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The most observant of my visitors probably noticed the small button that appeared in the left column last June.Some of them might have wondered who this Pham Hong Son, designated as "Internet Dissident" could be.
I heard about Pham Hong Son last June, when the totalitarians ruling Vietnam set another row of those sadly famous political
At that time, Minky Worden, electronic media director at Human Right Watch noted:
Vietnam's crackdown on critics who use the Internet to peacefully disseminate their ideas or communicate with democracy advocates abroad appears to be escalating... These harsh prison sentences and vaguely worded charges of spying appear designed to intimidate not only government critics, but everyone in Vietnam who uses the Internet.I put together that picture and labels and hung the Internet Dissident button on the wall of the dacha on June 19.
The day before that, at the end of a half-day closed trial in Hanoi, Pham Hong Son was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment and 3 years of house arrest on espionage charges.
Outside observers were also barred from Pham's first trial, despite written requests to attend. The sole witness called was Pham's wife, who was only allowed to answer two "yes" or "no" questions.The crimes of Son "the Spy" are indeed horrendous and will repulse any conscientious Socialist despot or the average drooling clone volunteer of the French Politically Correct National
Pham Hong Son, Internet dissident has been charged with spying because, according to the terms of the indictment (emphasis by myself):
(he) took the initiative to communicate by telephone and e-mail with political opportunists in Vietnam and abroad (...) Son willingly supported the view of these mentioned political opportunists and became a follower of the action plan to take advantage of freedom and democracy to advocate pluralism and a multiparty system in order to oppose the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.Trying to use freedom and democracy to advocate pluralism and multiparty shall not be tolerated indeed.
Socialism never did, Socialism never will.
And what's worse for Son the Ungrateful Spy Who Tried to Use Freedom and Democracy Against Socialism (again, emphasis by myself):
The indictment also says Son used email to "translate and send anti-Party and anti-government documents" to colleagues abroad. One of his alleged crimes was to translate and disseminate via email an article titled "What is Democracy?" which he downloaded from the website of the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam.Glad to see the Socialist Republic of Vietnam openly admitting that its government and Party are on the opposite side of democracy. Not that it comes as a surprise though (Kim Il Sung, as for him, still tries to hide awkwardly behind the smoke screen. Very funny Kim).
Anyway, you can find the original and so dangerous document here. It's actually a very interesting piece.
I certainly can't tell about you, but I know that reading it got me on board for a strange and rather disturbing experience: even though some in our liberal democracies tend to conveniently forget about it as soon as they feel like moving forward on their coercive agenda (by destroying private property and work tools for instance), we usually take democracy for granted and rarely think over its benefits and its constraints but to maintain its ways or clearly expose its enemies.
Therefore, the simple idea that this kind of comprehensive and didactic document on such an obvious and trivial issue - again, at least for us - still finds a craving audience whose daily life and perspective of future are doomed by the deprivation of this basic knowledge opened in front of me a wide and vertiginous abyss of understanding.
Standing on the edge of the abyss, one starts measuring the full extend of the destructive effect on civil society. What's more, one starts apprehending the magnitude of the task, when such long-standing dictatorships fall.
Reconstruction means going back to basics. It's not only about roads, electricity or running water. It's not just about teaching people their most basic right, freedom, and teaching them how to respect their fellow citizen's so they can eventually grow and defend it together. They know about that wherever they are. They can feel this burning flame, even when the ruling princes, juntas, commissars, ayatollahs or mullahs exerted themselves to stifle it for decades.
Going back to basics means giving them the necessary hope so they can believe in the strength of this flame, in front of the political or religious polices.
Yes, I'm thinking "Iraq" right now, where hope took the form of divisions of Marines, but not only. One look at Russia, still mixed up and fragile in the disastrous Communist legacy, one look at China and South East Asia, in no small part still crushed under the Communist boot, one wide, combining look at the Muslim world and Africa, concocting a diet of murder and oppression with the worst of the dying Socialist ideology and the worst of the growing third totalitarianism. Replacing the gammate cross with a crescent that evokes so many fond memories among the former hammer and sickle followers.
