Vietnamese legislator: Moral and mental erosion in games

Here’s a very telling story about how progressive and open-minded politicians are. Vietnam’s Minister of Information and Communications Le Doan Hop has been accused of not doing enough to combat the so-called mental and moral erosion that online games cause, and when he tried to talk about the good that videogames do, he was ignored by legislators who didn’t care.

Nguyen Ngoc Dao was the man who claimed that games cause the aforementioned “erosion,” and said that Hop’s strategies for dealing with the so-called problem of online gaming were insufficient. Hop attempted to argue the advantages and disadvantages of games, but legislator Nguyen Van Thuan cut him off, refusing to hear any statements contradicting the belief that online gaming was evil. 

“The representatives were not asking about the pros and cons of online games but they wanted to know if the ministry was responsible for the current situation,” snapped Thuan. “Management is supposed to include the issuing of regulations and the enforcement of them but the minister hasn’t talked about enforcement.”

So, that’s all Vietnamese legislators care about. Enforcement, control and subjugation. Like I said, this is a very, very telling statements. The attitudes of the legislators, and the ignorance toward Hop’s argument, pretty much says it all. Rather depressing, really.