Thai unrest likely to slow Vietnam reforms

THE protests that forced the cancellation of the Asean summit in Thailand last weekend will likely lead Vietnam to move slower on political liberlisation, experts said yesterday.

"Thailand used to be one of the democratic models for Vietnam, but these incidents in Thailand certainly will make Vietnamese leaders more cautious about democracy," said Professor Trinh Duy Luan, director of Vietnam's Institute for Social Studies.

Officially, Vietnam's government expressed "regret" over the postponement of the Asean summit. The meeting of South-east Asian and regional leaders was called off Sunday after tens of thousands of red-shirted protesters stormed the conference venues, demanding the resignation of Thailand's government.

"In our view, this is a regrettable event, affecting not only Thailand's image but Asean's process of cooperation," said Nguyen Hong Cuong, director of the Asean Department at Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Cuong noted that several agreements on Asean cooperation scheduled to be adopted at the summit had been postponed.

The state-run newspaper Vietnam News reported yesterday that Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung hoped that "political stability" would soon return to Thailand, for the sake of its national development its responsibilities as rotating chair of Asean. But some analysts said the repercussions of Thailand's demonstrations were likely to slow moves in Communist Vietnam to allow greater freedom of organisation and more room for civil society groups.

For several years, the country's National Assembly has debated reforms to the national Law on Associations, which regulates the formation of any kind of civic group.

Under current law, all such groups must be affiliated with a government agency or a "mass organisation," such as the Women's Union or the Union of Science and Technology Associations. The system makes it easy for the Communist Party to ensure civic groups do not challenge its political power.DPA