Võ Văn Kiệt (; 23 November 1922 – 11 June 2008"Ex-Vietnam premier Vo Van Kiet dies at 85: government", AFP, June 11, 2008.) whose real name is Phan Văn Hòa, and includes aliases Sáu Dân, Chín Dũng, Chín Hòa, Tám Thuận. Was a Vietnamese politician and economic reformer who served as the Prime Minister of Vietnam from 1991 to 1997. A well regarded Vietnamese revolutionary and political leader,Ronald B. Frankum Jr. Historical Dictionary of the War in Vietnam, 2011 p.479. entry "Võ Văn Kiệt" Kiệt was a veteran fighter in the long wars against the French colonialists and then the South Vietnamese and American forces during the Vietnam War.
He held key political positions in the South, and during the Second Indochina War, Võ Văn Kiệt was the senior political officer commanding the Saigon district and headquartered in the Củ Chi tunnels. His wife and children were killed when a US plane rocketed a passenger ferry carrying 200 passengers along the Saigon River.
In the difficult post-war years, he was one of the most prominent reformist leaders that led the Đổi mới (lit: Innovation) policy in Vietnam since 1986. His premiership (1991–1997) saw the country's return to the world arena after decades of war and isolation. He is considered as the "general engineer" of many bold projects of the Doi Moi period.
Kiệt, who played a driving role in the economic reform process in Vietnam that began in the mid-1980s, is exactly what United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon once assessed, "Võ Văn Kiệt paved the way for the transformation of Vietnam from poverty to a decade of impressive economic growth." The five years of the 6th Party Congress (December 1986) to the 7th Congress (June 1991) were the time of the debate. Conflict and struggle at different levels, and areas between the two trends of returning to the old subsidized bureaucratic mechanism or decisively breaking up with it. Many officials either do it for personal gain or because they do not want it. Having enough determination and capacity, they did not dare and did not want to innovate. Faced with that situation, Võ Văn Kiệt and many senior leaders persevered, showing strong determination to innovate and clearly pointing out that innovation must follow closely, into practical conditions to meet the interests of the people and the country.
As Vice Chairman of the Council of Ministers (June 1988 - August 1991), Chairman of the Council of Ministers (August 1991 - October 1992), Prime Minister (October 1992 - December 1997), Kiệt proposed and directed the development and implementation of many groundbreaking policies such as: eliminating ordinance targets, granting business autonomy to state-owned enterprises; commercialize means of production, allowing large enterprises, both central and local, to directly import and export, ending the situation of two prices; abolish the mandatory purchasing regime imposed on farmers, abolish the river ban on markets, implement the free circulation of goods throughout the country, gradually transition the economy from a subsidized to a market economy.
Background Võ Văn Kiệt was born Phan Văn Hòa in 1922 into a peasant family in Trung Hiệp village, Vũng Liêm, Vĩnh Long province in the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam, then a part of Cochinchina in what was called French Indochina. His birth name was Phan Văn Hòa and he changed it to Võ Văn Kiệt when he was admitted to the Indochinese Communist Party in 1939. He also had a pseudonym, Sáu Dân. He joined the Anti-imperialist Youth Movement and took part in the Nam Kỳ (Cochinchina) insurrection in Vũng Liêm district.
Political career
Võ Văn Kiệt was a member of the Viet Minh independence movement, he fought against the French colonial powers in the First Indochina War (1946–54) in Southern Vietnam. According to the Geneva Accords, communist cadres were forced to gather in North Vietnam, but he was among those who remained in the South, moving between secret bases in the southeastern region. His first wife, Trần Kim Anh, and his two children were killed in a rocket attack by US forces in 1966.
In 1960, he was elected alternate member of the Communist Party Central Committee and a member of COSVN in 1961, in command of communist forces in Saigon and surrounding areas.On May 3, 1975, he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Saigon-Gia Dinh Military Administration Committee, ending his term on January 20, 1976, after the handover ceremony with the Saigon-Gia Dinh Military Administration Committee previously held by Comrade Tran Van Tra. He then served as Chairman of the People's Committee Ho Chi Minh City under the pseudonym (Provincial Governor) and concurrently held the position of Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee until the reunification of the Republic of South Vietnam with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.After July 2, 1976, he served as Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee and concurrently held the position of Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, following the first session of the 6th National Assembly of Vietnam, which passed a decision to rename the city from Saigon-Gia Dinh to Ho Chi Minh City in memory of the beloved leader who had passed away.
In the early postwar years, South Vietnam's economy deteriorated rapidly due to the withdrawal of US investment and the harsh Stalinist policies enforced by central government. Saigon, formerly a dynamic economic center, faced for the first time a widespread lack of food and other commodities. As the head of the city government, Võ Văn Kiệt realized that the Soviet economic model was flawed and secretly promoted trade and manufacturing behind the state's back. Gradually he became one of the staunchest supporters of the reformist faction in the party, many of whom were local party heads and administrators in southern provinces.
