At the end of the Lunar New Year 2024, the Ministry of Public Security announced a new form of ID card, replacing the citizen ID form.
Thanh Nien newspaper reported on February 11 “The Ministry of Public Security proposes a new ID card model.” The news said that in order to comply with the provisions of the Law on Identification, the Ministry of Public Security proposed a new form of identification card to replace the currently effective citizen identification card.
Thus, this is the 7th time that the identification documents of Vietnamese citizens have been changed, and people have had to get a new personal document again, within the past 10 years. This is also the second time people have to replace their ID cards with new ones, within 3 years, starting from 2021.
Vietnamese social networks are once again on the rise. Many opinions say that the Ministry of Public Security is still not tired of working with the people. Nearly 50 years after 1975, making ID cards for the people is still not finished.
Constantly changing the form of citizens’ identification documents not only angers the public, but also angers the state-run press. Tien Phong Newspaper on October 22, 2023 asked the question: “What benefits does changing the name ‘Citizen Identification’ to ‘ID’ bring to the people?”
Similarly, on social networks, many dissatisfied people said, “Before doing this, the Ministry of Public Security should think carefully, then do it just once” or many people complained “For several years now I’m wasting my time with this card”…
According to observers, Vietnam’s state-controlled media once revealed interesting information, that is, to date, there have been nearly 80 million chip-embedded citizen identification cards issued to people by the Ministry of Public Security.
Does that have anything to do with the information on the Viet Tan Party’s Fanpage, accordingly, author Hanh Nhan said:
“A source said that the party making the software and providing plastic blanks is the nephew of the head of the Ministry of Public Security. In recent years, people’s taxes have poured in VND3 trillion ($40 million) every year.”
Not only citizen identification cards, but also other forms of documents managed and issued by the Ministry of Public Security, such as driver’s licenses, passport forms… are also corrected by the Ministry of Public Security continuously, in a short time, for many different confusing reasons.
Analysts commented that for each ID card blank, the Ministry of Public Security only needs to increase the price by VND1,000, equivalent to about $0.04, which if multiplied by 80 million blanks, will be a not small amount of money. That has made public opinion suspicious and questioned, is it profiteering by interest groups within the Ministry of Public Security, when constantly changing identification forms?
Commenting on the “roundabout” of this identification document system, lawyer Ngo Anh Tuan commented:
“Every leader comes up with changes and wants to leave some mark during their term. However, instead of leaving a good mark, it leaves blemishes. I think they go around because of the perception from the leadership and also from the advisory board.”
The above opinion is consistent with the assessment of public opinion, which believes that this is a small matter, but has revealed a short-sighted thinking, lack of vision and instability, of the current Vietnamese state apparatus. At the same time, it is also irresponsible, not only causing damage to the budget, but also bringing inconvenience to the people.
The fact that Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security constantly changes the form of identification documents for citizens, causing too much trouble, has also attracted international media attention.
BBC Vietnamese in a report said that they have consulted on making ID cards for citizens in Thailand.
Accordingly, citizen cards in Thailand have changed 5 times since 1943. In 2009, Thai citizen cards changed from plastic cards to embedded with chips and barcodes, called smart cards.
BBC said, “Thai colleagues told us that the card making process takes just over 10 minutes, and they have not had to change any cards since 2009.”
Public opinion believes that the BBC’s comparison with Thailand shows even more clearly that the methods and management of the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security are too complicated. Today, it draws this, tomorrow it shows something else, just to make money to share, causing costs to people and society. All are within a common policy, which is to “pick people’s pockets” for profit.
Associate Professor, Dr. Mac Van Trang from Saigon, wrote on his personal Facebook page, that “From the day of the ‘Revolution’ until now, everything moves according to the law of ‘slow lights,’ running blindly but after turn around, then return to the original place.
Most recently, journalist Nguyen Thong from Saigon, in a status titled “Again” posted on his personal page, exclaimed:
“The fact that the Ministry of Public Security has proposed a new form of identification to be applied from July 1 of this year, to replace the currently used citizen identification form, with the reason of being consistent with the Law on Identification, there is truly nothing left to say because it’s over.
And if you guys have any other plans, just do it as soon as possible, but every few years, it’s too tiring.
What needs to be replaced is not the card, but the ruler’s mind.”/.
Tra My – Thoibao.de
