What should Vietnam do after it has been elected

into the U.N. Security Council as a non-permanent member?

Prof. VU QUOC THUC

The fact that VN has been elected into the U.N. Security Council for the 2008 - 2009 term may be good for VN, if it can do three things which bring benefits for the people of VN, as well as for the region. Without that position, the canvassings for a regional solution will be more difficult. Vietnam got a 183/0 vote at the U.N. National Assembly meeting of October 16, 2007.

The three things which serve Vietnam’s interests and challenge VN in the next two years is a 3-point solution that Vietnam needs to do within its term in the U.N. Security Council:

1) Making good the independence of the nation. Until now, few people don’t recognize that Vietnam leaders are lackeys of Beijing; as the lackeys for Beijing in Ba Dinh are continually to control the political power of VN. The first measure is to get rid of the dependence on Beijing by returning the determination right to the people. To do that, Vietnam needs to rewrite the Constitution to abolish Article 4 and the dictatorship, and to institute a true democracy for the country. Should the Communist Party of VN win democratic elections following the rewriting of the Constitution, it will have the legitimacy necessary for a democratic governance that it doesn’t have now. Why does someone call it (removal of Article 4 of the Constitution) committing "suicide" as Head of State Nguyen Minh Triet stated in a meeting of the Army’s General Bureau of Politics.

2) Turning the neutrality of fact into a legal neutrality, to avoid swinging between left and right (i.e. Beijing and Washington) all the time. Keeping swinging between left and right will be a detriment to the nation’s sovereignty and pave the way for the enemy’s penetration into our internal structures, like what VN is enduring now under the influence of communist China. The procedure for a legal neutrality can be learnt from Switzerland and Austria: a neutrality statement by the authorities, putting it into the Constitution, referendum, and submitting it to an international conference for endorsement. As Vietnam is a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, it may be a good opportunity for Vietnam to be successful in its plan.

3) Moving further to form a regional neutrality, which includes Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchia, Myanmar, and Thailand. As all these nations are afraid of China’s expansionism and the exploitation of the upper source of the Mekong River, they may be pleased to join Vietnam in a regional neutrality of these five countries. This solution was delivered by French President De Gaulle in 1966, but no one paid attention at the time, due to the nationalist - communist conflict being too large and both sides believing in protecting themselves. Now the situation is different under the globalization and democratization. Nations now can live peacefully without paying too much to ideology, as globalization is prevailing. Please refer to the original in Vietnamese for more information.