Bauxite mining in Vietnam's central highlands: An arena for expanding civil society?

Contemporary Southeast Asia

Volumn 34, Issue 2, 2012, Pages 173-196

  Marston, Hunter ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON   (United States)

Author keywords

Bauxite; Civil society; Grassroots opposition; State led development; Vietnam

Indexed keywords

EID: 84870379900     PISSN: 0129797X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1355/cs34-2b     Document Type: Article

References (137)

1. Joseph Hannah, "Local Non-government Organizations in Vietnam: Development, Civil Society, and State-Society Relations" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, 2007). Joseph Hannah argues that scholars seeking a definition for civil society in Vietnam need to shift away from an emphasis on structural affiliations (e.g., mass organizations' links to the Communist Party of Vietnam) and pay more attention to the processes or behaviour that identify civil society actors. These include advocacy, opposition, lobbying and watchdog methods.
2. Many scholars look to Hanoi politics or the plethora of voluntary organizations in Ho Chi Minh City as centres of civil society networks. This article attempts to emphasize the decentralized and variegated network of civil society actors that engage the state in multiple settings, avoiding the more state-centric approach taken by mainstream scholarship on the subject.
3. Civil society actors find expanding and contracting spaces for their lobbying or advocacy agendas based on different strategies and links to power in a variety of settings. For example, the dissident lawyer of Cù Huy Hà Vũ was arrested on charges of spreading malicious propaganda against the state when he filed repeated lawsuits against Prime Minister Dũng in regards to the bauxite mining plans. While his individual activism received praise and attention, his controversial tactics failed to gain consensus. On the other hand, the case of the Association of Vietnamese Historians who successfully lobbied the Central Committee to halt construction on the National Assembly building in Hanoi in 2003, illustrates how more conciliatory approaches based on negotiating with relevant authorities, may achieve better results.
4. "Bauxite Bashers: The Government Chooses Economic Growth Over Xenophobia and Greenery, " The Economist, 23 April 2009.
5. Carlyle A. Thayer, "Political Legitimacy of Vietnam's One Party-State: Challenges and Responses, " Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 4 (2009): 47-70.
6. Alexander Vuving, "Vietnam: A Tale of Four Players, " Southeast Asian Affairs 2010 (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2010), pp. 367-91.
7. The outcome of the bauxite controversy, which went against the wishes of civil society actors, does not detract from the validity of the case study as a model of civil society processes in Vietnam. Rather than viewing the mining development as a failure on the part of civil society, one should focus more on the process of the debates. I argue that the high-level debates are instructive, the range of voices they drew on, and the challenge they made to elites and policy-makers in the Communist Party, demanding government accountability on a level rarely seen in Vietnamese politics.
8. Benedict Kerkvliet advocates thinking state-society relations in terms of "arenas" which can be either institutions or issues. See Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, "Authorities and the People: An Analysis of State-Society Relations in Vietnam, " in Postwar Vietnam: Dynamics of a Transforming Society, edited by Hy V. Luong
9. Joseph Hannah, "Local Non-government Organizations in Vietnam: Development, Civil Society, and State-Society Relations" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, 2007). Joseph Hannah argues that scholars seeking a definition for civil society in Vietnam need to shift away from an emphasis on structural affiliations (e.g., mass organizations' links to the Communist Party of Vietnam) and pay more attention to the processes or behaviour that identify civil society actors. These include advocacy, opposition, lobbying and watchdog methods.
10. Many scholars look to Hanoi politics or the plethora of voluntary organizations in Ho Chi Minh City as centres of civil society networks. This article attempts to emphasize the decentralized and variegated network of civil society actors that engage the state in multiple settings, avoiding the more state-centric approach taken by mainstream scholarship on the subject.
11. Civil society actors find expanding and contracting spaces for their lobbying or advocacy agendas based on different strategies and links to power in a variety of settings. For example, the dissident lawyer of Cù Huy Hà Vũ was arrested on charges of spreading malicious propaganda against the state when he filed repeated lawsuits against Prime Minister Dũng in regards to the bauxite mining plans. While his individual activism received praise and attention, his controversial tactics failed to gain consensus. On the other hand, the case of the Association of Vietnamese Historians who successfully lobbied the Central Committee to halt construction on the National Assembly building in Hanoi in 2003, illustrates how more conciliatory approaches based on negotiating with relevant authorities, may achieve better results.
