|
STORIES OF PEACEMAKING
#1. Recognizing Friends
#1. Recognizing Friends I was in Vietnam in 1976 after the war ended. I met a North Vietnamese soldier who had been in the jungle for more than 10 years fighting against the Americans. He used to come to our house and eat with us. Sometimes, when we were sitting around chatting, he would share horrible stories from the war. He told about his family members and friends who had died under American bombing and artillery shelling. He talked about how terrorizing it was to be caught in B52 bombing attacks and the affects of napalm on people. As I listened to these stories, I felt strange because he never indicated any angry with me as an American, or even against America. One day I asked him why he wanted to befriend me, an America, and why he did not show any anger against Americans. He looked at me with some surprise and then said, "We have to be able to differentiate between our friends and our enemies. If we can not, we will force our friends to become enemies.
#2. How kinship resolves disputes in family group Relationships between family members and relatives play an important role in solving internal disputes. The family meeting is the most popular way to solve disputes. In such meetings, most family members are invited, including sons who have their own families and their wives. The parents' presence at the meetings is the most important. The father is obliged to attend the meeting, but in case the father is dead and the mother is alive, an uncle will be invited to the meeting. In short, an old-aged man must attend the meeting and he will be the chairman of the family meeting. In fact, family meetings create "the group-pressure" for an individual. This pressure reflects the special position of an individual in the context of the whole family. "... The family in the society is the most important; the individual is the unnamed part in a family. The obvious result of this prevents individuals from developing. Individuals are sunk in families" (Dao Duy Anh, 1998). A household head said in a study at X. commune:
Another woman said:
Facing collectives, an individual is more easily convinced of his wrong behavior. In such family meetings, everybody raise his/her opinions and wrongdoers can also give out their own opinions. The most favored opinion will be considered as the "resolution" of the family meeting. In general, pressure from family relatives will have great influence and help to solve disputes in a family, especially the disputes that are emotional or relating to land disputes or family inheritance. In case the wrong-doer does not agree with "the family resolution", the solution will stop and so will blood relations, thus giving way to some administrative solution... In such a traditional society as Vietnam, the concept of individualism is not well tolerated. Only as a member of a collective will each individual be given a role. "Each village, each relative, each family continuously control the individual's mind and his action. (Mc Alister and Mus, 1970). Therefore, the individual does have to know how to live up to social standards, and to take action according to the collective's expectations. In his or her actions, he/she is controlled by collective agreement. In such strict social conditions, there is hardly room for individualism and individual interests. Here is an extract from a study at TN. commune, BN. province.
#3. How reconciling teams resolve disputes in villages? A mediator is an absolutely necessity in solving disputes. There are few cases in which two sides can deal with each other without this third person. Children of two families tend their cows in the fields, fighting with each other; their mothers have a quarrel accordingly. Two sisters-in-law hate each other and have a row, and they get the two brothers (their husbands) involved. Two families have fields next to each other. One is putting fertilizer in his field, the other does not know (or pretends not to know) and drains off the water from his field, the fertilizer is swept away, and the quarrel happens; these to give a few examples. Generally, in such quarrels, nobody gives in, especially the quarrels between the two women and children. In such situations, the two husbands act as the third party, as a reconciling team. They come to an agreement and deal with their own families. The third party may be a woman from the Women's Union or the lineage head (if the two families are in the same lineage), or the head of the hamlet if the dispute is serious. Here is the opinion of a farmer family head:
At the hamlet level, the reconciling team acts as the third person. In terms of organization, the teams are composed of representatives of the hamlet Women's Union, the Elderly Union, Veteran's Union, and the Farmers' Union. Members of the team at the hamlet level are often from the mass organizations; members from the local authority rarely participate. This means the team's methods of dispute solutions are rarely related to administrative measures and disputes, quarrels that the reconciling team deal with are not so serious. Mediation often begins with meetings between mediators and the persons in dispute and their neighbors to study the situation. This usually takes time because people in a village know each other well. Members of reconcilers will divide to go to each family to explain the right and wrong things. In some cases, all members of the reconciling team join the meeting. When they know the situation well, members of the reconciling team have a meeting to discuss the best way to explain their conclusions to dispute-makers. A well-discussed method is made and a good mediator is appointed. After an agreement is reached separately with each family, the two sides will meet to have official mediation. In X. hamlet, the women's role in reconciliation is highly appreciated. In fact, the Women's Union' s role is outstanding. In most of our interviews conducted during the field trip, the interviewees highly appreciate the role of the Women's Union in dealing with disputes at grassroots level. The ability of patient women to resolve dispute is considered the major reason for the success of mediation. Here is a dialogue recorded in an interview at X:
The main measure used to solve disputes arising in relationships of family members and neighbors is persuasion and explanation. So the reconciling teams' knowledge and ability to sympathize are their key virtues. But at one hamlet in X, the reconciliation efforts of the teams are not considered to be effective because the mediators cannot persuade people in dispute. A man says:
Nevertheless, in X, many people believe that the reconcilers' role is essential. A 63-year-old interviewee says:
Another woman says:
#4. How local authorities resolve disputes in villages The representative of the government at the grassroots level (hamlet level) is now the head of the hamlet. He is appointed by a people's conference at the hamlet. He is recommended by a mass organization or party organization. It is not surprising that, as a manager at the grass-roots level, the head faces many disputes every day. If a cattle or plant is stolen, the head will be requested to deal with the situation. Encroachment of a fence between two families also needs the head's intervention. Two families dispute a piece of land next to the common path; nobody gives in. If reconcilers or the two families can not come to an agreement, the head will be asked for.
