BANGKOK: The political future of Vietnam’s prime minister is hanging in the balance as communist party chiefs gather for talks overshadowed by financial scandals and economic malaise, experts say.
Nguyen Tan Dung, 62, has had little reason to celebrate since the communist-controlled parliament formally approved his appointment for a second five-year term in July 2011.
Hit by a string of scandals and a growing list of economic problems, observers say his leadership may be in danger, although his removal appears unlikely in the immediate future.
Rising public dissatisfaction over slowing economic growth, resurgent inflation, rampant corruption and banking turmoil have put Dung under growing pressure as the Communist Party’s 175-member Central Committee meets this week.
The gathering is likely to see “a showdown between the prime minister and his critics”, according to Vietnam expert Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at Australia’s University of New South Wales.
“At the very least it is likely that the Vietnam Communist Party will attempt to cut back on the enormous powers accumulated by the prime minister and his office,” he wrote in a report on Tuesday.
“The big question is whether the prime minister’s critics will push for his dismissal,” Thayer added.
The secretive Communist Party’s Central Committee meeting began on Monday and is expected to last two weeks -- twice as long as usual -- highlighting the growing to-do list facing Vietnam’s political mandarins.
“It is rare for so many subjects to be on the menu of a plenum and for it to last so long,” Communist Party Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong, seen as one of Dung’s main rivals, was quoted as saying by party mouthpiece Nhan Dan.
AFP
