HUMAN
RIGHTS & THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN VIET-NAM
Lâm Lễ Trinh
Shortly after President Clinton’s
visit, Secretary-General Lê Khă Phiêu , warned the National Congress of the
Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) against the “machinations of the enemies of
the Republic aiming at destroying socialism”. The struggle, he said, had become
“inexorable and complex”. Just before Christmas, Head of
State Trần Đức Lương denounced “destructive hostile
powers” on the front page of the daily Nhân Dânand promised that “The
Party and the Government will sweep away all maneuvers of peaceful evolution
and all foreign-led movements for religious freedom”. And in January, speaking
to the annual meeting of national security agents, Prime Minister Phan Văn
Khải explained that “the adversaries of the regime are using religious
and minority groups to stir trouble.” It looks like religion
will be the nemesis of socialism in Vietnam and Hanoi knows it. And although
the Vietnamese Constitution guarantees religious freedom, the regime has
declared war on religious groups. “The policy of religious
freedom as practiced by the communist government is the noose that strangles
our religion,” stated Mgr Nguyễn Kim Điền, archbishop of
Hue. This statement applies equally to all other religious groups in Viet Nam
today.
The
Churches are fighting back, making new demands, using new methods
The religious card had been one of the Communists’ main weapons in bringing
down the First and Second Republics of South Vietnam, so it is ironic that they
should turn against religious groups after reunification. After the fall of
Saigon in April 1975, and for the last twenty five years, these churches, with
their followers, clergy and real estate, have been the only organized structures
other than the Party. For a quarter of century, the Catholics, Buddhists,
Protestants, Cao Đài and Ḥa Hảo have endured harsh repression and
their methods of resistance have evolved. They have a great psychological
asset – the people’s deep alienation from the atheist socialist regime.
The Vietnamese are deeply moral and spiritual and religion is a natural part of
their being.
Tensions between the Party and the churches have been increasing and at
the end of 2000, reached boiling point. Religious groups were prevented
from coming to the rescue of the victims of flooding in Central Vietnam and the
Mekong delta. Protestant montagnards were forcibly moved from their homes
and their churches destroyed. Several Buddhist leaders were forbidden to
move and preach freely. Hoa Hao pilgrims on their way to their Holy Land,
An Giang, to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the death of their
leader Huỳnh Phú Sổ, murdered on Hồ Chí Minh’s orders,
were brutally stopped by local security forces. Many were beaten and
arrested. Several Hoa Hao threatened hunger strike and self-immolation.
In the Cao Đài Mecca of Tây Ninh, the VCP enthroned 1,400
dignitaries of its own choosing, although the Cao Đài rite prescribes the
appointment of its high officials by means of the Turning Table. The
official Cao Đài Church is replaced by a Leadership Committee picked
by the Party.
On December 24, Prime Minister Phan Văn Khải signed an
executive order to nationalize 50 hectares of land belonging to the Trappist
Monastery of Thiên An near Huế. 13 priests, 75
novices, 23 interns and 30 applicants are thereby evicted. Exactly a
month earlier, Father Nguyễn Văn Lư, from Nguyệt Biều,
in Thừa Thiên province, who had been imprisoned twice by the Communists,
exhorted his 200 parishioners to call for religious freedom and the restoration
by local authorities of 1,500 square meters of confiscated parish
land. Father Lư beseeched Catholic leaders to stop collaborating with the
Communists until real religious freedom is given. “Freedom of
belief or Death!” screams a banner draped in front of the church
at Nguyệt Biều. This protest campaign is different from
previous ones in many ways: this is now a collective struggle, the
demands are for property rights and basic freedoms, appeals are made for
non-violence and solidarity between all religious groups. For these
reasons, it immediately struck a chord and garnered wide support,
including outside the country, thanks to the Internet.
On December 27, Father Lư, Father Chân Tín, the Venerable Thích
Thiện Hạnh, and Lê Quang Liêm, the Ḥa Hảo
leader, jointly signed a statement demanding freedom of religion and calling
for international support. Abroad, a committee is formed by
representatives of several religious groups. Vietnamese immigrants in a
number of countries show their support by organizing public
demonstrations, seminars and prayer vigils.
Two of the co-signers, Father Chân Tín and the Ḥa Hảo leader
Lê Quang Liêm had co-signed a similar proclamation on September 5 of the
previous year, together with the Venerable Thich
Quang Độ and the Cao Đài
leader Trần Quang Châu. In that proclamation, they asked
Hanoi to abolish article 4 of the Constitution (which establishes the
dictatorship of the VCP) as well as administrative texts limiting religious
freedom.
