Ngo Tu Ha, a patriotic Catholic personality

Mr Ngo Tu Ha (right) in 1948.

The person who opened the first meeting of the first session of the first National Assembly of Vietnam in 1946 was a 60-year-old Catholic deputy. He was also the first citizen to voluntarily donate all his factory and rice fields to the country. He was Ngo Tu Ha.

Ngo Tu Ha was born in 1887 in a very poor family in Quy Hau parish in Kim Son district, northern Ninh Binh province. He left his family at the age of eight for Nam Dinh city and later for Hanoi to earn his living. With dynamism and intelligence, he became a rich capitalist who owned many big houses in Hanoi, large rice fields in many rural areas and a big printing house.

He died peacefully when he was a member of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee, member of the Standing Board of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee and standing member of the National Liaison Committee of Vietnamese Catholics Who Love Peace and the Country.

In the early days of the new government, Ngo Tu Ha knew that he was too weak to joint the fight against the enemy in the south, he volunteered to print books free for the anti-illiteracy movement, and became the head of the Association in Support of Wounded Soldiers. When the National Assembly was convened, a coalition government was established. Ngo Tu Ha was appointed to be the deputy minister of the Ministry for Social Affairs in the context that the country just escape a famine which killed two million people and the French colonialists were returning to occupy the south.

In late 1946, Ngo Tu Ha was sent to work in Bui Chu-Phat Diem dioceses. Other patriotic personalities were also sent to different localities to help the local people develop production to fight hunger and illiteracy.

Ngo Tu Ha was the first person to donate voluntarily all his factory and rice fields to the cause of socialism which was started up in the north. He made careful recommendation to Vu Huy Vien, his credited collaborator to transfer everything so that the State and people could start production right away.

The National Assembly Office suggested sending a car everyday to take him to work and other places that he wished to. He just said thanks and refused. He only used the car when he had to travel far. Normally he used a cyclo.

In 1964, US war planes regularly attacked Hanoi. The National Assembly office arranged for Mr Ha and some other members of the National Assembly to evacuate in Duong Lam commune, Ba Vi district, Ha Tay province. Ngo Tu Ha lived in the house of Mr Phan Van Tai who recalled those days: “Mr Ha lived with our family. We were as close as relatives. He taught our children carefully. When he was weak, we offered our help but he always tried to do everything he could. We later discovered that he was an important member in the National Assembly and the government. He lived a very simple life. He treated us, ordinary people, as family members.”

By MAI THANH HAI                      
Nong Thon Ngay Nay (Countryside Today) newspaper