In recent years, a number of individuals in Ha Tinh have taken advantage of democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals, and cause insecurity and disorder at the grassroots level. Among the cases prosecuted, there are those who are stubborn, disregard, and even defy the law, but there are also those who are provoked by the crowd and commit serious mistakes.
With the democratic nature of the regime, the Vietnamese State always pays special attention to and puts the democratic freedoms of citizens first. The implementation of these rights must be based on the rule of law. However, in practice, in recent years, some citizens have taken advantage of democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, the rights and legitimate interests of organizations and individuals and have been severely punished. This is a warning lesson for citizens who deliberately do not understand, or are gullible and listen to the instigation of bad people and outside forces, and disobey the provisions of the law. |
From crossing the threshold of “freedom” to cases
Chairman of the People's Committee of Luu Vinh Son commune (right) recounts the story of many people defying the law at the time of implementing the Vinh Hang Cemetery Park project in Bac Son commune (old).
Surely many people cannot forget that more than 10 years ago, when the authorities implemented the policy of building Vinh Hang Cemetery Park in the old Bac Son commune (now in Luu Vinh Son commune, Thach Ha), hundreds of people strongly protested. The incident at that time went too far, when many people attacked the houses of local officials.
Mr. Tran Ba Hoanh - Chairman of the People's Committee of Luu Vinh Son Commune (formerly Chairman of the People's Committee of Bac Son Commune) said: "At that time, people gathered in many meetings, there were meetings with hundreds of women gathered in the yard of the People's Committee of the commune. At that time, it was very difficult for commune officials to go to work. Although we tried every way to advise people to absolutely not violate the law, people did not listen. After that unfortunate incident, many people had to serve prison sentences. Among them, there are now some people doing business in the locality who confided in me: because of their foolishness, they made themselves and their families suffer."
Phuc Lac Vien project (Luu Vinh Son commune, Thach Ha) increasingly affirms its practical significance, humanity, and correctness in the project implementation policy.
Similar to the above “lawlessness”, the incidents of people gathering in large numbers to protest against the Party Committee and government, disturbing public order, illegally detaining people... that occurred in Ky Anh and Loc Ha towns after the marine environmental incident all ended in a criminal case, in which many individuals had to serve prison sentences after the court's verdict.
There have been many lessons like that, but recently, in the province, there are still subjects who intentionally take advantage of democratic freedoms to carry out their schemes. On August 8, 2023, the People's Court of Huong Khe district held a first-instance trial of the criminal case against the defendants Hoang Thi Son (born in 1958, residing in residential group 11, Huong Khe town) and Thai Thi Be (born in 1956, residing in village 7, Phuc Trach commune, Huong Khe) for the crime of "Abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, the rights and legitimate interests of organizations and individuals" under Clause 1, Article 331 of the 2015 Penal Code. The People's Court of Huong Khe district sentenced Hoang Thi Son and Thai Thi Be to 15 months in prison each.
Defendant Hoang Thi Son (in floral shirt) and defendant Thai Thi Be at the first instance trial (August 8, 2023).
Previously, for many consecutive years, Hoang Thi Son and Thai Thi Be had filed complaints and denunciations for a long time, not accepting the responses of competent authorities; repeatedly filing complaints in front of the Provincial Party Committee, Provincial People's Committee, and even to the Central Government. The subjects also carried banners of denunciation and posted and shared on Facebook with many untrue contents. On April 17, 2023, the Investigation Police Agency of Huong Khe District Police issued a decision to prosecute the case, prosecute the accused and issue an order of temporary detention for Thai Thi Be and Hoang Thi Son.
Also taking advantage of democratic freedoms, Hoang Van Luan (born in 1988, Ky Tay commune, Ky Anh district) was prosecuted by the Investigation Police Agency of Ky Anh district, and ordered to be temporarily detained on August 23, 2023 for the crime of "Taking advantage of democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, the rights and legitimate interests of organizations and individuals".
Subject Hoang Van Luan (far left) once incited and organized people in Ha Tinh to file mass complaints, go beyond their authority, and drag on for a long time. Photo provided by the police.
In 2018, from petitioning for compensation and support for individuals, Hoang Van Luan gradually became the mastermind, regularly inciting, attracting, and organizing many people to file mass complaints to various levels. Among them, there were 3 mass complaints, lasting continuously for 97 days in Hanoi, using many banners to go to the central area of Ba Dinh, in front of the gate of the US Embassy to file complaints and cause trouble.
According to information from the provincial police, currently, in Ha Tinh, there are some citizens who deliberately file complaints many times, beyond the authority level, causing complications at the grassroots level. It is worth mentioning that the contents of the citizens' complaints and denunciations have been resolved by the Party Committee, the government and the relevant agencies in accordance with their authority and regulations, but these people still deliberately do not comply, even filing complaints many times beyond the authority level, causing complications, negatively affecting the implementation of tasks in the province.
