>>Constitutional ideologies in Vietnam in the early 20th century
Pham Diem
State and Law Research Institute
With the failure of the bourgeois democratic patriotic movement in the early 20th century, the Vietnamese people faced a serious crisis of the ways to liberate the nation from the colonial yoke. The more Phan Boi Chau and his comrades had previously expected from the reformist and mighty Japan, the more they sank into despair about the then Japanese government’s acts of colluding with the French colonialists in expelling him and Vietnamese students from Japan. He also failed to understand why the 1911 Chinese revolution had come to defeat so quickly. Phan Boi Chau was unable to explain why his revolutionary activities had met with “one hundred defeats but not any success” as he had confessed later.
Meanwhile Phan Chu Trinh and his colleagues were enraptured with the civil right doctrine but failed to understand why France known for its parliamentary regime and the motto “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” had dissolved Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc school and had imprisoned persons who wished to advance Vietnam along the French revolutionary path.
In such circumstance, Nguyen Ai Quoc (later President Ho Chi Minh), with his clear-sighted political views, outclassed the then contemporary patriots in finding ways to save the country. In 1911, he left the country with resolve to search for ways to liberate the country. After many years’ having earned his living through thick and thin, engaged in practical activities and inquired into realities in different countries, Nguyen Ai Quoc went from patriotism to Marxism-Leninism and the path of the October Russian Revolution.
In 1930, he founded the Communist Party of Vietnam, which, together with his finding out the revolutionary way, constituted a historic turning point of the Vietnamese revolution in general and the constitutional ideology in Vietnam in particular.
Under the leadership of leader Nguyen Ai Quoc and the Communist Party of Vietnam, the revolutionary movement in Vietnam had gone through many ups and downs and ultimately gained victory. On September 2, 1945, President Ho Chi Minh read the Independence Declaration, having proclaimed the birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. In 1946, the National Assembly passed the first Constitution of the country. So, the people’s democratic constitutional ideology was formed and developed in the revolutionary process under the leadership of President Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Party of Vietnam. That was the outcome of the creative application of Marxism-Leninism in general and the Marxist constitutional ideology in particular to the concrete circumstance of Vietnam.
I. The viewpoint on the necessity to have a Constitution
Nguyen Ai Quoc- Ho Chi Minh realized very early that law was a major ruling tool of the State, reflecting the nature of a regime. In his book “Duong Cach Menh” (The Revolutionary Path, written in the ‘20s), he analyzed the ruling regime in Indochina: “The capitalists and imperialists use religions and culture to make people ignorant, use laws to tie people up, use forces to frighten people.”
He strongly condemned the French rulers’ harsh legislation against the colonial people on the one hand and demanded the colonialists to reform the justice in Indochina on the other hand. Earlier in 1919, he tabled the Vietnamese nation’s claims to the Versailles conference, having demanded the French colonialists “to reform the justice in Indochina by bestowing the legal rights to the native people just like the Europeans” and “to promulgate a constitution for Vietnam.”
So, one of the contents of Nguyen Ai Quoc’s first struggle against the French colonialists was his demand for the reform of the justice in colonies and the promulgation of a constitution serving as the foundation of such justice. Right from the early days of his revolutionary activities, President Ho Chi Minh realized the importance and necessity of the constitution in any legal system.
The resolution of the second plenum of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee in November 1940 touched upon the promulgation of “a democratic constitution” once the national independence was regained.
Immediately after the emergency of the provisional government of Vietnam President Ho Chi Minh, at its first meeting on September 3, 1945, put forth six urgent things to be immediately done, including the promulgation of a constitution. He said: “We have been ruled by the absolute monarchies, then the colonial regime; hence, our country has had no constitution and our people could not enjoy democratic freedoms. We must have a democratic constitution.”
