Campaign Letter No.4: Team Chung Sức Vì Cộng Đồng Confuses Key Concepts and Misreads the Constitution
CAMPAIGN LETTER NUMBER 4
Liên Danh Xây Dựng và Phát Triển Cộng Đồng (Build and Develop Community Team)
The Chung Sức Vì Cộng Đồng Team (Unite for Community) Confuses Key Concepts and Misreads the Constitution
Dear Community Members,
The Chung Sức Team recently published an article titled “The Meaning of Our Team’s Name and Our Four Directions,” opening with the following statement:
“The community is not just the leaders in the Executive Committee, nor is it confined within the walls of the Community Activity Centre (Đền Thờ Quốc Tổ) The community is every person of Vietnamese origin (as stated in the Constitution from the very beginning)…”
This statement, while sounding inclusive and open minded, in fact confuses entirely different concepts and misuses the Constitution in a highly selective way. We are writing to set the record straight.
1. Why We Are Publishing This Letter
We are publishing this letter for five reasons.
· First, to rebut the Chung Sức Team’s argument and help voters see clearly the confusion, or deliberate substitution of concepts, in their opening statement.
· Second, to explain to our community the important distinction between the Vietnamese Community in Australia Victoria Chapter as a formal organisation and the broader Vietnamese community as general, a distinction many may not have considered before.
· Third, to remind our community of the serious threat posed by Decision 1334, showing that blurring the boundaries of who belongs to our Community is not harmless and may in fact serve the interests of communist infiltration, whether or not the Chung Sức Team intends this.
· Fourth, to affirm the legitimacy and importance of the 2024 Constitution recently passed by our Vietnamese Community in Australia Victoria Chapter (VCA-Vic), and to recognise the contributions of the Constitution Amendment Committee.
· Fifth, to lay an ideological foundation for future terms: that our refugee identity, the Yellow Flag and our anti-communist stance are not optional extras but the inseparable soul of the VCA-Vic.
2. The Community and community: Two Entirely Different Concepts
The Community (VCA-Vic), when written with capital letters, is a formal organisation with a name, a charter, a symbol, a Constitution and a history spanning more than fifty years. It was established in Victoria on 10 February 1976 as the first organisation of Vietnamese refugees from communism in this state, and was officially registered with the State Government on 31 March 1987.
The Community holds a firm and unwavering anti-communist position enshrined in its Constitution. Its symbol is the Yellow Flag with Three Red Stripes of the Republic of Vietnam and its National anthem, which are the soul and identity of the Community.
The Community is open and democratic: all Vietnamese Australian citizens living in Victoria who agree with its charter and Constitution and who honour the Yellow Flag are entitled to participate in elections for the Executive Committee and to vote at general meetings.
The clearest proof of this is the Executive Committee election held on 18 September 2022, in which more than 2,500 voters participated in an orderly and serious democratic process( Build and Develop Community Team: 1,523 votes, Restore and Develop Team: 878 votes, With over 150 informal votes), something unmatched by other ethnic community in Victoria.
By contrast, the Vietnamese community in lowercase refers to all people of Vietnamese origin living in Victoria, estimated at more than 130,000 people. This broader group has no charter, no constitution and no legal standing.
It is precisely because the Vietnamese Community in Australia Victoria Chapter is the largest organisation, with a history of more than half a century and a system of free universal suffrage, that its Executive Committee is recognised by the Australian Government as the official representative of all Vietnamese people in Victoria.
3. The Community Constitution from 2012 to 2024: A Historic Step Forward
On 10 November 2023, Tran Luu Quang, Deputy Prime Minister of communist Vietnam, signed Decision 1334, which explicitly stated the goal of “consolidating networks of overseas Vietnamese around the world” and “establishing associations wherever there are large Vietnamese communities.” This is not idle talk. It is a systematic plan of infiltration by the communist authorities directed squarely at Free Vietnamese communities around the world, including our own.
It was in this context that the 2024 Constitution was drafted as a protective shield against Decision 1334 and similar threats.
The credit for completing the 2024 Constitution belongs to the Constitution Amendment Committee, whose members volunteered their time and dedication in service to the community: Committee Chair Mr Nguyen Duy Nhac, Deputy Chair and Secretary Mrs Marie Trieu, Member Mr Nguyen Tan Hai (Lawyer) and Member Mr Nguyen Huu Thien.
After months of legal research, community consultation and public circulation through the press, the 2024 Constitution was passed by the community with 75.15 percent of votes in favour at the Constitution Amendment General Meeting on 23 November 2024. It is the democratic will of the collective, not of any individual or executive committee.
The 2024 Constitution closed extremely dangerous loopholes in the 2012 Constitution that could have been exploited by communist interests. The 2012 Constitution defined individual members simply as “Vietnamese Australian citizens residing in Victoria,” with no conditions regarding acceptance of the charter, honouring the Yellow Flag or political stance. Regarding eligibility to stand for election, it only excluded those who were bankrupt, serving a criminal sentence or had been dismissed.
The 2024 Constitution states clearly that members must “support the purposes and accept and respect the principles, charter, symbol of the Yellow Flag and the Constitution of the VCA-Vic.” Candidates for the Executive Committee must meet seven conditions, most notably: they must hold a pro-freedom and pro-democracy political stance and have no affiliation with the communist party; they must support our refugee identity and the Yellow Flag; and they must be independent of all political parties during their term.
When the Chung Sức Team invokes “the Constitution from the very beginning” to argue that every person of Vietnamese origin is a member of the VCA-Vic, they are clinging to the very shortcomings of the 2012 Constitution, shortcomings that the 2024 Constitution was carefully drafted to remedy.
When the foundational concepts are this inaccurate, the remaining arguments in the Chung Sức Team’s article simply cannot stand.
4. Conclusion
A doctor who loudly declares “no red flag and no Yellow Flag either,” or a person who boasts of having contributed the most to the community yet at times speaks of “raising the flag of rebellion to create a new Community” and waves a tricolour flag of white (surrender), red (communism) and yellow (freedom) — if these people have read this letter and retain any sense of honour, they will not participate in this election. The reasons have been explained above.
Regrettably, both of these individuals are publicly supporting the Chung Sức Team, and the Chung Sức Team is enthusiastically courting their votes.
Our Team stands for building a Vietnamese Community in Australia Victoria Chapter that brings together Vietnamese people who left their homeland for the sake of freedom. We hold firm to a position of no reconciliation with communism in any form and with anyone who advocates reconciliation with communism. Our record of service to the community has demonstrated this consistently.
Dear Community Members, each of your votes in the upcoming election is not merely a choice of executive committee. It is an affirmation and a defence of the identity and ideals of the Vietnamese Community in Australia Victoria Chapter in the face of the threat posed by Decision 1334 and the communist determination to bring our community under their influence.
On Sunday 28 June 2026, we respectfully invite you to cast your vote for Team Number 1: Build and Develop Community, a vote to keep our Organisation forever a community of Free Vietnamese people.
We also invite you to follow the official page of the Build and Develop Community Team on Facebook for updates on the election for the Executive Committee for the 2026 to 2030 term.
Liên Danh Xây Dựng Và Phát Triển Cộng Đồng
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Yours sincerely,
Nguyen Quang Duy
Team Authorised Representative and incumbent President
Vietnamese Community in Australia Victoria Chapter
