Culture of Dialogue

HANOI (AFP) — Vo Van Kiet, the former Vietnamese premier who led the country through vital economic reforms and turned around its foreign policy, died Wednesday in Singapore at age 85, the communist government said.

"We were informed that former prime minister Vo Van Kiet died on June 11," said a foreign ministry statement, while officials from Kiet's entourage said his remains were being transferred back to Ho Chi Minh City.

Kiet, a former wartime Viet Cong revolutionary in South Vietnam, was considered the chief architect of the doi moi (renewal) market reforms of the late 1980s and 1990s that replaced the Soviet-style command economy.

He served as premier from 1991 until 1997 when he stepped down to be replaced by his former deputy Phan Van Khai, but remained an outspoken reformist commentator, arguing for a free press and dialogue with dissidents.

In an interview with the BBC last year he questioned the orthodoxy that only Communist Party members were true patriots, reportedly saying: "The motherland of Vietnam doesn't belong to one person, one party or one group only."

Historian and national assembly member Duong Trung Quoc called Kiet a "rare leader in Vietnam" who lived through a crucial historical period, was steadfast and decisive, and became "a very responsible critic" in retirement.

"He dared to do things that other people did not," Quoc told AFP.

Swedish diplomat Marie-Louise Thaning called Kiet "a very experienced and open representative of the Vietnamese leadership" and said: "Vietnam has a lot to thank Vo Van Kiet for, for what Vietnam is today."

"In retirement, he spoke openly and advocated that the Vietnamese government should listen to those who have different opinions," she said.

Kiet, originally named Phan Van Hoa, was born into a sharecropper's family in the Mekong Delta on November 23, 1922 and joined the anti-French revolution at 18 when he fled into the jungle after an abortive local uprising.

Under the nom-de-guerre Sau Dan, Kiet later emerged as a key member of the Viet Cong insurgency in South Vietnam. His first wife and children were killed by US bombs and their remains were never recovered.

After the war Kiet became party chief of Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, from 1976 to 1982.

A protege of fellow southerner and economic reformer Nguyen Van Linh, Kiet resisted Hanoi's drive to bring private business under socialist state control in the south.

Linh later launched the rest of the country down the economic reform path, in 1986.

In 1982 Kiet joined the powerful Politburo and became vice chairman of the council of ministers in Hanoi. But he failed to retain the position and the more conservative Do Muoi took over three months later.

When Muoi became party chief in 1991, Kiet was finally elected to the newly created post of prime minister.

As premier, Kiet presented to the world the pragmatic face of Vietnamese communism, travelling widely in Asia and Europe to drum up investment and seal new relationships as the country emerged from years of isolation.

His open public style and enthusiasm gave him the look of a campaigning politician in contrast to the severe Marxist mandarins who preceded him.

In 1994, the United States under president Bill Clinton lifted its trade embargo against Vietnam and restored diplomatic ties the following year.

Kiet was also successful in pushing for better ties with other Asian countries, developing close relations with a former adversary, Singaporean leader Lee Kuan Yew, who visited Vietnam several times to offer advice.

Ebullient and energetic, the southern Vietnamese politician battled to overcome the administrative inertia in Hanoi and was a strong proponent of boosting the rule of law to protect businesses.

In a rare glimpse into his personal life, Kiet's second wife, scientist Phan Luong Cam, described him in an interview as a forgetful romantic with a passion for a particularly pungent type of dried fish.

A sports fanatic, Kiet played tennis and passionately followed football.

Kiet was admitted to Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital on June 3 with unspecified ailments and died early Wednesday, said an admissions officer.

(Source: AFP)