Introduction50

1The increasing social differentiation within Vietnamese society in terms of economic inequality and an increasing gap between rich and poor is combined with political change to create a range of antagonisms familiar from the histories of other communist countries. The last ten years, a number of factors have added to this rapid social differentiation, which has consequences for the relationships between the state organs and society at large. As examples of Kerkvliet’s “dialogical interpretation” of state and party relations, I will cite three cases in three different arenas in which struggles take place. Foreign and Vietnamese researchers also have analyzed the constrained “social interaction between authorities and people”, as they call it (Culas and Suu 2010).

2Public displays of criticism or disagreement with the ruling Communist Party are rare, but over the past decade, peasant farmers and religious believers have challenged the government over land use and collective propriety.51 Crowds waiting to deliver petitions or demanding to speak to responsible officials are a common sight in major cities like Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi (see e.g. Kervliet 2014a). Most of the protesters are landless farmers from Ha Tay, Hai Phong, Dong Nai, Tien Giang, or Bac Lieu. The term “protest” is inappropriate because the government offices often have formal desks staffed by officials who are part of the so-called government inspectorates (Thanh tra Chính phủ).52 Most complaints are about land issues (a smaller number are about housing). In 2007, official reports mentioned about 20,000 official complaints per year about land, among which 70% had to do with compensation, 10% denunciations of violations of the land law, 9% with land access conflicts, 7% demands for the return of land, and the remainder “miscellaneous” (Fforde 2008; De Wit 2013).53

3After land reform in 1954, the state created three kinds of property rights with three different types of owner: 1) ownership rights, held by the “the whole people”, 2) rights of control, held by the one-party state, and 3) rights of use, allocated to individuals or households or organizations for a specific time period. Private ownership of land is in contradiction with Item I, Article 5 of the Law on Land 1993/5, which articulates that every piece of land is in the possession of the entire nation, with the State being a representative for the public ownership. Based on the need of social groups and individuals, the State considers granting them stable and long-term land use rights (quyến sứ dụng), not ownership rights (quyền sớ hữu).

4It is what Katherine Verdery used to label “fuzzy” property forms, a situation similar to what has happened in Eastern Europe after communism. Verdery points out that the implementation of these rights reveals a quite tricky web of meanings and ambiguous practice (2004: 53-55; see Kerkvliet 2006 for a short history). Different articles in the Law on Land, however, stipulate that the State does not accept any claim for land that has been given to other users during the implementation of land policies of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1954-1975), the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (1975-1976), and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (1976-present). In other words, collective property rights granted in the past, before the new Law on Land was promulgated, during the transition from the previous regimes towards the temporary ones are no longer recognized. The National Assembly approved a resolution on November 26, 2003 regulating that the State does not re-consider policies and the implementation of policies promulgated before July 1, 1991 regarding land management. It is even more difficult to assert rights that originated before the respective revolutionary governments took power.

5In 2008, hundreds of Catholic followers gathered at a land lot in central Hanoi, near St. Joseph’s Cathedral. The building was part of the Apostolic Vicariate, which was represented in Hanoi during the Lrench period (Tòa Khâm sứ Hà Nội). After 1954 the land and building came under state management. The premises were used for various purposes ranging from a local office to a youth dance hall under the supervision of Hanoi’s Youth Liga. Around Christmas 2008, Catholic believers started to organize prayer sessions in front of the lot and the building, presided over by priests from the adjacent headquarters of the diocese.54 After they had placed a statue of the Virgin Mary, the place was sealed off by the local authorities, which created a stand-off between the city authorities and the church leaders.55 The protesting stopped after the Hanoi authorities, on behalf of the Vietnamese government, said they would return the former nunciature to the Archdiocese of Hanoi. In August 2008 the conflict escalated and the People’s Committee of Hanoi took the decision to convert the building and its surroundings into a garden with a public library. At the same time, Catholics in Ho Chi Minh City met in prayer vigils at the Redemptorist convent to ask the government to return 15 acres of land, seized for commercial purposes, to the Church. Parishioners elsewhere in Hanoi like the ones from Thai Ha Parish in the urban district Dong Da appropriated another piece of land to build chapels and erect grottos.56

6Another example how the CPV is handling user and propriety rights is demonstrated during my own fieldwork in the northern coastal zone of Vietnam. Coastal areas, including territorial waters, have been treated as a collectively regulated resource. After 1986 the opening up of the coast (or maybe one can say the closing down of the state domain) led to social conflicts, over utilization of the coastal resources and environmental degradation (for details see Kleinen 2007). Vietnam’s economic renovation policies since the mid-1980s have not only created conflicts about land, but have also affected coastal areas and waters that until now were regarded as common property without open access managed by the state.

7At first glance the limited access rights for fishermen to their fishing grounds, the diminishing catch per unit effort resulting in a decline of beach landings, the developing shrimp cultivation, and a presumed “open access” to the sea is exploited by “free riders” who create a social dilemma about the question of who “owns” the common property of the (shallow) sea. Free rider behavior results mainly not from a lack of respect for common property, but as a result of opening up market activities in a formerly collectivized economy. The district and village authorities represent the state. On the one hand they try to prevent privatization of the common pool resource, but on the other hand they eagerly show a “private” interest of their own. State appropriation of “common pool” resources contributes to unsustainable utilization or conversion to other uses. In China, where a similar situation exists, collective ownership has not been abandoned as a result of the post-Mao rural reforms in the early 1980s, but has resulted in conflicts over the management of collective property (Zhang 2002, 3-21). Party channels intermix with government channels, which makes it very difficult for ordinary citizens to disentangle the two. NGOs are active in this area, like Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Communication Development (MCD), with which I worked for a while.57

8These organizations act strictly within the boundaries of the laws on associations and follow the Party line on “socialization”. “Renovation” means liberalization of market forces and privatization of natural resources. The government apparatus at the village and district level has not changed dramatically. The absence of clearly defined individual rights has led to encroachment on the beaches and mudflats by individual entrepreneurs and collectors. People’s Committees are still the most important representations of state power, but their local autonomy has sometimes been increased with negative consequences. “New winds of change” have forced local authorities to yield to privatization, but will this also benefit the poor sections of the population? The question remains whether or not the activities of the different actors will also lead to better control of the natural resources and, with it, better control of negative ecological consequences, which have not yet been taken into account.

