What’s really behind Vietnam’s sacking of top Communist Party official?
Hanoi’s anti-corruption campaign appears to have a political dimension, as it targets an ally of ousted former prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung
China is not the only nation taking aim at corruption: neighbouring Vietnam has been on its own clean up duty – firing a member of the 19-person governing Politburo in a public and unexpected move.
Dinh La Thang, a former chairman of state-owned enterprise (SOE) PetroVietnam, and currently transport minister and party chief in Ho Chi Minh City, has been sacked from his position for violations and mismanagement during his time at the company.
It is a rare public sacking for a top official – the BBC cites just two similar instances since 1986 – and signals both efforts to clear up corruption and mismanagement but also intraparty fighting.
When Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong was appointed to his second five-year term in the country’s top position last January, he promised to keep fighting corruption and reforming the problematic and draining SOE sector. He planned to continue Vietnam’s modernisation.
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So far, the dismissal of Thang, for serious mismanagement and losses from 2009 to 2011, seems simple enough for a government that made a public commitment to tackle corruption from the very highest level. Corruption and mismanagement are issues that have dogged Vietnam through its remarkable economic transformation and have contributed to lowered public trust in the government.