In that spirit, a constitution was expeditiously elaborated and on November 9, 1946, the first constitution of Vietnam was enacted by the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
It can be easily realized in the constitutional ideology of Nguyen Ai Quoc- Ho Chi Minh that earlier during the August Revolution campaign he had held the viewpoint that any regime needed a constitution and that for Vietnam, a democratic constitution could be promulgated only after the national independence was regained. Later, when the revolutionary opportunity appeared for the nation to regain power, such ideology developed into the fact that he put forth the necessity to compile and promulgate a constitution of the new Vietnam. These constitute one of the basic differences between Ho Chi Minh’s constitutional ideology and those of the previous patriots.
II. Viewpoints on national indepen-dence and civil rights
In his search for the ways to free the country from the colonial and feudal yoke, Nguyen Ai Quoc aimed at nothing but independence for the country, wealth and happiness for the people. During his days living and working in France, Nguyen Ai Quoc affirmed: “If gaining independence, Vietnam will build up a constitutional regime following the ideal of civil rights.” In the Vietnamese nation’s claims sent to Versailles conference, Nguyen Ai Quoc also demanded the grant of amnesty to all native political prisoners, the freedom of press, the freedom of speech, the freedom of association and meeting, the freedom to education;...
Since the emergency of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the viewpoints on national independence and civil rights have been expressed more and more comprehensively and absolutely, and the relationship between national independence and civil rights has been more clearly determined, suitable to revolutionary realities of Vietnam.
The Party’s 1930 Political Platform determined that the revolution in Vietnam was the civil right bourgeois revolution led by the working class (which was later called the people’s national, democratic revolution). Such revolution was tasked to topple the French imperialist regime, gaining national dependence and to abolish the feudal landlord class, bringing land to peasants and civil rights to people. These two tasks were closely associated to each other and inseparable from each other.
In September 1939, in face of swift development of the world and domestic situation upon the outbreak of the Second World War, the Communist Party of Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh promptly shifted the strategic direction of the revolution by pointing out that struggling against imperialists to gain national independence and struggling against feudalists to bring democracy and civil rights to people remained to be two strategic tasks of the civil right bourgeois revolution, but the national independence had to be regained first and the issue of democracy and civil rights had to be realized step by step and had to serve the task of struggling against the imperialists to regain national independence, with a view to rallying patriotic forces against the immediate and principal enemy of the Vietnamese revolution then, namely colonialism and imperialism.
Such strategic shift could be clearly seen through the resolutions of the sixth, seventh and eighth plenums (respectively in November 1939, November 1940 and May 1941) of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee.
The sixth plenum’s resolution wrote: “The anti-imperialist struggle and land reform constitute two crucial issues of the civil right bourgeois revolution. If the land revolution is not carried out, the anti-imperialist revolution cannot be settled. On contrary, if the anti-imperialist revolution is not settled, the land revolution cannot be settled. Such principle will never change, but must be applied cleverly in order to settle the crucial issue of the revolution, that is to topple the imperialist regime.”
This idea was confirmed more specifically in the eighth plenum’s resolution: “Now, if the question of national liberation cannot be settled and independence and freedom cannot be gained for the entire nation, not only the entire nation remains under the colonial and feudal yoke for ever, but also the interests of sections, classes can never be reclaimed.”
With the viewpoint that civil rights could be gained only after the national independence was regained and that the people’s supreme right was the right to live in an independent country, the sixth plenum’s resolution of the Party Central Committee advocated the confiscation of land owned by the imperialists and their lackeys for allocation to the poor people, the execution of democratic freedoms. These were concretized in Viet Minh (Vietnam League for Independence) Front’s program of action: “To realize universal suffrage; to promulgate democratic freedoms, including freedom of thought, freedom of belief, freedom of association, freedom of movement; to achieve equality between men and women; to divide public land, to reduce land tax,...” Such program also put forth policies to protect the interests of people of all strata, including bourgeois who were free to do business, landlords who were entitled to own their land, workers who were entitled to enjoy pensions and better working conditions, peasants who were given adequate land to toil, provided with relief upon crop failure,...