9In the following example I will portray a similar portrait in a recent urbanization process at the southwest side of Hanoi where land conflicts are erupting, accompanied by local organizations acting as counselors to the victims of the forced urbanization, not as opponents of the authorities.

10Vietnam’s vibrant capital Hanoi is a fast-growing city that, since the 1990s, has experienced a continuous rush of building programs and people who are engaged in a frantic scramble for land that is the target for building activities. It was, after the war ended in 1975, still possible for a visitor to leave the city for the relative calm of the countryside within an hour; today large urban and peri-urban infrastructures are laid out in every direction. The village where I lived in 1992 was, under certain conditions, accessible by motorbike within less than an hour; the trip took the traveler into the province of Ha Tay and led along road number 6 and down a short cut along the dike of the Day River to Lang To (Kleinen 1999). Today, one can take a local taxi that brings the visitor to the same place within 30 minutes. During the trip, the passengers not only speed along broad traffic lanes that are crowded with all kind of transport vehicles including the still omnipresent motorcycles, but also see high-rise buildings and blocks of apartments and compartment houses. Street sides are no longer the location of frantic building activities; also the green rice fields of the past have become landscapes where rapid urbanization has thoroughly changed the area’s in-between status as part countryside and part city.

11Villages in the Red River Delta, in the past, exhibited a number of characteristics that were quite unique among communities in the rest of Southeast Asia in that they combined locality and community traits in a rather unique way. Michael Adas’s view (1988) that (northern) Vietnamese villages had a much longer tradition of social cohesiveness compared to neighboring political realms within one of the strongest pre-colonial states of Southeast Asia does not preclude the state’s successful capacity for control and command of resources at the local level. In spite of the dramatic changes of colonial intervention, wars, and the transformation to a form of communist modernity, these villages still bear signs of long and arduous processes of “recycling traditions”, to paraphrase Helen Siu’s concept of the way politics and culture are intertwined with each other (1989).

12In 2013 and 2014, I engaged in a project with Vietnamese researchers to explore the reactions and responses of sub- or peri-urban village communities towards the rapid urbanization of the northern delta of Vietnam. Our goal was to investigate problems of farmers during this process with attention to their professions, livelihoods, and lifestyles. Changes in land use, economic structure, and employment status, and the deterioration of the local ecosystem, were part of the investigation.

13At a more individual level, we were interested in the ways household residents have prepared for these changes and how well they have coped. We also asked about their feelings and responses to the changes. An important factor was whether or not residents’s current coping mechanisms led to practices they had experienced in the past, or did return migration to the rural areas bridge the gap between those who had coped with the rapid economic and social change and those who were left behind (see Rigg 2013). The research also examined the question of sustainable livelihood transformation and social problems among peasants in these communities who lost their agriculture land to urban expansion and sold part of their residential land to pay debts or build their houses. It was hypothesized the people in the village communities were forced to adapt to the pressure of population and land resources; the aim was to understand villagers’ thoughts, experiences, and deepest aspirations about current life and their future as well as how they are prepared to respond to great changes in land, occupation, and lifestyle.

14Our initial research touched marginally upon the relationship between the fast-changing urban environment and the role of civil society. As I have argued from the start, Vietnam diverges from other countries in Southeast Asia in the way civil society today is emerging based upon the historical relationship between the state and the people in Vietnam (Kerkvliet 2003; Koh 2006).

15Civil society, as it exists in Vietnam, takes place within and outside the state, often more within the context of activities of members of the CPV or the mass organizations that maintain close ties to the state. Since đồi mới, the mass organizations especially received increased independence over their management and finance, and more forms of “civil society” or grass-root level organizations were allowed to be established and to operate. In the second decade the relative depoliticizing of the mass organizations have gained greater authority to undertake numerous public affairs activities, and additional forms of civil society organization (see Harms 2013: 55-69 and Nguyen 2013: 87-103). Parenteau and Nguyen (2010) report at length the role and the function of depoliticing of mass organizations to solve matters for local citizens and stakeholders.

16Before the impact of the process of industrialization and urbanization on rural areas, a number of general studies about the socio-economic conditions of the agricultural sector were conducted (Dang Kim Son 2008, Le Du Phong 2007); other studies have focused upon particular areas or regions. We mention here the contributions of Nguyen Ngoc Thanh et al. (2009) about Vinh Phuc in the periphery of Hanoi, and Nguyen Duy Thang (2004) and Tran Duc Vien (2005) about a number of suburban areas around the capital. What these studies had in common was the rapid loss of agricultural land by small landowners. An anthropological or sociological view was expressed by Vu Hong Phong (2006), Ngo Vuong Anh (1998), Tran Hong Yen (2009), and Nguyen Van Suu (2004; 2007; 2008; 2010). In general, most of the authors stress that farmers in peri-urban villages face difficulties to switch from agriculture to non-agriculture as a result of low education and lack of capital. What most of these studies until now did not reveal is a number of coping mechanisms that people develop when they are faced with this new pattern (for a general overview see Labbé and Musil 2014). Nguyen Thi Thanh Binh considers a positive case of conflict resolution in a village in the Red River Delta (Nguyen 2010).

