By Son Nguyen in HCMC
Damages have been done out of inability, from poor prediction about rice output to bad forecast about weather resulting in historic flooding in Hanoi, from abrupt changes in monetary policies to awkward reactions to widespread pollution, and from neglect in food hygiene management to inadequate electricity development. All such problems as a matter of course have been tabled at the ongoing National Assembly sitting, capturing interest from all walks of life.
NA deputies over the past three days, with their questions posed to ministers and the Prime Minister, have revealed to the public how top officials have exercised their mandates to what extent and in what fashion. More interestingly, the questions and answers session shows how ministers take responsibility for the damages done to the people.
While certain answers heap praises, many also take criticisms from NA deputies and the public as well, as seen on the local media.
The falling rice price is the most critical issue being debated, as scores of deputies highlight huge damages incurred by farmers due to a ban on the signing of new rice contracts with foreign buyers in the middle of the year. Deputies say the move strips farmers of a unique chance to fetch high prices for their crop.
Agriculture minister Cao Duc Phat says he is totally responsible for the wrong forecast, while minister of industry and trade Vu Huy Hoang claims partial responsibility over this issue.
Deputy Le Thi Dung from the key rice-growing province of An Giang attacks minister Hoang for his ‘partial responsibility’. She says the trade minister’s answer is out of question, skipping the responsibility in advising the Government over rice export. “You (the minister) are head of the rice export management team. Who should be responsible for huge damages incurred by farmers due to the falling rice price from US$1,200 a ton to US$300 a ton?” she is quoted by Tien Phong.
Deputy Dung goes further to say that “taking partial responsibility means not assuming responsibility,” adding the trade minister owes the people an apology.
Lao Dong highlights the different attitudes of the two ministers on the same issue, wondering why the agriculture minister assumes responsibility while the industry and trade minister manages to evade his responsibility. “What the people really want to see is that responsibility must be pinpointed upon a wrong prediction,” says the newspaper.
The confusion of responsibility is also scrutinized in another issue: the safeguard on the part of State agencies for food safety.
Around one quarter of imported fruits in Vietnam contain chemical residues that will affect the people health, as advised by the World Health Organization, says Tuoi Tre.
Health minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu explains that the agriculture ministry is responsible for insecticides and herbicides, the industry and trade ministry responsible for food additives and coloring agents, while “the health ministry will only set up the barrier when the food reaches the people’s dining table.”
Upon the answer, deputy Nguyen Thi Bach Mai from Tay Ninh Province fires back: “Which ministry is responsible for this problem?” according to Tuoi Tre.
Another sizzling hot issue is the widespread pollution, the most notorious case out of which is the discharge of untreated wastewater by the MSG producer Vedan Vietnam into the Thi Vai River, turning it into the dead waters.
Pressed for solutions to address the problem, environment minister Pham Khoi Nguyen gives a noteworthy comment: “Violations causing environmental pollution take root from the past,” according to VietnamNet. The news website as well as other newspapers attack the minister for his failure to close down Vedan Vietnam as promised for causing grave consequences to the environment.
Nearly 300 questions have been raised by deputies over the past three days, urging officials to be held responsible for their unaccomplished mandates. The key aim is not only to pinpoint responsibility, but to go far beyond that so as to have remedial measures for the problems facing the country’s socio-economic development. “Assuming responsibility is not simply a populist act, as the main aim is to make corrections,” says Lao Dong. Regarding the issue of rice price, a reader says on Tuoi Tre that “it goes nowhere if the minister concedes mistakes and accepts sanctions but fails to find outlet for rice.”
On greater lengths, the newspaper says the main goal is to review and rethink all basic principles in the State policy towards farmers, rather than to find faults with officials in designing policies. This is the urge for responsibility.
