A Change of Guard

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Wednesday 18 March 2015

Abbott has a habit of honouring authoritarians. Will Vietnam be different?


School of Vice: What is that triangle relationship called gain; I mean the one that exists between Canberra, Phnom Penh and Hanoi? Is Australia catching up with the rest of these despotic states as a result of her geographical proximity to them?

Australia should of course seek to have good relations with its neighbours. That also means raising human rights concerns.’ President Nguyen Tan Dung during his last state visit, in 2008. Photograph: Alan Porritt/AAP

by Elaine Pearson


The visit of the Vietnamese prime minister to Australia is an opportunity for Tony Abbott to correct the approach he took to human rights abuses in Sri Lanka

When Australian prime minister Tony Abbott meets his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung in Canberra this week will he simply praise Vietnam’s economic progress while staying silent about its deplorable human rights situation? It’s all too likely. After all, the Australian government has made a habit of honouring countries like Cambodia, Sri Lanka and China as “good friends” of Australia while ignoring their poor rights records.

Our “friends” shouldn’t get off so easily. Vietnam is one of the world’s few remaining one-party communist states. For nine years, Dung has overseen the suppression of basic freedoms, widespread censorship, and control of religion. More than 100 political prisoners are currently behind bars in Vietnam.

In prison are women like 48-year-old Ho Thi Bich Khuong, a blogger and land rights activist who has exposed suffering of farmers kicked off their land, showing the largely invisible human cost of Vietnam’s rapid economy growth. The Vietnamese authorities have reacted to Khuong’s efforts with repression and prosecution: she has been in and out of jail, and is currently serving a five-year sentence for “conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”

Also imprisoned is 46-year-old Mai Thi Dung, a Buddhist activist. The Vietnamese government routinely monitors and harasses religious groups that operate outside the official government-registered religions her independent Hoa Hao group has faced intrusive police surveillance and intimidation. The courts sentenced her to a total of 11 years in prison for her role in Hoa Hao protests.


The Australian government is well aware of the problems faced by activists like these. Australia supposedly raises political prisoner cases during forums such as the annual Australia-Vietnam human rights dialogue. But those closed-door discussions between mid-level officials are largely a theatrical exercise.

Indeed, in a cynical affront to the very spirit of a human rights dialogue, last year Vietnamese authorities prevented several activists from joining a workshop on media freedom partially hosted by the Australian government.

This dialogue, like Australia’s other human rights dialogues with China and Laos, suffers from a credibility gap because of a lack of transparency about what’s actually discussed, and a failure to provide clear public benchmarks to measure incremental progress on rights. 

The dialogue’s existence does not mean Abbott and Julie Bishop, the foreign minister, should shy away from raising these cases with Dung during his visit. Abbott has talked a lot about the importance of freedoms of speech and expression in Australia. The people of Vietnam are in desperate need of these freedoms, which have been trampled by the government.

By any account Vietnam has made little to no progress on issues like freedom of expression and religion, with critics of the government inevitably ending up in prison for their dissent. If Australian leaders fail to back up private discussions with public statements of grave concern, it’s not only a missed opportunity, but a failure to stand up for the repressed Vietnamese people.

Australia should of course seek to have good relations with its neighbours. That also means raising human rights concerns – that is to say, being friends with the whole population of Vietnam, not just its rulers. 

Benign statements of friendship with authoritarians do have consequences for the populations of authoritarian regimes. When the Australian government lauded Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa while downplaying his government’s atrocities in the country’s civil war, this gave political cover to his ongoing crackdown on government critics and defiance of international pressure for a UN inquiry into war crimes. 

"If Australia wants to stop the boats, it must stand against abuses in Sri Lanka"
           Elaine Pearson

With Rajapaksa’s defeat in the last election, and a new Sri Lankan government that has spoken out against Australia’s silence on human rights abuses, Australia now looks to be on the wrong side of history. “When human rights were being trampled, and democracy was at bay, these countries were silent. That is an issue for Sri Lanka,” new prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in February.

Australia, of course, has its own serious human rights shortcomings, including its treatment of refugees and Indigenous people. A country’s own human rights problems should not be an excuse for ignoring human rights violations elsewhere. 

Both public and private messages conveyed to Dung during this visit matter very much – to the Vietnamese people as well as the government. Raising human rights concerns is not “lecturing”, as Abbott is wont to say. It’s about taking a consistent and principled position on fundamental rights that all nations, including Vietnam, have agreed to uphold.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Australian had too, otherwise the poor asian countries take advantage from Australia. minimal business.

