Vietnam has nominated the enforcer of the Communist Party’s anti-corruption drive as the next president and proposed a new head of the National Assembly, in appointments that could ease months of political turmoil and allow policymakers to refocus on a struggling economy.
Unprecedentedly for a one-party nation once known for its stable politics, two state presidents and a National Assembly speaker have stepped down in less than 18 months, all for unspecified “wrongdoing” amid a major anti-graft campaign which is unnerving foreign investors because of its chilling effect on bureaucracy.
After approval from the National Assembly, which could come this week, Vietnamese Minister of Public Security To Lam would replace Vo Van Thuong, who stepped down in March after being accused of contravening party rules, just over a year after his appointment.
Photo: AFP
Lam would retain his police minister job even after taking office as state president, National Assembly General Secretary Bui Van Cuong told a news conference yesterday.
“The Politburo hasn’t nominated a new Minister of Public Security, and therefore the National Assembly will not vote to dismiss this post during its upcoming session,” Cuong said.
Widely considered one of the most powerful figures in the country, Lam was chosen by the party’s Central Committee earlier last week, but authorities and state media only revealed the nomination on Saturday.
The Central Committee also sought to elevate National Assembly Vice Chairman Tran Thanh Man to the legislature chairman’s post.
The nominations come amid a years-long anti-graft campaign pushed by Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong that has ensnared scores of other government officials and business executives. A death sentence was last month handed to a real-estate tycoon in a US$12 billion fraud case.
The National Assembly would begin the process of voting on the nominations today, after the start of its summer session, Cuong said.
Lam, 66, would be the third president of the Southeast Asian nation in less than two years. His two immediate predecessors resigned after accepting responsibility for “violations” possibly detected by the ministry that Lam oversaw.
Lam has emerged as one of the most important officials apart from Trong, after his work to weed out corruption helped lift Vietnam’s ranking in Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index to 83 last year from 113 in 2016.
While the presidency in Vietnam is largely ceremonial, it is also the second-most important position in the political hierarchy and a possible stepping stone to eventually succeed Trong when his term ends in early 2026.
The presidential role carries little power and could also indicate that Lam is losing influence in the government, said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
“He won’t have his hands on the levers of power,” Thayer said.
The scope and intensity of Lam’s public ministry investigations at the behest of Trong have unnerved many officials, he said.
As the public security minister since 2016, Lam’s law enforcement responsibilities have included leading the sweeping anti-graft effort that led to at least 459 party members being disciplined over corruption last year alone.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS