At Vietnam, the repression also goes through Facebook, used to target political opponents. A situation denounced by the singer and pro-democracy activist Mai Khoi. But for more than two years, the Californian giant has turned a deaf ear as the government and its sole Communist Party continue to muzzle the opposition.
This same single party believed, for a time, to hold Mai Khôi the ideal patriotic popstar. In 2010, she even won the awards for album and song of the year awarded by national television in a ceremony with Soviet overtones.
Censorship of artists
“Before, I was a popstar and life was very easy and comfortable” , will gladly concede the “Vietnamese Lady Gaga” when receiving the Vaclav-Havel Prize for artistic dissidents, in 2018 in Oslo.
In less than ten years, Mai Khôi has gone from a darling little girl in Vietnam to public enemy number one.
The change comes in 2016. “Tired of the censorship affecting artists” , the singer is trying to run as an independent candidate for the legislative elections. She sees it as a good way to “Promote democracy and human rights” .
Pressure and intimidation
The government, which relishes the birth of this popular dissident, prevents her from running and declares her person not grateful on the country’s music scene. Never mind for Mai Khôi, who meets Barack Obama during the latter’s visit to the country a few weeks later.
Since then, the ex-popstar has returned to the stage to carry her political message to Hanoi, where she still lives today despite regular pressure and intimidation from the state, and on stages around the world.
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