Thinking about the Prime Minister's 8,000 VND cup of coffee

That said, we can see the great significance of the event when leaders "went undercover" to the streets, fields, and markets to learn about people's daily activities such as eating pho, drinking morning coffee, growing and selling clean vegetables... and to urge and find solutions to urgent problems.

President Barack Obama went to a cheap restaurant, sat on a plastic chair, ate bun cha, and drank bottled beer in Hanoi; former British Prime Minister David Cameron busily packed his belongings from office to his private home; billionaire Bill Gates washed dishes every night; deputy minister went to work by taxi... and most recently, the story of the Prime Minister and the Government delegation eating pho and drinking Saigon iced coffee was reported by the press, considered "hot" news.

No matter where, maybe people see this as normal, everyone does it, on the contrary, that is what is… hot, what is the “topic” to attract views, catchy titles, front page, top of home page.

The Prime Minister ate pho and drank iced coffee for 8,000 VND in Saigon.

In our country, there have been a few similar stories. Like the provincial secretary who wore a pith helmet on his day off and rode a motorbike to the commune to check on the situation. There was also a grown-up who spoke loudly but still kept the habit of going through the countryside every morning, noon and evening to "hit" the famous banh muot and thit ga xau (stir-fried chicken).

But in general, very few people can keep or dare to keep those normal, familiar, and rustic things. Somehow, without anyone telling them, they often create for themselves a different way of life, strange to themselves and many people around them, even in their families, relatives, and neighbors, like the "officials" who make "policies from heaven" that we have seen for a long time.

As Dr. Vu Ngoc Hoang, an "insider", once commented: "... Many people, just after a vote or after a decision to appoint an official, can suddenly change completely, they shake hands differently, greet differently, walk more majestically, speak more authoritatively..."*

So when reading the news about the "Obama Bun Cha restaurant" a while ago, many long-time luxury "diners" must have been startled a couple of times?

And there is certainly no way that someone leaving office would "carry" his luggage to the "people of all time"; that matter would be taken care of by his younger brothers and subordinates.

There is no way that someone who is used to doing big things and thinking about “macro” things would now look for moments that inspire and encourage creativity and decisiveness while… washing dishes every night, when family, children, and grandchildren are all there, across the street and along the street?

As for the recent story of VIPs going to work by… civilian cars, we already know that it is a contract like that, it started like that, how long it will last, how widespread it will be, we still have to wait and see.

That said, we can see the great significance of the event when leaders "went undercover" to the streets, to the fields, to the market to learn about people's daily activities such as eating pho, drinking morning coffee, growing and selling clean vegetables... and urging and finding solutions to urgent problems that arise every day, every hour, starting from the two largest cities in the country, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Is that the return, the return to closeness at the right time, in the right place, intimately, and trustingly with the people in the countryside, on the streets and in concentrated industrial zones… of the “servants” of the people in the true sense of the word?

According to Vietnamnet.vn