Monday, December 1, 2008
The urge for responsibility
Traffic woes
By Son Nguyen in HCMC
The traffic situation in HCMC is going from worse to the worst with rampant jams citywide and chaotic circulation, aggravated by flooding and recently the erection of the so-called blockhouses on most streets you name it. As the year is drawing to a close, which is usually a time for jubilant celebrations including the traditional Lunar New Year, the problem of traffic circulation in the city steals the limelight on the local media. Complaints, frustration, criticism, anger, one and all, are directed at the responsible authorities, who may to no avail have agonized for years about solutions to ease grievances the people are suffering.
In a bitter voice, VnExpress specially highlights the inability – and partly the inaction – of the city’s transport authorities. “Decisions by HCMC relating to the traffic situation for application this year share one thing in common: no success. Traffic circulation in the city is increasingly like a ravel of silk yarn as the year end approaches,” says the news website. It cites numerous measures having been taken by the city to ease traffic congestion, from the staggering working hour and commuter buses to the restriction of new vehicles by means of higher taxes and clearance of pavements. The situation remains an insurmountable challenge.
Lao Dong quotes a report from the HCMC Department of Transport, saying that the average speed of motorcycles in the city is about ten kilometers an hour, or even slower at 8kph on some main streets. What is more worrying, says the paper, is the worsening situation, as the total area for building roads in the city is inadequate, at only 1.7% of the city’s natural area.
In another commentary, Lao Dong mentions the numerous ‘blockhouses’ being erected by contractors on most streets. Giving a definition of the blockhouse as a structure for military defense, the newspaper sarcastically says such blockhouses are erected to fight people in vehicular circulation.
Most blockhouses in the city are erected by contractors of the two major projects under way now, namely the environment sanitation project and the water sanitation project, with an aim to improve water drainage and clean up the basin of the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal.
In a recent report, the Transport Department says there are now some 280 such blockhouses of all sizes in the city, more than doubling the number a year ago. Some are removed, but not long enough for the people to rejoice before new ones are erected on the very sites the old ones have come down, according to Tuoi Tre.
Facts and figures cited by Tuoi Tre give a more appalling picture for city dwellers, as the situation now is just the prelude to a more long-lasting ordeal, and a more panicking saga that will ensue soon next year. The paper says contractors until now have dug up only 31.5km of roads out of the total 85.5km to be dressed under the two sanitation projects, while the completion date is set in early 2010. Between now and end-2009, according to the project management units, around 40km of main streets will be dug up, creating huge hardship to the people’s livelihood and plunging the traffic situation into great chaos.
The people’s grievances are being stretched to the limit, needless to say. While Sai Gon Tiep Thi criticizes the city authorities for their inability in traffic management resulting in great disorders, Nguoi Lao Dong blames the public agony caused by traffic congestion on authorities. Depicting a traffic jam on Pham Van Hai Street in Tan Binh District days ago, the paper describes how vehicles are stuffed on the small street on a rainy day, with two sizeable blockhouses stonewalling all movements, with the people soaked in the rainwater and in eye-stinging smoke, and will all quarrels erupting among them due to loss of temper. “It is not quite wrong to blame the people for their lack of compliance (resulting in congestion), but who are to blame when the people in traffic circulation have to suffer from numerous adversities?” ponders the newspaper.
In a commentary, Tuoi Tre shares the point on the agony. “Rain over the head, flooding under their feet, smoke, sweat, foul language, honking sound and quarrels around them. The people’s dignity is eroded under such circumstances,” it says.
Traffic congestion and flooding can be seen in many cities, but such a situation should not last long through the years and getting worse in an increasing tempo and will certainly not be radically addressed in the next couple of years in HCMC, says the paper. Clearly, the city is sliding into an abnormal state.
“Now is the time the people have the right to demand the city government to proclaim a commitment on a specific point in time to end all such grievances. The people fulfill their tax obligations, comply with the law, and accomplish the citizen’s duty, so there is no reason they have to suffer from all such tangible and intangible damages, so much and so long,” says Tuoi Tre.
