Incidents that make Da Nang a hot spot of public opinion

A series of incidents have occurred in this city over the past two years: Son Tra was sexually assaulted, the Chairman was threatened with death, the daughter of the former Secretary was accused of having prime land...

Besides the positive socio-economic development aspects, in Da Nang city, there have been many scandalous incidents that have attracted the attention of local people as well as public opinion nationwide.

"The Secretary is fighting corruption but his daughter is accused of having prime land"

In August 2013, Mr. Tran Tho - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Da Nang City Party Committee was elected to replace Mr. Nguyen Ba Thanh, after he went to Hanoi to become Head of the Central Internal Affairs Commission.

July 2015, Da Nangdecided to temporarily suspend the marina project along the Han River, near the west of the Dragon Bridge. This is a project invested by the company of Mr. Phan Van Anh Vu - a famous real estate tycoon not only in the locality.

Also during this time, information was revealed.Mr. Tran Tho's daughter, Ms. Tran Thi Yen Minh (teacher), was allocated 400 square meters of resettlement land in Cam Le district, but asked to move to the city center, in exchange for an area of ​​180 square meters at the intersection of Tran Quy Cap - Phan Boi Chau (Hai Chau district). Many newspapers at that time reported: "The daughter of the City Party Secretary was allocated prime land".

On July 17, 2015, the Standing Committee of the Da Nang City Party Committee held an urgent meeting to discuss the land issue of Secretary Tran Tho's daughter. Photo: Dong Nguyen

On the afternoon of July 17, 2015, the Standing Committee of the Da Nang City Party Committee urgently met to discuss the incident andThe press is invited to attend. Here,The case of Mr. Tho's daughter asking to change land was explained as not the first time it happened in Da Nang. When people who are allocated resettlement land want to change to another area, the government will consider it.t, arranged based on the place of relocation, with the condition of paying resettlement land fees according to the price frame in the new area.

Ms. Luong Nguyet Thu - Head of the Legal Committee of the Da Nang City People's Council said that Mr. Tho is a person who has contributed a lot and is fighting against negativity in the city, being affected by his daughter's incident is "regrettable".

Discussing the incident, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Anh (at that time Deputy Secretary of the Da Nang City Party Committee) said that Mr. Tho was straightforward, honest, and did not shirk responsibility. "This is a lesson for the city's key leaders. It has a huge impact on society. If it happened to a cyclo driver, a motorbike taxi driver, or an ordinary citizen, it would be a different story, but this is the child of a city leader, and Mr. Tho is the Secretary," Mr. Anh said.

Son Tra Hot Spot

In the latest developments related to Da Nang's Son Tra peninsula,On September 19, Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh assigned the Government Inspectorate to preside over and coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to conduct a comprehensive inspection of compliance with legal regulations on land management and use, forest protection and development, environmental protection, and construction of projects on Son Tra peninsula (licensed in the period 2003-2016); report to the Prime Minister before March 31, 2018.

This peninsula is located about 10 km northeast of the city center, 4,400 hectares wide, and is the only natural forest ecosystem connected to the sea in Vietnam.Before 2013, Da Nang licensed 18 projects with an estimated number of rooms of 5,000. In November 2016, the Government approved the Master Plan for the development of Son Tra National Tourist Area with the number of rooms reduced to only 1,600.

However, after the planning was announced, the Da Nang Tourism Association sent a petition to the Prime Minister, expressing concern that Son Tra would be concreted by tourism projects; and recommended reviewing the planning in the direction of maintaining the current status quo (with about 300 rooms).

Government leaders request comprehensive inspection of projects on Son Tra peninsula, Da Nang. Photo: Dong Nguyen

The Son Tra "hot spot" attracted public attention when in March, a fisherman shared a photo of the peninsula being dug up by Tien Sa Sea Company for construction. Authorities inspected and discovered 40 illegally built villa foundations. The investor was administratively fined 40 million VND.

The above direction of Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh comes from the report of 8 agencies on investment in construction of Tien Sa marine eco-tourism project, including: Da Nang City People's Committee; the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources, Culture, Construction, National Defense, General Department II - Ministry of National Defense and Public Security.

