Vietnamese protesters demonstrate against Taiwanese conglomerate Formosa during a rally in downtown Hanoi on May 1, 2016. (HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images)
Forbes| Jun 07, 2016
Two months after tons of fish died on beaches along the central coast of Vietnam in April, protests are still living. The government hasn’t said why so many creatures died over those 11 days. Instead it has squelched public protesters bent on demanding more transparency and attention to the environment after three decades of breakneck industrialization.
But without answers about the 80 tons of dead fish, a threat to food safety and tourism, anger is expected to resurface in public, frustrating the Southeast Asian government hoping for 6.7% economic growth this year based mainly on export manufacturing. The answer may implicate water pollution and with it some of that manufacturing. Lack of an answer risks more protests, a hit to that social stability that delights Vietnam’s foreign investors.
The country known for cheap labor and pro-investment policies is on a fast course to be the next export manufacturing whale of Asia, diverting business from its historic rival China.
The April 4-15 pileup of large deep-sea fish on Vietnam’s central coast beaches, possibly the result of a red tide algae or water pollution from a Taiwan-invested steel mill, evidently jolted the Communist government. It was used to satisfying big investors such as
Intel INTC +0.00% and Samsung as well as local workers wary of being underpaid.
It was less accustomed to culling support across a social media-connected society. In analyzing anger over the fish deaths, some point to a nascent environmental movement, unusual for a relatively poor country where a lot of people still depend on natural resources. Protest-minded Vietnamese also want more guarantees of food safety, assurances that beach tourism will continue on the vast central coast and honest answers about why the fish died.
“The ongoing protests in Vietnam have taught the government that without transparency and accountability, trust among its citizens starts lacking, provoking social upheaval and a business environment that is less prone to economic growth,” says Oscar Mussons, international business advisory associate with Dezan Shira & Associates in Vietnam. “I believe the protests will go on until (an) independent review brings back its results to the cause of the deaths or until the government brings to justice those responsible.”
It’s easy to understand the government’s focus on industry. Manufacturing makes up about 30% of the economy compared to farming at 17% and fishing at just 2.4%. People’s fixation on the fish represents more of an “environmental concern, not a macro economic issue,” says Irvin Seah, senior economist with DBS Bank in Singapore.
Now, to protect that industry by keeping social order, officials in Hanoi are racing to keep up with anger that only grown since the fish deaths.
Protests took place on three Sundays in May and this past Sunday, says Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director with New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch. In some cases just a few people gathered; in others several hundred, he says, and police quelled all but one action on May 1. Access to normally unregulated social media has been spotty as well. Police were out in so much force in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday that it was impossible to organize a march.
The protests could easily resurface.
“The protesters appear to be the tip of a larger iceberg of Vietnam society’s concerns about this situation, and social media, especiallyFacebook FB +0.53%, has been alive with virulent criticism of the government’s lack of transparency in investigating what caused these fish deaths, and failure to demand accountability from those responsible,” Robertson says.
The government has pleaded at least for patience.
Vietnam’s Natural Resources and Environment Minister Tran Hong Ha says government agencies will do their best to identify causes “with a sense of justice and in a scientific manner,” a local news outlet reported.
The minister “admitted shortcomings and limitations,” the April 29 report by the news website VietnamNet Bridge says. He called the fish deaths “a very big and serious environmental disaster that has occurred in Vietnam for the first time, resulting in slow response by relevant ministries and agencies,” VietnamNet Bridge reports.
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June 9, 2016
Protests To Resurface In Wary Vietnam After Mass Fish Deaths
by Nhan Quyen • [Human Rights]
Vietnamese protesters demonstrate against Taiwanese conglomerate Formosa during a rally in downtown Hanoi on May 1, 2016. (HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images)
Forbes| Jun 07, 2016
Two months after tons of fish died on beaches along the central coast of Vietnam in April, protests are still living. The government hasn’t said why so many creatures died over those 11 days. Instead it has squelched public protesters bent on demanding more transparency and attention to the environment after three decades of breakneck industrialization.
But without answers about the 80 tons of dead fish, a threat to food safety and tourism, anger is expected to resurface in public, frustrating the Southeast Asian government hoping for 6.7% economic growth this year based mainly on export manufacturing. The answer may implicate water pollution and with it some of that manufacturing. Lack of an answer risks more protests, a hit to that social stability that delights Vietnam’s foreign investors.
The country known for cheap labor and pro-investment policies is on a fast course to be the next export manufacturing whale of Asia, diverting business from its historic rival China.
It was less accustomed to culling support across a social media-connected society. In analyzing anger over the fish deaths, some point to a nascent environmental movement, unusual for a relatively poor country where a lot of people still depend on natural resources. Protest-minded Vietnamese also want more guarantees of food safety, assurances that beach tourism will continue on the vast central coast and honest answers about why the fish died.
“The ongoing protests in Vietnam have taught the government that without transparency and accountability, trust among its citizens starts lacking, provoking social upheaval and a business environment that is less prone to economic growth,” says Oscar Mussons, international business advisory associate with Dezan Shira & Associates in Vietnam. “I believe the protests will go on until (an) independent review brings back its results to the cause of the deaths or until the government brings to justice those responsible.”
It’s easy to understand the government’s focus on industry. Manufacturing makes up about 30% of the economy compared to farming at 17% and fishing at just 2.4%. People’s fixation on the fish represents more of an “environmental concern, not a macro economic issue,” says Irvin Seah, senior economist with DBS Bank in Singapore.
Now, to protect that industry by keeping social order, officials in Hanoi are racing to keep up with anger that only grown since the fish deaths.
Protests took place on three Sundays in May and this past Sunday, says Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director with New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch. In some cases just a few people gathered; in others several hundred, he says, and police quelled all but one action on May 1. Access to normally unregulated social media has been spotty as well. Police were out in so much force in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday that it was impossible to organize a march.
The protests could easily resurface.
“The protesters appear to be the tip of a larger iceberg of Vietnam society’s concerns about this situation, and social media, especiallyFacebook FB +0.53%, has been alive with virulent criticism of the government’s lack of transparency in investigating what caused these fish deaths, and failure to demand accountability from those responsible,” Robertson says.
The government has pleaded at least for patience.
Vietnam’s Natural Resources and Environment Minister Tran Hong Ha says government agencies will do their best to identify causes “with a sense of justice and in a scientific manner,” a local news outlet reported.
The minister “admitted shortcomings and limitations,” the April 29 report by the news website VietnamNet Bridge says. He called the fish deaths “a very big and serious environmental disaster that has occurred in Vietnam for the first time, resulting in slow response by relevant ministries and agencies,” VietnamNet Bridge reports.