The head's solutions to problems are mainly persuasion and explanation, not administrative solutions. This is a basic difference from village heads of the traditional village. Therefore, reconciliation in hamlets usually begins with the teams. If they can not do anything, the head will be invited (sometimes the head is also a member of reconcilers). In some limited cases where the team's persuasion does not work, authorities at a higher level will be involved with the case. It can be said that farmers want to deal with internal disputes themselves. According to the interviewees, people in the hamlet are afraid of the local authority, so the authority plays an important part in solving disputes. Nobody wants to be involved with the law. For serious disputes, if a head of hamlet warns to take the people in dispute to the commune management board, they begin to keep silence immediately. "Being taken to the commune management board" means being out of the familiar context of "neighborhood" where forgiveness works. The concept "authority" in farmers' awareness is the space of another society: the commune level. Fear of being taken to the authority contains another meaning, that is the feeling of shame. "Being taken to the authority is going to the public". Here is the story told by an old lady:
The tendency towards internal solutions to disputes is a traditional feature of rural farmers. They prefer that everything seems to be peaceful and right in their village. This is the attitude of each village member, including the village management board. Therefore, in village traditional regulations, the tendency toward internal solutions to disputes becomes the principle of the village. Article 73 in QD regulation at the 18th century is quoted here as an illustration. "In the village, it is good not to take anything to the court. Any annoying case should be shown in the village only, not to take just everything to the court. If the judgement in village is not fair, then take the suing to the court. If the judgement by the court is the same as the one by the village, there is a fine equal to one pig worthy 3 "quan". And if somebody doesn't report about an issue to the village but reports to the court, the above fine from the village will be implemented."
#5. Peace The following example illustrates the attitude of Vietnamese peasants toward the concept of Peace. The educational level of the young married couple together with their good family breeding of the middle-class families (they are often have higher than average educational level than children of poor families) makes the behaviors of members of such family better than those in poor families. If they do not agree with each other on anything, they tend to behave in the way of "closing the door and talking to each other" not making a fuss as in poor families. Middle-class people want to settle conflicts within their family and do not want to make small conflict become big for they fear of neighbors' speaking scornfully and losing face in the village. What they call "saving face" for each other is only the behavior of this class. In general, they settle the family conflicts by themselves and very rarely the case is brought to the mediation team as someone put it, "It is not worth bringing such conflicts to the mediation team as it wastes the time of the cadres. Second, if the family can settle its own conflicts, then it is better, otherwise it would make a fuss if it is brought to the mediation team." (Case 25). In this case, the family clan, and the family meet and settle the conflicts mainly by themselves. And in fact, strong family clans can easily handle the conflicts. Meanwhile, in poor family, the husband and wife quarrel daily. They easily quarrel with each other but also easily get along well with each other. But its consequences are the private family conflicts of the poor couple become known to the whole village. In this case, the mass organizations and the (village) mediation team play their role.
#6. Justice In Vietnamese traditional villages, communal lands were divided in equal shares to households. Each male inhabitant (taxpayer) took one share, but a female was not considered as one share to take land. Each three or six years, villages chiefs redistributed communal lands to villagers in order to equalize life chances and life risks to all registered members of the villages. Such division excluded not only women but also immigrants (non-registered). Although the immigrants had to take all responsibilities toward their villages, they were not allowed to participating in land division. They had to earn their livings by doing non- agricultural work or being hired hands. Thus the principle of equality for all of Vietnamese peasants, in dividing communal lands itself, excluded two groups of people: women and immigrants. It can be added that, at present, even in family group, women are also refused permission to take part in relatives meetings (hop ho). In relatives groups, each family paid their shares according to the number of tax- payers there are in their family (that means only males are counted). It is the males only who do their shares, participate in relatives meetings, attend feasts, and deliberate relatives affairs, such as resolving disputes, giving anniversaries or holding ancestor-worshipping days, etc.
