Hanoi: Vuong Dinh Hue, the chairman of Vietnam's Parliament, has stepped down from his position over "violations and shortcomings", the government said on Friday. This marks a new political turbulence just weeks after the high-profile dismissal of the country's president since an anti-corruption campaign has been launched in Vietnam.
Vietnam’s Communist Party accepted what was called Hue’s voluntary resignation while noting that investigators found that Hue had “violated Party regulations, and his violations have affected the reputation of the Party, the State and himself.” Hue, 67, is the latest member of senior government to leave office amid the ongoing anti-corruption campaign.
He has served for over three years as the chairman of Vietnam's national assembly, which is the fourth most important post in the country after the President, the Prime Minister and the head of the Communist Party. Hue’s resignation took place days after his assistant Pham Thai Ha was arrested on charges of abusing his position and power for personal gain, according to various state media outlets.
Last month, Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong resigned over an alleged violation of party rules, which "negatively impacted public opinion, affecting the reputation of the Party, State and him personally". The government statement did not elaborate on Thuong's shortcomings, but major leadership changes in the one-party state have recently been all linked to the wide-ranging "blazing furnace" anti-bribery campaign.
High-profile resignations in Vietnam
The most powerful position in Vietnam is that of Communist Party General Secretary, a post held by Nguyen Phu Trong, 79, since 2011. Trong is the main architect of the party's "blazing furnace" crackdown on graft, under which hundreds of officials have been investigated and many forced to quit, including former president Nguyen Xuan Phuc and two deputy prime ministers. The position of president in Vietnam is largely ceremonial and ranks third in the political hierarchy.
The anti-bribery campaign in Vietnam is aimed at stamping out widespread corruption but is also suspected by critics to be a tool for political infighting. Foreign investors and diplomats have repeatedly blamed the campaign for slowing down decisions in a country which is already grappling with cumbersome bureaucracy.
Thuong, 53, quit days after Vietnamese police announced the arrest for alleged corruption a decade ago of a former head of central Vietnam's Quang Ngai province, who served while Thuong was party chief there. He had also been a senior party official of economic hub Ho Chi Minh City, which has been rocked by a multi-billion-dollar long-running financial scam.
Last year, when former president Nguyen Xuan Phuc quit after the party blamed him for "violations and wrongdoing" by officials under his control, it took one month and a half for lawmakers to appoint Thuong as his successor. Investors who mostly praise political stability may not take well the premature departure of two presidents in about a year.
Days before Thuong's resignation, Vietnamese police said they arrested the former head of Central Vietnam’s Quang Ngai province for corruption. He was previously supervised by Thuong as the provincial party chief. Thuong was widely regarded as being close to ageing Trong, which added to the surprise of his resignation.
Real estate tycoon's death sentence
Earlier this month, Real estate tycoon and billionaire Truong My Lan was sentenced to death by a court in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City in the country's largest financial fraud case, according to local reports. Lan, 67, was accused of fraud amounting to $12.5 billion - nearly 3 per cent of the country's GDP in 2022 - as the chair of the real estate company Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group.
Lan reportedly controlled the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank illegally between 2012 to 2022 to siphon off funds amounting to 304 trillion dong ($12.5 billion) through thousands of ghost companies and by paying bribes to government officials. Lan's arrest in October 2022 was among the most high-profile in an ongoing anti-corruption drive in Vietnam that has intensified since 2022.
The trial, which began on March 5 and ended earlier than planned, came as part of the anti-graft campaign. Analysts said the scale of the scam raised questions about whether other banks or businesses had similarly erred, dampening Vietnam’s economic outlook and making foreign investors jittery at a time when Vietnam has been trying to position itself as the ideal home for businesses trying to pivot their supply chains away from China.
(with inputs from agencies)
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