Good Government Country’s Greatest Need

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31490, 3 October 1967, Page 13

Good Government Country’s Greatest Need

This is the third in a series of articles by A. M. Menzies, a member of the staff of “The Press” who recently visited South-East Asia on a tour sponsored in part by the New Zealand Ministry of Defence.

“The need is to win over the people by offering them more than the others can—not only a better life, but also good government.” This comment on Vietnam by a New Zealander whose job is a military one, but whose thoughts cover a much wider sphere, seemed to put the situation in a nutshell.

And, of course, this is just what the Vietnamese have not been given. Even now, in spite of the hopes for an enterprising line, the newly-elected leaders appear to be busy charging those who opposed them rather than attempting to cope with the country’s sores.

Anyone visiting South Vietnam even for a short time can only be appalled at the pervading corruption, at the wastage of aid and at the way some wealthy Vietnamese within the safe confines of Saigon are doing very nicely out of a war which is battering and sapping the fives of their compatriots in the countryside.

Scourge of South-east Asian society, corruption, is not the preserve of South Vietnam but tiie country certainly has more than its share of this disease. Horrifying stories are told of military and civil posts being bought, of backhanders sought by officials before they will act, and of the diversion of funds and goods meant for civil or military aid to the benefit of individuals or even to the Viet Cong. Some of the stalls in Saigon look like the PX stores at American army camps and it is said that anything up to a tank can be bought in the streets of the city. Supplies are pilfered from the docks and from transport. Expensive Night Chib Maxim’s, the leading night club in Saigon, is patronised mainly by the wealthy Vietnamese because it is too expensive even for Americans. The Prime Minister, Air Vice-Marshal Ky, put it oft limits recently to his ministers so they go elsewhere, but it still provides relaxation for generals. When a general dines there the street bristles with police ensuring that he enjoys his meal without fear. Heightening the cancerous effects of corruption is an

undermanned civil service which has inherited antique French techniques, leading to such impositions as 18 signatures being required for car ownership, and it takes weeks to perform the smallest of tasks. If there are those in Saigon whose interests may lie in the continuation of the war, this is not so for the peasants in the provinces. After many years of the French war and this war they are tired of war, but have received so little from various Saigon Governments that they have been : open to the promises of the i Viet Cong. ] Refugee Problem J

Associated with all this is the refugee problem. The increase in the scale of military operations brought a sharp rise in the tide of refugees. On August 1 there were about 800,000 refugees but also more than 1 million had been resettled or returned to their villages over three years. So the number displaced in that period was about 2 million. These figures must be considered in the light of the Vietnamese peasant psychology. Few peoples regard the family unit with such reverence. The strip of land or the paddy fields which have been tended by the family for generations are where the peasant wants to live and where he wants his children to live. . ; These traditions and parochialism help to prevent the Vietnamese in the countryside from becoming committed to their government and to the war. But they are the ones who suffer. If the military authorities wish to dear Viet Cong permanently, they warn villagers that their village may be blasted. Peasants can then move and anyone left is suspected of being Viet Cong. Refugees are taken to temporary shelters pending resettlement and their village may be left empty or razed. Some refugees still live tantalisingly near their former

homes; some are even able to farm their fields by day, returning to their new havens at night But the military realities not only limit land settlement but create a situation in which some people have been displaced a second or third time. Their main wish is still to get back to their hamlets and farms. Frail Programme Mr George Goss, head of the refugee division of C.O.R.D.S. (Civil Operations and Revolutionary Develop l

ment Support), says that two million refugees can be a “fundamental factor for change in the rigid pattern of village isolation that has historically plagued past efforts to establish and gain allegiance to a national government” What he does not say is that people with the ties to land and family that these people have can harbour ■ resentment for a long time at being uprooted from their traditional piece of dirt.

The United States has taken a close interest in the plight of the refugees—it is now spending nearly $2O million dollars a year in their aid—and Dr Que, head of the Special Commissariat for Refugees, is one of the Vietnamese held in high regardHowever, the conditions in some of the temporary shelters, such as one at Qui Nhon, are a shock to the observer, and the Government still seems unable to ensure that the refugees get their entitled relief payments and commodities.'

