12 - Strangers on the Road: Foreign Religious Organizations and Development in Vietnam

Summary

Introduction

When news of the disaster in Tân Cảnh village reached the office of “Protestant Aid”, the project officer, Mr Ðỗ, left immediately with his assistant and driver in their white Land Cruiser. It was early in the morning, yet there were already many people on the road. When Mr Ðỗ stopped by the side of the road to ask for directions to Tân Cảnh, another car went by with several white faces inside and an unfamiliar logo on the side door. Mr Ðỗ did not recognize them, and the car passed on. Less than a minute later, a second car pulled up alongside the Land Cruiser. In the back seat were two monks in orange robes. Mr Ðỗ did not recognize them either, and the car passed on. Following them, a third car with tinted windows and blue license plates travelled down the road. Mr Ðỗ could not see inside the car, and it too passed on.

Having found the correct way to Tân Cảnh, Mr Ðỗ stopped in a field near the village gate. To his amazement, not only were the three cars that passed him on the road parked nearby, but several other vehicles and dozens of motorbikes as well. Some of these were marked with organizational names and symbols; others were unmarked. “Who are all these people?” he asked himself. From one of the unmarked cars, a well-dressed Asian stepped out carrying two large suitcases. Mr Ðỗ had brought nothing but his notebook. At this point, he wondered if he should go on.

Mr Ðỗ's fictional predicament is becoming increasingly common in Vietnam. Of course, not all communities in need attract as many good Samaritans as the one in this retold parable. However, hundreds of foreign religious organizations are currently operating in different ways, alongside greater numbers of secular non-governmental organizations (NGOs), larger multilateral and bilateral development programmes, and existing programmes of the Vietnamese state. This expansion of development and charitable activity has occurred quietly since the mid-1990s, paralleling rapid growth in domestic religion.