City president threatened

At the end of February, when a newspaper published a story questioning the fact that Secretary of the City Party Committee Nguyen Xuan Anh was driving a public car with a fake license plate, worth 2.5 billion VND, which was said to violate the standard that Secretaries of centrally-run cities are only allowed to use cars worth less than 1.1 billion VND, the Da Nang City Party Committee denied this information and presented many documents as proof, including the car invoice from Minh Hung Phat Company Limited.

Specifically, the 5-seat Toyota Avalon Limited used by the Secretary of the City Party Committee was a "gift, free of charge", worth 1.3 billion VND (including tax) donated by Minh Hung Phat Company to the City Party Committee Office. Da Nang later returned the car to the company.

One month later, inDa Nang has received information that the asset declaration of Chairman of Da Nang People's Committee Huynh Duc Tho, which was submitted to the competent management agency, was "leaked" out. On March 15, Da Nang authorities spoke up.property feedbackthis, with khaffirmed that "the declaration and transparency of Mr. Huynh Duc Tho's assets were carried out in accordance with the principles of the Party and State".

Chairman of the People's Committee of Da Nang City Huynh Duc Tho received text messages on his personal phone threatening to kill him and his relatives. Photo: Nguyen Dong.

On August 19, the Criminal Police Department C45, Ministry of Public Security arrested Mr. Dao Tan Cuong - Deputy Director of Petrolimex Aviation Fuel Joint Stock Company, Da Nang branch, for threatening to kill someone. Mr. Cuong is the brother of the Chief of Office of the Da Nang City Party Committee, Dao Tan Bang.

According to authorities, because his villa on Son Tra Peninsula (Da Nang) was recently confiscated by the city government for planning adjustment, Mr. Cuong sent text messages threatening to kill Mr. Tho and his relatives. Several leaders and department-level officials in Da Nang also received similar text messages.

Public opinion on "solidarity" in Da Nang

On May 4, Secretary of the Da Nang City Party Committee Nguyen Xuan Anh met with secretaries of 56 communes and wards in the city. Mr. Xuan Anh said that recently there has been a lot of inaccurate information about the city, especially on unofficial websites abroad.

Commenting that this information causes public confusion and "obscures the achievements the city has made", the Secretary of Da Nang emphasized: "Within the city's leadership, specifically the Party Executive Committee and the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee, solidarity and consensus are basically maintained, although there may be some different personal views".

Mr. Xuan Anh's statement was made in the context of public opinion that Mr. Dang Viet Dung - Standing Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee, a doctor of engineering and a bridge and road engineer, was transferred to the position of Head of the City Party Committee's Propaganda Department (from March 6) and was being "suppressed". However, the leaderThe Da Nang City Party Committee stated that the rotation must comply with procedures and "no one can stand above the collective".

Before the recent announcement by the authoritiesViolations and shortcomings of the Standing Committee of the Da Nang City Party Committee (term 2015-2020), Mr. Vu Q.Mr. Uoc Hung, former Deputy Head of the Central Inspection Committee, said this is not the first time that a locality has had problems affecting the solidarity of the leadership.

According to Mr. Hung, since 1994, the Politburo had to transfer Mr. Mai Thuc Lan (at that time, Chairman of the Economic and Budget Committee) andMr. Truong Quang Duoc (Director General of General Department of Customs)replaced the Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Nam - Da Nang province due to "the internal situation of the provincial Party Committee is not good, negatively affecting the development of the province".

"Clearly, there are lessons that generations of Da Nang leaders should look at. There can be many causes for scandals, but here the responsibility of the leader is very important," Mr. Hung said, adding that public opinion observing "sensitive" information in Da Nang appearing continuously in the press as well as social networks all feel that "there is an undercurrent".

Mr. Tran Van Minh - former Chairman of Da Nang City People's Committee, former Deputy Head of the Central Organizing Committee, commented on recent events in Da Nanghas "affected the city's image". He said that according to the procedure, this is the time for Da Nang leaders to review and possibly explain further about related issues.

According to VNE