17The urbanization rate is estimated for the same period in terms of conversion of about 11,000 hectares of mainly annual cropland into industrial and urban land, encompassing nearly 2,000 projects. It was feared that an estimated 150,000 farmers will lose their habitual work. In practice, from 2000 to 2004, Hanoi has converted 5,496 hectares of land for 957 projects, and this has had critical consequences for the lives and livelihoods of 138,291 households, among them 41,000 classified as agricultural households.58

18Land appropriation for industrial zone building dates back to the 1990s in Vietnam and has reached by 2005 hundreds of industrial zones all over the country. The last ten years this number has doubled resulting in another 200 industrial zones, which use nation-wide nearly 30,000 hectares of land, along with hundreds of small-medium industrial zones in 47 provinces and cities nation-wide. According to the Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development, the appropriation of such agricultural land in Vietnam between 2001 to 2005 affected 950,000 agricultural laborers in particular and around 2.5 million rural people in general.59 By early 2008, Vietnam marked the 20 year anniversary of it Foreign Investment Law (1987-2007) with a celebration of the outcome of 9,500 investment projects from 82 countries and territories with a total sum of US$98 billion investment capital.

A tale of two villages-Lang To and Lang Lua

19In 2008 Hanoi’s administrative boundary expanded from four urban districts and five rural districts to the whole of Hà Tây Province, the district of Mê Linh of Vῖnh Phúc Province and four communes of Hòa Binh Province. Hanoi’s total area increased to 334,470 hectares, divided into 29 subdivisions, with the new population being 6,232,940. The Hanoi Capital Region (Vùng Thù đô Hà Nội), a metropolitan area covering Hanoi and six surrounding provinces, now under planning, will have an area of 13,436 km² with 15 million inhabitants by 2020, making it the second-largest city of Vietnam.

20In 2008, the southern Saigon Giaphong newspaper described the area southwest of Hanoi as the “most wanted” due to its infrastructure and scheduled urban development projects. Already two important highways have been built: the nearly eight-kilometer Le Van Luong-Road (700 billion VND) parallel with the RN-6 until the River Day to mark Hanoi’s millennium event in 2010, and the Le Trong Tan road that forms with other roads a so-called belt around Hanoi. Le Trong Tan intersects with the Le Van Luong at the villages we studied (Lang Lua, which belongs to Lang Duong, Lang To, and Yen Nghia). The roads are six lanes wide, with a grass median, and sidewalks on either side of the lanes. High-rising buildings have started to appear. Smaller roads lead to gated communities fronted by huge gates. Land prices for these plots skyrocketed from 7-8 million VND (US $438-500) to 12-15 million VND (US $751-938) per square meter.60

21Like many villages in the Red River Delta, Lang To and Lang Lua belong to larger administrative structures, better known as “commune” (xᾶ) where nowadays the official administration is located and where a Peoples Committee and a Peoples Council together represent the one-party state. Communes often encompass several natural villages, which have official status in the administration. For the inhabitants of a natural village, in Vietnamese called thôn or làng, the term “làng” is used with the connotation of being “at home” or “native village” (quê hương in Vietnamese). “Thon” is the administrative term.

22The natural village of Lang Lua is in the Vietnamese press nowadays known as the “Peach Tree Village”, encompassing 100 hectares, named after its cultivation of peach trees, which are fashionable during the Tet season. In (pre-)colonial times the place was one of the seven villages that belonged to a sub-district or canton (tong), which had other natural villages around them. Unlike adjacent Lang To, six of these villages were (and still are to a limited extent) known for the production of natural silk, giving to the central town Ha Dong the generic name of “Ha Dong silk”.

23Both villages are affected by the rapid urbanization and expansion of Hanoi towards the former province of Ha Tay. Lang To got modern housing in its backyard, on the land that belonged to its neighboring village Yen Nghia. Lang Lua became the site of a land rush organized, in the words of locals, by “speculators and investors from Hanoi.” They bought hundreds of square meters of land at VND1.5 - 2 million (US $94 – 125) each and soon they started to sell them for VND2.5 - 3 million (US $156 - 188) per square meter.61 The two major roads that crossed Lang Lua caused a quick transformation of the rural landscape, a change that is now also visible around Lang To.

24In the following paragraphs we will describe this transformation process, with attention to the reactions of the inhabitants to cope with the new situation. In this context we will ask for attention on how citizens were caught in property disputes that originated from state modernization projects (see e.g. Gillespie 2011; 2013 and 2014). The gray area between “state” and “society” will be mapped out with special attention for the roles state agencies and individuals played. We will start with a short analysis of the events in Lang To, which is an example of the way mass organizations and Party members take responsibility and create a civil buffer against the encroachment of the state. Lang Lua is a more complicated story.

Lang To village

25An example of an apparently smoothly adaptation to rapid industrialization and urbanization is the village of Lang To, where I did fieldwork in 1992 and where I have returned on a regular basis since then (Kleinen 1999). The natural village (làng) belongs, along with two other villages, to the larger La commune (xᾶ). The population of the village today numbers over 600 households or 2,300 inhabitants, and has a total agricultural area over 65 hectares (655,200 m²), of which more than 36 hectares (367,200 m²) is rice fields (đất đồng) and the rest (280,000 m²) is riverside land (đât bᾶi). The area for housing and gardens is about 20 hectares. As in the past, the village’s main economic activity is agriculture, giving employment to 58% of the inhabitants; other economic activities include livestock raising, construction work, petty trade, and services (there are about 30 small shops in the villages, while others have found employment in the nearby town of Ha Dong and the city of Hanoi). The former Cooperative has given work to at least ten owners of tractors for transportation and construction, while four households engage in the taxi business. About 12% of the labor force is employed in the local administration including the schools and the police services (local cadres).

