What mechanisms are in place to promote social criticism?
(Baonghean) - Social criticism is both a requirement and a need to ensure that the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's policies and laws, once promulgated, are put into practice without errors and shortcomings. The problem is that this activity in practice is still facing many difficulties and obstacles that need to be resolved.
Contribute to eliminating shortcomings
According to the Project on Merging Commune-level Administrative Units developed by the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen District, the entire district has 12 communes that have not met 50% of the population criteria and are on the merger roadmap from now until 2021. And after the merger, this locality will reduce from the current 23 communes and towns to 17 communes and towns. For blocks and hamlets, the entire district has 252 units and the merger plan has 88 remaining, reducing 164 blocks and hamlets.
The above project was reviewed by the Standing Committee of the District Fatherland Front Committee to seek the wisdom and broad participation of opinions from many components; this is also a step to probe consensus, and at the same time propagate policies, plans, steps and methods in the issue of merging communes and hamlets; because the components participating in the review include the team of Chairmen of the Commune and Town Fatherland Front Committees of the entire district.
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| The Fatherland Front Committee of Hung Nguyen district participated in commenting on the planning of a number of projects in the area. In the photo: Construction of the district's Central Park project. Photo: Mai Hoa |
In addition to basically agreeing with the project, there were 42 contents raised at the conference related to the merger in some hamlets that were not suitable to the characteristics of the population; the arrangement, assignment, and selection of staff after the merger; propaganda work, and involvement of the political system... Through that, the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee received and considered a number of issues as well as clarified a number of specific contents.
In addition to the above content, in 5 years (2013 - 2018), Hung Nguyen district organized 10 meetings in the form of conferences; 84 meetings in the form of comments on draft documents of Party committees and authorities; 11 meetings in the form of direct dialogues. At the commune level, comments were given on 179 draft legal documents, planning, plans, programs, projects, and proposals for socio-economic development at the grassroots level.
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| View of the conference to review the project to merge commune-level administrative units in Hung Nguyen. Photo: Mai Hoa |
In Dien Chau district, the debate activities are also focused on the policy-making contents of the district. Accordingly, each year, at the district level, 2 debates are organized in the form of conferences; in which there are valuable comments from the district Fatherland Front.
For example, through the review of the district's economic development plan until 2020, with a view to 2030, the opinion of the district's Fatherland Front that the policy of raising fish in cages at sea is difficult to implement was accepted and abolished by the district People's Committee. Or the district's Fatherland Front also reviewed a number of draft projects to attract investment, develop industry, small-scale industry and craft villages in the area; the review of the project to promote the development of marine tourism, trade and services associated with culture and history was also accepted by the district in a receptive spirit.
Comrade Nguyen Duc Thanh - Head of the Legal Democracy Committee, Provincial Fatherland Front Committee, said that the social criticism activities of the Fatherland Front and mass organizations from the province to the grassroots level according to Resolution No. 217-QD/TW dated December 12, 2013 of the Central Executive Committee on promulgating the "Regulations on supervision and social criticism of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations" are increasingly systematic and effective.
At the provincial level, a number of important contents were discussed, such as: the draft Law on Belief and Religion; the draft Project on the planning of agricultural development in Nghe An province until 2020, with a vision to 2030; the draft Decision promulgating the Regulations on implementing civilized lifestyles in weddings, funerals and festivals in Nghe An province. In addition, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee also participated in the discussion through written comments on many draft laws and many draft documents of the Provincial People's Council and People's Committee.
At the district level, in 5 years, 51 review meetings were held in the form of conferences; 151 review meetings were held in the form of research, review, and written comments on drafts.
At the commune level, 956 draft documents were reviewed in the form of conferences; written comments were provided for 1,570 drafts.
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| The Fatherland Front of Dien Chau district participates in giving feedback on a number of local economic development plans and projects. Photo: Mai Hoa |
To criticize to promote practical effectiveness
Social criticism is both a requirement and an urgent need of today's social life. Speaking of criticism is a requirement, because this activity has been concretized by Resolution No. 217-QD/TW dated December 12, 2013 of the Central Executive Committee; The Government also issued Decision No. 14/2014/QD-TTg dated February 14, 2014 on consulting, criticism and social appraisal activities of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations.
Social criticism is considered an effective solution and mechanism to prevent corruption.
It is called a need because through this activity, it will contribute to eliminating shortcomings, limitations and consequences in the process of implementing policies, plans, programs, projects, etc. after being approved. Even in the process of criticism, decisions and projects can be stopped right from the beginning, avoiding waste of resources; at the same time, this is also an effective solution and mechanism to prevent corruption today. However, in practice, this activity still poses many difficulties and obstacles.
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| Officials of the Fatherland Front of Hien Son commune exchange experiences in mobilizing people to build new rural areas. Photo: Archive |
Through grasping the reality, it is seen that the social criticism activities of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and mass organizations mainly stop at giving opinions in writing and the main participants in giving opinions are the staff of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and mass organizations with in-depth expertise in many fields, but not many; leading to the quality of criticism still being at a modest level.
There is also a form of conference review with a wider audience, including a team of experts or skilled professionals in the fields of the advisory board, and the review content will be discussed more thoroughly and with better quality, giving and receiving in return to clarify issues with different opinions or disagreement; however, this form is not popular.
Criticism in the form of conferences has not been widely implemented at all levels; at the provincial and district levels, there are only 1-2 meetings per year; and at the commune level, many localities cannot organize any meetings.
The cause of this problem, according to Chairman of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee Nguyen Van Huy, is that there is currently no legal sanction requiring the Party Committee and the government to have the Fatherland Front and mass organizations participate in the review before issuing any policy or guideline; on the contrary, the Fatherland Front currently only reviews when departments and branches request and propose. Therefore, every year, although the Provincial Fatherland Front Standing Committee sends a document to the Provincial People's Committee and departments and branches proposing the content of the review, only a few branches make the proposal.
In addition, some sectors and units that draft policies, projects and plans are afraid of criticism; because good criticism will "reveal" existing problems due to the unit's capacity and level of drafting, or intentionally cover them up for exploitation; or some projects, projects and policies that agencies develop based on the interests of the sector, lacking legal, scientific and practical basis.
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| The Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Cua Lo town presented trash bins to the people of Nghi Hoa ward. Photo: Archive |
From another perspective, Chairman of the Dien Chau District Fatherland Front Committee Cao Duc Hung said that the Fatherland Front staff, especially at the grassroots level, are not qualified enough to undertake the task of criticism; meanwhile, inviting experts to advisory groups is very difficult, because the budget for this team to conduct research is very limited, not encouraging their dedication and active participation. On average, each year, the district budget for monitoring and criticism activities is only 25 million VND; at the commune level, some communes have it, some do not.
"Cadres of the Fatherland Front, especially at the grassroots level, are not qualified enough to undertake the task of criticism."
From the above practices, in order for the criticism activities to be more effective in the coming time, the Fatherland Front agencies at all levels need to improve themselves, especially the leaders must be truly capable, dare to think, dare to do, accept conflicts, and at the same time gather a team of experts to participate.
On the provincial side, it is necessary to develop a mechanism that clearly identifies decisions, plans, projects, and proposals that require feedback, avoiding the current situation of "asking - giving" in feedback; at the same time, it is necessary to allocate an appropriate budget for this activity.
