"Today's officials get rich through corruption, which is very common"

No Minister or Provincial Chairman is poor!

- The project to build a team of strategic-level cadres has just been submitted to the Central Committee for consideration and discussion at the ongoing 7th Conference, after exactly 20 years of implementing the Resolution of the 8th Central Committee, Session 3, on "cadre strategy in the period of industrialization and modernization of the country". As someone who participated in building the regulations that have been applied for the past 20 years, what do you think is different about this project?

- In fact, in every term, the Central Committee has a project on cadre work, either issued by the Central Committee or by the Politburo, which means it is always concerned about this matter. In the past 20 years, we have not changed any content compared to the resolution - "cadre strategy in the period of industrialization and modernization of the country" when we worked on it before. At that time, I, Nguyen Phu Trong and another comrade drafted this resolution, we surveyed, wrote and submitted it to the Central Committee.

This project is also more specific, detailed and closer to current reality. We were in the subsidy period, all social relationships were very simple, not as complicated as now. So this project includes more predictions about specific cases that arise to prevent them.

Mr. Le Quang Thuong - former Deputy Head of the Central Organizing Committee.

- Recently, I was also invited by the Central Organizing Committee to give comments on the draft project. I have noted two points.

Firstly, in personnel work, paying attention to the strategic level is right, but at the same time we must also pay attention to grassroots cadres because that is the level closest to the people, everything goes through their hands, from taxes to household registration management, civil status, security and order... If grassroots cadres are not steadfast and enthusiastic, no matter how many tasks are assigned from above, they will all go away.

Furthermore, I suggest that we should not consider strategic-level cadres as broad as the Central Organizing Committee has proposed (about 600 people), including Secretaries and Chairmen of Provincial People's Committees... I think that the strategic level is the Central level, the level that sets out policies and supervises their implementation. The cadres such as Provincial Secretaries and Chairmen are the intermediate level that implements policies.

The strategic level should only be limited to the group of cadres belonging to the Politburo, the Secretariat, the Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers, the Heads/Deputies of Party committees at the Central level, and the Chairmen of Central mass organizations. These are the people who directly "touch" policy issues.

- What you said partly reflects the General Secretary's comment at the opening session of the 7th Central Conference: "Our cadres are numerous but not strong." Having worked in organizational work, what is your comment on the current cadre work compared to when you worked?

- In every era, there are active cadres, average cadres and weak cadres. Today is different from the past in that the market mechanism is now deeply affecting life, it makes economic and social activities more vibrant, competition is stronger but it also uses money to control all activities. Buying positions with money, buying seats with money... Money makes social relationships become complicated. And people who are not steadfast, not honest have used money to bribe and ruin normal relationships in society.

Officials get rich a lot. In the past, like me, when we built a house, the money was all our family's "savings" and we didn't get it from anywhere. But now, as officials, getting rich through corruption is common, not rare. Just look, is there anyone who is poor among the provincial chairmen or ministers? I affirm that no one is poor. In our time, officials were just like the people, we had nothing, except for our salary. If we had a garden at home and tried to make a living for our family, we would have a little more, but nothing else.

Saying “if poor, no one wants to be a Minister or Provincial Chairman” is a fallacy. You have to do it for the love of the country and for the responsibility to the people. If you strive to get rich, it will be a failure. In my opinion, no one immediately thinks of becoming a Provincial Chairman to get rich, but the process of working creates opportunities for people. Just bring gifts and envelopes to people’s houses in droves. If they don’t accept them, their wives will, that’s all.

The organization did not choose the wrong person at first…

Mr. Le Quang Thuong keeps a photo of him (left) with General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (right) when he worked at the Central Organizing Committee.

That is correct, but first of all, regarding the standards of cadres, as Uncle Ho said, we must pay attention to both "talent" and "virtue". Without "talent", we cannot be a cadre, but "virtue" is the root to promote "talent". The current General Secretary raised the question before the Central Committee, "virtue" or "talent" which is more important and affirmed that both are important.

Now, to do this well, we still have to educate and raise awareness of cadres and Party members, and we have to supplement legal institutions such as specific regulations to control power, so that even if cadres want to "be corrupted", they cannot, and we have to rely on the people and mobilize the people to participate in cadre work to do it.

Our people are very close to the cadres. Any cadre must live somewhere, how he lives, how he relates to the community, how his wife and children are, whether he has many cars, whether many people come to give gifts or not… the people know everything.

And finally, we must tighten the management of cadres to ensure clean cadres.

Construction regulations are always strict, with many levels of control, but in reality, through the courses, we still let many unworthy senior officials into the system?

Speaking of high-ranking officials, like General Phan Van Vinh, I don't think he was bad when he was selected. He was once a Hero, contributed to the fight against crime, protected security and order for the people, and then he gradually matured, from a professional officer to Director of Nam Dinh Police before being transferred to the Ministry of Public Security. That is a very good development process of an official, not that the organization chose the wrong person.

But due to developments and impacts from the negative side of the market mechanism that make people waver, when they have power, officials become corrupt, not that those officials are born corrupt.

In general, it must be said that the majority of our cadres are good, the number of corrupt ones is low. In the past and present, there are still negatives and mistakes, but now the market economy has a strong impact, and those who are not steadfast will be shaken.

There are also opinions that we need to look at the whole process, look at the merits first and ignore the shortcomings, except in cases where the shortcomings are serious and must be dealt with. That must be true, because nowadays all leaders have big houses and big houses, if they do a good job, they must be overlooked, right?

Thank you!