26Although the VAC system was quite popular in the past (every household had a pig pen next to its garden), nowadays small industry seems to be rampant. At least six pig-raising households keep over one hundred animals each. Apiculture is also fashionable. While the rice fields have, for many years, constituted about half of the acreage, more and more households experiment with other crops like grapefruit (bưới), which they even sell under a special label. This gives them quite high income (ranging from 10 million to 50 or 80 million VND per year). In addition to the two rice crops per year, villagers grow a winter crop on ten hectares (mostly tomatoes and cash crops). The riverside land area was, ten years ago, used for cash crops like sugar cane, maize, sweet potato, and cassava, but today apples are more profitable, yielding an estimated income between 5 to 6 million VND per sào (360 m²). Measuring and comparing income as an index for inequality is a tricky business in development economics (see Fforde 2013). Village statisticians use Vietnamese definitions of what they label as “poor” and demonstrate that between 2011 and 2013 the number of poor households fell from 23 to 13. Our survey asked households to give a self-assessment, which resulted in a division of 18.6% of households labeling themselves as “rich”, 76.5% as “middle”, and 4.9% as “poor”.

Social structure

27The village administrative unit includes a village head and three hamlet heads. There is also a Party cell and an Agricultural Cooperative (new style) (Hợp tác xᾶ Nông nghiệp). Local public life is divided into two categories of social organizations: social-political and sheer social organizations.62

28The former category is composed of well-known mass organizations like the Fatherland Front and its satellites like the Women’s Union. The latter category is a colorful collection of voluntary organizations whose members share a common past like the Club of Former Soldiers (Câu lạc bộ Cựu quân nhân), or have shared free time interests, like the Folk Singing and Instrumental Performing Club (Câu lạc bộ đàn và hát dân ca) and a Chess Club (Câu lạc bộ cớ tướng). Ritual and social life is organized along voluntary groups that study and perform rituals in the local communal house, like the Committee for Rituals (Ban Khánh Tiết), or are bound by a common cause or age, like the Buddhist Elderly Association for Women (Hội già vᾶi) and other various associations based upon age (Hội đồng niên), or military class (Hội đồng ngũ). There is even a sports club called the Club for Vitality (Câu lạc bộ Dưỡng sink).

29Some clubs and social organizations were formed recently, like the Club of Former Soldiers (Câu lạc bộ Cựu quân nhân) inaugurated in 2006. The Veterans Association is losing members in a natural way because of their age, but those who fought in the border war with China (1979) and the campaign in Cambodia (end of 1978) will join.

30It is noticeable that in Lang To there are quite a lot of Age Associations (groups of people who take their birth year as a generational cultural experience). Any association depends on people to organize it. The members are mostly men. Their activities are holding meetings and social gatherings twice a year. During the village festival, they prepare offerings for the Communal House (dinh). Their aim is to promote sentiment (tình cảm), a key concept in Vietnamese culture. For some, attending this group helps them getting support to find jobs.

31The Fatherland Front is an important link of the local political system; it is a center of unity among the people and a bridge between the Party and the people. The committee in the village consists of fifteen members: one chairman, one vice chairman, and members in each hamlet. Every six months they hold meetings to evaluate the work of the committee. The Front holds an annual Meeting of People’s Representatives at the end of the year. They cooperate with other political social organizations to synchronize their activities in the village.

32The Women’s Union numbers 230 members from three branches in each hamlet of the village. The main purpose of the Women’s Union is to propagandize the policies of Party and State to its members, to encourage women to participate in local activities, help each other develop their household economies, and implement family planning. The Union Committee cooperates with the Social Policy Bank (Ngân hàng chính sách xᾶ hội Việt Nam) to borrow capital for its members.

33The Youth Union (Ðoàn Thanh niên) is a resource branch of the Party cell. The Committee consists of seven members: a secretary, a vice secretary, and other members. They organize social activities for the young people in the village, like football, table tennis, and badminton. Each year summer activities are organized for children, as well as music performances and soccer competitions to celebrate annual occasions like National Day (2 September), Children’s Day (1 June), and Youth Union Day (26 March).

34The Lang To branch of the Veteran Association includes 46 members. Five people are on the executive committee. Their main activities are contextualized by the memories of the past when the national war for independence and liberalization was fought. Meetings on the VN People’s Army Day (22 December) are held to coordinate mutual aid funds for members in dire situations to improve their lives and to visit members on special occasions like sickness and funerals.

35The Farmers Association numbers 190 members, organized into smaller committees. Besides presenting the policies of the State and Party, they also mobilize farmers to receive new technology for improving cultivation and animal husbandry to improve economic effectiveness and people’s lives in general, and cooperating with the Social Policy Bank to lend production capital to Farmers Association members; from 2011 to 2013, 90 members were able to borrow a total of 700 million VND.

36The Elderly Association has 200 members, of whom fifteen are on the board. It has several clubs like the sports or fitness club, chess club, and badminton club to help old people in many ways. Annually, they organize visiting tours for members. They also cooperate with local government to organize a ritual during Tet holiday for celebrating long life and birthdays of people reaching 70, 80, 90 and 100 years of age. Their main activities are visiting ill members and attending its members’ funerals. This association has a fund of 50 million VND.

37In the 2020 master plan of La commune, most of the commune’s agricultural land is envisioned as falling under various projects. The commune is assigned as a strategic part of a project called “Flood Area from the West Lake” (dự án Hồ tiêu úng phía Tây Hà Nội), that started in 1995, carried out by the Hanoi Drainage Company (Công ty thoât nước Hà Nội) of the Department of Agriculture of Hanoi. Around 2005, the pumping system of the canalized Nhue River (also called the Van Khe Canal) that passes along the village was renovated, including a sluice that links this river to the Day River.63 The Nhue is part of an irrigation, drainage, and sewage system, connected with the city of Hanoi and serving surrounding districts with wastewater for irrigation.64 Since the late 1930s a dam further away from the village has affected this river, which has lost its function as a safety valve for the Red River. The riverbed is used as a suitable area for the growing of cash crops. Plans to reopen the Day have existed since the mid-seventies, but until now no essential change has occurred. How the flood area is shaped is still unclear, but a hamlet, Xom Chua, is the possible site of future flood control installations for Hanoi. Therefore half of the households of this hamlet will be relocated in the area of rice field (in front of the Lang To pagoda). These and other plans are part of a general vision for the future, called the “Master Plan of Hanoi by 2030 and a vision to 2050,” announced in 2010, which also concerns the southwest development of the city.65 Construction of housing for low-income people is carried out by the Vietnam Corporation for Construction (Tập đoàn Xây dựng Việt Nam).

