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Ðằng Vân

When Iraqi journalist Muntazer Al-Zadi threw his shoe at US former president George W Bush, in December 14, 2008, in Baghdad he created, ironically, not only history as far as the maturation of democracy in Iraq was concerned, but more importantly he had invented a genuine, convenient and popular method to measure the degree of contempt citizens of the world reserved for various dictators straddling the world stage.

Let’s look at what George W Bush did to deserve the one shoe from Al-Zadi.

Evidently, the number of shoes must be genuine and spontaneous, not inspired or premeditated like the numerous shoes thrown subsequently at the front gate of the White House, on 19 January 2009 by the 200 or so anti-Bush protesters, on the eve of the expiration of his presidency. Those shoes may not count at all, nor as much as the one true shoe from Al-Zadi.

Apparently, as far as his critics are concerned, Bush did a lot of bad things: his appalling cavalier attitude towards the suffering of his own people during the Katrina disaster, the disdain he reserved for his allies and the United Nations during his 8 years at the helm, his tolerance and indeed co-operation with the worst dictators of the world despite the atrocities these inflicted on their own peoples (these dictators include Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao, Nguyen Tan Dung, Nguyen Minh Triet and Pervez Musharraf) and of course his total loss of control of the cohorts of captains of finance and industries surrounding him, whose conduct and greed have finally brought about Armageddon to American and world financial collapse. That was as far as an American dictator could do. He was still bound by the US constitution and had to step down after two terms lasting 8 years. He stretched the laws a little as far as the treatment of terrorism suspects at Guantana Bay was concerned. But the US Supreme Court stepped in promptly declared some of his decisions unconstitutional. He did not send in the marines to ransack the court nor execute or imprison the judges, nor could he. Above all, he was elected by the American people in a free and fair election.

Let’s say that after we have balanced his bad points against the good ones, he justly deserves one shoe of shame.

That’s good enough for Bush. But how many would the universally despised Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe deserve?

This guy is incredible. He is able to reduce an economically prosperous country to virtual ruin with inflation running at tens of million percent per year. His people are starving and he and his cronies continue to live in luxury. He kills, maims, tortures and imprisons his opponents and is able to keep a straight face when he talks about good governance, the economy, democracy and the welfare of his people. However, before we despair, we should look at some of his good points: he was one of the original anti-colonial leaders of Africa. Zimbabwe still has an official and real opposition while many other countries do not. The MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) is a real political force and was able to win a parliamentary election. Other countries do not have comparable elections. Obviously, as far as this guy Mugabe is concerned, his bad points outweigh his good points and he is definitely worse than George W Bush. In my opinion, he deserves two shoes of shame.

That will do for Mugabe. How about Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao of Communist China?

These guys, despite their smooth exterior, are politically even more incredible than Mugabe. In China there is no opposition. Not because society is so harmonious that there is no need for any opposition, but merely because all oppositions are strictly forbidden by law. All actual and even potential oppositions are silenced at birth. They are either killed, jailed or under house arrest. Hu and Wen organize ritualized bogus elections every now and then and all candidates must be sanctioned by the ruling Communist Party. In this respect Mugabe should have come to China and learnt a lesson or two from these two masters. On Monday 2/2/09 within the premises of Cambridge University in England, a man threw one shoe at Wen Jiabao. There was indignant protest from the Beijing government. Apparently his comrades in the Chinese Communist Party regard themselves not only as being above Chinese people and Chinese law, but above international public opinion. They do not understand that treating their own people with respect and basic human rights is a standard required by the international community as a fundamental requirement of all governments. Wen Jiabao does not think that he deserves one shoe on par with George W Bush, even though he was never elected by the Chinese people in a free and fair election like Bush did. On balance, I think he and his colleague Hu Jintao each deserve more shoes than Bush and Mugave combined. Each of Hu and Wen deserve ten shoes for sure.

Now, we come to the pair who rules the Socialist Republic of Vietnam or commonly known as Communist Vietnam, our unfortunate nation: PM Nguyen Tan Dung and President Nguyen Minh Triet. How many shoes do they deserve?

For one thing, state repression of democracy in Vietnam mirrors that of Communist China. As a result, on that count alone, they deserve the same number of shoes as their Chinese counterparts. In addition, they did much worse than the Chinese in two crucial respects:

First, they have a total lack of imagination and originality. While their ancestors always prided themselves on excelling their northern neighbors and being more creative than them in order to survive Chinese threat for thousands of years, Dung and Triet are content with copying from their Chinese masters verbatim. As a consequence, Vietnam becomes more and more dependent on China both economically and politically. We are no more, no less an obedient vassal of China.

Secondly, to the universal shame of all Vietnamese, regardless of political persuasion, geographical location, gender or religious persuasion, The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) has ceded sacred territory and sea areas to the Chinese in an attempt to curry Chinese favor and support in order to maintain political monopoly of power in Vietnam. Dung and Triet have ignored the fact that no individual or political party can survive once they have descended to the lowest level by selling sacred ancestral land to a sworn enemy of the Vietnamese nation. As far as history and the people are concerned, the CPV, Dung, Triet and clique are finished. They better keep their army and police keen and happy to protect them. For one day, the wrath of the people will visit upon then as sure as the sun rises in the East.

Thus, in my estimate, the number of shoes Dung and Triet deserve, in addition to the ten each gets on par with Hu and Wen, is as numerous as the number of grain of sands on the Paracel and Spratly Islands that they have offered to the Chinese in exchange for power and personal benefit.

Ðằng Vân

12 February 09