Dr Nguyen Dinh Loc, a member of the National Assembly's Law Committee and a former Minister of Justice, spoke to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper about inequities in the residential registration record system.

What is your opinion on civilian management through the residential registration record, is it still effective?

Civilian management through the residential registration record relates to the people's right of free residence. But this type of management causes inequality among people. A person who has a residential registration record can evidently benefit from all rights regulated in the constitution while a person without the record can not. This leads to a pressing matter for not only the individual but also for their families.

In fact, the residential registration record has not helped effectively manage civilians and their residence and movements. Authorised offices can not check the records of millions of people everyday.

It is time to find another method of management.

The State has kept the residential registration record for a long time and faced no objections. Does that mean the record is an effective management method?

The residential registration record during the subsidised-mechanism period was essential for people. But now the record is not necessary any more. People can use identity cards as a substitute.

Management now is applied both in residential registration records and ID cards, so it causes overlapping and ineffectiveness.

The constitution is regarded as supreme but a number of regulations set in the constitution are not respected. That is due to the mechanism.

So does the management mechanism by residential registration records violate the constitution?

A person who doesn't have a residential record can only live in the place registered in the record. But in fact he or she can live any where he or she wants. But living without a residential registration record will affect to other rights and benefits of a citizen. Education, for instance, is such a right. A citizen who doesn't have the registration record, his or her children can not go to any schools they want. So it leads to violations of other rights, not only residential rights.

The right of having accommodation is an inviolable right of any citizen but if a person is without a residential registration record for the place he or she is living, he or she can not buy his or her own house in that place. Paradoxically, citizens are only granted the records if they have houses.

All are contrary to the constitution.

Do many regulations related to residential registration cause added problems?

When shifting to 'doi moi' (renewal), we should have examined the necessity of the residential record and adjusted it in accordance with reality. This failure has caused many consequences. In my opinion, the residential registration record has already fulfilled its "historical mission".

Do you think civilian management by ID is a solution?

In many countries, civilian management by ID is very popular.
In Vietnam, currently the mechanism of the residential registration record is still maintained. But in fact, people from rural areas are still normally living in cities no matter if they do or don't have residential records.

Maintaining the residential registration record means causing complications for ourselves.

Vietnam News dated 21 March 2006.