To Lam emerges as Vietnam’s ‘supreme leader’ after being elected president

Vietnam’s Communist Party boss To Lam was elected president by the National Assembly on Tuesday, capping his bid to centralise authority in a nation where senior cadres have traditionally governed collectively.In less than two years as party chief, the 68-year-old has swept aside rivals and transformed the country through an aggressive reform drive – literally redrawing the map as he combined provinces and slashed bureaucracy.Lam has set an ambitious target of 10 per cent annual growth for the Southeast Asian manufacturing hub and muscled the party behind his vision for development-oriented reform.After securing another term as the party’s general secretary in January, Lam has now taken over the number two position in Vietnamese politics – unifying leadership of the party and state as President Xi Jinping did in neighbouring China.The move has “effectively turned him into Vietnam’s ‘supreme leader’”, said Le Hong Hiep, senior fellow at the Vietnam Studies Programme at Singapore’s ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.It has “transitioned the country’s leadership from a consensus-based collective model to a strongman leadership style,” he said.