12. "Bauxite Bashers: The Government Chooses Economic Growth Over Xenophobia and Greenery, " The Economist, 23 April 2009.
13. Carlyle A. Thayer, "Political Legitimacy of Vietnam's One Party-State: Challenges and Responses, " Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 4 (2009): 47-70.
14. Alexander Vuving, "Vietnam: A Tale of Four Players, " Southeast Asian Affairs 2010 (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2010), pp. 367-91.
15. The outcome of the bauxite controversy, which went against the wishes of civil society actors, does not detract from the validity of the case study as a model of civil society processes in Vietnam. Rather than viewing the mining development as a failure on the part of civil society, one should focus more on the process of the debates. I argue that the high-level debates are instructive, the range of voices they drew on, and the challenge they made to elites and policy-makers in the Communist Party, demanding government accountability on a level rarely seen in Vietnamese politics.
16. Benedict Kerkvliet advocates thinking state-society relations in terms of "arenas" which can be either institutions or issues. See Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, "Authorities and the People: An Analysis of State-Society Relations in Vietnam, " in Postwar Vietnam: Dynamics of a Transforming Society, edited by Hy V. Luong (Oxford, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2003), p. 28. Andrew Wells-Dang focuses his civil society analysis on networks rather than non-governmental organizations in order to address civil society advocacy in Vietnam and China, where the state does not allow full organizational freedoms to political actors outside of the central government. I do not believe there is any discrepancy between Hannah's "process-oriented" perspective and Wells-Dang's networksbased theory.
17. Vaclav Havel, "How Europe Could Fail, " The New York Review of Books, 18 November 1993, p. 3.
18. Bent Flyvbjerg, "Habermas and Foucault: Thinkers for Civil Society?, " The British Journal of Sociology 49, no. 2 (1998): 210-33.
19. See for example Jorg Wischermann, "Civil Society Action and Governance in Vietnam: Selected Findings from an Empirical Survey, " Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 2 (2010): 3-40.
20. Carlyle A. Thayer, "Vietnam and the Challenge of Political Civil Society, " Contemporary Southeast Asia 31, no. 1 (2009): 1-27.
21. Hannah, "Local Non-governmental Organizations, " Business Times.
22. Zachary Abuza, Renovating Politics in Contemporary Vietnam (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001), pp. 235-36.
23. See Wischermann, "Civil Society Action and Governance in Vietnam, " Business Times, pp. 6-7.
24. Hannah, "Local Non-governmental Organizations, " Business Times, p. 7.
25. Wischermann, "Civil Society Action and Governance in Vietnam, " Business Times, p. 17.
26. Hannah, "Local Non-governmental Organizations, " Business Times, pp. 18-19.
27. Wishcermann, "Civil Society Action and Governance in Vietnam, " Business Times, pp. 26-28.
28. See Hannah, "Local Non-government Organizations, " Business Times, p. 6.
29. See also Wischermann, "Civil Society Action and Governance in Vietnam, " Business Times, p. 9.
30. Thayer, "Vietnam and the Challenge of Political Civil Society, " Business Times, p. 4.
31. Bill Hayton, Rising Dragon (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010), pp. 85-86.
32. For example, the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF), the Vietnamese Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA), and the Farmers' Union. See Hannah, "Local Non-governmental Organizations, " Business Times, p. 7.
33. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011), p. 55. See also Abuza, Renovating Society, Business Times, pp. 34-35. In Gramsci's conception, everyone has a connection to a party: "nobody is disorganized and without party. " See Antonio Gramsci, "State and Civil Society, " in The Anthropology of the State: A Reader, edited by Aradhana Sharma and Akhil Gupta (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006), p. 81.
34. Hannah, "Local Non-governmental Organizations, " Business Times, pp. 123-24, 160.
35. Carlyle A. Thayer, "The Trial of Lê Công D{stroke}i{dot below}nh: New Challenges to the Legitimacy of Vietnam's Party-State, " Journal of Vietnamese Studies 5, no. 3 (2010): 199.
36. Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, "Introduction: Grappling With Organizations and the State in Contemporary Vietnam, " in Getting Organized in Vietnam: Moving in and Around the Socialist State, edited by Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, Russell H.K. Heng and David W.H. Koh (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2003), p. 18.
