[news] Time magazine: A Southern Survivor Rises To Become Saigon's Boss

[AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>]

JUNE 2, 1997 VOL.149 NO.22
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ASIA

A Southern Survivor Rises To Become Saigon's Boss

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Truong tan sang hardly fits the predictable profile of a member of Vietnam's
ruling Politburo and a possible future prime minister. Among the nation's
leaders, Sang is noteworthy for what he's not: he didn't serve in the
military; at 48, he's not old; and he's a technocrat who wasn't educated in
Hanoi or in the Soviet Union. In fact he grew up and stayed in southern
Vietnam, where he has risen to become Saigon's highest-ranking Communist
Party official. A Vietnamese-American businessman in Ho Chi Minh City
describes Sang this way: "He is one of us. A true southerner." Sang spoke
with TIME's Hanoi Bureau Chief Tim Larimer in Ho Chi Minh City on the eve of
the former Saigon's "liberation day" in a villa that housed U.S. embassy
officials during the Vietnam War. After the interview, Sang quickly changed
into tennis togs. "I'm just learning," he said. That may be a good idea for
a protege of Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet, who's a tennis fanatic. Excerpts
from the interview:

TIME: During the Vietnam War, you were arrested by the Saigon government as
a student revolutionary and put into prison for three years.

Sang: I was already the head of the Youth Union cell, but the police in
Saigon didn't know that at first. Our wish was simple: the country must be
united and there must be independence. I had anticipated I might be
arrested.

TIME: Do you know who turned you in?

Sang: Yes, but I have never met him again. Many people I knew who became
military officers in the South Vietnamese army often come to see me as
friends. You see, in this terrible war in South Vietnam, each person was
pushed into a peculiar circumstance.

TIME: What happened to you in prison?

Sang: They tortured me mercilessly. They treated us like animals in their
house.

TIME: Today Ho Chi Minh City is a fast-growing city of 5 million. It also
has problems: overcrowding, traffic, pollution, unemployment. Where is the
city headed?

Sang: The growth rate is too slow compared with that of neighboring
countries. We are a late-comer, and that is why we've got to go faster.
Where will we get the resources for that? About 60% of the capital will be
mobilized domestically, and 40% will be from foreign sources. This will
enable the city to become the big financial, business, communications and
transportation center.

TIME: How comfortable are the leaders in Hanoi with Ho Chi Minh City's
economic might?

Sang: The plans I talk about have been approved by the central government.
So I think they are proud of us.

TIME: After 1975, you were director of a state farm. Do you have any regrets
about the rigid economic policies imposed then?

Sang: There were many extremely difficult socio-economic problems: high
unemployment, total loss of hope among former Saigon soldiers, no raw
materials and power for factories, uncultivated land, live bombs and land
mines everywhere. Even if we had had a correct economic policy then, we
would still have had to go through a certain period of time to overcome the
problems left by war. It was simply unavoidable. Luckily, some help came our
way. Many brothers from the former system decided to stay in Vietnam, and
most of them were businessmen.

TIME: This city was under a command economy for only a few years before
economic reforms began. Did the Saigonese ever truly become communists?

Sang: We should understand the dynamic thinking of the people. In many
Communist Party conferences, we have talked about the fact that the people
would react immediately to any wrong policies here and not wait for things
to collapse before putting in their ideas.

TIME: You make a lot of public appearances. Do you consider yourself a
politician?

Sang: No, never. I think the majority of leaders would think the same. It is
very simple because the thing that burns in our heart, our deepest
aspiration is to achieve a reunified country.

TIME: Do you want to be Prime Minister?

Sang: I never think about that because there is a saying in Vietnam: a
mandarin is in his position for a short period only, but the people will be
here forever.

TIME: There have been several corruption cases recently, some involving
officials from the Party.

Sang: What we fear most is that once people have power in their hands, they
will fall into the ills of bureaucracy. Some officials have a disease people
detest: corruption.

TIME: What responsibility do you take for the corruption?

Sang: We feel responsible for whatever happens in this city, at least a
moral responsibility.

TIME: What makes this city such an energetic place?

Sang: We often joke among ourselves that this is the rendezvous place for
human and material resources, the meeting place for talented people. People
come to this city and bring their property but also their skills and
creativity. There is also pressure on the leadership here to reinvent
ourselves regularly.

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