Let's talk about the traffic police, not foreigners

I'm a little bit fed up with the way foreigners are being portrayed in the Vietnamese press when it comes to traffic violations. A while back Tuoi Tre's English online site published this article entitled 'Rouge' Foreigners'.

Thanh Nien quoted Sub Lieutenant Nguyen Luu Trung of the Mui Ne traffic police as saying: “Foreigners in Mui Ne often break traffic laws but it is very difficult to fine them due to the language barrier.” 

Another article published on March 16th by Thanh Nien is called Foreigners get a free ride with the sub heading  'Expatriates who violate traffic laws in Vietnam are let off the hook by the language barrier or small bribes'. 


I think we all know that pretty much everyone can be let off the hook with small bribes. Not just the foreigners  who must make up a tiny tiny percentage of Ho Chi Minh City's population.

Lets talk about this lot instead (Source)

Instead of making out that foreigners not obeying the law are the problem (which is some twisted front page tabloid journalism logic) lets talk about the traffic police themselves. 

Everybody knows what that beige uniform means, and what it stands for, and it would take an almighty shift to change that perception even if there is a few good guys wearing it. 

Personally, I've been stopped well over ten times in the time I've been here. And I've always paid a bribe. Not one ticket. Actually, I was stopped this morning too - yes - a big motivational factor in writing this today. The 'language barrier' argument is something that the press likes to write about and which foreigners utilise, making it impossible for our heroic police officers to just do their job. But there's no language barrier when it comes to numbers. 

An actual ticket (Source)

This morning, it was the policeman who was confused. He stopped me for driving in the wrong lane, and his English was good enough to explain there are three lanes, and I should be driving in the right-hand one. Never mind that 50 meters around the bend where he was hiding  standing that lane ceases to exist. He then tells me, in English, 200,000 VND. I say that I want a ticket. I have a license and registration, so I want a ticket. I think the price is around 50,000 VND and he has to fill out a nice long form. He then starts trying to bargain with me on the price of his ticket (read BRIBE) - "Ok - you - how much money - 100,000 VND". I continue asking for a ticket. So he agrees and goes over to his bike and gets the form out. He's very reluctant to start filling it in, and then keeps asking me how much I am prepared to pay. I ask him 'How much is the ticket'. And this is where the 'language barrier' suddenly kicked in. He no longer understood English! "How...much...is.....ticket" he mumbled like a beginner student in a primary school class, a look of intense confusion on his innocent face. Great acting I have to say. Then he remembered some English again and said happily - 200,000 VND! Eventually I got tired of asking for the ticket, negotiated a 100,000 VND BRIBE, laughed in their faces as they fished around for CHANGE from my 500,000 VND note and gave them the thumbs up for doing such a great job for the people of Vietnam. 


I'm not complaining about being legitimately pulled over. The problem is, that rarely happens. Dangerous driving, speeding, drunk driving? No. 

Hiding on a corner, on a road where the lane disappears in 50 meters, catching people going about their business driving a few inches on the wrong side of some paint on the tarmac, taking their money, and stuffing it in their pockets. Yes. And one of them was smoking on the job. Which they aren't supposed to do. And so it goes, on my 20km journey to work, the police always find nice places to hide, which - yes - they aren't supposed to do either. 

Perhaps if the traffic cops didn't 'play sneaky', then neither would all those naughty foreigners.