October
12, 2006
Open
Letter
To Prime Minister Nguyen
Tan Dung
Socialist Republic of Vietnam
01 Hoang Hoa Tham
Ba Dinh –Hanoi - Vietnam
Re: Vietnamese Government’s Refusal to Grant me Entry Visa
Mr. Prime Minister,
My name is
Son Van Tran, naturalized US citizen holding a US passport # 210986978,
currently residing at San Diego, California, USA. On 2 August 2006 I sent an application to the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington D.C. for an entry visa to Vietnam. I intended to return to
the country and visit my siblings. My elder brother lives in Nha Trang and is
80 years old, and my elder sister, 77, lives in Hue. Both are of poor health
and do not have many years ahead of them.
On 11 August 2006 the Embassy replied informing me that the Entry-Exit Management
Directorate (the Directorate) of the Vietnamese Police Department was not yet
in a position to approve, and for this reason the Embassy was unable to grant
the visa requested. The Embassy advised me to inform my relatives in Vietnam to contact the Directorate
and seek guidance on visa applications. If there results an approval, it will
be forwarded to the Embassy and the visa will be granted subsequently. Despite
my surprise -- for in accordance with international practice, the granting of
entry visas is part of the Foreign Affairs Department’s jurisdiction, not that
of the Police Department -- I still contacted my brother asking him to proceed
with the paperwork.
My 80 years
old brother took the pain to personally visit the Directorate in Saigon to lodge a sponsorship
form for my entry visa application. On 18 September, through official document
No. 1189/P2 the Directorate replied to my brother that pursuant to Clause
8(d)(1) of the Decree on Entry Visas, dated 28 April 2000, it was not yet in a
position to approve my request. As possible reasons for not granting visas,
Clause 8(d)(1) reads in part : “For reasons of protection of national security, for other special
reasons in accordance with the decision by the minister of police.” This
led me to the conclusion that the Vietnamese Government refused to grant me
entry to visit my relatives and my country because it considered my presence in
Vietnam a threat to national
security.
Mr. Prime Minister,
I am no
threat to national security. I believe that the Vietnamese Government is not
happy with my views on the present situation in Vietnam through my dissertations
and commentaries, or my views expressed in interviews with broadcasters such as
the BBC and the VOA. I have written since 1991 under the pen-name Tran Binh Nam and my views are published
openly on my webpage www.tranbinhnam.com.
I returned
to Vietnam twice in the past, in 1999
and 2001. I rejoiced at the Vietnamese Government’s liberal policies and
readiness to listen to dissenting views in order to move our nation forward.
In April
1975, as a member of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Vietnam’s Congress, I was in a
position to leave the country when Northern troops invaded the South. But I
decided to stay. Deep inside, I had thought the Communist Party of Vietnam
(CPV) would implement policies of national reconciliation, mobilizing the
entire people’s strength to rebuild the nation after a long internecine war. I
was ready to contribute my abilities to the nation-building task.
I concede
that CPV’s policies in the aftermath of reunification were somewhat more
lenient and humane than those of its counterparts in the Soviet Union, Communist China, and
Communist Cambodia. Nonetheless, they were not national reconciliation policies
but rather, punitive and discriminatory measures. Consequently I left the
country in 1979. My wife and children, afterwards, either fled or were
sponsored and were reunited with me in the USA. All members of my family
are now US citizens. In the USA, my family has carried out
all responsibilities of citizens, working hard, paying taxes and abiding by the
laws, while remaining grateful to this great nation and its tradition of
tolerance. I have no greater wish but to hope that Vietnam and the USA would cooperate and
together with other nations, build peace and security for the world.
With regards
to Vietnam, I was, like the majority
of Vietnamesese living here, involved in political activities aiming at
demanding the establishment of a democratic regime in Vietnam. In recent times however,
partly because world communism under the control of the Soviet Union has collapsed, partly
because I have reached my seventies, I ceased all political activities to focus
on writing commentaries.
My desire toward
the end of my life is to live my final days in Vietnam, and die and be buried
there. This year, I intended to return to Vietnam to prepare for proper
accommodation, and the Vietnamese Government refused me the permission to
return.
I know the
Vietnamese Government did so because of my political views.
During my
2001 trip to Vietnam, I went to the Chinese
border to visit the Nam Quan Pass and realized that the CPV
has ceded it to Communist China, and I informed the world of the fact. I simply
called on those responsible for the conduct of State affairs to follow in the
footsteps of our forefathers to protect our territorial integrity, and more
recently, in the footsteps of soldiers who lost their lives in the border wars
of February 1979.
I have
called on the CPV to abolish Article 4 of the 1992 Constitution guarantying CPV
monopoly over political power , establish a pluralist
democracy to mobilize the people’s strength for nation-building. The CPV has
repeatedly acknowledged corruption as a national calamity. But you and your
colleagues are unable to stamp out corruption because your hands are tied by
Article 4, which entrusts power to the CPV. The CPV controls the Government,
the Congress and gives directions to the Courts. Through this it eliminates two
most powerful weapons to fight corruption: freedom of the press and an
independent judiciary.
To prepare
for the 10th Congress of the CPV early this year, the CPV asked for
suggestions from all sectors of the nation inside and outside Vietnam. Many submitted
suggestions. On my part, I suggested that on the occasion of the 10th
Congress, the CPV would decide to amend the Constitution, abolish Article 4,
and allow a number of appropriate opposition political parties to stand for
elections, together with the CPV. If the CPV won, it would have the popular
mandate to lead, and together with other political parties, and the whole
people, would build a modern and prosperous nation. But the CPV threw all
suggestions into the rubbish bin and proceeded with the Congress as per your
initial agenda which was to eliminate all well-meaning cadres, and promote to
leadership roles those bent on maintaining political monopoly by the party. The
people of Vietnam were once again duped. And
I wrote, simply to voice the truth.
The CPV does
not wish to listen to dissenting opinions. It suppresses opposing views inside Vietnam and now it wishes to burn
all bridges back to Vietnam for those who have earlier
spoken on freedom and democracy.
For a 73-years old whose only wish is to return to live in the land of his
birth, and die and be buried alongside his parents, you and your colleagues
still hold such fear. How, then, can you trust the youth of our nation
? With such narrow-minded policies, how can you and your colleagues implement
national reconciliation , which is a prerequisite to
the task of nation-building ?
I earnestly
call on you, Mr. Prime Minister, to instruct the Directorate to rescind its
senseless, undemocratic decision, and I will be grateful for your action.
Yours sincerely,
Son Van Tran
Pen-name: Tran Binh Nam
binhnam@sbcglobal.net
www.tranbinhnam.com
Copies to:
Embassy of Vietnam to the United States (Ambassador Nguyen Tam Chien)
US Department of State – Political Affairs Bureau
(Mr. R. Nicolas Burns)
US Embassy in Vietnam (Ambassador Michael Marine)
Senators of the State of California (Senators Dianne Feinstein & Barbara Boxer)
Local Congressman, 52nd Congressional
district (Representative Duncan Hunter
Trần Bình Nam
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http://www.tranbinhnam.com
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