sycophants

Those who are living on their flattery toward the foreigners. Not a small number among the masses toe the line of the French colonial government for the sake of having a career, a comfortable life, a range of opportunities to get promoted or socio-econmonic conditions, etc, at the expense of their national independence and, worse still, lending hand to the colonial repression of resistance movements. They even become the eye and ear of the French security agencies as informants, to such an extent that they forget their own identity and the shame of a people who lost their sovereignty and self-determination. The French colonial power lost control of their rule toward the end of the World War II, but their divide and rule policy still had adversely affected the unity of nationalist non-communist and the communist movements against them. Thus, the supporters of the French colonial rule were not always the same across the phases of the French domination as some of them deserted and joined the nationalist resistance movement or became uncooperative. Master Huynh recognized this sheer challenge to the Vietnamese youth facing the need for education, training and work under the colonial rule yet who did not find it easy to have these opportunities if they were not submissive to the colonial power.