one more concrete proof for keeping up the faith.
We knew that the regulations were not laid down by...Divine Emperor of Jade, but by us. They live in this world, and certainly they can be changed, not by themselves still, but by those who laid them down.
The final issue, it is very painful for me to say, resides elsewhere. What regulations authorized the changes on the students' exam paper coupons to send them to Russia for study? You probably have read the Ho Chi Minh City Public Security newspaper report made by the Investigation committee over the case of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy. Perhaps we are not yet satisfied with the evaluations and the motions made by the investigation committee about the facts which the committee itself has set down in writing: there were considerable discrepancy between them and the very grave breaches of discipline, but that's another issue: people dared alter the regulations of not only a Ministry, but also of their conscience. And they made no bones about it.
I was fairly "dazed" about the case of Nguyen Manh Huy, because I knew the comrades key leaders of Nghia Binh province like the provincial committee's Private-Secretary, the provincial People's Committee Chairman were people who hoped to do good. But, as I wrote this article, another circumstance had taken place also in the Nghia Binh, which the journal Doan Ket and the journal Nghia Binh reflected, and which had to do with the scourge of oppression by the powerful that developed into savage murder the type perpetrated by the American commandos which involved arson, stabbing to death, tying up disemboweled victims and dragging them, burying alive...And, there were some fifteen murderers involved. Who were they? The village People's Committee Assistant-Chairman, the hamlet chief, the militia...Yet the village Party committee held an open meeting and proposed the motion toward the condemnation, complete with motive, of an entire murdered family. And that most absurd motive was: the family had failed... to be steadfast in the resistance against the Americans!
I read the article reproduced on the Youth journal three to four times and felt at a loss: what epoch was it, the rebellion? That happened on the eve of the 11th of July the year one thousand nine hundred eighty seven. It took place where?... In a despotic country being governed by some king or fascist, or being under occupation like the west bank of the Jordan River in Palestine?
No, the address was Vietnam, hamlet Cuong Luong, village Hoai My, district Hoai Nhon, province Nghia Binh...Who were the victims?...The reactionaries or the scoundrels? No, the murdered was a second year student of the College of Physical Education who was scheduled to leave the next day to the Soviet Union for study, and the one buried alive was a ninth grade student.
The savagery incensed us. Obviously, it didn't just take place in the Nghia Binh "kingdom". District 8 of Ho Chi Minh City used to have a "mister" party-member who banged his Party card on the table: " I am a party-member, I have the right to beat you". He, a Ward Assistant-Chairman, did truly hit, he made a youth's nose bleed...Minh Hai newspaper had the story of the incident taking place at the village of Vinh Thuan where the Private-Secretary committed rape and stealing, and it took a year before the case was concluded. The case as evident as it was could not be concluded in a reasonable lapse of time just because the group of criminals had hearty protection! When the conclusion did come the authors of the crimes had already disappeared. But that was not the end. Minh Hai newspaper brought to attention the case of the public security service second-lieutenant shot to death because he uncovered a scheme to organize out-of-country escapes in exchange for gold. The murderer was arrested immediately, but the zonal military court which proposed a motion to hold a trial could not carry it out because the killer ...had been hired by some people, "bosses", people of influence, who were resolved to intervene to drown the sentence into oblivion; the " eight-year judgment" still had not been made public. The victim's wife went knocking at all the doors and was hampered by a little crookedness: justice had to resign itself to ...waiting.
I did not decide to make a list of the scandalous actions - that list would be much longer. I'd like to return to the main subject of today's article.
Truly speaking, all the honest people in the entire country knew that our society still maintained a scourge, which needed to be absolutely, removed the sooner the better. It was not just an accessory to the economical and cultural standard of living, but the child of the disease of power, the disease of bureaucracy, the habit of securing privileges and special allotments for one's own interest in the name of the ideology of socialism and hiding under the trappings of the Party. Among all the ideological subversitions hurled against our regime, the principal danger consisted in those very same "in the name of" and "under the trappings of" underhand means.
