Extravagance

Anh Thu

The Van Mieu project, costing VND271 billion (US$12.4 million) fully funded by the province’s budget, is expected to be up and running some time this year. Work started on the project covering 42,000 square meters in Lien Bao Ward of Vinh Yen City in 2012.

The province has even set up a Van Mieu Cultural and Scientific Center with around 10 staff to make preparations for the management and operation of this temple of literature.

Vinh Phuc has more than 1,000 cultural relics, with dozens of them recognized as national relics, which have not been well maintained and conserved, while a number of urgent development investment projects are running short of investment capital. Still, the government of Vinh Phuc has generously spent VND271 billion on such a massive temple which is lavishly built of stones and wood and engraved in traditional styles.

The provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism is the investor of this temple comprising two lines of steles to pay homage to exam top-scorers, a yard to organize ceremonies and rituals, and a section for worshiping.

Explaining why the province decided to build such a costly temple, Tran Manh Dinh, director of the culture department, tells Vietnamnet that the project had been approved before he took the helm of the department. People from other parts of the country could have some cultural places like Van Mieu to visit when coming to Vinh Phuc, he says, adding students could also come to pay homage before they sit in university entrance exams.

This is why the province made such a decision, he noted.

According to Professor Ngo Duc Thinh, former director of the Institute of Cultural Studies, temples of literature of the past were cultural structures designed to promote learning among people but many of them were devastated over time. However, reconstruction of such temples needs to be taken into serious consideration.

Nonetheless, Thinh says in Tuoi Tre that using hundreds of billions of dong for constructing a new Van Mieu at a time when the country is still grappling with economic woes is actually a waste of money even if the money comes from other sources than the State budget.

Professor Tran Lam Bien from the National Cultural Heritage Council expresses concern over the ease of setting aside a staggering VND271 billion for a new, provincial-level temple of literature.

To Professor Nguyen Chi Ben, also from the National Culture Heritage Council, this is a sign of wastefulness as capital is badly needed to develop many other urgent projects like schools, housing and hospitals. “Building a structure to promote learning is necessary but using such a big sum is a waste,” Ben is cited by the news site VnExpress as saying.

While experts disapprove of the province’s construction of Van Mieu, the public casts doubt on the investment cost which they say is too high.

Former chairman of Vinh Phuc Province Phung Quang Hung, who retired last month, tells the local news site Vietnamnet that so many projects need funding but the province decided to construct Van Mieu. “The province’s hospitals are now overloaded and deteriorating. The province has plans to build more hospitals but has not been able to allocate capital.”

In addition to the criticism of the huge investment cost, strong debate is going on over who should be worshiped at this Van Mieu. Meanwhile, the investor, the province’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, is still undecided over this matter though, according to the original plan of Vinh Phuc, the temple would be used to worship Chinese philosopher Confucius, which has attracted sharp criticism as Vietnam has a lot of philosophers and scholars who deserve to be worshiped.

To cope with this criticism, the province says it would hold seminars with researchers before a final decision is made.

Historian Duong Trung Quoc says on Vietnamnet that Vinh Phuc did not consult historians when they made the decision. The structure could still be used as a learning promotion center and a worshiping place for eminent Vietnamese educators like Chu Van An.

Professor Ngo Duc Thinh is cited by Dan Tri as saying that cultural structures are not necessarily as grand as what is under construction in Vinh Phuc since hefty funding is not a yardstick of the value of a cultural construction work.

Extravagance Related image(s)