Ky Nam Beach Reflections

We woke to a deserted resort; the workers staying there had long since left for the construction sites by the time we got up.  Our room was in a small terraced outbuilding among other larger bungalows dotted about randomly.

We had the beach to ourselves it seemed, perfect for a prelunch swim.  The temperature was an energy sapping 37°C and I was glad to be relaxing on a clean and empty beach instead of pedalling hard.  My brother, on the other hand, decided to do some exercise.

Later, after the afternoon heat had abated to merely stifling, a few locals came out to the beach.  As we strolled down to explore the northern headland we met a Vietnamese worker in his mid-twenties from one of the construction firms.  He worked for the Vietnamese branch of a Thai company and we had an interesting and frank discussion about working life in Vietnam.  He described how bribery was the key in getting ahead in business.  I told him that it also happened in the West but he insisted that it was done more transparently and to a greater degree here.  To get ahead you had to pay the 'fee'.

He related how businesses often paid the government official who checked their company finances to downgrade profits which meant they would pay less tax and have more to skim off into their own pockets.  He spoke of loopholes which companies used to save on insurance for workers, whereby everyone is given a rolling three month contract which technically makes them temporary.  This absolves the employers of needing to pay for unnecessary 'expenses' such as insuring their workforce.

The government apparently allows these practices as the money stays within the party amidst all the mutual backscratching; funds are raised in other ways such as taxing foreign investment and fines for public offences such as drink driving/riding (VND1m).  He told me his salary was quite decent at VND3m.  So for the average worker, these fines were at an extortionate level.

Western companies also exploit loopholes as shown by the recent tax dodges of some major brands in the UK and it is wrong for these companies to withhold these funds.  The difference is that tax may eventually trickle down in some way to benefit the general population in a welfare state, whilst in Vietnam this concept does not truly exist.

Many people here have spoken frankly about the lack of social benefits in terms of health, housing and unemployment.  I recalled the noodle seller in Hanoi who had furtively told us how she had worked for almost 30 years in a fairly senior position within the party, only for the department to be dissolved and all the staff let go.  She had whispered bitterly that for her service she had received no pay off or pension; everybody was on their own once they were no longer of use to the party.

I thought about how corruption existed in different forms everywhere.  There is no country or society in the world where somebody in power has not taken a bribe in exchange for some privilege, now or in history.  I reasoned that the difference here was that everybody knew and just accepted it as a fact of life, it had permeated society.

In the west, deals are done behind closed doors and usually at higher levels; cases of bribery and corruption are read about as scandalous press exposés (perhaps not a surprise to some, but it is to others).  Here, there is no free press but people know that it goes on everyday and at every level.  The sight of the police stopping motorists at random only to let them off after an 'exchange' is fairly common.

In the UK, if you were to offer a bribe to the driving examiner on the day of your test you would probably not be getting your licence.  In Vietnam, it is the usual way.  Like anywhere, money will get you places, but for a country with socialist pretensions, the majority of wealth stays within the ruling government class and the well-heeled business elite who have dealings with or are a part of the cabal. Those outside are basically left to their own devices with little in the way of the redistribution of wealth.

At dinner in the resort restaurant the previous evening, a Vietnamese construction manager who had family ties to the party, extolled how the state had greatly advanced the motherland.  He told me that on one hand there are four fingers and a thumb - you need all of them equally to have a useful hand but they each have different functions and hence importance.  It was his attempt to address inequality after I had asked about party favouritism and Vietnam's widening gap between rich and poor.  So all parts of a hand have an equal usefulness but some are more useful than others.  It sounded strangely familiar.

From the poorest subsistence farmers toiling for their next meal, to the emerging middle class scrabbling to get ahead and the shop assistant dreaming of an upgraded mobile phone, these people could be from anywhere in the world with their shared aspirations of wanting something better than what the current system allows them.  But in Vietnam, the ones I have met feel that they are not empowered in any way to effect change - dissent is harshly dealt with (usually jail with no trial) and so it is generally believed to be a dangerous and pointless path.

Those better off just shrug their shoulders and say it is the price you pay to become successful.  The general belief is that the only way to get on is to accept the system and grease the palms of those able to advance you, if you have the coin.  If not, then you'll be left behind and nobody glances back in Vietnam once they are climbing the ladder.