Winds of change: A vendor arranging newspapers reporting the death of Trong in Hanoi. — AFP/AP
The death of Vietnam’s Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong has left an opening for his former anti-corruption enforcer to take the nation’s most powerful job at a time the one-party state seeks to maximise gains from US-China competition.
Trong, 80, died on Friday after years of speculation over his poor health and factional infighting over who would succeed him.
Stepping into his post as interim general secretary is To Lam, 67, who for years oversaw a corruption crackdown that has ensnared scores of party officials, including those at the very top.
Stepping into his shoes is Lam.
Lam, who became president in May after his predecessors resigned to take responsibility for “violations,” will carry out the duties of the secretary-general role until the party’s central executive committee chooses a successor. He is one of the few who are eligible to take over at the next Party Congress in 2026 and has become the odds-on favourite to do so, according to analysts.
“He’s the front-runner now,” said Le Hong Hiep, a senior fellow with the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore who was a former Vietnam foreign ministry official. “There may be some resistance from other factions and against his rise, but given his current status and the current circumstances, it’s very unlikely that anyone can stop him from clinching the job.”
A top priority for Lam will be to drive the economy as the government ramps up public spending and lures foreign investors.
In the first half of 2024, Vietnam utilised less than a third of its budget, even slower than the previous year as the graft crackdown paralysed decision-making in the bureaucracy.
Before becoming president, Lam served for eight years as the minister of public security and was the primary enforcer of Trong’s legacy-defining anti-corruption campaign dubbed as a “blazing furnace”. His ministry oversaw several high-profile cases that ensnared numerous party officials since 2021 including Politburo members, deputy prime ministers and more than a dozen provincial leaders.
Earlier this month, Lam pitched a more measured approach to combating graft, one that aims to avoid impeding economic growth and progress. Such efforts should not lead to “wrongfully convicting” the innocent and should create conditions for “a stable environment for the country’s development,” he was cited as saying.
“The one important thing the government needs to address is how to issue discipline, punishment to people without hurting markets and the economy,” said Tran Dinh Thien, a member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council and the former head of Vietnam Economic Institute.
Vietnam’s economy was among the fastest-growing in South-East Asia last quarter even with the slump in state spending.
Fund manager Ruchir Desai of Asia Frontier Capital Ltd said that any uncertainty offers a buying opportunity. — Bloomberg
