Another Vietnamese activist behind bars
What will happen to a country that threatens one of the very foundations of democracy: freedom of speech? If victims of ruthless capitalism are not allowed to defend themselves, if they’re punished by the State for fighting for their rights and their loved ones’, what is the purpose of having a government?
On Tuesday, February 6th, an environmental vietnamese activist named Hoang Duc Binh was arrested and sentenced to 14 years in prison, one of the longest sentences given to an activist in Vietnam. The crime? Live-streaming fishermen marching to file a lawsuit against a Taiwan-owned steel plant, property of a conglomerate called Formosa Plastics Group with headquarters in Taiwan. (Which was also, by the way, involved in a fatal explosion in Iliniois)
Vietnamese activist Hoang Duc Binh (centre left) standing inside the courtroom with co-accused Nguyen Nam Phong in Nghe An province. Source: The Guardian. Photograph: Vietnam News Agency/AFP/Getty Images
During the livestream, Hoang Duc Binh said that the fishermen were stopped and beaten by state authorities. Taiwanese officials claim that the livestream “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the state, organisation and people and opposing officers on duty”, but Binh sais that the comments should not be considered illegal because they were true. The court said his comments were untrue and slandered authorities.
The steel plant has been accused since 2016 of discharging toxins such as cyanide and phenol during a test run, killing massive amounts of sea life and affecting tourism in the zone, devastating livelihoods in coastal towns where fishing and tourism are the main source of income. The plant owner has paid US$500 million in compensation.
A villager shows dead sea fish he collected on a beach in Phu Loc district, in the central province of Thua Thien Hue.
Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images
International opinion is "deeply troubled", according to a US spokesman. Vietnam de facto abandoned communism in 1986, creating opportunities for foreign investment and trade making it one of fastest growing economies in the region. Still, the one-party State virtually controls all the media and has zero tolerance on civil dissidence.
Officials from the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, assert that only criminals are punished by the State; but apparently, the State has total liberty to decide which people or groups are criminals.
How has the Vietnam war in the 1960s influenced Vietnam today?
Could it be that Vietnam politicians feel the right to censor and punish now that foreign intervention has stopped? Would this justify foreign intervention from other Asian countries, or even from the US? Hopefully both national and international, public and private actors will bring the censorship of free speech and protest to a stop, as well as create a safety net to protect civilians from immoral capitalist activities. Until then, innocent people might continue to suffer.
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