Recently, the public opinion was allowed access to those worms, those horrible nests of viruses living inside the organs which decide our survival - not on the surface of the skin, but in the liver, the heart, the lungs, the nervous system. I stressed on the words "allowed to" because this request should have accompanied the request to build the country at very outset. The advocacy for genuine love must indispensably associate itself with the condemnation of crimes - the border line very easy to distinguish in reality, but was muddled up by a vague attitude, so much that there were instances where vice had become virtue, and the good the bad.
I read the article reproduced on the Youth journal three to four times and felt at a loss: what epoch was it, the rebellion? That happened on the eve of the 11th of July the year one thousand nine hundred eighty seven. It took place where?... In a despotic country being governed by some king or fascist, or being under occupation like the west bank of the Jordan River in Palestine?
No, the address was Vietnam, hamlet Cuong Luong, village Hoai My, district Hoai Nhon, province Nghia Binh...Who were the victims?...The reactionaries or the scoundrels? No, the murdered was a second year student of the College of Physical Education who was scheduled to leave the next day to the Soviet Union for study, and the one buried alive was a ninth grade student.
The savagery incensed us. Obviously, it didn't just take place in the Nghia Binh "kingdom". District 8 of Ho Chi Minh City used to have a "mister" party-member who banged his Party card on the table: " I am a party-member, I have the right to beat you". He, a Ward Assistant-Chairman, did truly hit, he made a youth's nose bleed...Minh Hai newspaper had the story of the incident taking place at the village of Vinh Thuan where the Private-Secretary committed rape and stealing, and it took a year before the case was concluded. The case as evident as it was could not be concluded in a reasonable lapse of time just because the group of criminals had hearty protection! When the conclusion did come the authors of the crimes had already disappeared. But that was not the end. Minh Hai newspaper brought to attention the case of the public security service second-lieutenant shot to death because he uncovered a scheme to organize out-of-country escapes in exchange for gold. The murderer was arrested immediately, but the zonal military court which proposed a motion to hold a trial could not carry it out because the killer ...had been hired by some people, "bosses", people of influence, who were resolved to intervene to drown the sentence into oblivion; the " eight-year judgment" still had not been made public. The victim's wife went knocking at all the doors and was hampered by a little crookedness: justice had to resign itself to ...waiting.
I did not decide to make a list of the scandalous actions - that list would be much longer. I'd like to return to the main subject of today's article.
Truly speaking, all the honest people in the entire country knew that our society still maintained a scourge, which needed to be absolutely, removed the sooner the better. It was not just an accessory to the economical and cultural standard of living, but the child of the disease of power, the disease of bureaucracy, the habit of securing privileges and special allotments for one's own interest in the name of the ideology of socialism and hiding under the trappings of the Party. Among all the ideological subversitions hurled against our regime, the principal danger consisted in those very same "in the name of" and "under the trappings of" underhand means.
Recently, the public opinion was allowed access to those worms, those horrible nests of viruses living inside the organs which decide our survival - not on the surface of the skin, but in the liver, the heart, the lungs, the nervous system. I stressed on the words "allowed to" because this request should have accompanied the request to build the country at very outset. The advocacy for genuine love must indispensably associate itself with the condemnation of crimes - the border line very easy to distinguish in reality, but was muddled up by a vague attitude, so much that there were instances where vice had become virtue, and the good the bad.
Recently, the public opinion was given access to the reality of worms, of the horrible swarms of viruses that built their nests not on the surface of the skin, but deep inside our vital organs, liver, heart, lungs, nervous system. I stress on the terms "given access" because if that was a response to a request by the public then there was another request originating from the regime that must have been made right at the outset when it rose up to seize power. Advocacy to genuine love must indispensably associate itself with condemnation of crime - the separating line is easy to distinguish in reality, but a vague attitude muddles it up, and as a result in some cases vice became virtue, virtue became vice. Naturally, as of the 6th Party Congress the light gradually shone in every nook and cranny, and this was an irreversible trend, because innovation can never build strength if it does not impact on the most sensitive domains of life.
