A Voice for the Countryside

South Viet Nam last week entered the second and final stage of its return to constitutional rule. Throughout the country, 1,240 candidates opened their campaigns for the election on Oct. 22 to fill the 137 seats in the Lower House of the new National Assembly. Since many of its members will come from hamlets and villages rather than the big cities, the Lower House will, for the first time, give the people of the countryside a voice in the Saigon government. The new House is also expected to reflect the country's Buddhist majority, thus offsetting the heavy Catholic representation in the 60-man Senate, which was formally sworn into office this week.

The second election campaign began just after the new administration of President-elect Nguyen Van Thieu had won validation of the first. By a vote of 58 to 43, the Provisional Legislative Assembly cleared Thieu's last legal barrier to power. One result of the validation was new trouble in the streets of Saigon, where several elements continued to contest the right of Thieu's administration to rule. Students demonstrated briefly but were quickly contained by police. Thich Tri Quang, South Viet Nam's most troublesome monk, declared a hunger strike beneath his tree opposite Independence Palace. His Buddhist followers announced that 110 monks and nuns were ready to burn themselves alive and that 1,000 would march to Independence Palace early this week. The disorders may be embarrassing to Thieu, but they so far have not amounted to any real challenge to his government.

Cool & Well. In fact, the Thieu administration seems to be settling in well. Thieu has patched up the feud with his Vice President, former Premier Nguyen

Cao Ky, by gradually ceding to him some of the broader, extraconstitutional powers that Ky demanded in return for accepting the No. 2 position. One main Ky assignment will be chasing crooks. Says Ky: "During the next four years, I will devote myself to cleaning the house; otherwise, with corruption rampant in the army and administration, we will get nowhere." With that, he ordered the arrest of the province chief and two aides in the coastal province of Binh Dinh on charges of pocketing $134,000 intended to reimburse local peasants whose land had been expropriated for a U.S. air base.

Thieu was also trying to convert other rivals into partners. Taking advantage of the split-up of the bloc of presidential losers, he has been trying to widen his own political base. He hopes to choose ministers from a number of different political groups so that his Cabinet will have the complexion of a government of national unity. The only thing that he seems uncertain about is the date of his own inauguration. Astrologers cautioned against holding it on Nov. 1 as planned, since the moon will be spent, its crescent thin and the tides low. Thieu is now considering four other dates: Nov. 2, the first day of the moon's new cycle, or Nov. 3, 7 or 9. All, by astrological lights, are lucky days.

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