#7. Conflict - In T. hamlet, there is a family with four children. The wife had a habit of stealing trifling things such as rice and chicken from neighbors. The neighbors shouted and mocked her. The husband failed to stop her and felt ashamed, so he wanted to divorce her. They went to the court, and after that the husband raised the four children and the wife came back to her birth mother. Lending-borrowing is also the root of disputes. According to Mr. L (TL hamlet), relatives are united in general, but some of them seem to be agreeable only in appearance. One poor man wanted to borrow some funds from his richer cousin to raise ducks. The cousin was afraid that his younger cousin would not be able to return the loan and decided not to lend money to him. So, a dispute arose. First, the two wives had quarrels and then attracted the two husbands' involvement in their dispute. It can be concluded that poverty is a cause of disputes. Following is an interview with a man in the research site. "Poverty can cause dispute. I can take my family as an example. My wife and I always quarrel when we do not have money. We even complained about each other right after marriage just because we did not have money for rice". - In MK. hamlet, again there is a story of an old couple. They have five children, among them, one daughter who got married to a man in a far-away hamlet. The mother feels sorry for her daughter and grumbles at her husband all day about why he didn't look for a son-in-law in the same hamlet. At first, he keeps silent but later he gets angry and shouts at her. She at once reacts towards her husband; he can't endure that and slaps her. In the TN. hamlet (BN), there is a poor couple who just thinks of doing business. The husband wants to borrow money for trade, and the wife wants to spend money on raising poultry. They keep bickering and no one gives in. The wife is shrewish and humiliates the husband, and he gets so angry that he beats her. The use of communicative language, which doesn't reach the "standard" in the middle class also has a negative effect like "humiliation words." In Vietnamese, in the conversation, there are two ways of expression: with personal pronouns and without personal pronouns. This distinction is difficult to translate into Russian or any other modal language. For example: a woman of the middle class doesn't say to her husband, " Give me the knife" (without personal pronoun), but she says " Can you give me the knife?" (with personal pronoun: you, me). These two ways of expression are both valid in terms of modal language because the personal pronouns are implicated in the used verbs. In the Vietnamese language, the first way is considered as "a disrespectful speaking". This is the effect of "super-language" of the spoken language. For common people, this effect is not obviously shown, but it is a problem for the middle class. Mother-in-laws who don't like their daughters-in law speak to their husbands or others in the first way. " Mothers-in-law from poor families do not care about the way their daughters-in-law speak. But for richer mothers- in- law, it is a problem. Some mothers-in-law are furious with theirs sons because of the way their daughters-in-law speak (to their mothers-in-law)." (Data from the Institute of Sociology, 1999). Farmers believe that women's behavior is different from men's behavior in disputes. Women are usually talkative, men are reticent but bad-tempered. When there is a quarrel between neighbors, wives usually appear first and then husbands get involved. And in the family, wives often grumble about everything. The negative meaning of this behavior is so serious that in the traditional society, one of the "seven outs" upon which wives can be thrown out of their husband's family is being " quarrelsome " (Phan Ke Binh,19). At present, villagers say that in many cases where quarrels cause "violence" between couples, the couples are in dispute due to very small arguments at first, then because of many quarrelsome words from the woman, beatings occur. "Women often mock their husbands in a serious way, sometimes due to trifling things. Men are patient to keep silent but when they can not stand anymore they often slap their wives. "Actually, women are much concerned about their families but they are too talkative, they keep repeating the same things. A lot of women are beaten just because of that". "Lose honor", "lose face" in the presence of others is a problem, especially for men. The repeated quarrels between couples (verbally considered to be "indoor-learning/teaching") may not cause beating. But when the third party appears, particularly their relative or acquaintances, it easily causes a big quarrel. - The causes for the conflicts within the population (among neighbours, relatives, etc.), even if the people say they are "economic" conflicts, are usually stemming from the attitude between the people themselves. For example, two families share an alley, but for certain reason, one family forbid the other to travel in that alley, saying that the road is theirs, forcing the other family to entreat their favour. A nephew, when selling liquor to her aunt, measures the liquor less than normal. The aunt scolds the nephew, and the nephew defends himself. Then the aunt beat the nephew. The nephew tells her mother (who is the eldest sister), and the mother scolds the aunt (her younger sister). The mother then even asks other sisters to stay on her side to urge for sharing the inheriting land where the younger sister is residing. Various examples can illustrate the "non-economic" reasons for conflicts in the rural (or urban) areas in northern Vietnam. In fact, it is not the economic reason, but the "behaviours" only. Special characteristic of