37. Thaveeporn Vasavakul, "From Fence-Breaking to Networking: Interests, Popular Organizations, and Policy Influences in Post-Socialist Vietnam, " in Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011), pp. 25-27.
38. Martin Gainsborough, Vietnam: Rethinking the State (Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 2010), p. 115.
39. Hannah, "Local Non-governmental Organizations, " Business Times, p. 6. I will elaborate on Hannah's spectrum below.
40. Wischermann, "Civil Society Action and Governance in Vietnam, " Business Times, p. 3.
41. See Jorg Wischermann and Nguyễn Quang Vinh, "The Relationship Between Civic and Governmental Organizations in Vietnam: Selected Findings, " in Getting Organized in Vietnam: Moving in and Around the Socialist State, edited by Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, Russell H.K. Heng and David W.H. Koh (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2003), pp. 185-233.
42. Wischermann, "Civil Society Action and Governance in Vietnam, " Business Times, p. 9.
43. Wischerman, "Civil Society Action and Governance in Vietnam, " Business Times, p. 17.
44. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011), pp. 25, 27.
45. Andrew Wells-Dang, "Informal Pathbreakers: Civil Society Networks in China and Vietnam" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Birmingham, 2011), p. 48.
46. Namely Joseph Hannah, "Local Non-government Organizations, " Business Times
47. See also Wischermann, "Civil Society Action and Governance in Vietnam, " Business Times, p. 9.
48. Hannah, "Local Non-governmental Organizations, " Business Times, p. 6.
49. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011), p. 7.
50. See Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011), p. 93 for a detailed diagram of his continuum.
51. Thayer, "Vietnam and the Challenge of Political Civil Society, " Business Times, p. 14.
52. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011), p. 10.
53. The Viê{dot below}t Tân (or the Vietnamese Reform Party) is a group of (mostly) overseas Vietnamese pushing for the overthrow of the state and peaceful, democratic reform. The Vietnamese government claims they are a terrorist organization. See Thayer, "Vietnam and the Challenge of Political Civil Society, " Business Times, pp. 16-18.
54. Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, The Power of Everyday Politics: How Vietnamese Peasants Transformed National Policy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005), p. 36.
55. Thayer, "Vietnam and the Challenge of Political Civil Society, " Business Times, pp. 7-8.
56. Thayer, "Political Legitimacy of Vietnam's One Party-State, " Business Times, p. 63.
57. Hannah, "Local Non-governmental Organizations, " Business Times, p. 6.
58. K. Oanh Ha, "Vietnam's Bauxite Reserves May Total 11 Billion Tons, " Bloomberg News, 24 November 2010.
59. The figure of 5.4 comes from Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade, . The 8.3 top estimate can be found at .
60. Seth Mydans, "In Vietnam, Politics Lag While Growth Jumps, " The New York Times, 17 January 2011.
61. Stephen Denney, "Bauxite Mining Plans Raise Concerns, " Vietnam Human Rights Journal, 21 March 2009, .
62. Vietnam is the world's second largest coffee grower after Brazil. See Ho Binh Minh, "Vietnam Aims to Start Alumina Production in September, " Reuters, 20 July 2011.
63. "Bauxite Bashers, " Business Times
64. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011).
65. Denney, "Bauxite Mining Plans Raise Concerns, " Business Times.
66. "Vietnam Splits Alumina Refining, Bauxite Mining Projects Between Alcoa, Chaico [sic] (China), Vinacomin, " American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City Chapter, .
67. Vuving, "Vietnam, " Business Times, p. 378.
68. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011)
69. See Thayer, "The Trial of Lê Công D{stroke}i{dot below}nh, " Business Times, pp. 201-4.
70. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011), p. 203.
71. Thayer, "Political Legitimacy in Vietnam's One Party-State, " Business Times, p. 49.
72. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011), p. 51.
73. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011), p. 49.
74. "Politburo Approves Bauxite Mining, " Radio Free Asia, 28 April 2009, .
75. Thayer, "Political Legitimacy of Vietnam's One Party-State, " Business Times, p. 49.
76. Vuving, "Vietnam, " p. 378.
77. Thayer, "Political Legitimacy of Vietnam's One Party-State, " Business Times, p. 50.
78. Vuving, "Vietnam, " p. 378.
79. Thayer, "Political Legitimacy of Vietnam's One Party-State, " Business Times, p 50.
80. Vuving, "Vietnam, " Business Times, p. 378.
81. Thayer, "Political Legitimacy of Vietnam's One Party-State, " Business Times, p. 50. Similarly, Bill Hayton makes an argument that the Party pushed through the financially reckless Dung Qat oil refinery in February 2009 despite outside investors backing out, after it had laid its prestige on the line. Email communication, Vietnam Studies Group, 6 March 2012.
