Motorcyclists riding past a statue of the Russian communist leader Vladimir I Lenin with bunches of flowers placed by local communist party and government’s organisations on the occasion of the 97th anniversary of the Russia’s October Revolution in downtown Hanoi.
By Marianne Brown and Pham Bac/Hanoi/DPA
At a fashionable cafe in central Hanoi, Van sips a $3 latte and taps the screen of her iPhone 5.
Dressed in a designer cardigan and skinny jeans, the 28-year-old Communist Party member can speak English, but responds to questions in Vietnamese.
“I joined (the party) because of my job,” says Van, who works for a state-run media outlet and did not want to give her real name.
Being a member gives her a stronger chance of promotion, she explains.
In many ways, Van is typical of those born into prosperous families of the post-war period, a generation that has embraced consumer culture, and is too young to remember Vietnam’s years of grinding poverty.
The persistent survival of the Communist Party in Vietnam may jar with the widespread adoption of global brands like Starbucks and McDonalds, at least to Western eyes. But Van’s pragmatism reflects how the Vietnamese Communist Party has weathered the past decades.
Its durability depends partly on how you define communism. If examined in the economic sense, “then the answer is it is dead in Vietnam”, says Vietnam expert Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
Communist parties took root in the 20th century across South-East Asia, where some scholars argue that Confucianism, a philosophy of order, hierarchy and strict moral codes, made it easier for people to accept the principles of communism in countries historically under China’s influence.
Ho Chi Minh, the revolutionary who would lead the Vietnamese against colonial France, “understood the importance of reconciling communism with Confucian culture”, author David Priestland writes in The Red Flag: Communism and the Making of the Modern World.
Today, the Vietnamese government continues to promote the “morals and virtues of Ho Chi Minh” at schools, in the media and banners decorating the streets.
But some argue this is mostly window-dressing. The current Communist Party “has no understanding about Confucianism and little about communism,” says former government advisor Professor Tuong Lai, who has been a member of the Communist Party for 56 years.
Instead of ideology, the legitimacy of the Vietnam Communist Party today “rests on its ability to deliver the economic goods to society at large and not on moral grounds”, Thayer says.
This began in 1986 when the Communist Party abandoned its Soviet-style doctrinaire approach to centralised planning with economic reforms known as “doi moi” and the approval of foreign direct investment.
Over the years consistent economic growth and foreign investment has led to rising living standards and the upgrading of the country to middle income status. As long as this trend continues, capitalism and globalisation allow the party to continue too.
“If Vietnam’s communists had not done away with the Stalinist system of central planning and priority to heavy industry, foreign investors would have stayed away. The capitalist world would have had no incentive to invest in Vietnam,” Thayer says.
But that does not mean that old school values are dead. Despite speaking out against corruption and being sidelined for his views, Tuong Lai says he would not consider giving up his party membership.
“Some people ask me why I remain in the party,” he says. “I tell them that I stay to clean up the leaders so as to push the country forward. I believe that in the party there are many patriots.”
But his optimism does not resonate with many Vietnamese.
Farmer Nguyen Van Hien, 53, from Hai Duong province was a soldier posted at the border with China during heightened tensions in the early 1980s.
“The current party is very different to the one which ruled the country during the American (Vietnam) War and war against China,” he said. “At that time, they really cared for the life of people. Now they only care for themselves. Support for the party has decreased very fast among farmers.”
Media worker Van says she would drop her party membership if she worked for a foreign company.
“Maybe in the future it won’t matter for my job, but not yet,” she says.
“The majority of Vietnamese people my age don’t care about Ho Chi Minh’s teaching,” Van says. “They just read it or repeat it because it’s become habit.”