In 1982, he was promoted to Deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers (Vice Premier) and became Chairman of the State Planning Commission. In 1987, he was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam and assumed the role of Acting Prime Minister from March to June 1988 after the sudden death of Phạm Hùng. In the tradition of the party's organisation, he should have been made Premier. However, allegedly due to a personal quarrel between Võ Văn Kiệt and Nguyễn Văn Linh - the Secretary General and his longtime superior - as well as opposition from conservative members of the Politburo, Đỗ Mười was chosen instead. In the plenary session of the National Assembly in 1988, however, many delegates nominated him as a second candidate. Even though he got only 35% of votes, this was unprecedented, as elections in the National Assembly had previously had only one candidate and they were essentially just a rubber-stamp of decisions made by the Party Politburo.
After 1975, around 4 million people suffered from food shortages in Saigon. People often had to eat rice stuffed with potatoes and cassava. The reason was that the state reformed private enterprise in the South and monopolized the wholesale stage. This caused the entire network of rice traders and granary owners in the West to be eliminated, replaced by state-owned trading companies. However, the state's buying price at that time was "as low as it was", farmers in the West had rice but refused to sell it. Even if the government has money, it is not allowed to buy rice at the agreed price because it can easily be accused of going against the subsidy policy.
As Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, Võ Văn Kiệt was then faced with two options: strictly comply with the state's purchasing price or "break the barrier" to find a way to buy rice to save the country.
During the 1978-1979 period, Ho Chi Minh City also faced a shortage of imported sources, causing the input of the entire production to decline, leading to a crisis in goods and labor. Kiệt discussed with city leaders to find ways to "tear down" the import of some necessary raw materials for production.
Premiership (1991–1997)
Võ Văn Kiệt took the role of First Vice Premier and continued to push his reform agenda. In 1991, he was elected as Prime Minister, an office he held until 1997. His tenure marked the advance of the administrative branch at the expense of the influence of the Party's institutions, when the power was shared by three top leaders: himself as Prime Minister, General Secretary Đỗ Mười, and President Lê Đức Anh. He initiated a large program of economic reform, reorganised the government and urged the broadening of diplomatic ties. In the early 1990s Vietnam gradually recovered from the economic crisis of the previous decade. In 1995 the country joined the ASEAN community and normalized relations with the US, ending 20 years of formal mutual enmity and American embargo after the fall of Saigon.
In 1986, the reform policy of the Communist Party of Vietnam blew new winds. However, the southern region and Ho Chi Minh City - places with early access to industry - still cannot create a strong breakthrough due to serious electricity shortages due to very limited local sources, and rotating power cuts are daily matter.
The decision to build a 500kV North - South super high voltage line to transmit electricity from North to South, helping the South alleviate its electricity thirst, was officially raised by Võ Văn Kiệt with leaders of the Ministry of Energy during a meal. In 1991, the answer "Can do" by Minister of Energy Vũ Ngọc Hải a week later was also the beginning of a mountain of work that needed to be implemented.
He ordered strict punishment, no matter who that person was or what position he was in. Later, Minister of Energy Vũ Ngọc Hải, who created the North-South 500kV power transmission line project, was convicted of irresponsibility in management and sentenced to three years in prison, as were a number of related officials who were dismissed from their posts. Kiệt announced that if the 500KV line fails, he will automatically resign.
The project was approved by the Politburo in January 1992. On 25 February 1992, the Government approved the economic-technical thesis with a completion time decision of 2 years and due to the emergency period, allowing implementation by survey, design, import of materials and equipment and construction to be carried out in parallel.
After more than 2 years of building the 500kV North - South Line, circuit 1, at exactly 7:00 p.m., 7 minutes and 59 seconds on 27 May 1994, Võ Văn Kiệt ordered the Southern power system to be merged with 4 units of the Hydroelectric Plant Hòa Bình in Đà Nẵng. After this event, many people called him "Electricity Prime Minister", a commander-in-chief of the industry, a leader who laid the foundation and made great contributions to a unified electricity grid nationwide, meeting the needs of the entire country. development and economic integration as of today. Kiệt's old decision solved the problem of electricity shortage in the South and promoted economic development. Ho Chi Minh City is the economic development engine of the country.
The conflict between reformist and conservative factions increased and culminated in a series of power struggles in the mid-1990s. Representing the reformists, Võ Văn Kiệt advocated for further privatisation of the state dominated economy, as well as democratization - an approach criticised by his political rivals as dangerous to "socialist orientation". In 1996, after the party could not create a consensus on personnel arrangement, all of the three top leaders remained in their positions. However, factionalism was only intensified and eventually led Võ Văn Kiệt and his opponents Mười and Anh to step down at the same time in 1997. They continued to influence the country affairs as advisors to the Standing Committee of the party until 2001.
Final years