As Vietnam approaches the 11th Congress of the Communist Party, a look at the accomplishments of doi moi as well as what has yet to be accomplished and future tasks, is in order. In making this assessment I draw on economic and social indicators, which are well known internationally, as well as experiences and opinions hundreds of Vietnamese people have shared with me over visits from 1985 to 2010.
What is Doi Moi?
My understanding of doi moi, is that it is the means by which Vietnam has adapted socialism to its concrete conditions and reality. Given the devastation that the U.S. war wracked on Vietnam and the resulting low level of the productive forces, a full centralized, planned economy in which the economy consisted only of the state sector was not working. People were extremely poor, inflation was rampant and there was insufficient money to support health care, education and other social services.
The genius of the Communist Party at the time was to develop the initial stage of a process of transition to socialism using a market mechanism. The Party understood that the models of socialism in Europe were inappropriate to Vietnam’s state of development. Vietnam was able to avoid the counterrevolution that took place in Eastern Europe and to develop the country in the interest of its people. The architects of doi moi always considered it a precondition for socialist construction – not for capitalism.
So an assessment of doi moi should be based on how it developed Vietnam and how it advanced the country’s transition to socialism.
Achievements of Doi Moi
Doi moi has accomplished much in building the economic base of Vietnam. It is responsible for developing the productive forces, raising the income and living standards of the majority of workers and peasants and increasing the production of goods for the people.
Most important is the tremendous improvement in the lives of millions of people who were able to afford more and better food and to improve their housing. This resulted in the next generations of Vietnamese children growing up taller and healthier.
The Vietnamese Dong was stabilized and inflation almost eliminated for some years.
Under doi moi, the creative energies of the people in building their own society were brought into play. Initiatives in production and farming benefited families involved directly and the society as a whole.
Doi moi contributed to Vietnam being able to defend its independence and sovereignty in times of the U.S. economic embargo and globalization by maintaining strong armed forces, diplomacy and not having to rely on international financial institutions for its survival.
Doi moi also witnessed a maturing of socialist democracy in Vietnam. The Communist Party grew deeper roots among the people and was able to respond to errors like those in Thai Binh some years ago by fighting bureaucracy and empowering grass roots leaders. The National Assembly developed as an active voice of the people, able to make laws and to hold government ministers to account for their work. And the mass organizations, notably the Women’s Union, Veterans Union and Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin empower the people at the grass roots as real decision makers in their communities.
Contradictions of Doi Moi
In a sense it is the success of doi moi that has also led to some of its weaknesses! Dialectics hold that everything contains contradictions within it. This is true of the process of doi moi. The market mechanism which was intended to usher in the first stage of socialism also inherently had some of the worst characteristics of market capitalism.
The liberation of the productive forces created both a better life for most people AND relations of exploitation in the developing private sector. The success of the market economy created more products for the people AND illusions among many about capitalism. Openings in attitudes toward self expression created a flowering of cultural expression AND individualism and selfishness. The greater availability of goods improved people’s lives AND fostered rampant consumerism.
The growth of an economy and the concomitant wealth resulting there from threatens to produce an elite group of rich people whose interests are separate and apart from the masses of workers and peasants. Most obvious is the problem of corruption which has been well covered by the Vietnamese media up to the recent Vinashin scandal.
Even more worrisome to me is the growth of individualism and opportunism which leads to some public officials placing their personal and family interests above that of the people they serve. I have seen some officials who exhibit more interest in the size of their houses and luxury cars than in the suffering of workers in the industrial zones or peasants facing difficulties. This raises the issue of who Vietnam’s economic development will benefit in the future.
In the process of the professionalization of many occupations, the absolutely crucial role played by workers and peasants in producing the very necessities of life has not received due attention. I remember the pride young people felt in being skilled workers in the past; now many people don’t want to say they are workers…
Development can also turn into its opposite if the needs of our planet are ignored. Recently an article in the Vietnamese press called attention to plans to grow genetically modified plants on up to half of Vietnam’s farmland. They rightly called it a threat to Vietnam’s food independence since Monsanto and other companies sell what are called terminator seeds that cannot be replanted, come the next harvest, and must be bought each year from these agribusiness giants. It is also a danger to public health, as many scientists consider GMOs to have adverse effects on the human body.
What Comes Next?
The question is how Vietnam resolves the contradictions inherent in doi moi? My experience is that the best way is to use one’s strengths to overcome weaknesses. Since doi moi was intended to build socialism, socialist principles should be used to overcome the weaknesses generated by the market. The success of doi moi in economic development creates new opportunities for novel approaches to crafting socialist economy, democracy and culture.
With the rise of the productive forces and technology, new forms of cooperatives, owned and run by their workers or farmers become possible, putting them at the center of any development strategy. State enterprises can be streamlined and strengthened so as to serve as the true core of the economy, guaranteeing the wealth of the nation for the entire people rather than for international capitalism.
With the high level of literacy of the population, the development of information technology and the work of the Party and mass organizations, conditions exist for even more expansion of socialist democracy at the local level. Community budgeting, planning and ecology can mandate that the development of the country proceeds in accordance with the needs and desires of its citizens! Wasteful spoilage of land for golf courses and other such uses can be stopped.
As Vietnam becomes less and less of a scarcity economy, the need to acquire “things” to feel secure should be replaced by sustainable living. The focus on consumerism to build up the economy should give way to a culture valuing relations between people more than relations with things. The environment should be preserved for future generations.
The vast majority of the people and the Communist Party in Vietnam have not forgotten the unimaginable sacrifices they and their relatives made for the liberation of Vietnam. They value, above all else, Vietnamese independence and know that the only way to truly guarantee it is through socialism.
Yet, left unchecked, market mechanisms will continue to produce not a few “bad apples” as we say in the U.S. These “bad apples” – the corrupt and opportunist among the people, the Party and the State – will have a corrosive effect on the trust of the people.
A priority for doi moi must be to remove the soil in which these bad elements can grow by placing adequate controls on the economy and private wealth building. As socialist democracy expands, the people will be able to expose and defeat them and this will further their confidence in and love for the Party and for socialism.
One of the things I heard most from youth during my visits to Vietnam was that the fine and beautiful words of the revolution contrasted with the reality of a consumer society with corruption and bureaucracy.
The contradictions between theory and reality can only be resolved by emphasizing that the successes of doi moi are not due to the market economy, but due to a socialist project utilizing market mechanisms. And Vietnam can build on these successes to eliminate the remaining vestigial organs of previous inhumane capitalist society and moving on to the next higher stage of history!
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