VietNamNet – This is the next part of the profile of Naria Ja Duck, former first Deputy Prime Minister of Fulro, was called the ‘grey tiger’ of the Central Highlands jungle.

Mr Ja Duck (left) photographed here with Touneh Den, Fulro's former Governor of Phan Rang Province.

The new page in ‘grey tiger’s’ life

Thanks to a ruou can (wine drunk out of a jar through pipes) party held by the Vietnam Fatherland Front of Lam Dong Province on the night before the meeting, I had the chance to meet former Fulro officials in a warm atmosphere that was similar to those of the early 1990s.

I told Mr Ja Duck about the story of colonel Touneh Den, Governor of Phan Rang Province under the Fulro organisation ten years ago. Touneh Den brought his family, including his wife and four children from forest to his village on July 4, 1994, I visited him.

When I raised my camera to take a photograph, Touneh Den’s children shrivelled up like animals watching for bait. As the camera flashed, one as quick as lightning dashed the camera from my hands and then returned to his place at the same position. His strange act turned out to be something taught by his parents during the time they lived in the forest. They learned to remain distant from outsiders and how to attack if they were confronted.

“They didn’t realise that they were men themselves,” said Deputy Head of the Vietnam Fatherland Front of Lam Dong Province Naria Ja Duck after hearing my story.

“If we don’t call for Fulro remnants like Touneh Den to return to their villages, how will they be able to teach children like those of Touneh Den be in the jungle?” he added.

Inferiors of the first Deputy Prime Minister of Fulro Naria Ja Duck like Touneh Den know clearly about their leader, who governed during a powerful and influential period in the Central Highlands. This man now celebrates a new period, one in which he can help right his past wrongs by calling for Fulro remnants to return to their home villages.

The first Deputy Prime Minister of Fulro Naria Ja Duck was nicknamed the ‘grey tiger’ prior to 1980. When he came to the revolutionary government and moved from jungle to jungle to call for Fulro remnants to return home, he earned his title of ‘tiger’.

When I asked him if his comparison to a tiger is correct, Mr Naria Ja Duck laughed it off. “It is not important. I only know that I’ve overcome the hole between good and evil to find my real position in life”.

The change from ‘grey tiger’ to ‘tiger’ represents a turning point for Mr Naria Ja Duck, as he became a positive force calling for his old comrades, hiding in the jungle like wild animals, to return to their home villages.

Naria Ja Duck move among the Central Highlands Mountains and forests as if it were his backyard. He also knows many languages of Central Highlands ethnic minority groups, from his mother tongue Coho to Ede, Mo Nong, Gia Rai, Ma, Churu and Stieng. Those are favourable conditions for him to call for the return of Fulro remnants. “How many Fulro remnants did you call home?” I asked him. He laughed and said that there was too many to remember.

Hearing what he said, I recalled the story about the children of Touneh Den. When I saw him again several years after the first meet, Touneh Den boasted “After returning to my home village, I had another boy. He is now six years old. The four other children now study very well”. At that time, I recalled that without the campaigns to call for Fulro remnants’ to return home, led by Naria Ja Duck, what would have happened?

Common voice

In the morning of August 6, Naria Ja Duck officially represented the outstanding ethnic minority people of Lam Dong Province to raise a ‘common voice’.

“Today, August 6, 2004, in Da Lat City, we confirm that after the country’s unification, the Vietnam Communist Party and the Vietnamese State have had many policies to help develop the socio-economic life of ethnic minority people. We, the representatives attending this meeting, express our profound interest in the recent situation of social security in the Central Highlands." he said.

"The case that occurred on February 2001 and April 2004 were caused in part by a gullible ethnic minority people, who were taken advantage of wrong-doers and illegal acts, which deeply harmed the tradition of national unity, especially of Central Highland ethnic groups within the community of ethnic groups in Vietnam,” added the Deputy Head of Lam Dong Province's Fatherland Front..

As Naria Ja Duck closed his speech, the meeting hall filled with applause. And he stood like an ancient tree of the Central Highlands forest, with tree roots that jut deeply into Mother soil.

Story and photo by Anh Vu.