In short, national independence and civil rights were closely associated to each other. Efforts should be concentrated first of all on the regaining of national independence while civil rights could be obtained step by step in service of the regaining of national independence. The national independence must go hand in glove with civil rights which do not exclusively belong to any specific class, any stratum but to all Vietnamese.
That was the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh on national independence and civil rights and the fundamental difference from the viewpoints of bourgeois patriots. It resulted from the creative application of Marxism-Leninism in general and the Marxist constitutional ideology in particular to the practical conditions of Vietnam.
III. Viewpoint on the political regime
Following its emergence, the Communist Party of Vietnam clearly stated in its summarized Political Platform the setting up of a government of workers, peasants and armymen. In his appeal at the Party’s founding anniversary, Nguyen Ai Quoc also men-tioned the establishment of a government of workers, peasants and armymen. Yet, the Party’s October 1930 Political Platform affirmed: “A worker-peasant Soviet administration must be built. Only the worker-peasant Soviet administration can constitute a strong weapon to topple the imperialist and feudal regime, to bring land to the tillers and to help the proletariat to make laws to protect its interests.”
So, the Communist Party of Vietnam and leader Nguyen Ai Quoc followed the path of the Russian October Revolution by advocating the establishment of the Soviet administration after the Russian model. Therefore, in Vietnam, during the 1930-1931 revolutionary high tide in two central provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh, the Soviet administrations were set up in many villages and communes, which spelt out the actual image of a new-typed State and increased the people’s confidence in the revolutionary administration.
Though the new-type administration did not last long under the then revolutionary circumstances in Vietnam in general and Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces in particular, it left a valuable lesson that the Soviet state, the offspring of the Russian Revolution, which had rallied only the working class and the peasantry, was not suitable to the practical conditions of Vietnam’s national democratic revolution which had required the participation of all patriotic forces in the struggle for national independence.
Prompted by such realities of the Nghe Tinh Soviets and of the subsequent revolutionary process, the Communist Party of Vietnam gradually came to a new perception of the form of a Vietnamese state. In the resolution of the sixth plenum of the Party Central Committee in 1939, the Communist Party of Vietnam advocated the establishment of “a common government of the people of all strata in the country and the national liberation movements, including a section of the bourgeoisie. Yet, the eight plenum in 1941 clearly affirmed: “After the French imperialists and Japanese fascists are ousted from the country, a revolutionary government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam will be set up, which is to be elected by the National Congress, a democratic republic regime in the spirit of new democracy.” Also at this conference, the Party decided to set up Vietnam Doc Lap Dong Minh (Vietnam League for Independence, namely Viet Minh Front) to rally and unite all patriotic forces and individuals in the struggle against the nation’s principal enemy, i.e. imperialism, for national independence. From March 1945 on, through the partial uprisings, various national liberation committees, then the revolutionary people’s committees were established in many localities. In the high tide of the August 1945 Revolution, the Vietnam Committee for National Liberation was set up at Tan Trao National Congress, and after the victorious August Revolution on August 27, 1945, this organization was transformed into the provisional government involving a number of public personalities in a broader national unity bloc. On January 1, 1946, the provisional government was transformed into the provisional coalition government. On January 6, 1946, the first national election was held, giving birth to the National Assembly of a new Vietnam. Through the revolutional process, the people’s democratic state model took shape step by step.
So, the Communist Party of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh, through revolutionary realities in Vietnam and with sharp political views, made a big change in the perception of the form of a new-typed state- the form of the Soviet administration was replaced by the form of the people’s democratic state, a political regime totally suitable to Vietnam. Such viewpoint on the people’s democratic regime not only had great significance for the struggle to regain power but also laid a foundation for the perception and ideology on the people’s democratic state of Vietnam in the subsequent periods. It was the outcome of the creative application of Marxism-Leninism in general and the Marxist constitutional ideology in particular to the practical conditions in Vietnam.-