38Last year, the People’s Committee of La commune decided to merge different pieces of riverside land (đất bᾶi) of each household into one large parcel. Each inhabitant in Lang To was allocated 144 m² in 1993; on average each household has about 2 sào but divided among about two to three pieces to make sure that all households received equal amounts of the three different quality land areas, such as land at various heights within the river bed/stream area of the former Day River. The land is suitable for cash crops. The more distant from the river, the more fertile the land. The commune has now merged all the land together, dividing it into different large surfaces. Villagers held meetings and they divided the parcel at random by using a ballot system with tickets. The commune made the decision, but the village head and the village Cooperative (new style) organized it. This is the policy “Dồn điền đối thừa” (literally: “the plot is transferred into a plantation”), a form of land consolidation that also means that no compensation is required. By doing this, each household now has a plot of about two sào (one sào is equivalent to 360 m²⁾ to cultivate. People feel happy about this decision as they have something like a garden for the long term. Even if the city takes away their rice fields in the near future, they still have some land to live on. Instead of compensation in terms of better rice fields or job opportunities, villagers opted for keeping alluvial land to grow cash crops.

39This year, the commune will also sell by auction some rice field areas of Lang To and its neighbor Dong Nhan to raise money for the construction of roads, a school, clinics, and other buildings. In 2010, the commune decided to use 2.9 hectares of Lang To rice fields (in front of the village) to build a new Cultural House, a sport stadium, and a kindergarten for the village (this was a direct reaction to prepare for urbanization given that local cadres and people understand they will be urbanized soon so build their public works before losing their land). This means 43 households lost their agricultural land. However, they were compensated with so-called “service land” (đất dịch vụ), a new term for land compensation to replace the requested agricultural land with land where gardening or even construction can take place (according to government regulations). However, this policy was applied differently in each area. In some areas, farmers received money for each sào they ceded to the government together with 10% service land of the area they had lost. In other areas, people got only about 6%.

40In Lang To, the local authorities were quite flexible on this. As the land was taken, the local government had no money because it planned to build a cultural centre and a sports field. People received 50 m² “service land” for each sào (50/360 m²). With this land, villagers could build houses, or sell it for other purposes. The land price was very high at that time, ranging from 14 million VND to 25 million VND / per square meter. Almost 30 households sold this land. With income from selling this land, they could build new houses. It seemed to be easier to accept lower compensation rates when the exchange turned out to be at benefits for the village as a whole like a better access to housing wards or an improvement of infrastructure.66 In 2011 alone, about 40 households in the village built new houses. With the rice field area over the river and the regional railway (đường sắt nối vùng) (which is near the Lang Duong New Urban Area) a new housing area for low income people was planned by the city, but the plan was postponed in the face of the economic crisis. The Vietnam Corporation of Construction was asked to be in charge under the condition that before any activity should take place, prospective owners already take apartments in option. City authorities wanted to avoid the problem of unoccupied new houses, a risk given the weak financial prospects. But people understand that in the near future, they will lose most of their rice fields.

41Like in Lang Lua, City Belt No. 4 (đường vành đai 4) will be built in the near future and will cut the village into two, as the existing railway has done already. Some families will lose their residential land and a portion of agricultural land will also be lost for this project. People said that the extended Le Trong Tan road would also be built; the road will connect the hamlet of Dong Nam, which is part of Lang To, with Ha Dong Town. In short, so far, Lang To villagers have only contributed less than three hectares of the agricultural land for building public works. Several projects were proposed but, given the economic crisis, none have been implemented so there has been no encroachment yet.

Land sales

42Between 2009 and 2011 the land fever around Hanoi in areas like Trung Van, Yen Nghia, and Lang Duong affected the village of Lang To directly when it turned out that the received compensation was invested in Lang To and its neigbouring hamlets. Real estate speculators from outside the village (các nhà đầu tư bất động sản) borrowed money from the bank to buy land and drive the land market to higher prices.67 They aimed rice fields in order to transform it into service land for housing or industrial projects or waited for expropriation to receive compensation.

43People bought land for speculation to build country houses in the village and offered them to city dwellers, while Lang To families offered residential land for this purpose. Our survey revealed that 30% of all the households we interviewed, i.e., 102 households, had less than 150 m²; 29% occupied between 151 and 230 m², while 41% had more than 230 m². Some families sold their land to pay debts and many sold land to build new houses. Thirty households sold their service land, which they had bought using the compensation they had received. Fifty households sold portions of their residential land. People cut off between 50-100 m² from their residential land for sale. It became known that a few men gambled with the land so that in the end, they had to build houses on agricultural land.

44In Lang Lua, those who had received compensation for their land, were able to build houses with two and even three floors. In Lang To only 57% of households were able to build new multi-floor houses, mostly due to the sale of service and residential land. People often spent between 500 million VND and 1 billion VND to build houses. Since 2000, an estimated number of 75 families have sold their rice field and riverside land, and even their residential plots, on the land market. The main purpose was to raise money to pay debts (sometimes as a result of gambling) or to get money for medical treatment, or to build houses. This is also the number of households in the village that have male members indebted as a result of gambling.

