【162-165】Protests Spread in Vietnam Over Proposed New Laws
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*【162】AS IT IS
Protests Spread in Vietnam Over Proposed New Laws
June 20, 2018
Protesters hold a banner which reads "No Leasing Land to China even for Anytime" during a demonstration against a draft law on the Special Economic Zone in Hanoi, Vietnam, June 10, 2018.
Experts say spreading street protests in Vietnam this month show a growing fear of China, worries about freedom of speech and distrust of the lawmaking process.
The rights group Amnesty International says demonstrations involving about 30,000 people took place on June 9 and 10. The group says protests were held in 10 cities, including Vietnam’s largest, Ho Chi Minh City. Occasional violence was reported.
But on June 17, protests brought out thousands more people.
The rights group said at least 150 people were detained. Police beat some of the demonstrators. Vietnam’s Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that eight people were arrested.
Protesters throughout the country were reacting to a National Assembly bill. The law would let foreign investors occupy land for up to 99 years in three special economic areas. The protesters worry that investors from China would lease the land.
They also condemned a cybersecurity law that the National Assembly passed on June 12. The bill could lead to rules that let police more closely watch the public’s internet activity.
Trung Nguyen is an international relations official at Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities. He thinks the cause of the protests is that the public does not trust the government, the National Assembly or the legislation.
Proposed cybersecurity law criticized
The National Assembly has delayed the lease bill until October for possible changes.
But protesters in cities still opposed the cybersecurity law. That is because the exact rules on what will be permitted online will not be known for about six months. The law requires service providers such as Google and Facebook to store user information in Vietnam, open offices in the country and remove offending posts within 24 hours.
One official with Amnesty International said the law may let the government ask service providers to share information about what common users say online.
Adam McCarty is chief economist with Mekong Economics in the capital, Hanoi. He said the Vietnamese government has always watched people’s internet activity. He said the government has made some arrests in recent years. But he thinks the new law will permit more watching of the public, “even people not really actively trying to overthrow the government.”
In June 2017, the Ministry of Public Security proposed the Law on Cybersecurity to give it more power over banned content and anti-government activities. The assembly strongly supported the law by a vote of 423 to 15.
Second wave of protests
However, on the same day, June 17, thousands of people protested in Ha Tinh province of central Vietnam. They opposed the cybersecurity law and the idea of leasing land to Chinese investors.
China makes up nearly 7 percent of Vietnam’s foreign direct investment now, media reports say. Relations between the countries are uneasy, however, because the two have a territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
The Catholic news website Ucanews.com reported that about 200 protesters were detained, beaten and questioned in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday.
The website said tens of thousands of Catholics, including priests from Ha Tinh province, had attended “special masses” Sunday. They said they were seeking "to pray for justice and peace in the nation and for government leaders to protect the country.”
In Binh Thuan province protesters came with bricks and Molotov cocktails. The news website Vietnam Net Bridge reported that they burned vehicles, injured police and damaged official buildings on June 10 and 11.
Vietnamese officials have accused extremists of starting some of the protests. Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong appealed Sunday for calm.
Next moves
Ming Yu Hah is an Amnesty International official for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. She said, “I think…we’re in a different digital environment, so I think there’s a lot of unknown factors that are definitely difficult to predict.”
Vietnam does not block websites, and this lets people organize on social media.
But Maxfield Brown says as long as Vietnam’s economy keeps raising people’s incomes through job creation, protests are unlikely to increase. He is with Dezan Shira & Associates, a business advice agency for foreign investors based in Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam’s economy grew nearly 7 percent last year.
Brown said the intensity of the protests and where they took place suggest that the protesters are isolated groups of people already feeling dissatisfied.
I’m Mario Ritter.
Ralph Jennings reported this story for VOA News. Alice Bryant adapted it for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.
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Words in This Story
occasional – adj. happening or done sometimes, but not often
cybersecurity – n. the protection of internet-connected systems, including hardware, software and data, from cyberattacks
mass – n. the central act of worship in the Catholic church
brick – n. a small, hard block of baked clay that is used to build structures and sometimes to make streets or paths
Molotov cocktail – n. a simple bomb made from a bottle filled with gasoline and stuffed with a piece of cloth that is lit before the bottle is thrown
digital –adj. related to computers and information on them
factors –n. something that helps produce or influence a result
isolated – adj. separate from others
*【163】AS IT IS
Divers Search Indonesian Lake for Nearly 200 Missing after Ferry Sinks
June 20, 2018
Relatives cry while waiting for news on missing family members who were on a ferry that sank yesterday in Lake Toba, at Tigaras Port, Simalungun, North Sumatra, Indonesia June 19, 2018. (REUTERS/Albert Damanik).
