Welcome to the new era of “national rise”!
That was the pitch made by Vietnam’s most powerful figure, Communist Party General Secretary To Lam, as he faced the nearly 1,600 delegates at the party congress, which gathered this week to determine the country’s path for the next five years, and who leads it.
On Friday it picked To Lam Vietnam to be party chief, the post he currently holds, for the next five years, giving him another term to achieve his ambitious targets for Vietnam’s economy.
The party congress, which was scheduled to end on Sunday, was cut short to Friday, signalling either a strong consensus or stifled opposition to To Lam’s growing powers.
Communist Party congresses are strictly choreographed, and most of the leadership positions in the Politburo and the larger Central Committee are worked out behind closed doors well in advance.
To Lam’s re-appointment to the top job was widely expected, but what remains to be seen is how this plays out in the congress, whose balance reflects the long-standing rivalry between To Lam’s public security faction and the military.
What makes the congress this year “unusual” is that “this is the strongest concentration of power in one individual that I’ve seen since 1991”, Edmund Malesky, a professor of political economy at Duke University, told the BBC.
