2024-04-11 23:57:38
This is an affair that shakes Vietnam to its foundations. Truong My Lan, a respected billionaire, was sentenced to death for embezzling the equivalent of 6% of the country’s GDP. An unprecedented financial scandal that raises many questions about the integrity of the Vietnamese economic system.
25 billion euros evaporated
The amount of the embezzlement is dizzying: 25 billion euros, or approximately 16,400 billion CFA francs. An astronomical sum which represents 6% of Vietnam’s Gross Domestic Product. It’s as if an individual had managed to steal 6% of all the wealth produced by the country in one year. A theft on the scale of a nation which leaves you speechless in its scale and audacity.
From success to disgrace
Truong My Lan was not unknown in Vietnam. This brilliant businesswoman had built a flourishing industrial empire, becoming one of the leading figures of Vietnamese capitalism. A success story that made the country proud, until the scandal broke and revealed a much darker side. Behind the mask of success was in reality an unparalleled manipulator who did not hesitate to betray the trust of an entire people to enrich herself.
The death penalty, a punishment worthy of the crime?
Faced with the enormity of the embezzlement, the Vietnamese justice system chose the supreme sanction: the death penalty. A punishment that may seem disproportionate, but which reflects the shock and anger of a nation at what is seen as a real betrayal. By sentencing Truong My Lan to the death penalty, Vietnam is sending a clear message: corruption and embezzlement will no longer be tolerated, regardless of the status of the culprit.
An economic system to rethink
Beyond the individual case of Truong My Lan, the entire Vietnamese economic system is called into question. How could a diversion of such magnitude have taken place without alerting the supervisory authorities? What are the flaws that allowed this businesswoman to play like this with public money? So many questions that call for a thorough overhaul of the surveillance and regulation mechanisms of the Vietnamese economy.
The specter of the crisis of confidence
Because this scandal is not without consequences for Vietnam. It is the very confidence of citizens in their economic and political system that is shaken. If even the richest people can engage in such abuses with complete impunity, what credibility can be given to the institutions supposed to protect the general interest? A doubt which could have lasting repercussions on the stability and prosperity of the country if nothing is done to restore confidence.
The Truong My Lan affair is a real earthquake for Vietnam. It reveals the gaping flaws of a system that has allowed a handful of individuals to enrich themselves disproportionately to the detriment of the community. It poses with new acuteness the question of the moralization of economic life and the responsibility of elites.
But it is also, paradoxically, an opportunity. An opportunity to clean up, to start again on healthier, more transparent, more equitable bases. An opportunity to show that Vietnam is capable of reinventing itself to build an economy that serves all, not just a few.
This is all the bad we wish for this great country. And it’s a lesson we all need to ponder, wherever we are. Because the temptation of personal enrichment in disregard of the general interest has no borders. It is a constant fight, which involves the responsibility of each of us.