Preview

Wanderlust lands gifted Vietnamese student in trouble with police

Please log in to download this media. Not registered? Register now!

Metadata

Wanderlust lands gifted Vietnamese student in trouble with police
September 4, 2024
Article Body Text Police in Vietnam have summoned a 17-year-old student for criticizing the Communist Party and saying he wanted to study abroad to soak up Western culture. Chu Ngoc Quang Vinh, who attends the Nguyen Tat Thanh High School for the Gifted in Yen Bai province, created an internet storm on Sunday with a Facebook post about his dream of going abroad, according to Vietnamese media. “At the end of secondary school, I was exposed to Western culture at its peak,” he said. “Gradually, I discovered that what I had learned at school was not entirely true and that it only showed how to deceive people, so I’ll try in every way to live abroad in the future.” Quang Vinh said he had signed up to an annual talent competition for Vietnamese high school students called The Road to Olympia just to get the chance to leave the country. Students compete in monthly rounds to select finalists who compete for the top prize of a scholarship to study in Australia. Last November, he won a monthly round but that wasn’t enough to reach his goal. “I studied for Olympia to ‘live abroad,’ but, whether I wanted to or not, I still had to study history from the Party’s perspective,” he wrote on Facebook, adding that he still hadn’t abandoned his dream. “I want to leave Vietnam. I will probably never see the Party positively again, even though I have tried to at least ignore it. The people in the country I was born in chose the status quo, so if I don’t support it, I will leave.” <hr/> RELATED STORIES <a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/article-117-331-social-media-08262024234540.html">Vietnam cracks down on social media users who criticize the state</a> <a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/nguyen-phu-trong-facebook-07232024215203.html">Vietnam intensifies crackdown on critics before general secretary's funeral</a> <a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/vietnam-pham-van-cho-insulting-ho-chi-minh-07152024154445.html">Vietnam jails Facebook user for 7 years for 'insulting Ho Chi Minh'</a> <hr/> While Quang Vinh initially only shared his comments with 16 friends, they attracted the attention of the education department which called them “inappropriate.” The department also asked police to “verify the incident, direct Nguyen Tat Thanh High School for the Gifted to report the incident and send staff and teachers to Quang Vinh’s home to get more information,” Vietnamese media reported. “A representative of Yen Bai provincial police said the department was verifying and handling the inappropriate statements of the male student,” the Tien Phong newspaper reported on Tuesday. “It will be handled in accordance with the provisions of the law.” Vietnamese media was critical of Quang Vinh saying he only cared about himself and the illusory benefits of “paradise.” On Monday, the government’s Industry and Trade Newspaper said that after winning the Road to Olympia’s November round, “instead of continuing to be a shining example for his friends to follow, Quang Vinh has shown ungrateful and insolent behavior towards his homeland” through his social media post. Media attention alerted other social media users, some of whom praised the student for being honest about his dreams, while accounts close to the government called him ungrateful, with one writing “having talent without virtue is useless.” Quang Vinh has since updated his Facebook status, apologizing to anyone who was affected by his “reckless and shallow statements,” saying he took full responsibility for the comments. The student said he “never had any extremist thoughts,” and “never had or will have any intention to cooperate with or contact foreign organizations to harm the interests of the nation.” ‘Criticizing the government’ Ho Chi Minh City University of Education language researcher Hoang Dung told Radio Free Asia he thought the education department had overreacted. “If someone thinks you are brave, or sincere or wrong, or rude that is normal, that is each person’s opinion about another person’s opinion. But mobilizing the police to summon people, in other words, to raise the issue of breaking the law, that is too much of an infringement on people’s freedom of thought,” he said. “That makes your already negative view of society even more solidified, and also makes people look at this case with an unfavorable view of the government.” Do Viet Khoa, who teaches at a high school in Hanoi, said that by criticizing Quang Vinh, authorities and state-controlled media had given his comments a greater audience. “Using the police to summon him for a very simple matter has led to the whole country knowing, the whole world knowing, unintentionally exposing the lack of democracy in Vietnam’s leaders, instead of supporting the government, now the majority has turned to criticizing the government,” he said. Canada-based lawyer Vu Duc Khanh said Quang Vinh’s comments represented a new openness among young people in Vietnam. “We do not know what tomorrow will bring, but one thing is almost certain: our people are moving towards a better change for the country, especially among the young. They are raising the country’s issues and finding solutions for all of us,” he said. “We should have a spirit of openness, listening and discussing frankly and seriously rather than using the authority of adults, those who have the power of life and death in their hands, to impose our views. “I hope that our society can have a spirit of tolerance and acceptance of differences so that together we can build a Vietnamese home for everyone.” Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
Content Type Text
Language English
NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
Subtitles / Dubbing Available No
Rights VTV/Facebook Chu Vinh/RFA edit
Network VOA
Embargo Date September 4, 2024 00:42 EDT
Byline By RFA Vietnamese
Brand / Language Service Voice of America - English