Reptilian manoeuvres

WHEN Great Grandfather, a revered turtle which had long paddled around Hanoi’s central lake, was found dead on the eve of the Communist Party’s five-yearly congress, many Vietnamese thought it a bad omen for the ruling party. The animal embodied a legend about a 15th-century Vietnamese warrior who presented his sword to a turtle after vanquishing the Chinese. Some wondered whether the party’s leaders, whose dusty Marxism-Leninism feels increasingly out of step with Vietnam’s youthful population of 93m, were also losing their edge.

As it happens, the congress, which concluded in pomp on January 28th, ended up backing an only slightly more sprightly reptile. After eight days of unusually fierce politicking, party bigwigs forced the charismatic and pro-business prime minister to leave government after his term expires in a few months. Nguyen Tan Dung had hoped to assume the top party post of general secretary. Instead Mr Dung, along with the state president, Truong Tan Sang, failed to get a seat on the party’s new Central Committee, while the septuagenarian incumbent, Nguyen Phu Trong, was asked to carry on as all-important party chief.