Relatives of the more than 190 people missing after a boat sank on Lake Toba in Sumatra have asked government officials for a bigger search.
The families also criticized the Indonesian government for ignoring unsafe conditions on passenger boats.
Disaster officials have raised the number of dead several times. Family members arrived at Lake Toba in northern Sumatra to seek information. But, there was no passenger list for the overcrowded wooden ferry.
Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi and the chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency, Muhammad Syaugi, spoke to reporters about the incident. The officials said the boat was built to hold 43 passengers, but was carrying about 200. It had only 45 life jackets designed to keep passengers from drowning.
Only 18 survivors were found within hours of the sinking on Monday. The boat sank in deep water half a kilometer from a popular island.
It is possible many victims are still inside the sunken ferry, said North Sumatra province police chief Paulus Waterpau.
“Many survivors told authorities that less than half of them had jumped into the water before the boat sank,” he told The Associated Press.
Suwarni had a 20-year-old son who was with his girlfriend on the ferry. She criticized the search and rescue operation as slow.
“What kind of government is this that can’t protect their own people from unnecessary accidents?” she asked.
The search has involved 350 people but they have found few bodies. Syaugi said only four deaths were confirmed after three more bodies were found on Wednesday.
Syaugi defended the search effort, saying that the agency, police, military and other personnel have been working “all out” and non-stop. The search may continue for another 10 days.
Survivor Juwita Sumbayak said she had crossed the lake many times on the same boat. She said it was overcrowded on Monday because of the holiday for the end of the Muslim holy month.
The mother cried uncontrollably as she spoke to a reporter. She called out the names of her husband and children who she believes drowned inside the boat.
She said that about 20 minutes after the ferry left, high waves caused it to list to the right and take on water, which caused the passengers to panic. After it was hit by additional waves, it seemed to shake and then it capsized.
“Many passengers without a life jacket jumped into the deep lake, but others drowned with the boat,” she said. “I jumped, I cried with fear.” She saw many people in the water “but nobody can help.”
Another survivor, Riko Saputra, said that many motorcycles packed on one side of the boat caused it to list. He said he was in the water for about an hour before he was rescued. He believed he only survived by holding onto a helmet.
Cellphone video released earlier in the week by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency showed the crew of another ferry trying to rescue people in the waters shortly after the sinking. But bad weather and rough waters held them back.
The disaster comes as tens of millions Indonesians return home for the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.
Sumadi, the transport minister, said that all 40 ferry operators on Lake Toba are being suspended and examined by the government until they show they are following safety rules.
Lake Toba is popular with tourists on the island of Sumatra. The Indonesian government hopes to develop the area for increased tourism.
I’m Susan Shand.
The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted the report for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.
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Words in This Story
ferry – n. a boat used to take passengers to a place
drone – n a type of small aircraft that flies without a pilot
tourist – n. one who visits a place for pleasure
list –v. to lean to one side
panic – v. to become filled with fear
capsize – v. to turn so that the bottom is on top
helmet – n. a hard hat that is worn to protect your head —
*【164】AS IT IS
US Has Separated Families Throughout History
June 20, 2018
FILE - Nicole Hernandez, of the Mexican state of Guerrero, holds on to her mother as they wait with other families to request political asylum in the United States, across the border in Tijuana, Mexico. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Many Americans are expressing shock at the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents at the United States’ border with Mexico.
But throughout U.S. history, officials have taken such action. Here are some examples:
Slavery
Slave families were often separated in sale. Slave owners could sell slave children to anyone. Their parents had no legal rights to prevent their sale and could do little to stop them.
Some slave families attempted to escape. But all faced severe punishment, even death, if captured.
Last week, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions used the Christian holy book, the Bible, to defend the policy of forced separation.
He said, “I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order.”
That same passage was cited before the Civil War as a defense for separating slave children from their mothers.
Native American boarding schools
In the 1870s, the United States began a policy of forcible assimilation for Native Americans. The government ordered the removal of Native American children from their families and reservations. They were sent to boarding schools that many described as similar to prisons. The schools were established with the goal destroying all Indian tradition and nature within the child.
At about 150 Indian schools around the country, officials made Native American children cut their traditional long hair and banned them from speaking in their native language. The schools forced the children to accept Christianity and white customs.
Native American children returned home almost unrecognizable to their parents. Still, some children resisted by setting fires to buildings, running away or taking their own lives.
