HANOI (VIETNAM) – Amid Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party beginning a week-long meeting on Monday, there are heated debates about the top leadership that will emerge and set the tone for the next five years.
According to a government statement, the plenum will discuss “personnel documents” – a euphemism for deciding who holds the most important posts to be formally declared at the Communist Party Congress in January.
The congress will shape policy five years after General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, a party ideologue, came to the forefront to lead an anti-corruption campaign after ousting a former leadership with warmer ties to businesses.
“No matter who will be elected into the new leadership, there will be more continuity than change, and Vietnam will maintain its current trajectory,” said Le Hong Hiep, a fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.
One of the most powerful leaders, Trong is likely to retain an important role. But there are questions about his health as the 76-year-old appears to be frail during events in recent months.
During the previous congress in 2016, Trong led a move to oust former prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung. Two years later, he inherited the presidential role apart from his position of Communist Party chief following the death of the incumbent president.
As part of his anti-graft crusade, some of the heads that rolled belonged to allies of the former premier.
There is no supreme ruler in the nation, which is officially governed by four pillars – the president, prime minister, chief of Communist Party and the national assembly chair.
Rules of limits of age and origin determine who can ascend to the highest levels of politics. There has been no general secretary hailing from northern Vietnam.
The secretive process is all about building a consensus and gunning for control of the party’s powerful decision-making politburo.