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A time for change
By Son Nguyen in HCMC
The day comes with congratulations, flowers and gifts for educators nationwide, as students see the Vietnam Teachers Day on November 20 a good chance to pay respect to their teachers for their devotion to education. As usual, the age-old tradition has become a time for authorities to share the joy with teachers. And as usual, it is also a time for people from all strata of lives to speak out concerns and initiatives to improve the quality of national education.
There are, however, stronger calls in this year’s Vietnam Teachers Day for a change to revolutionize the national education sector, as now is the high time for the country to make leaps and bounces in its global integration.
The movement for changes, in fact, has begun since two years ago, when education minister Nguyen Thien Nhan initiated and campaigned for the so-called “Two No’s” at schools. The campaign – saying no to negatives in examinations and saying no to phony achievements in education – since the last academic year has been turned into a “Four No’s” movement by adding two new elements – saying no to educators’ unethical acts and saying no to substandard education.
The movement of changes, says Lao Dong, has reaped success, as teachers no longer face hurdles like the mandatory high proportion of students passing exams, allowing them to be more creative in their teaching.
The newspaper, in quoting a principal of a high-school in HCMC, says that alongside such movements there should also be more radical changes or reforms, especially in new policies relating to manpower, resources and teaching materials.
In his letter to teachers nationwide on the occasion of the Vietnam Teachers Day, education minister Nguyen Thien Nhan sums up the movement, saying the country’s education has entered the third year of the Two-No’s campaign. The movement is aimed to establish a pedagogical environment featured with order and disciplines, truth, objectivity, equitability, love, and promotion of creativity.
“We will make efforts to complete the Two-No’s campaign by 2010 when the pedagogical environment is re-established at most schools,” Nhan is quoted on the local media as saying.
Despite the initial but encouraging success in education reform, there remain a lot of problems in improving the quality of national education.
Ho Thieu Hung, former director of the HCMC Department of Education and Training, says at a seminar organized by Tuoi Tre newspaper that Vietnamese youths after graduating from local institutions are not ready to enter the real world.
Citing a just-completed survey conducted by the Education Research Institute, Hung says that eight out of ten high-school students want to enter universities while only three of them are knowledgeable enough, and seven out of ten university graduates wish to continue schooling. However, “most of these students are not really devoted in learning, but rather they fret about entering the real world,” Hung is quoted on the newspaper.
So, a call for change has become all the more urgent.
Professor Tuong Lai, in a full-length article on VietnamNet, says now is the high time for radical changes in Vietnam’s education beyond the Two-No’s or Four-No’s campaigns.
“Saying no to the negatives is necessary, but the most important thing is by no means the No, but rather the Yes; and on the basis of the Yes, let us focus resources on building a development strategy for education,” he proclaims.
The professor explains that today’s children are different from those in the 20th century. “They ride modern bikes, use modern cell phones, and are equipped with modern computers for broadband Internet surfing… So they should be entitled to modern education with modern contents and modern methodology. By contrast, however, they are now contained in old cages and given old knowledge under old methods,” he says.
In his suggestions on education reforms, the professor says primary schooling can be where the national identity is enshrined, but tertiary education must be the point for international integration. “A primary curriculum needs not to be similar to that in any other country, but a tertiary curriculum must meet international norms and degrees or diplomas given therein must be internationally recognized,” he says.
In his letter to teachers, minister Nguyen Thien Nhan says that Vietnam’s education sector should not end up in a blind alley, as the history has proved that the Vietnamese people have always find the way out, even when facing giant invaders. The minister says a draft strategy for the country’s education sector in the 2008-2020 period will be put forth for public comments so as to bring local education to a higher plane matching international achievements.
“The time is now,” says Professor Tuong Lai on the news website VietnamNet. “Let us place 22 million schoolchildren and students nationwide as the hosts of the new society in the context of the intellectual civilization where the knowledge-based economy is keeping the pace for the modern life in the 21st century.”
