As public concern over the ‘slush fund’ verdict against farm manager Tran Ngoc Suong came to a boil, Lao Dong newspaper reporters visited the Song Hau Farm to interview some local farmers.

Farmer Luong Van Lu.

Nguyen Van Hai Muoi Mot, 61: Without Uncle Nam Hoang (Suong’s late father and former director of the Song Hau farm) and Miss Ba Suong, my family will not be as we are today, with a spacious house, savings and stable jobs for my children.

I was born in Dong Thap Province. My wife is Tran Thi Bich Thuy, 65. We have eleven children. In 1979, our family came to Can Tho to work as hired workers. It was very lucky that we met Uncle Nam Hoang. Seeing that our poor family was always on the move, Uncle Nam recruited us to work for the Song Hau Farm.

In 1980, Uncle Nam Hoang allocated 5.7 hectares of land to us. We didn’t have any money then, so Uncle Nam gave us seeds, fertilizer, pesticide and 500 kilograms of rice. To meet his expectation, our family worked as well as we could.

In Miss Ba Suong’s period, besides managing jobs and marketing the farm’s products, etc., she also paid attention to the studies of farmers’ children. Thanks to Miss Ba, our 11^th and 12^th children could go to secondary school. My eleventh child, Nguyen Si Vinh, graduated from the Aquaculture Secondary School. He is now in charge of aquacultural technology for my family. While he was at school, Miss Ba Suong provided him 20 kilos of rice and 200,000 dong per month.

Besides 5.7 hectares of land where we raise both rice and mangos and breed fish – altogether worth a billion dong, we have built a house worth 300 million dong. Two of our eleven children live with us. The nine others have established their own families and have stable jobs. Without Uncle Nam and Miss Ba, who knows where we would have wound up? My family was very sad when we heard Miss Ba is in trouble. Why is a good person like Miss Ba is treated like that?

Lieu Thi Xa Em, 66: I’m a Khmer woman. Previously I lived in Thoi Lai without a house or land. I was also illiterate. When I joined the farm, Uncle Nam and Miss Ba allocated land, seeds and materials for me so my life got better.

I have eight children. Some of them work with me on two hectares of land granted by the farm. The two smaller children went to school with Miss Ba’s assistance. When Miss Ba retired, the rice ration was stopped, so without that assistance, they quit school.

Although they were officials, Uncle Nam and Miss Ba visited with us farmers and helped us. I hope she will get out of danger and continue assisting the people of the farm.

Luong Van Lu, 41: I came here bare-handed from Dong Thap with my wife in 1987. In 1990, I officially became a worker of the Song Hau Farm after several years of good production work. We received five hectares of land to grow rice and then breed fish in 1996.

Uncle Nam and Miss Ba Suong are leaders who are respected and loved by farmers because they love farmers. Miss Ba is an especially good woman. If any family didn’t have enough rice, she lent rice and they returned rice in the harvest season. She provided monthly distributions of rice for poor families.

Thanks to Uncle Nam and Miss Ba Suong, the farm achieved today’s success. Uncle Nam’s death was a great loss for the farm. Now Miss Ba is sentenced to jail. This farm will break up very soon.

We love Miss Ba very much because in her whole life, she thought only of caring for the farmers and the farm. My family members and signed the petition volunteering to go to jail in her place because we will always believe that Miss Ba is a good person.

Hai Nguyen: Miss Ba Suong is really a good person. I’m a xe om (motor-taxi) driver at the gate of the farm, not a regular farm worker, but the farm still allows me to join activities with its workers. At Tet and other holidays, Miss Ba Suong greeted us drivers and presented gifts to us just as if we were regular workers of the farm. This proves that Miss Ba Suong is a good leader.

VNN/Lao Dong