oh, this is a country, not a fairy tale

I recently had my first brush with politics in Vietnam. For a while I got along being blissfully unaware - most Vietnamese are indifferent to the elections and activity of the politburo, so I don’t hear about it much. (Yet I cannot escape from the tendrily fingers of our own election’s media coverage.)

A few weeks ago as I was driving to work, I noticed that several normally busy streets were blocked off, even though there wasn’t any sign of construction. There were cops at every intersection. The barricades created such a big detour that I was a few minutes late to work. When I asked what was going on, my coworker said: “it’s the environmental protests.”

In the month of April, hundreds of thousands of dead fish washed up on the shores of four provinces. Not only did this create dirty polluted coastlines, it also really hurt the fishing industry and in turn, the economy. A Taiwanese-owned plant called Formosa Plastics was implicated in the fish deaths. They recently admitted to having an illegal sewage pipe in Vietnamese waters. However, it’s not clear whether this factory was directly responsible for the fish kill or if they even had anything to do with it at all – environmentally destructive business practices are a given everywhere in and around Vietnam. It’s also possible that the cause was completely external – an algae bloom could be the culprit. The government promised to launch an investigation into the matter, but didn’t really follow through. Nor did the powers that be do anything to right the devastating repercussions of the fishkill. So righteously upset citizens took to the streets to protest. While the demonstrations were directed at the Vietnamese government for its corruption and negligence, a lot of the escalating tension is also a response to China’s reckless self-interest in the region. (Think: building unauthorized military bases in the South China Seas.) But the main beef is what you’d expect: that the government isn’t representative of the people, doesn’t deliver its promises, covers up corruption, and actively suppresses criticism. In addition to blocked streets, major social media platforms become inaccessible if there’s any whisper of demonstrations. Facebook, Instagram, the Vietnamese version of Twitter – they’re regularly blacked out on weekends. Of course there are ways around this. For three weekends in a row, protests were planned in the more Western, touristy areas of the city with the specific goal of attracting international attention. Unfortunately the protesters and journalists and even some bystanders were shut down very quickly on every occasion. To accomplish this, police brutality is employed to beat dissenters and detain activists (hence the cops I saw, preparing for action.) National television also broadcasts bogus threats about the consequences of association with any of this activity. That’s what I've heard anyway. My friends and I are curious about what actually happens at these protests, but we’ve been strongly cautioned to stay away from them.

So that's been my introduction to the real political climate in Vietnam. In my experience overall, it seems like a free and open society at first (and truly, in many ways it is.) But the longer I live here, the more I am troubled by its administration. As is the norm in most developing countries, an elaborate dance of violence and corruption is tolerated, if not orchestrated by the regime itself. Vietnam is no exception. For me, an expat, the most irritating reality of poor governance is that I have to show my passport, visa, labor contract, and current pay slip to do basically anything, because people have (justified) concern about police raids. I don’t understand why, but they also make it damn near impossible to send money outside of the country even if you are a foreigner. Which is especially puzzling when you consider that the purchase of a Vietnamese visa in Vietnam must be transacted in US Dollars.

I'm hesitant to comment on anything else because a lot of the complaints I’ve heard from other expats are purely anecdotal. Anyways, all of this has led me to think about the difference between what it means to be a US citizen and what it means to be a Vietnamese citizen, and what it means to be a US citizen living in Vietnam. Here’s the conclusion I’ve drawn: if annoying and burdensome laws ultimately protect civil liberties, then they are a necessary evil. But if the rule of law is not properly upheld, they are just evil. Vietnam has many obnoxious and petty laws, but it doesn’t really seem like people are safer or better off because of them. That’s the main difference. Obama’s recent visit brought Vietnam into the international spotlight, so maybe that attention will put some pressure on the CVP to adhere to international stipulations on human rights. I hope to be able to observe that for myself. I also hope I'm not putting myself on a hit list by publishing this.

Since this post has painted my country of residence in a pretty unflattering light, I’ll end by emphasizing that I do feel safe and respected here almost all the time. While it is willfully ignorant to say that corruption isn’t a big problem, it would also be dishonest to say that this has substantially affected my own life. In fact, I’m having a great time y’all.

Thanks for reading!