Saying that the situation is unique in that a refugee relief programme has been undertaken in the middle of a shooting war, Mr Goss admits that it is still a frail programme. There are some excellent refugee camps and some dreadful ones. And of the 750,000 in “temporary” shelters, some have been there for a long time. Changed Sides At Qui Nhon, where the camp adjoins an ordinary suburban area, some of the refugees can make a living selling themselves or the commodities they are given for relief. Like so many other efforts in Vietnam, the refugee programme is delayed because relief goods disappear from wharves, stores and the backs of trucks.

Another resettlement scheme is for Chieu Hoi openarms programme returnees. They are former Viet Cong who change to the Government side, sometimes because they have read leaflets dropped in the psychological operations. Another suggestion, which may have some basis, is that they are tired of fighting.

New Zealand journalists interviewed two of these returnees through an interpreter at a Chieu Hoi centre at

Phu Cuong, some miles out of Saigon. Both said they were forced to join the Viet Cong, one had been a political cadre

at village level, but the other knew nothing about commun-

ism, and appeared as if he could have been: persuaded, with little trouble, to work for anyone.

Figures for returnees, on which considerable importance is placed by the Government and by the Americans, were 22,140 to September 1, compared with 12,273 for the same period of 1966. The initial cost bf gaining a returnee has been put at $1 17c, compared with $300,000 to kill a V.C. Sixteen hamlets have been constructed for their resettlement with their families after they leave the Chieu Hoi centres.

Again, the success of this programme depends on good government. Writing in the Saigon “Daily News,” Ct Trinh says: "Cleanse >ur society of corruption, injustice, dishonesty and the Viet Cong will return into the fold. Keep our society that way if they are not to sneak back into the jungle and get back on to the arpath.” The refugee and Chieu Hoi situations are two of several which emphasise the need for a government which will act against Vietnam’s social ills, and some indication of what General Thieu will do as President is awaited. Certainly the Americans would welcome a strong attempt by the Government to cope with tiie corruption which means that only a pro- ■ portion of the planned effort • goes into the war and which criminally wastes the aid ’ which the Americans are so generous in giving and of 1 which they’ are so' proud. A cut in waste might even allow better payment for the Viet-

namese Army with a resultant improvement in morale. American officials, highly conscious of the taxpayer at home, become quite embarrassed when they are asked about waste. They are in a cleft stick when it comes to doing something about it because they feel that they must not appear to be taking over the country; they are there by invitation only.

Military joint command with an American dominance to cope better with an enemy that is well trained, well armed and well lead, has been suggested but the attitude Is: “We can’t boss the Vietnamese; we haven’t conquered their country.” The civil situation is similar. Also, any take-over might defeat purposes because it is suspected that the Vietnamese would then sit back and let the

Americans do everything. Therefore much depends on a Vietnamese government which has paid lip service to attacking the country’s social and administrative ills. The Elections Barely two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister in 1965, Ky threatened to crack down ruthlessly on ail corrupt dements and war, profiteers regardless, their positions Of affiliations. He was referring especially to the rice speculators who created an artificial shortage and kept the price up. But his actions have fallen short of his avowed intentions. Thieu and Ky now have another chance to show they mean business.

Whether the election was well conducted or not—end a number of outside observers felt that it was as good as could be expected, certainly much freer than any previous poll—it was considered significant for the showing of Truong Dinh Dzu, the civilian candidate who finished second to the military ticket A Saigon lawyer, whose past has not been without blemish and who has since been sentenced to prison, fined, arrested and held, Dzu campaigned on a peace platform and as a protest against the military regime. The Vietnamese may be more tired of the war than Washington or Saigon officials realise.

Already there are fears that the flamboyant Ky will not be content to take second place and that a break between him and his more restrained but hrewd President, Thieu, is inevitable. However, the hope must still remain that Thieu will do something to convince the people throughout the country that Saigon is interested in their welfare and also that he win make the best of any opportunity for a negotiated settlement of the war. Perhaps what Vietnam really needs is a leader like Lee Kuan Yew; Singapore has no corruption problem.