Heroes of the People
'As the old saying goes
Turning away from those
Who needed help most
Is not what a hero does '
Those were the words of the blind poet Nguyen Dinh Chieu. The poetic lines were found in Chieu's famous poem romanticizing the epic journey of the hero Luc Van Tien who lived during the Ming era. Nguyen Dinh Chieu lived in the second part of the nineteen-century. During his life he witnessed the French colonization of Indochina. Crippled by blindness he felt powerless. In all his poems he yearned for heroic acts to save his beloved people and Kingdom from falling into foreign hands. That was a period when Vietnam needed heroes and indeed, the ancient kingdom had produced many heroes from Kings to subjects. Teenage Sovereigns Emperor Ham Nghi, Emperor Thanh Thai, Emperor Duy Tan, their subjects Mr. Nguyen Thai Hoc, Mr. Tran Cao Van, Mr. Thai Phien, Miss Giang, Miss Bac and many others acted to help the people of Vietnam and paid the ultimate price for their heroic acts. Who would not admire a hero?
The atrocious act of terrorism by the convicted terrorist Amrosi in Bali, Indonesia in October 2002 had robed 200 lives of innocent individuals. The incident was horrible as it was but at the same time we witnessed extraordinary acts from ordinary people. In a split of a second those ordinary individuals became heroes. They put their lives in grave danger in order to save others, not known to them. We may never know their names because they died with the strangers that they tried desperately to save.
On Monday 21.10.02 there was a massacre by a mad man at Monash University, Australia. Professor Lee Gordon Brown and a student in his class Mr. Alistair Boast, despite sustaining an injury, leaped to the defense of others. Together they wrestled with the dangerous gunman who had armed himself with four loaded machine guns. The brave men succeeded in preventing further blood bath.
The terrorist attack of September, 11th 01 in New York highlighted extraordinary acts of courage many ordinary people. Most notable were 300 fire fighters who lost their lives running towards danger to save people in need of help.
One must ask the question of why, in the same circumstances, some people just 'froze' because of fear. Other people jump out to help others, very much without any consideration for their own safety. The answer is 'they are heroes'. We often hear our Vietnamese parents telling us: 'listen dear, you always turn up first for a feast but make sure you go behind someone when crossing the river'. Even so, there must always be someone who turns up last at a feast and be the first to chart the unknown waters. The heroes often enjoy the adulation and respect of the public. Throughout the ages, heroes were immortalized in folklores and live on in collective memory of the people whom they saved.
Charles Darwin put forward the 'theory of evolution'. According to Darwin, the fittest, smartest will ultimately win the trials of life and live to reproduce. If this theory holds true, heroic acts in extraordinary circumstances do not fit the Darwinian theory. Why on earth, the brightest, the fittest would do something as to reduce the chances of survival? Heroic acts do not help the heroes to increase their chances of survival but indeed do the opposite.
The Australian Crown and various levels of Her Majesties governments have the tradition of awarding bravery medals and knighthoods to ordinary individuals who acted extraordinarily brave when facing adversity and danger. I am most certainly sure that those 'heroes' did not act heroically because they wanted a knighthood or Royal decorations. Many of the heroes refused to admit that they were heroes after the 'incident'. Some of our heroes reported nightmares, and in some cases were mentally scarred for life such as often found amongst returned Vietnam veterans. In different circumstances people may not act like heroes but there is a 'moment of truth' in every one of us, something mysterious that, inexplicably, in a split of a second, propels man from his ordinary existence to act extraordinarily.
If Darwin's theory of evolution holds absolute truth, there must not be any hero at all. The young men who were born and grown up in communist Vietnam, well treated by the totalitarian dictatorship like journalist Nguyen Vu Binh, lawyer Le Chi Quang, doctor Pham Hong Son, Mr Nguyen Khac Toan, Mr. Pham Que Duong literally forget their own personal safety to fight for the freedom of others. Their efforts in demanding freedom and democracy for Vietnam were extraordinary and cannot be explained by the Darwinian theory of the survival of the fittest. Our Montagnards cousins such as Mr. Rahlan Pon, Rahlan Djan, R?com Hui, Y-Jo Nie and thousands of others of their ethnic race are equally brave. The above-mentioned individuals are now languishing in jail. They are prisoners of conscience and are heroes of the Vietnamese peoples.
The Ha Noi's proletarian dictatorship crushed and silenced the voices of its citizens with an iron hand because the regime holds grave fear. The shameful actions of the communist regime in Vietnam can be likened to the 'soccer stampedes' in Europe where people caught in the mad crowd jumped on other people's heads to get away. The communist Regime in Ha Noi acts in a similar kind of way. They fear the ones who speak up. They fear the ones who think. They fear the ones who can tell right from wrong. They jump on other people's heads to save themselves.
No matter where we live, which society we find ourselves in, we always need heroes in our midst. Extraordinary, selfless acts are like soothing winds in the middle of a summer heat, reassuring like a mother's touch in a stormy night. Today, we citizens of the world find ourselves amongst horrific and disturbing events such as September 11, Bali, the reign of terror of communist Ha Noi in Vietnam, and suicide bombers in the Middle East. Deep in the blinding dust of cruelty and indifference, selfless, heroic acts shine like a diamond, the hardest kind of stone that make us feeling proud and reassured. There are still heroes around us. They are heroes of today and legends of tomorrow.
By Ho Tinh Tam B.A.(monash University), Australia