Villagers’ point of view on urbanization

45When asked how they perceive the rapid urbanization, one third of our respondents explained that they had experienced more difficulties since the city of Hanoi expanded; one-fifth asserted that they had better prospects; but nearly half regretted the development that had brought negative and positive results.

46Those who have jobs outside agriculture stated that their lives had improved since they had left their former profession. A majority of the villagers, however, voiced their worries about the prospect of losing land in the near future, fearing an unstable income outside their agrarian jobs. Selling vegetables or fruits still guarantees a stable income, they remarked. If the government allows them to transform the rice fields into land for cash crops or fruit gardens, they expect a higher income. Some even calculate that with the present compensation fees (about 360 million VND per sào), it is just worth two or three years’ income of selling grapefruits and other fruits.

47Since the district of Hoai Duc became again part of the greater city of Hanoi, most villagers say that the city has invested more in rural transportation and sanitation, but at an unequal and sometimes slow rate. They expect more fundamental changes in the future regarding their infrastructure.

48Some people complain about the bad consequences of the rapid urbanization, such as more “social evils” and the presence of newcomers who were not part of the village or who were not related to the village in any way.

49If villagers lose land, they need to be provided with jobs. Villagers do not want to lose land for new apartments, which would means that there would be no jobs for them. Some of them want to have universities and factories surrounding the village to bring jobs. In short, people think urbanization is basically good, to improve their infrastructure, but ideally people want to keep land to grow flowers and grapefruits for the city.

Role of social organizations

50Lang To did not yet lose land until now for urbanization projects. Its social organizations were not involved in land issues (as compared to elsewhere). Their boards played and still play quite important roles in village affairs. Individual members were acting on their own. In the past, whenever a decision was made, like the construction of a village road, selling small pieces of village land to generate money to repair the pagoda or the village kindergarten, a special meeting was organized, literally called the Political-Military People’s Meeting (Hội nghị Quân-Dân-Chính đảng), a term that dates back to the days after the August Revolution in 1945, referring to the unity between the army and the people (read the Communist Party).

51In Lang To, the absence of a military chapter brings the representatives from the Party and the mass organizations together. Meetings like this get the description, “emergency meetings”. Whenever the village built, for instance, a road or an irrigation system, about ten non-Party members were involved to supervise the work. It was difficult for contractors to corrupt the contracts. For example, the purchase of 40 m² land (in front of the village well) in 2012, was discussed in that kind of meeting and it was decided the price need to be in balance with the market price. Whenever the village repaired at high costs the Buddhist pagoda or the communal house, representatives of villagers could join in and make sure there was little corruption in the work.

52About land encroachment, so far, many members of the Party, like the former chairwoman of the People’s Committee, retired teachers, and even the village head, have always raised their voices in important meetings of the commune to insist that they do not want to lose land to private companies. Thus, they really want local government to sell land according to the regulations in the law and have the commune use the resulting revenue to invest in local infrastructure. About social organizations, they are really voluntary groups. They do not care much about political issues in the village. Their members care more about sentiment and social networks as social capital.

Lang Lua village

53Lang Lua is a cluster of 20 hamlets (xóm) encompassed within two village entities-La Nội and Y La-both dating back to the sixteenth century. Even though the two were split into councils and authorities, they shared a communal house, pagodas, village customary laws, and an annual festival. In their common activities, members of La Nội are often considered “elder brothers”, seated on a higher rank and to be the first in full-filling obligations compared to the same age-members of Ỷ La village. The guardian of the communal house is for that reason usually an elderly of La Nội.

54The area’s tradition fame for production of silk is proudly expressed in the saying, “silk gauze from La [Lua], silk from Van [Phuc], and cloth from Canh [Vân]” (The La, lụa Vạn, vải Canh), three handicraft villages around Ha Dong. In the past, men took care of agriculture while women concentrated on weaving. After the August Revolution (1945), this traditional weaving disappeared. During the socialist period of subsidized economy (1954-1986), Lang Lua villagers developed woven products for export to Eastern Europe. After đồi mới, some families restored the practices of weaving and dying on a large scale. They bought machines and materials from southern Vietnam and established workshops in the village. There are about twenty workshops in the village at the moment. The merger of Lang Duong commune with Ha Dong Town and the subsequent attachment to Hanoi made Duong Village a larger commune.

55Located in the west of Hanoi, Ha Dong District saw urbanization take place very quickly: between 2005 and 2010, new roads and housing projects were implemented at high speed. Lang Lua is close to Provincial Road No. 70, which connects Ha Dong and Sơn Tây. It is over 1 km from from Láng-Hòa Lac Highway (presently Thang Long Highway). Notably, Lê Trọng Tấn Road68 was extended and widened in 2007. The road cuts the village into two. The Lê Vᾰn Lương Road,69 on tourist maps also known as To Huu Road, is named after national poet-laureate To Huu (1920-2002); the road runs from Cau Giay and Thanh Xuan Districts in Hanoi until it reaches the village of Yen Nghia, near the Day River. Le Van Luong road is considered a standard urban road, which will become the main road of Ha Dong district.