At this very minute, and without a doubt, from Iran to Vietnam there are people using the media on which you're currently reading, to learn what they miss about the roots of freedom in human societies. Most of them were born under the oppression. They were misinformed with the lies of their respective regimes.
Yet, despite what the enlightened and self-proclaimed "morally superior" Western "elite" would like us to believe, they're not stupider than anybody else and they're certainly not more "accustomed" to oppression than anybody else. They feel that something is wrong with what they've been told. Maybe they simply cannot put names on the ideas, as a result of their oppressors' efforts.
Using the Internet just as their Eastern European counterparts did when listening to Radio Free Europe, some of them can see that something is wrong indeed and they can find the right words to conceive the political implementation of their aspiration to freedom.
Unlike the limited opportunities of action offered by the radio medium, they can take an active part in the struggle for their own freedom.
If the Internet is an American invention and not a Russian, Chinese - or even a French one - and moreover, if it's one that initially emanated from the US military (not the Russian, Chinese... All right, you get the point) and yet has been opened to all and made its way up to the heart of the worst dictatorships, contributing to their brittleness - and consequently their fall - this is not, this can't be coincidental.
There are those who protest against the worldwide diffusion of American values and culture but as far as I'm concerned, there's little to complain and much to rejoice. To put it bluntly, all in all, it brought me more freedom - especially when looking back at the tragically uniform voice of the whole French press during the Iraq crisis.
Guess what? I have the feeling that even from his jail, Pham agrees with me. I'm sure his hope started to take shape, no matter his current situation.
On the other hands, his jailers and my enemies certainly have to worry about it, and they do.
His imprisonment proves it.
I would therefore say that besides the intrinsic value of this text, I do find particularly interesting and revealing to learn where a Vietnamese dissident (yes, "dissident" deserve your attention, but the really important word here is "Vietnamese"), isolated in one of the ultimate achievements of the Left, a Socialist dictatorship, and looking for references on democracy in the vast and meandering Internet, will spontaneously go to find them.
He obviously won't turn to any of the French government websites, knowing that all the genocides who murdered people and freedom - including his - in the South Asian peninsula, from Ho Chi Minh to the Khmers Rouges developed their skills at collective solutions leading to mass murder in French universities and referred to the example of the Great French Revolution, fertile womb of the modern bloodbaths and paragon of oppression "in the name of the people".
He won't go to the UN because he probably knows, by now, that besides irrelevant French foreign ministers and presidents or their Thirld World totalitarian supervisors, no decent person or government should care more than necessary about this worldwide country club of dictators and spineless downtrending European powers (only when in need of extra trucks and foot soldiers to regulate crossroad traffic once some of the aforementioned totalitarians suddenly decide to roll up their leggings and start running in zigzag between the 3rd Infantry Division and the First Marine Expeditionary Force).
As for the European Union, well, don't get me started with the European Union.
No, when Vietnamese Internet dissidents are looking for a pertinent and rightful source on democracy, they apparently trust the US of A.
Having observed that Uncle Ho is eventually beaten by Uncle Sam, I must unfortunately come to the reason why I'm telling you about Pham Hong Son now.
Two weeks ago the Vietnamese Supreme Court (whatever its legitimacy) heard exceptionally Pham's trial in appeal.
As usual, all international observers, diplomats or journalists were barred from the proceedings, but this time, the Socialist justice has been "merciful" and reduced Pham's sentence.
5 years in jail.
For translating "What is democracy?" from English to Vietnamese, and using the Internet to send it around.
I can't even tell if this very site will still be here in 5 years, when Pham is supposed to be released. But Pham - at the very least, his picture - will stay with us in the dacha nonetheless. He'll be just fine here.
For the dissident frogman, he will be another personal beacon of the true aspiration to freedom, alongside the American flag on top.
They certainly can do us bad, but in the end, the authoritarians can't take that away from us.
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