82. Mydans, "In Vietnam, Politics Lag While Growth Jumps, " Business Times
83. Thayer, "Political Legitimacy of Vietnam's One Party-State, " Business Times, p. 50.
84. Vuving, "Vietnam, " p. 377.
85. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011)
86. Thayer, "Political Legitimacy of Vietnam's One Party-State, " Business Times, p. 50.
87. "Open Letter on Exploiting Bauxite in Vietnam's Central Highlands, " Viê{dot below}t Tân-Vietnam Reform Party, 20 March 2009, .
88. Thayer, "Political Legitimacy of Vietnam's One Party-State, " Business Times, p. 50.
89. "NA Deputy Asks for Government's Commitment to Bauxite Mining Safety, " VietNam. Net Bridge, 22 October 2010, .
90. "Leaders Debate Sustainability vs. Profitability in Bauxite Mining, " Thanh Niên News, 10 April 2009, .
91. See Kerkvliet, The Power of Everyday Politics, Business Times, p. 3, 36.
92. also, Gramsci, "State and Civil Society, " Business Times, p. 76.
93. Vuving, "Vietnam, " Business Times, pp. 378-79.
94. Thayer, "Political Legitimacy in Vietnam's One Party-State, " Business Times, p. 50.
95. Vuving, "Vietnam, " Business Times, p. 379.
96. See .
97. "Politburo Approves Bauxite Mining, " Radio Free Asia, 28 April 2009.
98. Thayer, "Political Legitimacy in Vietnam's One Party-State, " Business Times, p. 52.
99. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011)
100. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011), p. 51.
101. In 2010, Minister for Natural Resources and Environment Pha{dot below}m Khôi Nguyên formed a supervisory group, including officials from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, to study the environmental impact of the mines. See "Details of Ballot on Bauxite Projects Must Be Made Public, " VietNam. Net Bridge, 4 November 2010, .
102. Thayer, "Political Legitimacy in Vietnam's One Party-State, " Business Times, p. 51.
103. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011)
104. Vuving, "Vietnam, " pp. 379-80.
105. Human Rights Watch, "Vietnam: Release Prominent Legal Activist, " 2 April 2011.
106. Amnesty International, "Prominent Vietnamese Activist Jailed Over Democracy Calls, " 5 April 2011, .
107. See Thayer, "The Trial of Lê Công D{stroke}i{dot below}nh, " Business Times
108. Vuving, "Vietnam, " p. 380.
109. "One Minister Can't Answer Questions, " VietNam. Net Bridge, 24 November 2010, .
110. Mark Tran, "Hungary Toxic Sludge Spill an 'Ecological Catastrophe' Says Government, " The Guardian, 5 October 2010, .
111. Wells-Dang argues that the environmentalists' criticism of state projects based on scientific evidence referring to foreign examples represents an "indirect critique of Vietnamese policy. " "Informal Pathbreakers, " Business Times, p. 111.
112. Mydans, "In Vietnam, Politics Lag While Growth Jumps, " Business Times
113. "Intellectuals Urge the Party and State to Halt Bauxite Projects, " VietNam. Net Bridge, 23 October 2010, .
114. "Bauxite Mining Projects: Continue or Stop?, " VietNam. Net Bridge, 26 October 2010, .
115. VietNam. Net Bridge, "Intellectuals Urge the Party and State to Halt Bauxite Projects, " Business Times
116. "Bauxite Bashers, " The Economist, Business Times
117. Interview with Carlyle Thayer, in Mydans, "In Vietnam, Politics Lag While Growth Jumps, " Business Times
118. Interview in Radio Free Asia, "Politburo Approves Bauxite Mining, " Business Times
119. "Informal Pathbreakers, " Business Times, p. 47.
120. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011), p. 202.
121. Gramsci, "State and Civil Society, " Business Times, p. 76.
122. Similarly, Kerkvliet emphasizes what he sees as "dialogue" between state and society actors, where negotiation, rather than confrontation or opposition, works best for social activists. See "Authorities and the People, " Business Times, p. 31.
123. Wells-Dang, "Informal Path-Breakers, " Business Times, p. 1.
124. Hayton, Rising Dragon, Business Times, p. 87.
125. Dancing in the Park: Hanoi at Its Millenium, film directed by Michael Douglass (Manoa, HI: University of Hawaii, 2010).
126. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011)
127. Hayton, Rising Dragon, Business Times, p. 88.
128. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011), p. 82.
129. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011)
130. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011)
131. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011), p. 83.
132. Daljit Singh, ASEAN's Perspective of New Zealand's Place in Asia (Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation, 2011), p. 84.
133. Julie Masis, "Vietnam's Capital Hanoi Girds up to Celebrate 1,000 Years, " Christian Science Monitor, 7 October 2010, .
134. "Thang Long Royal Citadel Cracked and Sunk, " VietNam. Net Bridge, 12 April 2011, .
135. I owe this observation to many conversations with Christoph Giebel, University of Washington-Seattle, Winter 2011-12.
136. This characterization of generations does not deny that older, loyal Party members such as General Giáp have been among the regime's most active critics.
137. Wells-Dang, "Political Space in Vietnam, " Business Times, p. 1.