War veteran Nguyen Van Vuong and his wife, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Bich

War veteran Nguyen Van Vuong considers today’s honor another victory in his six-year fight to expose the misuse of public land in the Buoi Ward of Hanoi’s Tay Ho District.

When asked by his neighbors why he fought corruption instead of taking care of his own health, the 80- year-old replied: “I was a soldier and I’m used to fighting.”

In 2001, Vuong’s family moved to Buoi Ward where he began community work and discovered that officials had illegally granted public land to a commercial interest.

Vuong repeatedly brought the matter up at meetings of the ward’s Communist Party unit, of which he was a member, because “success takes time,” he said.

Eventually he got support from four other members, including a comrade from the war, Hoang Cuong, and began building a case against the owners of Tra Hoa Vien café, which had been built on the illegally granted land.

He also got help from his wife Nguyen Thi Ngoc Bich, also a veteran.

The couple reserved an hour every day, half an hour in the morning and half an hour the afternoon, to record findings.

Vuong first took his findings to lower level officials, and when they didn’t listen to him he went over their head until the case reached the city government.

The Hanoi Communist Party unit in 2007 supported his claims and ordered Tay Ho District administration to ask the café owner to return the land to nearby temples and residences.

During those years Vuong and Cuong received anonymous letters threatening their families.

More anti-graft champions

Another person to be honored in today’s ceremony is Le Thien Long from the state-run Agriculture Materials Corporation in Hanoi. He was demoted in his company for objecting to the general director’s misuse of state budget funds and company profits.

“I’m glad that the money was returned to the state budget, the company has become profitable again and the employees’ salaries have been increased from VND2-3 million (US$115-172) to VND7-8 million ($401-459),” he said.

Pham Thi Hong Hoa from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Sugar Cane Corporation No. 2 in Ho Chi Minh City, who had also been demoted for standing up to her bosses over their corruption, will be awarded alongside Long.

Retired teacher Le Hien Duc is being rewarded for denouncing corruption at several schools while four police officials, Pham Van Truc, Nguyen Ngoc Phuong, Truong Thanh Duc and Nguyen Vuong Vu, are being recognized for not accepting a bribe of more than $120,000 to not arrest two suspected killers and robbers.

Huynh Van Trinh, a former senior foreign ministry official, will also be recognized at the ceremony.

Source: TN, TT