Anonymous said...

Begin of Drgunzet's comment.

"Also imprisoned is 46-year-old Mai Thi Dung, a Buddhist activist. The Vietnamese government routinely monitors and harasses religious groups that operate outside the official government-registered religions her independent Hoa Hao group has faced intrusive police surveillance and intimidation. The courts sentenced her to a total of 11 years in prison for her role in Hoa Hao protests."

I read a couple thousand books so I happened to know about the Hoa Hao sect. During the Vietnam War period, this sect refused to pay tax to the South Vietnamese government, built their own private militia army with a commander ranked Major General or so.

The South Vietnamese government brought regular divisions and stormed the area, put an end to this group's movement. And that was of course sanctioned by the American advisers. After all, USA was financing all the weapons and supplies to South Vietnam.

So, it's a bad idea to be in a sect for any independence movement. Remember the cult in Waco, Texas? The FBI eventually stormed the compound and many cultists died in the huge fire erupted during the fire-fight.

-Drgunzet-

Anonymous said...

Begin of Drgunzet's comment.

To all Khmer Australians and Khmer Americans, if you dare to do this: refuse to pay tax, form your own militia. You will be brought down by the governments.

When you live in a country, you must obey the law. You must stop having the lawless mentality or you will continue getting owned.

-Drgunzet=

Anonymous said...

tony abbott is one of the modern day absolute criminals who has no human decency and compassion for any one except for the criminals. the two ring leaders of Bali nine whom abbott's govt has been trying so hard to persuade the Indonesia's Govt to spare those two criminals who have wrecked so many lives because of their greed. I hope the Indonesian Govt would not give in an inch to the request to spare the two bastards. They deserve to get shot by the Indonesian's firing squad and serves abbott right.

Anonymous said...

Eh drgunzet do you pay the correct tax yourself? I remember years ago in NZ this movie the killing fields actor mr Hang Gnor came to NZ for refugees'day. He lectured Khmer in NZ to work hard and pay the correct taxes like you now lecture Khmer in aussies and in the US to pay the correct taxes.drgunzet you know what happened to hang gnor, he got robbed and killed.So the moral of the story is GOD MIGHT GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WISHED FOR. Mind your damn business oh don't play with God, asshole.
Jackel

Anonymous said...

The so-called 'human right, freedom and democracy' are not the only thing on the world, all of those are nothing but mere tools for some nations and govt to use.

#comcomWF

Anonymous said...

Kem sok svar aka litle dwarf supper dumb strategic maker of Cambodia was an inferior human since he is an imbrugyo in his mother worm

Anonymous said...

Begin of Drgunzet's comment.

I suggest the Khmer to improve themselves before criticizing other superior people. I found it's absurd.

Really, how dare Sam Rainsy demanded Mr. Obama not to visit Cambodia. And how about now, he no longer demands Michelle Obama not to visit Cambodia to aid credibility to Mr. Hun Sen?

Meanwhile I discovered Vietnam has a second Milk company which is rising rapidly and could even overtake the first huge Vietnamese company. Vietnamese children will have access to a lot of inexpensive milk. They will grow big and tall.

This year, Vietnam won the Mister Global 2015.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Global

Oh my God, check out that Vietnamese guy, Mister Global. Ok, he is bigger and stronger than I am. I concede defeat, no contest here.

http://noeljose.com/entertainment/2015/03/08/mister-global-2015-is-vietnams-nguyen-van-son/

Vietnamese folk are getting smarter too. I read a news about an 11-year old Vietnamese American girl going to University.

When I was 11, I was punished and bled over little food dispute worth about 10 cents. Then some years later, I peddled lottery tickets on the street. Dark-skinned Asian kids attacked me and I fought on the street a lot.... Luckily, I went to America at age 15 and was saved.

Check out this Vietnamese guy, who was selected to join the plan, Mars One, Humanity effort to colonize Mars.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/science-it/124973/young-vietnamese-man-dreams-of-conquering-mars.html

This week, in the World chess champion candidate qualifier, Vietnam won all 3 allocated tickets for the East Asia region. Check this link out and see how dominant Vietnamese players are. In Asia, only China can defeat Vietnam in Chess.

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2015/03/le-quang-liem-and-pham-le-thao-nguyen.html

As usual, you will not see any Cambodian competitor...

-Drgunzet-