Vietnam Doesn’t Need Democracy

I’ve just returned from my third three-month visit to Vietnam in two years, having done voluntary work and taught English.

Vietnamese are not, on the whole, concerned about their political system. Vietnam is very poor — people are mostly concerned about family, health, safety, and getting a good job.

The current government puts those concerns high on its agenda. The Vietnamese love their country as it is. They are enjoying the benefits of living in peace. Economically, their situation is slowly improving.

The current system has been tweaked over recent years.

Vietnam is a welcome member of the international economic community. The last thing this country needs is the concept of “democracy” (read, capitalism) forced upon it by a foreign power/ invader. That was tried before and it didn’t work. Millions of lives were lost or damaged.

Leave Vietnam alone. It is progressing well and its people are happy, able to control their own destiny from within. The world has changed a lot since reunification in Vietnam in 1975.

Let’s learn by our mistakes, and not continually push a solution that might sound fine in theory but would likely result in unmitigated disaster.

RICHARD YUSCHIK

Karori

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