The proclamation of December 2000 denounces the anti-religious policies
of the VCP (confiscation of church properties, suppression of cultural
activities, detention of church followers, infiltration and sabotage,
establishment of state-run entities within church structures, defamation of
clergies…). It also demands real freedom of religion and belief,
including the freedom to select and appoint religious officials without outside
interference; the restoration of nationalized cultural properties; an
immediate end to all measures aimed at limiting sacerdotal activities; the
release of all religious personnel held without trial; and the respect of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 16 December 1966 signed by Hanoi
on September 24 1982.
This time, the campaign has many resources at its disposal: radio,
television, telephone and Internet. The “Committee for Religious Freedom
in Vietnam” (CRFV), the “Committed Vietnamese Youth” network in Australia and
the Buddhism and Hoa Hao websites in California are all very active and give
daily bulletins about the campaign.
Beware
new Communist tactics
Economic
regression, the danger of deviationism within the ranks of the People’s Army,
the growing opposition of the churches and the alienation of the young
generation from socialism are all insurmountable problems for the VCP.
Having failed to nationalize religion and bring about an ideological rebirth,
the Party is trying a handful of new tactics.
A - In the area of religion
Hanoi is encouraging the establishment of several Zen centers in Vietnam
and abroad. Zen is an important Buddhist school which originated in China
and was introduced to Japan in the 7th Century, and which stresses
the teaching of the student by his master over the scriptures. Vietnamese
Zen is supposedly apolitical but it is a creature of Communism, and its covert
aim is to distract the Vietnamese from their struggle for democracy.
While restricting the activities of the traditional churches to the maximum,
the government bestows a large number of privileges on the head of the
Vietnamese Zen movement. His monumental temples are built everywhere. He
can move and teach freely around the country and is allowed to travel abroad to
proselytize to the Vietnamese diaspora. He refuses to go wherever the
nationalist flag is displayed. In his sermons, he never mentions
the lack of basic freedoms in Vietnam. He also never takes part, directly
or indirectly, in relief actions for flood victims or in actions for the
protection of human rights. The Politburo has found in him and his
church the perfect supporters of their underhand policy for national
reconciliation. His church is there to counterbalance the influence of
the religious groups hostile to the government.
Hanoi
learned its lesson from China. Following in Beijing’s footsteps, it has
outlawed the Falun Gong movement. Falun Gong is a Zen movement created by
Li Hongzi in 1992. It was successively called Xulian, Qigong and finally
Falun Gong or Falun Dafa. Its stated objective is spiritual and
physical improvement through the combined practices of Zen, taichi, Taoist and
Buddhist precepts and Li Hongzi’s personal ideas. It garnered an enormous
following in a very short time and the latest statistics show that it now has
100 million followers, including 70 million in China (more than the membership
of the Chinese Communist Party). The rest are scattered throughout Asia,
Europe and America. Falun Gong followers deny that they are a religion, a
sect or a cult. They like to think of themselves as a network for the
free dissemination of information (especially via the Internet) and of several
types of exercise. There is no formal structure and hierarchy, no
membership list, and the movement is volunteer-based. In April 1999,
Falun Gong organized huge demonstrations over several days in Tienanmen Square
to peaceful demand freedom of religion and expression. Tens of thousands
of the movement’s followers turned up. The demonstrations spread to
thirty other cities. Stunned, President Jian Zenming declared Falun Gong public
enemy no. 1 and accused the movement of stealing state secrets and of using
superstition to trick people. On July 23, 1997, Li Hongzi appealed to the
world for help. A week later, he asked for political asylum in the United
States. In a recent statement, Falun Gong declared that no less than
50,000 of its faithful were being detained in China, and that 24 had died in
detention. This non-violent movement which has mobilized huge crowds
through sheer spiritual strength represents a serious threat to the Chinese
government, and its fight against oppression is being closely followed by a
sympathetic international audience.
B - In the area of youth
organizations
For many
years now, the young generation – the last hope to revive socialism – has been
slipping from the grasp of the Communists. The slogans about patriotism
and sacrifice, abused and over-used, now sound hollow. Communist youth
organizations struggle to maintain their membership. It was recently
reported by the international media that the chief editor and his assistant at
Tuổi Trẻ, a Marxist newspaper, had been fired for daring to publish
the results of a survey in which only 37% of the young people in Vietnam named
Uncle Ho as their hero.
