2006年VOA标准英语-Dissident Numbers Grow in Vietnam

By Matt Steinglass
Hanoi
16 October 2006 

Ly Tong, center, a South Vietnamese air force veteran who later became a US citizen, talks to reporters at Criminal Court in Bangkok, September 7, 2006

A small but growing number of dissidents in Vietnam is challenging the exclusive rule of Communist Party. The dissidents do not pose a serious threat to the party, but they are testing the boundaries of what is politically allowable in Vietnam's rapidly changing society. 

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On October 12, a group of Vietnamese dissidents issued an open letter to the leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, which will hold its annual summit in Hanoi in November. The letter called on foreign leaders to "support us, in contributing to the promotion¹ of democracy in Vietnam."

The group calls itself Bloc² 8406, after the date of its manifesto³, which was issued on the 8th of April 2006. Titled the "Manifesto for Freedom and Democracy in Vietnam," it has so far attracted more than two thousand signatures.

The dissidents include Nguyen Khac Toan, a 55-year-old former army officer and businessman who was convicted of espionage⁴ in 2002 for corresponding with Vietnamese opposition⁵ organizations in France.

Toan was released from prison in an amnesty last January, but he is not allowed to leave his neighborhood in downtown Hanoi until the end of 2008.

Still, he continues his political activities. In mid-August, he and a small group of others tried to publish a pro-democracy newspaper. As Toan explains, the effort was cut short by the police.

Toan says he and other dissidents were repeatedly interrogated⁶ by the police, and had their computers and memory devices confiscated⁷.

Now, Toan and his fellow dissidents are trying to form a national organization.

He says the new group will unite all pro-democracy forces, as a counterweight to the Communist Party.

Nguyen Van Dai, a lawyer who represents many of the dissidents, says they would like to see their country become more like South Korea.

Dai says South Korea is the best model for Vietnam: an Asian country that made a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.

Despite their grand ambitions, the dissidents comprise just a few tiny groups. They are never mentioned in the state-controlled press. Few Vietnamese even know they exist, apart from those who have come across their Web sites.

But the activism of Bloc 8406 does reflect a trend: more and more Vietnamese are managing to find ways around the government's control of information and ideas.

The dissidents include 83-year-old Hoang Minh Chinh, former head of the Communist Party's political academy, and the 77-year-old Buddhist⁸ monk⁹ Thich Quang Do. Both have opposed the communist regime for decades.

A second generation of dissidents was inspired by the wave of democratization in Eastern Europe in the late 1980's and early '90's. Forty-year-old Nguyen Chu Linh was a student in Prague during Czechoslosvakia's 1989 "Velvet¹⁰ Revolution." Dai, the lawyer, was working at a factory in East Germany when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

Now, a new generation of Vietnamese is being exposed to political ideas, either through the Internet or studies abroad. They include people such as Nguyen Tien Trung, who lost his faith in Vietnam's communist system while attending university in France.

"In France, for example, my school, I don't have political subjects. Like Marxism-Leninism. But in Vietnam, my friends in polytechnic¹¹ university, they must spend much time to learn political subjects," he said. "So I think it's one reason that the quality of education in Vietnam is not good enough."

Trung criticized the ideological¹² nature of Vietnamese education last March in a scathing¹³ open letter to Vietnam's minister of education. The letter was widely circulated by e-mail, and Trung now runs a Web site called "Democratic Youth of Vietnam." He says foreign universities are prime recruiting grounds for new dissidents.

"All the Vietnamese students, when they have the occasion to go abroad, they understand the reality, and they want the true democracy for Vietnam," he added.

Vietnam's press, while it has grown freer in recent years, is controlled by the state. And government officials marginalize the dissidents by refusing to acknowledge them. Government spokesman Le Dung denied any knowledge of Bloc 8406, referring to it only in veiled terms.

Dung says that recently, some individuals have used the label "democracy" to distort the situation in Vietnam, harming the interests of the Vietnamese people.

Part of the dissidents' problem is that most young Vietnamese appear to be happy with their government. The country has experienced rapid economic growth over the past decade, and for most Vietnamese, being proud of their country means supporting the leaders and the Party.

In front of Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum in Hanoi, children sing praises to the country's founding father. At the nearby Ho Chi Minh museum, a number of young students said they supported the country's leadership.

This student from the prestigious¹⁴ Hanoi University of Technology says demonstrating against the government is wrong, and it is a citizen's duty to support the country's leadership.

Still, the dissidents remain hopeful. Lawyer Nguyen Van Dai insists the country is on the verge¹⁵ of a big change.

Dai says he is sure that in the near future, Vietnam will become a democratic country.

Just how this might come about, neither Dai nor his fellow dissidents are able to say.

1 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

2 bloc   

n.集团；联盟

参考例句：

• A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
• There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。

3 manifesto   

n.宣言，声明

参考例句：

• I was involved in the preparation of Labour's manifesto.我参与了工党宣言的起草工作。
• His manifesto promised measures to protect them.他在宣言里保证要为他们采取保护措施。

4 espionage   

n.间谍行为，谍报活动

参考例句：

• The authorities have arrested several people suspected of espionage.官方已经逮捕了几个涉嫌从事间谍活动的人。
• Neither was there any hint of espionage in Hanley's early life.汉利的早期生活也毫无进行间谍活动的迹象。

5 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

6 interrogated   

v.询问( interrogate的过去式和过去分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询

参考例句：

• He was interrogated by the police for over 12 hours. 他被警察审问了12个多小时。
• Two suspects are now being interrogated in connection with the killing. 与杀人案有关的两名嫌疑犯正在接受审讯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 confiscated   

没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Their land was confiscated after the war. 他们的土地在战后被没收。
• The customs officer confiscated the smuggled goods. 海关官员没收了走私品。

8 Buddhist   

adj./n.佛教的，佛教徒

参考例句：

• The old lady fell down in adoration before Buddhist images.那老太太在佛像面前顶礼膜拜。
• In the eye of the Buddhist,every worldly affair is vain.在佛教徒的眼里，人世上一切事情都是空的。

9 monk   

n.和尚，僧侣，修道士

参考例句：

• The man was a monk from Emei Mountain.那人是峨眉山下来的和尚。
• Buddhist monk sat with folded palms.和尚合掌打坐。

10 velvet   

n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的

参考例句：

• This material feels like velvet.这料子摸起来像丝绒。
• The new settlers wore the finest silk and velvet clothing.新来的移民穿着最华丽的丝绸和天鹅绒衣服。

11 polytechnic   

adj.各种工艺的，综合技术的；n.工艺(专科)学校；理工(专科)学校

参考例句：

• She was trained as a teacher at Manchester Polytechnic.她在曼彻斯特工艺专科学校就读，准备毕业后做老师。
• When he was 17,Einstein entered the Polytechnic Zurich,Switzerland,where he studied mathematics and physics.17岁时，爱因斯坦进入了瑞士苏黎士的专科学院，学习数学和物理学。

12 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

13 scathing   

adj.（言词、文章）严厉的，尖刻的；不留情的adv.严厉地，尖刻地v.伤害，损害（尤指使之枯萎）( scathe的现在分词)

参考例句：

• a scathing attack on the new management 针对新的管理层的猛烈抨击
• Her speech was a scathing indictment of the government's record on crime. 她的演讲强烈指责了政府在犯罪问题上的表现。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。

15 verge   

n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• She was on the verge of bursting into tears.她快要哭出来了。