Where Will the“ETHNIC LAW” of Vietnam Go?: From the Preservation of “Traditional Culture” to the Control of Ethnic Minorities

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  • ベトナムの「民族法」の行方
  • ベトナムの「民族法」の行方--「伝統文化」の保護から少数民族管理へ
  • ベトナム ノ ミンゾクホウ ノ ユクエ デントウ ブンカ ノ ホゴ カラ ショウスウ ミンゾク カンリ エ
  • ──「伝統文化」の保護から少数民族管理へ──

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Abstract

<p>Vietnam is a multi-ethnic country, comprising 54 official ethnic groups. Some of the cadres of Communist Party planned the legislative bill for the establishment of an “ethnic law” several times since the first half of the 1990s; however, till date, it has not been approved. This paper examines the reasons behind this and considers how the Communist Party has placed ethnic minorities in the society. </p><p>The Ethnic Law was first drafted in 1993 when Vietnam still had confidence in its ethnic policies. There were four reasons for this particular timing. First, the collapse of the Soviet Union due to ethnic conflicts shocked the Communist Party in Vietnam, and it once again star ted to place importance on the ethnic minorities. Second, the Committee for Ethnic Minorities and Mountain Areas tried to draft the new law as same as the other ministries. It is because at the time the government drafted many laws in order to keep up appearances as a law-governed state. Specifically, in the law-making process, the ministries can get financial and technical aid from external sources and yet maintain the significance of their existence. Third, a section of the national cadres was anxious about ethnic conflicts caused by land disputes between the aboriginal minorities and settlers in the Central Highlands, and they wanted the ethnic law to be made in a manner that would help solve these disputes. Fourth, the Party had already made a number of individual laws for some of the ethnic minorities. However, these separate laws did not prove to be very useful in maintaining a balance between the interests of each ethnic group, for example, in solving the land disputes in the Central Highlands. </p><p>In 1993, several ethnologists joined the group that was involved in drafting the bill. Furthermore, they attached importance to the preservation of traditional cultures, i.e., Vietnam would maintain its diverse cultural environment. However, many of them were still unaware of the serious land disputes in the Central Highlands. The National Congress held a number of conferences in the areas populated with ethnic minorities in order to hear the views of the local cadres. Finally, in 1997, the National Congress drafted the thirteenth bill and asked for the opinion of the Communist Party. The Congress expected the bill to be passed in the next session; however, the Communist Party rejected and criticized the bill claiming that it did not cover economic and social issues. The Communist Party felt that the content of the bill focused so much on cultural field. As a result, the ethnic law was taken back to the drawing board. </p><p>In 1999, the National Congress organized a new group to draft the bill. This group did not include the representatives of the Ethnological Society or the Ministry of Culture and Information, but did include a number of members of the Ministry of Public Security. Further, after the riots in the Central Highlands in 2001, the Ethnic Law once again began to grab the attention of the Party. We can assume that the Party would have considered the Ethnic Law to be very useful if its content was altered. In fact, we can observe this in an interview with the Minister of the Ethnic Minorities. He said that the Ethnic Law would contribute to oppose the plots by the opponents who utilize religion in the ethnic minority areas. Moreover, in this interview, he did not refer to “traditional culture” or “diverse cultures of multi-ethnic groups”; rather, he strictly emphasized “national unity.” Finally, it can be assumed that the purpose of the Ethnic Law changed dramatically after the twenty-first century in the backdrop of the situation in the Central Highlands.</p>

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