To try and turn this around, the Politburo has tried to make membership
of the Party more attractive. Party members are offered employment,
children of high party officials are sent to study abroad in the hope that they
will take over from their parents one day. The scout movement of Baden
Powell is also experiencing a rebirth.
During colonial times, when political parties were being harassed
by the French authorities, the young Vietnamese who wanted to fight for their
country would find refuge in two officially recognized organizations: The
General Association of Indochinese Students (AGEI in French), and the
Federation of Vietnamese Scouts (FSVN in French). The scout movement was
introduced by a teacher, Trần Văn Khắc (who passed away in
Ottawa in 1990) with the help of Hoàng Đạo Thúy, also a
teacher. The FSVN’s main objective was to produce responsible citizens
with a high sense of honor and civic duty. More so than the AGEI, the
FSVN gave rise to some of the best among the nationalist and communist
leaders. Notable among them were Tạ Quang Bửu, the renowned
scientist and educator, who served as Minister of Defence (he was one of the
signatories of the Geneva Agreement of 1954) and Minister of Education under
Hồ Chí Minh. The FSVN was dissolved after April 1975, its
goods were confiscated and many of its leaders were sent to re-education
camps. Before his death in 1990, Hoàng Đạo Thúy, a Party
member, had tried without success to establish a Communist Scouting Association.
In late 1991, Vũ Xuân Hồng, Secretary of the Movement of Marxist
Youth, approached the Asia-Pacific office of the Scout movement. The
General Secretariat of the international movement did not follow up on this
approach since the organization cannot give allegiance to a national entity.
After the troubled years of the revolution (1930-1946), the ensuing
instability (1946-1955), and then continuous development in South Vietnam
(1955-1975), the FSVN was finally banned by the Communists and forced to
leave. The movement experienced a gradual rebirth, first in the refugee
camps then in the host countries where the refugees have made their
homes. In 1985, the Central Committee of Vietnamese Scouts was
created. It is the umbrella organization for Vietnamese Scouts in the
diaspora. The Committee sent a delegation to the 1998 Congress for the
Asia-Pacific area which was attended by 150 nations. Today, over a
thousand illegal Scouts are still secretly active around Saigon.
Following President Clinton’s visit to Vietnam last November, Hanoi tried to
jump-start a new Scout movement, thereby reviving its moribund youth
organizations.
The
cost of silence
Most Catholic priests have decided to side with Father Nguyễn Văn
Lư. The Venerable Thích Thiện Hạnh has asked the Buddhists of
Huế-Thưa Thiên to organize a week of prayers for freedom of religion
and to commemorate the sacrifices made by combatants from the North and the
South for the national cause. In the diaspora, many protests have taken place.
But on the whole, senior church dignitaries have remained silent. This is
most regrettable.
There have been two notable exceptions however. The first is
an open letter sent on December 18 by Mgr.Trần Văn Hoài, founder of
the World Movement of Lay Catholics, to the Catholic symposium in Orange
County, California, on the matter of religious persecutions in Vietnam.
In this document, Mgr. Hoài examines Father Nguyễn Văn Lư appeal,
without hiding his unconditional support. Secondly, on
January 1, the Network of Committed Vietnamese Youth in Australia publicly
appealed to Cardinal Phan Đ́nh Tụng, the Bishops’ Conference and the
Vietnamese priesthood, to take position and to “guide and advise
them”. Religious groups have a leading part to play in the struggle for
democracy because they alone have ready-made structures, a vast network of
followers and moral authority.
One last point: to speak about non-violence is one thing, to
practice it is another. Non-violence is more than a political
tactic, it is essentially a philosophy powerful enough to subjugate violence
and totalitarianism. It is more complex than armed resistance because in
order to make use of it, one needs to be more spiritual, more disciplined, more
heroic. The faces and the means of execution of non-violence are many,
ranging from boycotts to hunger strikes, from peaceful protests to civil
disobedience, non-cooperation and the refusal to compromise. Mohandas K.
Gandhi had said: “Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal
of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest wea[pon of destruction
designed by the ingenuity of man.”
Sporadic and isolated acts of opposition will not move Hanoi. The
turning point will be when the exasperated masses rise and have to be put
down. The security forces will then have to decide between siding
with the people or saving the Party. Judging from the current situation,
it looks like they will side with the people, like they did in the Soviet Union
and other Marxist countries.
May this campaign to save the Vietnamese soul and the preservation of
Vietnamese identity become a crusade, a Crusade for Non-Violence!
Lâm Lễ Trinh
Thủy Hoa Trang
California
Vietnam
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