The Epic of Nonconformist Nobles – Folha de S. Paulo, March 7, 1977
by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
A few days ago, I received shocking news.
With the Red Terror installed in Indochina, a large group of Vietnamese—94 men, women, and children—had to choose between submission to the enemy and suicide. Submission is humiliating, revolting, and unacceptable. Suicide is radically contrary to one’s moral sense.
Unwilling to accept either alternative, these nobly rebellious Vietnamese embarked on a tragic and fascinating adventure. In a 26-meter fishing boat carrying a supply of food and fuel, they fled Saigon in search of lands open to their misfortune and of people sensitive to the moral value of their epic journey.
The first difficulty they encountered was evading the communist patrol boats that guarded the coast. It is easy to imagine the risks, fears, and tricks this task entailed.
Finally free of the maritime watchmen of the communist dictatorship, the worthy adventurers had to face the terrible summer storms of the South China Sea. Once again, there were risks, fears, and feats of agility. Above all, there was divine protection. Even amid these feats, no one died.
As expected, the fragile vessel could hardly withstand the multiple maneuvers it was subjected to under such conditions. Its rudder failed, and the ship drifted for a week—another tragic stage. As one can imagine, throughout all this, fuel and food were running out.
Finally, joy! The crew spotted the coast of Malaysia and arrived.
The reader can imagine the veneration and generosity with which the crew of this boat would have been welcomed. The boat deserved to be preserved in a museum and to go down in history as the Boat of Dignity, for the families it carried were martyrs of dignity who refused to choose between slavery and suicide.
That’s where the saddest part of the story begins. The authorities in Kuala Lumpur welcomed the glorious defectors only long enough to repair the boat, then forced them to return to sea without a destination in sight.
Don’t think this is the only case. It’s estimated that around 2,000 South Vietnamese refugees are currently adrift on the high seas, crammed into boats that aren’t seaworthy.
As in Kuala Lumpur, Southeast Asian ports tend to reject them one after another.
Thailand, home to 75,000 Indochinese refugees, mostly Cambodians, refuses to admit these 2,000 additional unfortunate souls. Therefore, it bars them from disembarking. But it “generously” allows them to remain in national waters.
In Hong Kong, they are allowed to go ashore to rest their exhausted limbs and revive their emaciated bodies during temporary stays. In the Philippines, not even that. Nineteen unfortunate souls who went ashore were imprisoned.
The Indonesian government refused to accept even one of these vessels, even for repairs. Overloaded and in poor condition, the vessel sank, and its crew and passengers perished.
Thirty-one shipwrecked people from another fishing boat, including ten women and fourteen children, were picked up by the fishing vessel “Cap Erimo.” When the ship arrived in Singapore, the authorities prohibited the shipwrecked from disembarking. It crossed the Indian Ocean and tried to leave its “undesirable” human cargo in Yemen, but Yemen also refused to accept them. Then the shipwrecked—imagine their moral and material conditions—set sail for Japan.
I end the story of the noble and rebellious martyrs of human dignity. I do not know how it ends. I found it in the renowned Parisian weekly Rivarol in September 1976.
How could this happen to such martyrs in a world resounding with tirades about human dignity?
With this question, I move on to analyze the concept of “human dignity” as it is extolled in the propaganda clamor everywhere and in the mentality of many people who, in terms of mentality, possess only what propaganda whispers.
From the standpoint of human dignity, is there a cause more sympathetic and noble than that of these two thousand nonconformists? Is there a city with a more glorious Christian past than Paris, a traditional culture more imbued with dignity, and a global influence more suited to mobilizing world opinion in favor of these unfortunate martyrs of dignity?
However, I am not aware that the Parisian propaganda outlets have given the episode greater coverage. If so, its repercussions died within the city limits.
Undoubtedly, there are explanations (or mitigating factors) for this. Contemporary life, in constant turmoil, with individual, domestic, and professional crises, health problems, and so many others, crowds the attention of the man on the street, dulling his sensitivity.
However, one fact is undeniable. If leftists were mistreated anywhere in the world, propaganda outlets would document it, praise the victims, and unleash the harshest invective against those responsible for the atrocities.
It is perfectly appropriate to protest in favor of human rights, even for terrorists, when they are genuinely harmed. But why not recognize the human rights of Vietnam’s noble rebels?
