Traffic police must laugh and say thanks
Regulations on Traffic Police asking a traffic police officer to laugh and say thanks when working with drivers are being disseminated by the Department of Traffic Police, the Ministry of Public Security, at the press conference on the work of ensuring traffic order and safety in 2020 held in the afternoon of December 25.
The Department of Traffic Police said that this new regulation is part of the criteria to build a behavioral culture in the police force to create friendliness for people and drivers. At the same time, the department will train its officers and soldiers in the coming time.
Vietnam’s state-controlled media noted that the new regulations have attracted the attention of the public through both positive and negative comments. Many people think that the traffic police smile and say “thank you” when on duty, showing politeness “though strict, but friendly.” Meanwhile, the opposing opinions raised the question of what kind of smile would the traffic police laugh when intentionally snatching drivers to have money to put in their pockets.
Are regulations not feasible?
Mr. Thai Van Duong, a person who has worked in a public agency for many years, on the evening of December 29, told RFA that according to personal recognition, the behavior of state officials towards the people depends on the personality of each person. However, the vast majority of officials and employees at agencies and departments in Vietnam are cold and emotionless when receiving people.
Through discussions with Mr. Thai Van Duong, Radio RFA mentioned that a number of offices and administrative agencies, when receiving the people, have changed their style of being more open, friendly, and praised by the people. However, Mr. Thai Van Duong asserted that these changes are only a few.
“Almost all agencies have a so-called internal regulation and people have internal instructions, mainly in the reception department, the administrative file receiving department. However, when people are a bit absent or the boss comes to check, officers’ behaviors are better. Otherwise, most of them still keep a pitiful face, they don’t have sympathy for the people because they are very bossy.”
Mr. Thai Van Duong emphasized that the state system in Vietnam follows the mechanism of ask-giving and authoritarianism, plus a low-wage policy, leading to the result that employees and cadres are always overbearing and domineering to people in order to force people to give bribery. In which, traffic police are the most “petty corruption” ones.
Former public authority employee, Mr. Thai Van Duong commented that the new regulations of the Traffic Police Department that require officers to smile and say thank you when working with drivers cannot be applied in social life. The reason explained by Mr. Thai Van Duong is because the situation “supervisors order but subordinate will not obey by.”
Agreeing with Mr. Thai Van Duong, journalist Vo Van Tao, from Nha Trang, said that the new regulations of the Department of Traffic Police are not feasible. He explained:
“For a long time, the phenomenon of traffic police working on the street ‘making laws’ to extort money is quite common. So in society and also in the online community, people have a very heavy prejudice. People use the slang phrase ‘bribery takers’ to talk about traffic police. So in the eyes of the people and the online community, the image of the traffic police is not beautiful, even bad. There are also traffic police that works relatively properly, but nonetheless, negative and overbearing phenomena are common. Therefore, the Railway-Road Traffic Police (C67) now issues such a document, of course, with the intention that the traffic police, when on duty, must be warm and happy, but in the eyes of the people because there was already too heavy prejudice, so people saw that new rule and then people mock it.”
Radio RFA noted that Vietnamese people are considered to be smiling, at least since the early twentieth century up to now. Typically, an article titled “Anything laughs” by author Nguyen Van Vinh, published in Indochina magazine No. 6 in 1913 to explains about “An Nam has a habit of making a laugh.”
However, journalist Vo Van Tao noted that since the Communist Party of Vietnam took power in 1945, it adopted the Soviet and Chinese model, using the police and the military to rule the people. The Communist Party of Vietnam continues to follow the dictatorship system after the Vietnam War ended in April 1975. Therefore, Vietnamese government officials and employees do not respect the people, nor do they think that the salaries they receive are from the taxpayers’ money but from the budget of the Party and the State of Vietnam. Journalist Vo Van Tao said that with such thoughts, public officials and employees, especially the police believe that they are representatives of leadership power and that the people must always obey them.
Regarding traffic police regulations that traffic police must smile and say thank you, journalist Vo Van Tao argues that a bit of “achievement” might be achieved after training. However, some officers and soldiers will obey the regulation while others will not comply with such machinery regulations.
“Traffic police should fulfill their responsibilities”
Mr. Vo Minh Duc, an owner of a private transport company, on the evening of December 29, shared with us how he received information about the regulations of the Traffic Police Department:
“Working in the transport business, to be honest, I don’t know whether to be happy or sad about this new regulation. Why do I say that? Because up until now, in general, in the drivers’ community and personally, I am afraid of traffic police when traveling on the road. Fear is not because we are wrong but because of their working attitude and the way they make it difficult, harass, strive to get money from us to put in their pockets. That’s how scared the driver’s community. So when I heard the news that the traffic police must smile and say ‘thank you” to drivers for cooperation, I found this proposal sounded like innocuous and meaningless,” said Mr. Vo Minh Duc
Mr. Vo Minh Duc, a former officer of the Vietnam People’s Army, said that instead of the Traffic Police Department’s regulation “innocuous, innocent” and takes time to train, it is better to focus on reorganizing the traffic police so they will fulfill their responsibility and duty to maintain traffic safety and order for the people, strictly sanction and not let them blackmail drivers.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
