General Vo Nguyen Giap tests govt by criticising massive bauxite mine
Gen Giap led his country to victory over both France and the United States. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
HANOI: Vietnam's great war hero, General Vo Nguyen Giap, has stood up to defend his country once again, this time against what he says would be a huge mistake by the government to allow a vast mining operation run by China.
HE SPEAKS...
'The project will cause serious consequences to the environment, society and national defence.'
'There's cross-fertilisation and cross-cutting occurring on some of these issues. Groups that pushed a political agenda and got nowhere are now lending support for these things that are not political issues.'
Mr Carlyle Thayer, a specialist on Vietnam at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra
The project seeks to exploit huge reserves of bauxite, the key ore in aluminium.
Gen Giap, 97, is the commander who led his country to victory over both France and the United States. He has emerged as the loudest voice in a popular protest that is challenging the secretive workings of Vietnam's communist leaders.
In an unusual step, the government has taken note of his criticisms and appears to be at least making gestures of response, saying it will review the project's environmental impact and slow its full exercise.
The project, approved by the Communist Party's Politburo in 2007, calls for US$15 billion (S$22 billion) by 2025 to exploit reserves bauxite - the key ore in aluminium - by some estimates, the third largest store in the world.
Already, the state-owned Chinese mining group Chinalco has put its employees and equipment to work in the remote Central Highlands under a contract with the Vietnamese mining consortium Vinacomin, which is aiming for aluminium production of up to 6.6 million tonnes by 2015.
Gen Giap and other opponents say the project will ruin the environment, displace ethnic minorities and threaten national security because of an influx of Chinese workers and China's growing economic leverage.
The dispute draws together several issues in today's Vietnam: its emulation of China's environmentally adverse model of industrial development; a tentatively evolving relationship between the closed government system and its citizens; and a visceral distrust among many Vietnamese of China.
Scientists, academics, environmentalists, war veterans and other leaders have come together to challenge what Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has called 'a major policy of the party and the state'. Their voices have been amplified in the echo chamber of political blogs.
'There's cross-fertilisation and cross-cutting occurring on some of these issues,' said Mr Carlyle Thayer, a specialist on Vietnam at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra. 'Groups that pushed a political agenda and got nowhere are now lending support for these things that are not political issues.'
The theme that runs through blogs and public opinion is a deep-rooted fear of China. Vietnam was China's tributary state for a thousand years and was invaded by China in 1979.
Read the full report in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.
