Chairman of the National Assembly’s Legal Committee Nguyen Van Thuan disclosed National Assembly’s verification of “thorny” bills with VietNamNet.

VietNamNet: You are often invited to speak firstly in the NA Standing Committee’s sessions, why? Is it difficult?

Nguyen Van Thuan: I think the committee would like to know the opinion of the chairman of the NA’s Legal Committee about bills to ensure the constitutionality, legality and the unity of the legal system.

It is not easy or difficult for speaking first but how the opinions are, I mean whether the contents is correct or not.

VietNamNet:The responsibility of your committee is ensuring the unity of the legal system. To fulfil that mission, does the committee verify all bills, otherwise how can the committee ensure the unity?

Thuan:This is the mot important mission of the NA’s Legal Committee. It is not simple to complete that mission in the current conditions. We have tried our best but actually we cannot fully satisfy the requirements.

In principle, the NA’s Legal Committee has to verify all bills and draft ordinances but it is very difficult to convene a meeting because most of the members are concurrent deputies and they work in different locations. The committee has only six permanent members.

On the other hand, which is very important, most of bills are sent to our committee very late, falling to meet regulations. We have to do research works ourselves. In such conditions, the committee difficultly fulfils its mission.

We have talked about these matters several times, but they are not solved.

VietNamNet:As the chairman of the NA’s Legal Committee, have you ever compromised?

Thuan:The NA is a body of meetings and discussion, where make decisions based on the majority. Executive bodies work with the heads. For me, growing up from an expert who has helped the NA for several decades, I’ve influenced by the outspoken and discussing atmosphere at the NA.

I cannot say that I’m more outspoken than other members of the NA Standing Committee. Deputies have their own way of approach. I know who I’m, how is my responsibility. I support the things that I think they are true and vice versa.

The NA is a public forum so it is necessary to speak democratically and outspokenly but pay attention to cultural aspect in discussion.

VietNamNet:Has the NA’s Legal Committee rejected any bill?

Thuan:In the last term, the committee asked the NA Standing Committee to not submit two bills – the Law on estate registration and Law on registered transaction. The NA Standing Committee discussed several times and decided to not submit to the NA these bills.

Certainly, the draft agency was not satisfied but we thought our proposal was for the common interests.

VietNamNet:You are assigned to verify many thorny and important bills, such as the Law of the Sea, Law on Capital City, and the pilot scheme to abolish People’s Councils and vote for commune chairmen. Are you feel heavy pressure?

Thuan:All bills are important, but at different levels. The above bills are all very important and our committee worked with the draft committees at the beginning. Verification is criticizing but it doesn’t mean you simple critcise to reject the bills but you have to find out the most sensible solutions that are accepted by the life and society. The pressure comes from how to deal with irregular matters.

Are you afraid that constituents will blame your committee to not be firm enough when verifying important bills and schemes, for example the expansion of Hanoi?

Objectively, the NA’s Legal Committee’s opinions are shown in its reports, which are discussed publicly and democratically in meetings and based on scientific and practical foundations.

However, our committees and other committees of the NA are only responsible for verification and consult the NA. The NA as a whole makes the decision. So if any constituents criticize us, we have to sustain.

VietNamNet:To have a bill approved, it has to pass many “doors”. If the NA makes decision based on the majority, why the quality of laws is complained to not high?

Thuan:The quality of a bill depends on many factors, including the responsibility of each agency involving in the legal construction process, starting from drafting, verifying, making comments and decision.

As I have said, the sending of bills to NA’s committees is often late and it affects the quality of verification. But the drafting stage is decisive to the quality of a bill while there are some problems in this stage. For example, each bill has a draft group and editing group but the participation of group members is not equal.

On the other hand, the transformation from a planning economy into a market-based economy has posed many new things while our contingents of policy makers are still weak. We lack many experts on basic issues that a bill requires.

VietNamNet: How do you like being realised by constituents?

Thuan:It doesn’t depend on my wish. I always think that you can hide someone’s eyes, not the people’s eyes.

Khanh Linh