Jonathan London says unprecedented call for PM to quit shows elite power also has its limits
Tuesday, 20 November, 2012, 12:00am
It is not every day that a Vietnamese national assemblyman publicly confronts a sitting prime minister and Politburo Standing Committee member live on national TV, suggesting that the latter resign. Yet that was what transpired last week, when lawmaker Duong Trung Quoc spoke out against Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.It was unprecedented straight talk from an assemblyman, something one rarely sees in Vietnam. And it is further confirmation that Vietnam’s political development has entered an extraordinary, if indeterminate, phase.