56Construction of the roads did not lead to the usual “site clearance” (giải toả) that took place elsewhere, because the area was sparsely built, but instead affected mainly agricultural land holdings. In 2007, a small, unknown area of agricultural land was lost for the construction of another road that crossed Le Van Luong, the Le Trong Tan road. The State public works authorities offered at a low rate compensation for the land: 47 million VND per sào or about 13 million VND per square meter.70 A very small number of residential plots were taken. On March 25, 2010, however, one major incident hit the international press, with video of protests posted on YouTube, when villagers of Lang Duong tried to stop the destruction of a cemetery on a projected land track for the road that cut Lang Lua into two. An excavator of a road construction company hit a protester severely who was trying to stop the work. Deadly accidents also happened when young children and workers became the victims of unsafe working environments and sloppy road building when sink holes collapsed after heavy raining.71

57Before and during the road construction, local developers approached village authorities to acquire land for building activities. They worked closely with the district officials from a specially created Management Board that resides in the town of Ha Dong (Ban Quản lý dự án quận Hà Đông).72 As Nguyen van Suu has commented:

“In this way, state authorities remain the institution that have a final decision on land seizure, including the location, area of land, level of compensation, etc., however, the seizure is only being conducted once the entrepreneur has achieved the agreement from the holder of land-use rights, i.e. the farmer. Despites these conflicts over appropriations of and compensation for land-use rights remain a burning question in Vietnam. In 2008, therefore, the Government employs a pilot way of land seizure: Establishing a Company of Land Seizure and Compensation in the hope to build a mediate institution between the holders of land use rights and other parties who want to use the land to smooth the expropriation of land” (2009: 112).

58In the Lang Lua and Lang To area, among the firms and companies that were and still are active as project developers and construction builders are Nam Cướng Corporation (Tập đoàn Nam Cướng),73 Ha Long Investment & Development Co. Ltd,74 the Joint Stock Company An Hung,75 and Vietnam International School.76 It is interesting to note that Nam Cuong and Ha Long began their existence as state owned enterprises (SOEs) in completely different fields of business, like producing and delivering fertilizer, salt, and seafood in the coastal province of Nam Dinh, before they entered the real estate market in and around the capital Hanoi. In the area in which the roads are constructed at least 15 projects are executed or being prepared for building apartment housing, low cost housing, offices, and other facilities within the Green Belt developing that falls under the Hanoi master plan that dates back from 1997 and has since then been modified several times.

59The biggest project is Lang Duong New Urban Centre (KDTM or Khu Đô thị mới Dương Nội), which has an area of 197 hectares. It consists of a service complex, shopping centers, hotels, offices, high-ranking houses, and a hospital.77 The main developer is the Nam Cuong group. A similar complex is the An Hung New Urban Center (Khu đô thị mới An Hưng) encompassing 30 hectares, north of Lang Lua and the intersection of the roads.78 The Joint Venture An Hung is investing here together with the Indonesian firm Ciputra, which also invested in the Thang Long International City project near Noi Bai.79

60In early 2008, rumor had it that most of the village land would be requested for the building roads and for housing projects. Meetings were held by the village authorities to announce the policy of Ha Dong Town, where the capital of Ha Tay Province was located at the time having not yet merged with Hanoi. People discussed a lot about the compensation policy (see, e.g., Kim 2011: 493) and the government gave back 10% service land plus 201,600 VND per square meter and financial compensation for crops that no longer could be earned.80 Also some compensation was offered for job training services. Counted per sào, villagers received 86 million VND (more than 4,000 US $ in 2008) for compensation. Villagers started to compare with their neighboring village La Khê, where for the same project 97 million VND per sào was paid. La Khê was already a ward of Ha Dong Town while Lang Lua Village, being part of Lang Duong commune, was still a rural commune in the district of Hoai Duc. The land values of urban and rural areas were thus considered different.

61In the eyes of the state authorities, location, area, and the level of compensation are considered from the idea that the farmers only have use rights, not property rights. Meanwhile, Lang Lua villagers demurred at this higher amount not only because their lands were just adjacent to each other, but also they pointed out that La Khe’s rice land was less valuable than land for the cash crops and trees that Lang Lua produced.81 Another bone of contention was thus the fact that in Lang Lua 6.8% service land (đât dịch vụ) was offered as compensation instead of the 10% that was given elsewhere.82 For unclear reasons, the road construction was accounted as urban infrastructure and its 3.8% was deducted from the promised 10%. Concrete offers to provide jobs as replacement for the loss of land remained vague. Beginning in March 2008, villagers gathered at various places in the village to discuss the matter, eventually deciding not to cede agricultural land to the project in return for compensation.

62During the interviews with villagers in 2013, many respondents showed an ambivalent attitude towards the past. At least one-third of the population had already engaged in trade or other non-agricultural activities. From what we heard, it turned out that their interest in the compensation scheme was minimal, though some opted for compensation. However, they kept quiet when most of the villagers expressed their uneasiness about the compensation scheme. The result was that mainly those who had agricultural land contested the compensation program. For that reason they showed up in great numbers at the People’s Committee to display their uneasiness with the local authorities.

63Deliberations took place between the local authorities and a delegation of three villagers who were assigned as representatives of the villagers. The answer of local authorities did not satisfy villagers, so they kept returning to the offices repeatedly and accused them of getting money from the Nam Cướng Company, the biggest real estate developer in the area. There was a widespread mistrust among the protesters about the involvement of local Party cadres in the affair. Rumors that better lands were promised, offers of goodies and money, and even outright bribes became the talk of the day. In fact, Nam Cuong and some other companies had supported the Women’s Union and the Youth Union by donating amounts of 5 to 10 million VND to support for special occasions. Villagers criticized the leaders of these organizations for taking bribes. Villagers surrounded the office building in protest to question and criticize local cadres. Except some key leaders who took care of the office everyday, most of the personnel of social organizations in the commune were unable to work for several months. The protests extended to the provincial capital Hadong and even to Hanoi. In the village, people were very interested in the details of the protests (even if they did not call it as such), and they were eager to join any meeting held by the hamlet. Whenever any social organization held a meeting to implement any activity at the request of higher-level authorities, villagers took over the meeting to focus upon the land compensation question. Local leading cadres tried to mediate between the farmers and the authorities. Cadres sometimes felt caught in the middle, realizing that they also had to communicate and facilitate the government’s policies.

