Difficult problem needs solution

(Baonghean) -The training and recruitment of new party members in rural party cells is currently a major difficulty in party development work. The reason for this situation is that rural areas increasingly lack resources to train and recruit new party members.

The Party cell of Hamlet 4, Tang Thanh Commune (Yen Thanh) has been a strong and clean Party cell for many years. The cell has over 30 Party members, leading the people to carry out the tasks of economic and social development in the locality, building Hamlet 4 into a cultural village unit. In the past two years, in the movement to build new rural areas, the cell has led the people to contribute hundreds of millions of Dong to rural traffic. Up to now, most of the large and small roads of the cell have been concreted, and have been commended by the commune Party Committee. However, for more than 10 years, the cell has not recruited any new Party members. On the occasion of the annual summary of the cell's work, this content is brought up for discussion to find the cause and solutions, but it seems to be still at a standstill.

There were years when the Party cell assigned Party members to train 1-2 members of the Youth Union of the hamlet who had just finished vocational college and returned to work as workers, but after a while, their jobs were unstable and they moved away to work, so the Party cell "lost" them. Most of the young people in the hamlet finished high school, those who went to college or university found ways to escape, and those who did not go to college also went to the South, to Laos to work or to work abroad. In my Party cell, there were many retired Party members who had worked in the Party at the office, retired from the army, everyone was worried about the fact that the Party cell's Party members were getting older and weaker, with an average age of over 60. If we could not recruit young Party members to supplement them, we would not be able to improve the leadership role of the Party cell.

Comrade Nguyen Thanh Ha, Head of the Organizing Committee of Yen Thanh District Party Committee, said: “In 2012, Yen Thanh Party Committee focused on directing and reviewing drastically, considering the training and admission of new party members as one of the criteria for classifying party cells and party committees annually, so it has trained and admitted 292 new party members. Thanks to the care for party development work, Yen Thanh district now has party cells in all 100% of hamlets and blocks. However, last year, only 66/82 grassroots party organizations admitted new party members, and there were still 16 subordinate grassroots party organizations that had not admitted new party members. The number of new party members who were farmers was only 163 comrades, so there are rural party cells that have not admitted new party members for not only 10 years but 15-20 years.”

Comrade Tran Van Dai, Standing Deputy Secretary of Yen Thanh District Party Committee, said: "The rural population is large but the number of newly admitted party members is small. In some cases, there are party cells that have not been able to admit party members for many years, so at each congress to perfect the party cell and hamlet executive committee, we "strike the torch" to find no cadres. In some places, we even have to appoint party members over 80 years old as party cell committee members."

Comrade Nguyen Van Bai, Secretary of the Lien Thanh Commune Party Committee, a cadre who has worked at the grassroots level for many years, said: “At each Party Committee meeting, when I glance at the Party members in the hall, I see that most of them are old, with more gray hair than green hair. If the work of training and recruiting new Party members in rural Party cells continues to be difficult like this, in about 10-15 years, the number of old Party members will gradually pass away, finding sources of commune cadres will be even more difficult, and there may be some hamlets with no Party members or Party cells left.”

It seems that the difficulty in recruiting party members in rural areas is not only a personal matter, but also a difficult matter for the Party cell of Hamlet 4, Tang Thanh. Mr. Phan Van Tan, Secretary of the Yen Thanh District Party Committee, said: Only by focusing on building new rural areas and developing the economy and culture in rural areas in a sustainable way will we be able to keep our children and develop party members in rural areas in a sustainable way.

From the above situation, we would like to have the following small comments:

1. At the commune and district levels, a number of conferences (or workshops) should be organized between rural party cell secretaries in different party committees to discuss and find solutions to this problem.

2. Among many reasons, one reason is that the youth union work at the hamlet level is very lacking and weak. Once the hamlet youth union is not active or is weak, there can be no source of recruiting new party members.

3. Must review, research, and revise the content: village cadres must be included in the supplementary source for commune cadres and civil servants. From the mass movement in the village, select young, promising cadres, consider recruiting them into commune cadres and civil servants, then send them to further study. If we do as we have done in recent years, we will eliminate one of the motivations for rural youth to strive.

Ngo Duc Tien