Others continued to speak their native language in secret. Some Navajo “codetalkers” were students at the boarding schools as children. During World War II, they used a code based on their native language to send secret messages for the U.S. military. Indian boarding school policies remained in place through the 1960s.
Poverty
During the early 1900s, American states sometimes took children from poor families and placed them in orphanages.
Author Michael Katz wrote in his book “In the Shadow of the Poorhouse: A Social History Of Welfare In America” that this practice ended in the 1920s and 1930s.
However, Katz said, local and state officials continued to use poverty as a reason to take children away from Native American and African American families. Sometimes the ordered separation came over concerns about a parent’s mental health.
The late civil rights activist Malcolm X described his experience of such treatment in a book about his life. He wrote that government workers took him and his siblingsfrom his mother after the murder of their father.
He said he lived in several foster homes and boarding houses. He said his mother, without her children, had a psychological breakdown and was ordered to a mental health asylum.
Great Depression repatriation
During the Great Depression, California and Texas officials blamed Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans for the economic event. They forced between 500,000 and 1 million Mexicans and Mexican Americans to leave the U.S.
Francisco Balderrama co-wrote “Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s.” He said some families hid children with family members in the U.S. to prevent them from being sent from the country.
Many families felt they were being forced to separate from their children, who were U.S. citizens. “And many children,” Balderrama said, “never saw their parents again.”
Japanese internment camp
Former U.S. first lady Laura Bush criticized the current family separation policy in an opinion piece published by The Washington Post newspaper.
She compared the images of children in tent cities in the desert outside El Paso, Texas, to those in “internment camps for U.S. citizens and noncitizens of Japanese descent during World War II.”
In 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an order forcing around 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry into internment camps around the country, including 30,000 children.
George Takei is an American actor who was sent to an internment camp at the age of five.
Takei wrote in Foreign Policy, “At least during the internment of Japanese-Americans, I and other children were not stripped from our parents. We were not pulled screaming from our mothers’ arms. We were not left to change the diapers of younger children by ourselves.”
I’m Jonathan Evans. And I’m Ashley Thompson.
The Associated Press reported this story. Hai Do adapted it for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.
Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
cite - v. to write or say the words from a book, an author, etc.
ordain - v. to officially establish or order
assimilation - n. an action to cause a person or group to become part of a different society, country
code - n. a set of letters, numbers, symbols used to secretly send messages
orphanage - n. a place where children without parents can live and be cared for
practice - n. something that is done often or regularly
sibling - n. a brother or sister
foster - adj. used to describe a situation in which a child is cared for by someone other than his parents
psychological - adj. of or relating to the mind
strip - v. to remove
scream - v. to cry loudly because of pain or surprise
diaper - n. a piece of clothe or material fastened around a baby to hold body waste
*【165】AS IT IS
Trump Signs Order to End Family Separation Policy
June 20, 2018
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order on immigration policy with DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Vice President Mike Pence at his sides in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 20, 2018. (REUTERS/Leah Millis)
United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to end the process of separating children from families that have crossed into the country illegally.
The executive order marks a major change for the president and his administration. He and other officials had repeatedly said they had no choice but to separate families stopped at the border because of the law and a court decision.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the president and others had said that the only way to end the practice was for Congress to pass new legislation.
However, Democrats and some Republicans have said Trump could end the policy himself. Trump did just that.
The executive order says the government will prosecute everyone who crosses the border illegally. It also calls for providing or building structures that can hold parents and children together while their cases are considered in courts.
The order also directs the United States attorney general to seek a change to a court ruling known as the Flores settlement. The ruling bars the government from keeping children in detention for more than 20 days.
Zero tolerance policy
Wednesday’s executive order did not end the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. During the signing, Trump said, “the border is just as tough, but we want to keep families together.”
Before Wednesday, the zero-tolerance policy required adults to be sent to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, while children were sent to centers run by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Between May 5 and June 9, more than 2,300 children were separated from their families at the United States’ border with Mexico. The families are mostly from Central American countries. They crossed through Mexico to reach the U.S. border.
News reports in recent days in the U.S. have been filled with emotional images of young children at the border crying for their parents. The images have caused anger toward the practice and pressure on the Trump administration to change its policy.
I’m Ashley Thompson.
The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for Learning English, with additional materials. Hai Do was the editor.
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Words in This Story
prosecute - v. to hold a trial against a person who is accused of a crime to see if that person is guilty
tolerance - n. willingness to accept feelings, habits, or beliefs that are different from your own
tough - adj. strong and not easily broken or damaged
custody - n. the state of being kept in a prison or jail