Female deputy director of department for picking flowers was disciplined by the Party

Binh Thuan province unanimously agreed to discipline Ms. Pham Thi Minh Hieu with a Party reprimand.

Yesterday afternoon, April 25, the Party Committee of the Bloc of Agencies of Binh Thuan province unanimously decided to discipline Ms. Pham Thi Minh Hieu, Deputy Director of the Department of Justice.

Ms. Hieu was reprimanded for breaking cherry blossoms, causing strong reactions in society, affecting her personal reputation, the Binh Thuan Department of Justice and the local image.

Hieu's act of picking flowers and inappropriate attitude when being reminded caused a strong reaction from the community.

As reported by VietNamNet, the incident occurred on the afternoon of March 2, when Ms. Hieu and a delegation from the Department of Justice visited Tuyen Lam Lake. After taking photos with the beautiful cherry blossoms there, Ms. Hieu and a group of local youths got into a loud argument because the group of youths saw Ms. Hieu holding many cherry blossom branches and asked her why she was picking the flowers.

Mrs. Hieu asked these young men again who they were, if they were the owners here and asked to show her their papers.

On March 5, a Facebook account named NAT posted information and photos of Ms. Hieu holding a bouquet of flowers, causing a stir in the online community. Many people commented indignantly on Ms. Hieu’s behavior.

The incident was then reported by the Provincial People's Committee to the Director of the Department of Justice. In the meeting at the Department of Justice on March 6, Ms. Hieu did not admit to picking the flowers and only admitted to not maintaining her personal image in public.

However, the Provincial People's Committee has determined that whether Ms. Hieu personally picked the flowers or someone else in the group picked them, as the head of the group, Ms. Hieu should have prevented it, but she held the picked flowers to take a photo, which is wrong. Her insensitive and careless behavior and statements, especially those made at the scene of the incident and at the meeting on the morning of March 6 at the Department of Justice, are not appropriate to the culture of behavior.

Then on March 11, Ms. Hieu sent a letter of apology to the press agencies, emphasizing: "I am very sincere when saying this and once again through the press agencies, I would like to send my apology to the provincial leaders, the press agencies, to the collective agency, to everyone, especially the group of young people who talked and took pictures of me and I hope everyone will understand, sympathize, and forgive me."

According to Vietnamnet.vn