Two Naval cadets at the Truong Sa archipelago keep themselves informed of mainland issues.

Vietnam needs to raise awareness of the need to protect her territorial waters in every individual and should mobilize all resources to achieve this, says renowned historian Duong Trung Quoc.

Vietnamese people have lost the habit of traveling by sea, which is essential in building an awareness of protecting and exploiting the national territorial waters, Quoc said.

He cited the absence of public interest in the Hoa Sen (Lotus) ship, Vietnam’s first hyper-speed passenger ship bought by state-owned firm Vinashin from Italy in 2007, as an example.

He said the government needed to put more effort into awakening the people’s awareness and concern about the East Sea by enabling them to travel on it easily and frequently.

“Our country lies on a balcony that looks out to the Pacific Ocean but the matter is not only about looking out. We need to set out to the sea as well.

“I think a trip along Vietnam’s coast and a look back at the land will make each and every one of us realize how beautiful our country is,” Quoc said.

Quoc also said agencies need to employ specific and concrete methods to help every person, especially the youth, access the historical and legal evidence about Vietnam’s sovereignty over the East Sea’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes.

“I’m worried that we still don’t have a maritime museum. We have very little knowledge about our ancestors’ achievements,” he said.

Quoc said Vietnam has long been a naval powerhouse in the region and has had a great tradition of going out to the sea, as seen in the legend of Au Co and Lac Long Quan about the birth of the nation.

According to the myth, Au Co, honored as the mother of Vietnamese civilization, was a mountainous fairy who married Lac Long Quan, a dragon lord from the sea. Au Co bore an egg sac which hatched 100 children who were ancestors of the Vietnamese people.

Lac Long Quan took 50 sons to the sea while his wife Au Co brought the rest to the mountain and set up Vietnam’s first monarchy – the legendary Hung dynasty.

In another legend, Mai An Tiem is an official banished to an island by a Hung King. Tiem settles on the island and discovers a watermelon.

Quoc said these stories and details express the long-standing concern of the Vietnamese people about the country’s territory and conquest of the sea.

In reality, Quoc said, historical documents showed that Vietnam’s feudal rulers under the Anterior Le (980-1009) and Ly (1009-1225) dynasties had built naval forces with hundreds of battleships to guard their kingdom’s territorial waters.

Quoc said King Ly Anh Tong had inspected the surrounding islands by himself in 1172 and had drawn Vietnam’s first maritime map.

The Nguyen Lords in the 17th century had established sovereignty on the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes and their victories the over Dutch navy had been noted in history, Quoc said.

“If our youth know that their ancestors were great sailors, they will be much more confident traveling to the sea,” Quoc said.

He said the Central Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union should organize tours to the border areas and islands to raise awareness about the country’s sovereignty.

Quoc said the first national seminar on sovereignty disputes on the East Sea held in Hanoi on March 17 was a belated action by Vietnam in studying the issue.

“But better late than never,” he said.

The historian said Vietnam had to mobilize the Vietnamese expatriate community to access historical documents and records about the country’s sovereignty on the East Sea.

“I know many overseas Vietnamese scholars and they are very concerned about the East Sea issue. They have uploaded a lot of precious research on the Internet. What we need to do is build the unity and responsibility of every Vietnamese individual and organization.”

Tuoi Tre reports that many scholars in Vietnam have expressed concern about the difficulties they’ve had to face when studying the issue of Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea. Many precious historical documents on the issue are being kept in foreign countries and they are very hard to access.

Another historian, Han Nguyen Nguyen Nha has written in Thanh Nien that the seminar in Hanoi had marked a new step for Vietnamese scholars looking to study the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes.

Nha said the event showed that studying this subject is no longer considered “sensitive” and thus avoided by scholars. Everybody who wanted to find the truth can now participate in the quest.

He said national-scale works on the issue should be publicized to spread the truth to every Vietnamese, especially the youth.

Nha stressed that the sine qua non for finding the truth is unity and consensus between every Vietnamese individual and institution, both locals and overseas.

In related news, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem said Vietnam needs to widely publicize the information about border demarcation and marker planting.

The information about the 1999 treaty on the land border between Vietnam and China was kept from the public but now such news must be spread among the people, Khiem said in a national conference held last week by the Central Committee for Education and Information Dissemination.

Khiem instructed party units to enhance their communication with overseas Vietnamese, especially the youth and students studying abroad to make clear issues related to Vietnam’s territorial sovereignty.

The committee said at the conference that authorities will this year mobilize all of the economic forces to develop the maritime economy, contributing to strengthening national defense and security.

Vietnam has repeatedly asserted that the country has sufficient historical evidence and legal foundation to assert its sovereignty over both the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes.

Authorities had voiced concern about the operations of China’s patrol ship, Yuzheng 311, sent to the East Sea earlier this month.

Source: TT, TN