A Wider Mandate

Elected three months ago to write a new constitution for South Viet Nam, the 117-deputy Constituent Assembly has from its inception taken upon itself a wider mandate to participate in Saigon's ever-simmering political life of the moment. Thus last week the Assembly made its largest stride toward shaping the nation's return to civilian, democratic rule by agreeing on a presidential form of government. But at the same time, it was up to its ears in the lingering controversy surrounding the murder of Deputy Tran Van Van fortnight ago (TIME, Dec. 16). The ugliest of the rumors had it that the Ky government itself had done away with Van, even though the government had in jail a suspect who readily admitted helping murder Van on Viet Cong orders.

To Saigon's compulsive intriguers, the rumor had a certain superficial plausibility. Scarcely a month before the murder, Ky's Cabinet had very nearly collapsed in a dispute between the northern-born generals around Premier Nguyen Cao Ky and the native southerners, who felt that they were losing out in power and patronage. Tran Van Van had been the most articulate southerner in the Assembly and the strident leader of its antigovernment, antimilitary faction, and in recent weeks had increasingly antagonized the ruling generals. He had led a bitter struggle against the generals' power to veto or amend the new constitution that the Assembly is writing.

Strong President. In one of his last acts, Van had tried to ram through the Assembly an article setting the minimum age for South Viet Nam's chief executive at 40 rather than the anticipated 35. His target, of course, was Premier Ky, who is only 36, and would thus be prohibited from running for President. So it was only natural for many a southerner to suspect Ky of complicity in Van's death--the kind of divisiveness that could only please the Viet Cong. Ky hardly helped matters last week by closing down the Viet Nam Guardian and the Saigon Post, two daily newspapers that had defied government censorship to print some of the rumors.

The Assembly, on the southern bloc's urging, took time out from its rule-making to condemn "with energy the savage deed of the assassins from whatever origin," and set up its own miniature Warren Commission, chaired by a southerner, to investigate Van's death. The Deputies' real task, however, proceeded apace toward the Assembly's February deadline for presenting the nation with a draft constitution. With Van's southern colleagues dissenting, the Assembly voted for a Korean-style governmental outline for the nation's future. It provides for a strong, popularly elected President who will choose his own Premier. The Premier and his Cabinet will be subject to parliamentary control, and can be ousted by the legislature if need be while the President continues to provide a shield of stability over the fledgling nation's growth.

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