The "hypnosis" of crowd psychology
Returning to the story of Bac Son commune that day, Mr. Tran Ba Hoanh - Chairman of the People's Committee of Luu Vinh Son commune said: "After the house of the Party Secretary and my house were attacked, we had a lot of difficulty overcoming it, and were forced to take temporary refuge at our relatives' houses. When the incident calmed down, we met the people who threw rocks on my roof and asked them about it. Many people said that because they were in the crowd, they were incited and provoked. Some people even planned when to act and forced those who had to participate; if they did not participate, they threatened to attack that person's house first."
Similarly, mob mentality is also one of the causes of many complicated incidents in Ha Tinh in the past at Loc Ha, Ky Anh town, especially after the marine environmental incident.
Recently, a small but potentially complicated incident also showed the same thing. In the familiar alleys of My Yen village a few months ago, every day, people were talking about sand mining in the village. One told two, two told three, and so on, buzzing in the village, forming a crowd mentality in the direction of stubborn opposition. All the people we met in My Yen when we were on the ground whispered: At that time, not supporting that group of people was also not an option. They went to every house to persuade, then signed papers, bustling throughout the village. They urged to form a majority to protest.
At one point, under the incitement of some individuals, many people in My Yen village were influenced by mob mentality, disturbing the peace of the village. Now, peace has returned.
Mr. LHX in the old village 2 (now My Yen village) said: “I understand very well the policy and the dialogue contents from the higher level. I think that national interests must be above all. Many sleepless nights, thinking and considering whether to exchange between dialogues or not. If I speak, the State will also benefit and the People will also benefit; but then, I dare not because I am afraid that many people will shun my family”. Mrs. NTT in the old village 3 also shared the same concern: “Before, my family did not agree with the majority but still had to follow, otherwise we would be very scared”.
More importantly, crowd psychology also makes some individuals lose their clarity of mind, as famous psychologist Gustave Le Bon said: when influenced by crowd psychology, individual personality and thinking will disappear (1) . Therefore, many people stubbornly refuse, "cover their eyes and ears" to explanations from authorities and sectors, whether in writing or through dialogue.
After many months, a smile has returned to the face of My Yen village Party Secretary Nguyen Trong Hung (standing in the middle).
Mr. Nguyen Trong Hung - Secretary of the Party Cell of My Yen village talked: "For several months, our village cadres had a hard time because no matter what we said, the villagers would not listen. Some even put pressure on us and deliberately isolated us, especially when our families had important matters to attend to. We were even cursed by many people, who considered us as not protecting the village."
Danger from outside
Taking advantage of democracy and human rights issues to sabotage Vietnam has always been one of the dangerous activities in the “peaceful evolution” strategy of hostile forces. Over the years, these forces have always been hiding under the guises: “human rights are higher than sovereignty”, “human security is higher than national security”, “human rights have no national borders”...
These forces often take advantage of the remaining, complicated issues and incidents in localities to spread distorted information and defame the Party committees and authorities. Some pages such as Viet Tan, Radio Free Asia, RFA... and many Facebook accounts in the country and abroad often wait for extreme actions and incidents of obstructing the construction of key projects to speak out to "follow" the so-called "protection of human rights" even though it is incorrect and defies the laws of the host country.
In the incidents that have occurred in Ha Tinh over the past years, many incidents have been posted by hostile forces and reactionary news sites abroad with information, videos, and images with the intention of opposing our Party and State. Recently, many reactionary news sites have also posted images of Hoang Van Luan holding a protest banner and claiming that: Ky Anh District Police arrested Mr. Hoang Van Luan because he dared to file a complaint in large numbers.
Some foreign news sites have taken full advantage of domestic incidents to incite and defame our Party and State.
It is necessary to know that in the strategy of “peaceful evolution”, hostile forces change their tactics very sophisticatedly and viciously, in the following forms: indirect, hidden, disguised as “for the people, for the country”, “black and white”, “true and false” mixed; exploiting and using media and social networks, taking advantage of, digging into internal issues, promoting “self-evolution”, “self-transformation”, creating flags, creating hot spots” (2) . The immediate purpose of this is to lower the prestige of the Party Committee and the government, and more deeply, to carry out the trick of overthrowing the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
At the training conference on human rights work in Ha Tinh on December 12, 2023, Colonel Pham Thanh Phuong - Deputy Director of the Provincial Police emphasized one of the tasks that Ha Tinh will focus on in the coming time: Effectively deploying the fight against erroneous, hostile viewpoints, with bad and toxic content, slandering the government, infringing on the reputation, honor, rights, and legitimate interests of organizations and individuals, especially leaders; strictly and promptly handling subjects that take advantage of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the guise of democracy and human rights to violate the law in cyberspace.
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1. Gustave Le Bon (Nguyen Xuan Khanh translated), Crowd Psychology , Tri Thuc Publishing House, 2014, p.58.
2. Nguyen Manh Huong, Preventing and combating the strategy of "peaceful evolution" and violent overthrow by hostile and reactionary forces against the Vietnamese revolution , Communist Magazine, September 2023 issue, p.237.
(To be continued)
Manh Ha - Vu Vien
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