For a Vietnamese entrepreneur, engaging in social critique feels like walking a tightrope. The challenge is maintaining the delicate balance required to preserve relationships with the state apparatus while having the courage to speak truth to power.
The past two years mark the beginning of what I call the “Engaged Entrepreneur.” After decades of silence, influential business leaders are now speaking openly, sometimes sharply, against social issues, government decisions, and policy failures. Their views are being read and widely supported.
The high cost of the civic voice
Why am I so encouraged by this sudden civic engagement? In Vietnam, it has long been common for intellectuals, journalists, writers, and retired politicians to voice social critique. These individuals are, figuratively speaking, those “with less hair to lose”—their livelihoods are often not as directly imperiled by their dissent.
For the entrepreneur, the costs are exponentially higher. Speaking out risks everything. How can you maintain equilibrium with the state to ensure that when you eventually need regulatory assistance, you don’t hear, “You criticized me so fiercely; why are you asking for a favor now?” Not speaking out breeds self-contempt and moral weakness; speaking out risks the complete collapse of your entire enterprise and everyone associated with it.
The end of immunity
I am celebrating this engagement because the traditional buffers of Vietnamese affluence have eroded, forcing the business elite to care.
In the past, poor governance rarely impacted the lives of the wealthy:
- Dangerous traffic? They drove BMWs and Rolls-Royces.
- Contaminated food? They shopped exclusively at high-end, organic supermarkets.
- Failing education? They sent their children to private international schools or abroad.
- Insecure housing? They retreated to safe, opulent enclaves like Ciputra or Phu My Hung.
- Poor social policy? They were rich enough to ignore it.
Today, this immunity has vanished. Regardless of their wealth, they cannot guarantee their food or seafood is safe from environmental disasters like the Formosa catastrophe. Even in million-dollar villas in Phu My Hung, the stench from the Da Phuoc landfill permeates the air.
Traffic leading from these luxury enclaves to the city center is now perpetually congested and prone to heavy flooding—at which point, a BMW is useless. Sending a child unprepared to study abroad is no longer a guaranteed solution; it can lead to depression and failure.
These systemic problems—which money can no longer solve—have become direct personal concerns for the elite. The business community has become wealthy enough to think about matters “celestial and terrestrial,” and consequently, has become less afraid. They have begun to run their businesses with greater transparency and integrity, leaving fewer regulatory loopholes for authorities to exploit. Speaking out is now a matter of conscience, a civic responsibility.
The state’s quiet transformation
It is also crucial to acknowledge and thank the Vietnamese government. They have become much more respectful and receptive to listening to entrepreneurs. They have shed the negative, heavy-handed reactions and retaliations that were common in the past. There is a growing understanding that social critique from the business sector is inherently constructive and pragmatic, not destructive or hostile.
Therefore, I have great appreciation for the current administration, particularly the senior leadership, for their demonstrable desire to learn and change.
