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Vietnam’s Communist rulers, who pay official homage to the legacy of Lenin while merrily consuming the fruits of a much-liberalised economy, have delivered peace and bread to their people.

But the third element of Lenin’s famous promise – land – remains a deeply contentious issue in a country where social inequality is increasing alongside prosperity.

That is why Nguyen Tan Dung, Vietnam’s prime minister and the leading light of the ruling troika, has moved quickly to draw a line under the most high-profile land dispute in recent years.

Late on Friday, Dung unveiled the outcome of an unusually speedy investigation into the case of Doan Van Vuon, a farmer whose family deployed a shotgun and improvised explosive devices to fight back against 100 police and local officials who had come to confiscate his land in early January.

Vuon’s case quickly became a cause celebre, as many sympathised with his frustration with greedy local officials and the lack of avenues for proper legal redress. With courts controlled by the ruling Communist party and land law unclear, there are plenty of opportunities for abuse by officials in league with developers.

Dung said the local authorities in Vuon’s city of Haiphong had made mistakes in the way they allocated and attempted to confiscate his land. He also criticised local officials for demolishing Vuon’s house, a charge they had previously denied.

The prime minister said these “extenuating circumstances” should be taken into account when Vuon and some of his family members face trial for charges equivalent to attempted murder.

Dung ordered Vietnam’s 63 provinces to resolve future land disputes more fairly and called for expedited reform of Vietnam’s ambiguous land laws, which allow people to hold and trade “land use rights” but insist that all land is still owned by the state.

The prime minister admitted that while the land laws have been improved since Vietnam began opening up its economy in the late 1980s, many of the hundreds of legal documents relating to land “remain unclear, even overlapped or conflicting”.

Many foreign investors share this sentiment, including India’s Tata Steel, whose multi-billion dollar proposed steel mill in central Ha Tinh province has been held up for several years because of a dispute over the costs of land clearance.

The recent experience of Indonesia shows that while land reform makes for tough politics, it can boost investor sentiment.

The popular support for Vuon’s violent stand is also a stern reminder to Vietnam’s rulers that land issues, if not solved equitably, could undermine social stability and prosperity – the quid pro quos for one-party rule.

Le Duc Anh, a former president, warned in an interview with state media, that “if this case was not settled quickly and strictly, the consequences would have been immeasurable” and “its impacts would have spread throughout the nation.”

But, like other wide-ranging reforms Vietnam is attempting in the banking and state-owned enterprise sectors, the question is whether top leaders have the political will to force through changes that will upset the very same vested interests that helped bring them to power.

Related reading:
Farmer’s fight highlights Vietnam’s inequality, FT
Vietnam: urban-rural divide could stunt progress, FT