64Except for the Youth Union, all the mass organizations’ members were interested in the land issue. Among them, members of the Women’s Union and the Farmer Association were the most active participants in the protests. These two organizations often raised the question of proper compensation price and job training for those who had lost. The protest was vast and widespread if one realizes that the majority of villagers depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Some Party members also sympathized with these people, but could not openly admit it. The majority tried to hold the lines by declaring that they were determined to keep the land. Some hamlets even issued a resolution that those who would not join the protest or receive the compensation, could no longer count upon support when their families encounter difficulties due to funerals.

65After questioning local government, villagers went several times to Ha Dong Town and Hanoi to submit petitions, sometimes with hundreds of people. Normally, each family had to send one member to join. With the exception of families of cadres and Party members, most families joined the movement. Strangely, local newspapers did not report the issue, but outside the capital it was picked up by, among others, Saigon Giaphong. The Internet was widely used (see list of relevant YouTube reports in example footnotes 68 and 80). The protesters realized that success only was guaranteed when local cadres were on their side. Thus, their main aim was exerting pressure, not letting the cadres or anyone receive compensation. In fact, local cadres were caught in between. This created a deadlock that at persisted for at least a year. By the end of 2008, a new chairman was sent to Lang Duong from Ha Dong Town to replace the old chairman who had died of cancer. Only then was there a change in the situation. Village cadres were the first to receive money; some of them dared to tell surrounding people about their decision, some did not. In 2009, some random villagers received money. This caused tension in some families because some wives did not want to receive money but their husbands, under certain pressure or due to others’ advice, decided to get money behind the wives’ backs. Or the father did not want to get money but his son went to get it.

66By the end of 2009, there was an announcement that the government would only pay during one week, and if people did not show up, the money would be transferred to the State’s treasury, where it eventually could be claimed. This was not exceptional, because the same strategy was used in other villages around Ha Dong (e.g., in Dong Mai commune). There were also allegations that anyone who accepted the compensation would receive the allocated service land at a good location and against a good price. All these made villagers join a crowd to demand the money from hamlet’s head. It apparently worked because by 2010, only 300 households of Lang Duong had not yet received money. Among them, only 30 households came from Lang Lua, while the others were La Duong households. These people continue their protest.

67At the moment (2013 - 2014) the problem is still not solved: 30 households of Lang Lua and over 100 households of La Duong continue to keep their land, still sending petitions to various government offices. They even put blogs on Internet.83 The group from Lang Lua have reduced their protest demand to 10% service land (instead of the 6.2% that their fellow villagers accepted) while La Duong protesters do not want to lose their land at all.

68After receiving money, each household in Lang Lua joined a ballot system to receive their allocated service land. Depending of the number of household members who got land after 1993, the amount of service land varied. In Lang Lua, each inhabitant received 264 m² of agricultural land in 1993. With the policy of 6.5% of service land, each of them got about 17 m² of service land. Therefore, people must share with others in their families. Villagers had to find relatives and friends to share. If these people could not be found, the local government helped out. Service land was concentrated in three areas surrounding the village.

69From 2010 to 2012, given the land fever, Lang Lua people could sell their service land ranging from 20 to 40 million VND per square meter. Half of all the households sold their service land and the majority used the money to build new houses. That is why the village looks really spacious now. People also spent the compensation money (87 million VND per sào) on the fees for building infrastructure for the new area of service land (2 million VND per square meter). Some families used their money to buy land in neighboring Lang To or more distant villages.

70One-third of the Lang Lua households trade for a living. Many of them earned enough to buy land from their fellow villagers. Therefore, among a 50% of service-land receivers who sold land, three-fifths (or 60%) sold to fellow villagers and two-fifths (or 40%) sold to outsiders.

71As Lang Lua villagers have less residential land (đất ồ) than Lang To villagers, this land was rarely sold. Just about 50 households totally sold their 5% land (private land dating back from the collectivization period) or land too close to the residential area that was not taken by project developers. So far, Lang Lua people have experienced anxiety during 2008-2009, replaced by a feeling of “rocking the boat” (con thuyền bồng bềnh) when they received a large amount of money in 2010. Most people say today that they still have not recovered from the shock of receiving such large amounts of money.

72What people still regret was that the compensation policy was not consistent, differing from locality to locality. Their protests were motivated by these differences. Secondly, the policy was not clear or thorough. The project took 90% of the people’s land. Some people have not lost a single square meter of land, but they suffered from changes in the land situation in that the irrigation system was affected. Meanwhile, unlike others, they have no money from compensation to improve their lives.

73Among those who continue to protest by not giving land and those who agreed to give land under certain circumstances but the project did not accept, there are two different points of view to discern. Some villagers say they will lose money because they might receive lower compensation in the future, given that the recent compensation policy of the government has changed. There will no longer be a service land policy, they fear. Other villagers believe that if the government will not or cannot take the land, it might let people to transform that land to become service land. This would mean people could build houses or do other things on that land after paying the State a certain amount of money in return. In 2002, the total agricultural land area of Lang Duong commune was 386 hectares. In 2011, only 24.54 hectares were left.

74The conflict created a sense of uneasiness among the villagers. It split the village community into supporters and opponents of the government compensation policy. The latter group was surely a minority (estimated at 30 households out of 1,000 in Lang Lua) that kept protesting. In spite of threatening holdouts with social exclusion, most of the Lang Lua villagers accepted their right to protest, and social events like funerals and weddings were not influenced by the division among the villagers. On occasions of official celebrations, like Women’s Day on 8 March, only supporters of the compensation scheme showed up, leaving the opponents with a feeling of frustration.

75Apart from these personal consequences, Lang Lua and Lang To villagers have profited from the wave of protests against land compensation that took place in Vietnam the last decade. In some cases government officials tried to negotiate with local representatives and in other case disputes were settled. The National Assembly adapted the Law on Land in 2012 and the powerful Government Inspectorate reported that nearly 50% of all the complaints regarding land issues were justified or merited closer scrutiny.84