On January 22, 2008, from 14.15 to 15.30 o'clock, an American delegation visited Dr. Que at his house, including Mr. Scot Marciel, Deputy Assistant Secretary , East Asia & Pacific Bureau, responsible for relations with SE Asia and ASEAN, Consul General Kenneth Fairfax, Ms. Katia Bennet, political officer of the US Consulate General.

After small talks, Mr. S. Marciel presented the American policy using economic development and cultural exchanges to encourage the democratic changes in VN and he would like to know Dr.Que's opinion.

Dr. Que:: First of all, I would like to express my thanks to the US government and US people for adopting a policy that I have promoting and advocating for many years. I strongly believe that if we continue the course we will achieve a democratic Vietnam in a peaceful and non chaos manner. My opinion is:
Investments and trades greatly increase after BTA & WTO, in parallel with the great improvement in economy & investment the political system must be changed, irresistibly.
But how to initiate it?

The actual situation:
. GDP about 8% with 2-digit inflation. Poor - rich gap threatening social disturbances. Incorrigible corruption. Great majority of people have lost confidence in the VCP especially people are very upset about the surrender sovereign of the Paracell and Sprattley islands .
. Education system is totally out-of-date with no freedom of information.
. The politburo just want to profit capitalist money for their party with fake HR and democracy. While our people want private ownership, separation between party and government, freedom and true democracy.
The antagonism is stronger & stronger: In fact, the dictatorship is going down while the people-power going up. When they meet each other, that will be the moment of change (the D-Day).
Around the D-Day, according to the aspirations and interests of our people we pretend

THE 9-POINT ROAD MAP in which Vietnam is urged to:

1/ Allow free flow of information into Vietnam;
2/ Allow freedom of press and expression;
3/ Release all political and religious leaders;
4/ Implement the UN principles on religious freedom;
5/ Dismantle article Number 4 in the Constitution giving the VCP supremacy over people. That means that the politburo must give back to the National Assembly the role of supreme power of the country as stipulated in the Constitution;
6/ Have the National Assembly officially declare that Vietnam is committed to engage in democratic path respecting human rights, civil rights and private ownership;
7/ Have the National Assembly, by a special decree, bring the VCP out of the government;
8/ Have the National Assembly draw up New Multiparty Election Laws;
9/ Have the government, then independent of the VCP, organize free and fair elections according to the new election laws and under international monitoring to choose a Constitutional Assembly.

Mr. Scot Marcel: The question is what are we doing from here to the D-Day, in a common effort from all sides, in order to bring about that peaceful transition?
DR. Que: Several concrete steps I would like to propose:

1- From VN I would release in a press conference this 9-point road map for democratization of VN. The politburo should allow it to happen and it must be widely reported on the domestic media;
2- The 9 point road map has received a strong support from the US Congress, in fact Resolution HR &03 was introduced last year and Resolution HR 665 was introduced this year to endorse for the 9 point Road map. It would be helpful if Ambassador Michael Michalax, Consul Fairfax as well as a number of American investors, speak out favorably for the 9-point road map.
3- The U.S Congress will pass at the right time the HR.665 ( Tom Davis, Loretta Sanchez, Zoe Lofgren) supporting our 9-point road map;
4- On the political scene I’m going to:
- 1st phase: unite pro- democracy activists around the 9-point road map.
- 2nd phase: choose the official delegation to engage in the dialogue without any precondition.
- 3rd phase: struggle on the negotiation table against the wrong policy of the politburo with the strong support from the mass.
If the US support us, we can successfully develop civil societies with freedom of press, freedom of religion, independent labors unions, farmers associations, student movements…

Mr. Scot. Marciel How can we know when will be the D-Day?
Dr. Que: nearing to the D-Day, we can see:
On the party - government side: the politburo members can’t master properly the economic and political situation any more (skyrocketting inflation, farmers’ protests, wildcat strikes, questioning of students…). They are poorly isolated from the Vietnamese population and angrily questioned by the international community about their HR & democracy records.
On the population side: 85 millions of Vietnamese in confidence crisis, dying for freedom, justice and democracy would be about to rebel. Many democratic governments and most overseas Vietnamese support their rights. Their reactions are spontaneous and still in inorganization. With our 9-point road map, they would rapidly fall into line pushing the people-power up to nearly equal to the party-power to force the politburo to accept the 9-point road map.

The more the 9-point road map mobilizes the people-power, the more
VN engages on the true democratic path at the D-Day.

Mr. S. Marciel also asked Dr. Que about the renovating capacity of the VCP itself?
Dr. Que : dismissed it saying that:' the old communist system corrupt and inefficient on power too long as such, the possibilty for that to happen is very, very small. Our people need a completely new political line and a new government with a new wave of young talented leaders at all levels of the social stratum. And he added: Communist policy will never succeed to gain the confidence of the people, particularly the overseas Vietnamese. And he explained:
With a bird-eye view on the whole VN, politically we can say there are 3 tendencies, in which nationalist - communist belonging to the past cold war; and our completely new humanist tendency inspired from the new world strategy North –South cooperation. Only around this new tendency can we unite all the Vietnamese. Not behind the VCP.

Before leaving, Ms Bennet taking advantage of this opportunity asked a last question about Paracels and Spratleys?

Dr Que:To this very hot issue, Dr Que let her know that since China publicized Pham van Dong’ s document recognized the sovereign of China over the Paracell & Sprattley islands destroying the myth that Ho Chi Minh& the Vietnamese Communist Party are patriots who fought for the territorial integrity of Vietnam, the credit of the VCP went down to the ground O and this helps tremendously the process of democracy in VN.
The dispute would continue with the high ground on Beijing and Hanoi being behind the 8 ball.

The importance of the Malacca strait make many superpowers have security concerns and they will intervene.

If the US helps the return of Taiwan to China, China will be more flexible to release North Korea and Vietnam, in which there is the islands dispute.

He would think the temporary settlement may be the internationalization of these disputed islands with no military use in any case and all involved parties have no right to nationalize the assets to exploit the surrounding sea-bed but they have the right to share benefits from these exploitation.

The Vietnamese people certainly continue to assert their sovereignty on these islands and accuse the wrongdoings of the VCP to lose land and sea.

The meeting ended at 15.45 o'clock in a very friendly and mutual respects atmosphere.