Degrading morality of Vietnam’s police forces

 

Duong Tu Trong, Former Colonel, Deputy Director of Hai Phong Police Department

The Central Party Committee of Vietnam’s Police forces and the Ministry of Public Security have just held a ceremony to celebrate the 78th anniversary of the traditional day of the Vietnamese People’s Police (August 19, 1945 – May 19, 2023), in the context of the leadership of the Ministry of Public Security being under the pressure of public opinion, about the manifestations of degradation and moral decline of the force “protecting and ensuring the party’s monopoly.”

It is not only the story of low-level police officers who have acted like “thieves, robbers and thugs.”

Most recently, senior lieutenant Nguyen Duc Trung, an officer of the Traffic Police Division of Vinh Phuc province’s Police Department, committed the crime of kidnapping children for a ranson of VND15 billion. This kidnapping happened shortly, after three police officers of Dai Nghia town, My Duc district were investigated and probed for property theft. They are captain Nguyen Van Nhan, two senior lieutenants Bui Dinh Viet and Bui Tien Tung. And on July 7, the Police Investigation Agency of Hanoi City Police issued a decision to probe the trio for the act of stealing goats from farmers.

 

Or in the “rescue flight” trial, the blame and mutual accusation between Lieutenant Colonel Hoang Van Hung and Major General Nguyen Anh Tuan is worth mentioning.

Specific examples like the one just cited reflect the moral degradation of the police force, which is known as the force protecting the party and ensuring the survival of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Recently, Vietnamese people were shocked about the scandalous stories of former Colonel Duong Tu Trong, when he was still Deputy Director of Hai Phong City Police Department, before being imprisoned in the “rescue” case for his brother- death row prisoner Duong Chi Dung – General Director of Vinaline. The story of Colonel Trong’s debauchery is not a rumor, but rather the content in the work “Touring Hai Phong/Bát phố Hải Phòng” by writer Nguyen Bao Sinh, who is living in Vietnam and the work is also published in the country.

 

The story says Colonel Duong Tu Trong hosted famous writers and artists in Vietnam, including writer Nguyen Huy Thiep, one of Colonel Trong’s VIP guests.

Under the pen of Nguyen Bao Sinh, the image of a high-ranking police officer – Colonel Trong was exposed, when Trong “let the police wear a gun, escort him in a police car (author Nguyen Bao Sinh) and writer Nguyen Huy Thiep went to sing karaoke” and also “sends female music school students to host valuable guests.”

The fact that female music school students were assigned by “superior” to work as prostitutes for two old writers, is a moral issue of Colonel Duong Tu Trong – Deputy Director HaiPhong’s Police Department. It also exposes the true face of the leader of the Hai Phong Public Security Investigation Agency, which public opinion and the media in Vietnam once praised.

So, is the typical image of the Vietnamese police like that?

Teacher Chu Mong Long from Binh Dinh wrote on his personal Facebook page, “I believe Duong Tu Trong is not stupid to direct students, but must go through the school’s Board of Directors. If that’s the case, maybe, the Board of Directors is in a pinch. If they refuse to send students to follow the writer, it seems that the gangsters [in Hai Phong] will come to the Rector’s house to ask for castration…

In fact, the above are just specific examples of an ethical situation in the police forces in particular and Vietnamese leaders in general. Stories about state media reported that a principal in Ha Tinh province, and one in Dak Nong, sent a female teachers to host high-ranking guests “through the night and through the morning” infringing on the dignity of teachers. However, at that time, Education Minister Phung Xuan Nha replied to the National Assembly, “You guys are just having a little fun!” Not to mention the fact that Minister Nha once issued an official letter stipulating that students can sell sex no more than 3 times, the fourth time will be disciplined.

Is that the great policy of the Communist Party of Vietnam? The alienation and metamorphosis of the forces protecting the regime as well as of leaders at all levels and branches, from the central to local levels, has shown that the warning of Standing Committee of the Secretariat in the 12th tenurre, Mr. Tran Quoc Vuong, still valid.”

 

According to Youth Newspaper, speaking at the National Conference to evaluate the results of Party building organization in 2019, implementing tasks in 2020, Tran Quoc Vuong said that, if Vietnam does not do well in cadre work, the regime will collapse but not by the enemy: “This is an important matter. The structure we built for 75 years, it’s up to us to collapse or not, not the enemy. No one invaded us, no one brought planes or cannons to invade and overthrow us. If we don’t do well, we will overthrow myself.

That is an idea worthy of serious consideration by Vietnamese leaders and General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

 

Vu Anh – Thoibao.de(Translated)