Knowing how to hate is as important as knowing how to love. To hate like the plague, to hate like a deep-rooted hatred, to hate to the point of gritting your teeth, that blood spurt out of your eyes, that you "dig a grave to bury" all that is treacherous, that tread on the character of socialism, so that one may love, loving ardently, passionately, yearningly, loving in a way that vibrates the body as well as the soul, loving from the shape, the hair, the smile, the voice that the generations of Vietnamese have longed for, yearned for, have been determined to seize at the cost of their lives...That was the harmonious union. The shades of love reflect in the hatred and vice-versa.
Knowing how to hate is as important as knowing how to love. To hate like the plague, to hate like a deep-rooted hatred, to hate to the point of gritting your teeth, that blood spurt out of your eyes, that you "dig a grave to bury" all that is treacherous, that tread on the character of socialism, so that one may love, loving ardently, passionately, yearningly, loving in a way that vibrates the body as well as the soul, loving from the shape, the hair, the smile, the voice that the generations of Vietnamese have longed for, yearned for, have been determined to seize at the cost of their lives...That was the harmonious union. The shades of love reflect in the hatred and vice-versa.
What we - the grown-ups - are enthused over is that the young, if not all at least a great number, know how to love and how to hate, through the bitter struggle going on today.
The truth may not be reconquered in the twinkling of an eye. But, the weapon to
regain the truth has begun to develop its faculties.
There was nothing strange when, right at the beginning of the year 1988, there persisted voices opposing the innovation and unconcealment trend, that is the trend toward democracy. The reason was that the backward components understood that a beginning would be followed by other moves and that the rules of the correct socialist regime were like a vehicle, which flattened under its crushing weight all the weeds on its relentless path ahead.
The proof is that, if it wasn't for Resolution VI the cases Nguyen Manh Huy, Hoai Nhon and tens of thousand cases we had known and would know would sound like the moans in each house, or heard like the commiseration with one's own fate that had been going on a thousand years.
To the two young friends who wrote to me I convey this message: There is still some price to pay for social justice, morality, but the highest price we already paid had been: the assailment to innovate we were subjected to...
Know how to love. And know how to hate. Love and hate with all your might! Those were my wishes of new year to all of my Vietnamese young friends...
Tran Bach Dang
EDITOR: Nam-Truc
DETERMINING SCORES FOR SOUTHERN UNIVERISTIES AND COLLEGES
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SCHOOL
|
SECTION (2)
|
EXAM OBJECT (1)
|
ZONE
| ||||||
Group I
|
Group II
|
Group III
|
Group IV
| ||||||
General
University
|
A
C
C
English
|
11,0
17.5
15.5
18.0
|
16.0
18.0
16.0
18.5
|
17.5
18.5
16.0
19.0
|
18.5
19.5
19.5
22.0
|
Intramural
Suburban
Suburban
| |||
Polytechnic
University
Ho Chi Minh City
|
A
Preparatory A
Preparatory A
|
16.0
13.0
12.0
|
17.0
16.0
14.5
|
21.0
---
---
|
23.0
--
--
|
Intramural
Suburban
| |||
Colleges of
Finance and
Accounting
|
A
A
A
|
12.0
11.0
10.0
|
15.0
13.0
11.0
|
21.0
18.0
17.0
|
24.5
24.5
24.5
|
Intramural
Suburban
Coastal
| |||
Dalat
University
|
A
B
C
|
12.0
11.0
10.0
|
13.0
12.0
11.0
|
16.0
14.0
14.0
|
20.0
17.0
16.0
| ||||
College of
Pedagogy (4)
|
A
B
|
9.0
7.0
|
9.0
7.0
|
13.0
10.0
|
17.0
15.0
| ||||
(1) Excerpt from the notice of the Section of Specialized Education of Ho Chi Minh City.
(2) Section A majors in Math, Physics, Section B majors in Chemistry, Biology, Section C majors in Literature, History, Philosophy.
(3) Please, see the groups in the article in the following page. Notice that each group is subdivided into zone, residential area of the candidate, with the aim to encourage the youths of the rural areas.
(4) There is another college with the name “College of Pedagogy of Ho Chi Minh City”. In total there are 20 universities and colleges. The above notes are from Doan Ket Journal.
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