conflicts A family has four daughters. When the three elder sisters got married, they live with their husbands' families far away from home. The youngest sister lives with her parents to take care for them, and when they pass away, she continues to live on the parents' residential land. During their parents' death anniversaries or the Lunar New Year festival, the elder sisters return to the parents' house and give some offerings to the younger sister to conduct ceremonies. Some times, conflicts arise when the elder sisters make small contributions to the ceremonies, or are careless in worshipping the parents. Women often think of money. If the elder sisters argue and scorn in such cases the younger sister should endure and there will be no problem. But if the younger sister opposes, then conflicts occur. The elder sisters then want to share the inherited residential land. The land, therefore has to be divided among the four. Such conflict is very common, and the causes do not lie in the legal reason (inheritance) as the people said. Therefore, without careful consideration and proper solution (emotional mediation), the situation will enter a deadlock. If the case is brought to the commune authorities, it can hardly be settled. It is difficult to apply laws here. The commune authorities have to refer the case to the district. It may take a year, or several years for the district authorities to settle. "That problem can only be sold in an emotional manner among the villagers, together with the mediation team." (Case 34)
#8. Community To Vietnamese peasants, communities mainly mean their own villages. Many examples can be shown to illustrate this point. According to the interviewees, people in the hamlet are afraid of the local authority, so the authority plays an important part in solving disputes. Nobody wants to be involved with the law. For serious disputes, if a head of hamlet warns to take the people in dispute to the commune management board, they begin to keep silence immediately. "Being taken to the commune management board" means being out of the familiar context of "neighborhood" where forgiveness works. The concept "authority" in farmers' awareness is the space of another society: the commune level. Fear of being taken to the authority contains another meaning, that is the feeling of shame. "Being taken to the authority is going to the public". Here is the story told by an old lady:
The tendency towards internal solutions to disputes is a traditional feature of rural farmers. They prefer that everything seems to be peaceful and right in their village. This is the attitude of each village member, including the village management board. Therefore, in village traditional regulations, the tendency toward internal solutions to disputes becomes the principle of the village. Article 73 in QD regulation at the 18th century is quoted here as an illustration. "In the village, it is good not to take anything to the court. Any annoying case should be shown in the village only, not to take just everything to the court. If the judgement in village is not fair, then take the suing to the court. If the judgement by the court is the same as the one by the village, there is a fine equal to one pig worthy 3 "quan". And if somebody doesn't report about an issue to the village but reports to the court, the above fine from the village will be implemented. Is this feature attributed to the autonomy of Vietnamese traditional villages, which is mentioned by international and national scholars? Anyway, there is a real village community. In spite of internal disputes and intrigues of fractions, when confronting the authority and strangers, solidarity is not just the performance by words. Villagers know how to come closer to mutual assistance and solidarity. In relation to the outside, villagers cooperate and unify into a block, which resists the power of authorities, and those who harm their community's interests.
#9. Human Relationship In minds of peasants, this concept is synonymous with kindness, impartial help in their everyday life. The following paragraphs show certain changes relating to this concept in minds of peasants as a consequence of the adoption of market productions in rural. In the traditional agricultural society, those who provide loans with interest are hated and insisting on getting the loans paid is considered as a mean behavior. Similarly, in the traditional agricultural society, people usually do not get paid for helping. Men who repair the yard or the kitchen roof for neighbors are not paid. In this case, the family head just invites him to a meal, or gives some present for his children. The helper is quite happy because he thinks the family head will not refuse to help him in case he needs their help. The old-aged people and the common people now maintain these expectations as morality in rural society. For these people, kindness, impartial help to others is regarded as one of the moral virtues. Meanwhile, the youth and middle class develop a "practical" culture, imported together with monetary economy. So, for them, help must be fairly and straightforwardly paid. For them, non-payment now would cause the same annoyance as payment did before.
In another research in 1989, a household head told interviewers that he failed to get a job at a local administrative management agency for his son, who just finished school, although he also asked for a favor from a commune cadre.
For this man, this is a break from traditional values, from the world of principles which he believed should be strictly observed in order to be true human beings. Kindness, impartial help working as main principles are now replaced by requirements for certain standards, which are the major principles nowadays.
|
