Anti-corruption is not an internal purge

More than half a century ago, when the young Vietnam was just founded, the Party and Uncle Ho were determined in the fight against corruption. These days, we remember the famous Tran Du Chau case in history. Tran Du Chau - former Colonel, Director of the Quartermaster Department, the predecessor of the General Department of Logistics, was executed in the famous case in 1950.The strict handling of the Tran Du Chau case more than half a century ago is still a valuable lesson for the fight against corruption and waste today. We have been and are continuing to achieve initial results in promoting the fight against corruption to clean up the Party and the apparatus.

According to statistics from the beginning of the 12th tenure until now, Party committees and committees at all levels have disciplined more than 490 Party organizations and 35,000 Party members who violated the law, of which nearly 1,300 Party members were disciplined for corruption and intentional violations.

In addition, more than 70 cadres and party members under the management of the Politburo and Secretariat were subject to Party discipline and criminal proceedings. The inspection and audit agencies recommended the recovery and handling of more than VND61,000 billion and 144 hectares of land.

Many serious crimes have recovered assets for the State, such as the Mobifone purchase of AVG, in which AVG returned VND8,500 billion to Mobifone; the trillion-dong online gambling case involving two former police generals Phan Van Vinh and Nguyen Thanh Hoa, in which the subjects had to return thousands of billions of dong in illegal profits.

The investigation into Mobifone's purchase of AVG has now concluded. (Photo: Zing.vn)

Since the beginning of the year, Party committees and inspection committees at all levels have disciplined 123 Party organizations and nearly 8,000 Party members who violated the law. The Politburo, Secretariat and Central Inspection Committee have disciplined 1 Party organization and 13 Party members under the management of the Politburo and Secretariat, both incumbent and retired.

Many corrupt officials have been severely punished in terms of both Party discipline and criminal law. On social networks and in some foreign newspapers, there are comments that this may just be an internal purge, to eliminate factions.

Mr. Nguyen Tuc, member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, analyzed the motives of freelance journalists and self-proclaimed democrats who make these inferences: “The enemy often turns black into white what the Party, the State and the people have done. If it is good, they say it is bad. The most important thing is that the people clearly see their true nature.”

Meanwhile, Professor, Doctor of Science Phan Xuan Son - Institute of Political Science - Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics said: "Through the recent handling of corrupt elements, we see that it does not belong to any one subject but has signs of factions, there are no forbidden areas, no one is excluded, from high to low levels, even the armed forces, military forces, local authorities, leaders at all levels from the central level who violate are all handled. To assess whether there is a faction or not, just look at the trust of the people. This is an important criterion".

The results of anti-corruption have created a breakthrough, contributing to tightening discipline and order in the Party and State apparatus, receiving the consensus and support of the people, and at the same time having a clear preventive and deterrent effect, both alerting, warning, and preventing corruption, and encouraging active factors to participate in anti-corruption.

Chairing the 15th and 16th meetings of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption, General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong affirmed: “There is absolutely no stopping or hesitation, this ideology must be thoroughly understood. The whole Party and the whole people must be determined. This is a requirement of the revolution, a requirement of the people, the desire of our Party and our people. We must affirm that determination, if anyone among us has wavering, we must voluntarily report and ask to resign. We must be determined like that and pass this spirit down below.”

Reality has proven that wherever there is power, there is corruption. Fighting corruption in any era is to maintain political stability, develop the socio-economy, and strengthen people's trust in the regime, in our Party and State. However, those who call themselves independent journalists and democrats still deliberately distort the goals and motives of the fight against corruption. They, with sophisticated language, stereotypes, comments that confuse concepts and create fake news sources to attract and lead public opinion to oppose and doubt.

According to Professor Phan Van Son, the Party and State's viewpoint on fighting corruption has been consistent from the beginning: "First, the Party and State's fight against corruption is a struggle based on consistent guidelines and policies since the country's founding. Second, corruption is currently a global problem, associated with all countries in the world. Wherever there is power and state organizations, if they are corrupted, power cannot be controlled, and operations cannot be transparent, the risk of corruption can occur."

Fighting corruption in each country is not a simple, one-way battle, especially in the context of technological development that is becoming a tool for opposing forces to overthrow each other. Fake news, slander, and distortion are becoming popular all over the world. Many countries have established regulations, even laws, to deal with individuals and organizations that intentionally spread distorted and false information.

In Vietnam, according to Professor Phan Van Son, there should be stronger sanctions to refute and handle organizations and individuals who slander and distort.

“We need to make the laws more specific and stronger. We need to study where the legal framework is not yet complete. In general, we know for sure that there will be opposing forces in the fight against corruption. Therefore, we must always be alert and have a consistent and scientific attitude towards the fight against corruption,” said Dr. Phan Xuan Son.

During his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh once reminded that "bureaucracy, corruption, and waste are crimes. We must eradicate them. We must practice diligence, thrift, integrity, and uprightness to promote production and thrift emulation to bring victory to the resistance war, success to nation building, and to build good customs and traditions among the entire people and the entire nation."

General Cuong: The MobiFone AVG purchase case left many painful lessons

(Baonghean) - Major General Le Van Cuong - former Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies (Ministry of Public Security) gave an interview to Nghe An Newspaper about the MobiFone buying AVG case.

In order to implement his teachings, over the years, the Communist Party of Vietnam has proposed many important policies, tasks and solutions in the fight against corruption and waste, which have been institutionalized into the Law on Anti-Corruption, the Law on Practicing Thrift and Combating Wastefulness, and many other legal documents. However, the determination of the leaders of the Party and State alone is not enough.

In the current fight against corruption, there must be absolute support from the people, the situation of "hot above, cold below" must be overcome, gradually eliminating from public agencies from petty corruption to major corruption, there must be a steadfast, firm stance, and strong enough laws in this fight, then no matter how much external forces oppose, they cannot distort the fight against corruption in our country.