The people do not lack leaders, they only lack loyal servants.

The people do not lack leaders.

Before passing away, in his Will, Uncle Ho had a burning wish: “Our Party is a ruling party. Each Party member and cadre must be truly imbued with revolutionary ethics, truly frugal, honest, impartial and selfless. We must keep our Party truly clean, worthy of being the leader, the truly loyal servant of the people.”

Not only did he leave that wish, he also left a concrete example of a person who was both a leader and a truly loyal servant of the people, that was Uncle Ho. Party and State documents have repeatedly emphasized the central position of people and the importance of cadres in every victory of the Vietnamese revolution.

In the cause of national liberation, our people have had many people who were both leaders and loyal servants of the people, so they achieved final victory and became the vanguard of the national liberation revolution in the world.

Today, the Renovation process has gone through 33 years (1986 - 2019), longer than the 30-year journey (1945 - 1975) of the liberation revolution, but the victory has only been achieved about half compared to the leading countries in the cause of becoming powerful.

There have been many explanations for that half-victory. If any more reason is needed, it is because in the process of renovation, the Vietnamese people, although not lacking in leaders, lacked truly loyal servants.

If we rely on the people, it will be "a thousand times more difficult than the people can handle". Photo: Le Anh Dung

Indeed, in all terms, the Party, State, Front and mass organizations always elect the full number of leaders according to regulations. If the election is not enough at one time, then additional elections are held, or the superiors appoint down, without leaving the seats vacant. For those cadres who are not governed by the term, the appointment is never lacking, even always redundant, especially for deputies in many sectors and at many levels.

There are many organizations that have more leaders than employees. Since the market economy in the reform period was still in its infancy, the market for positions and power has been accelerating and continuously improving. Never before have leaders been so respected and happily introduced at all kinds of events with a list that has been long and growing longer than in recent years.

Attending the event, the heroic Vietnamese Mothers and the masses were never introduced first. The first introduction was always the positions the cadres were holding, and they did not skimp on words when mentioning all those positions when inviting the cadres to speak and when thanking the cadres after speaking.

In the highest forms of rewards and honors, leaders always make up the majority. For officials who violate Party discipline and State laws, when the people request to be punished, the superiors explain, "If we punish them all, who will work?" Although the salaries of leaders are not much higher than those of their subordinates, the working conditions such as headquarters, official residences, official vehicles, land area for building private houses, etc. change in each term in an upward direction.

In short, the people have never lacked their leaders. Leaders have never been given priority in honoring and rewarding them. Leaders have never had their income and working conditions reduced. If there are any mistakes, the cadres are let off by their superiors, and the people have never been too harsh about it. Clearly, the people are always tolerant of their leaders.

People lack faithful servants

But the people do not only need leaders, but also people who are both leaders and truly loyal servants. Although these people exist, they are only a part of the leaders. There is no survey data on the number of cadres who are not both leaders and servants of the people, but the Party and the State have quantified it by saying that a small part (and now not small anymore) of the cadre team has been involved in corruption and needs to be eliminated.

In fact, since the 12th Congress, more than 60 senior officials and more than 53,000 officials at other levels have been disciplined. In Hanoi alone, in the past 3 years, 98 people who were Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of communes, wards, towns and equivalent positions have been disciplined and dismissed.

In the eyes and ears of the people, the number of people who have been punished is not all. Among them, there are still many who have been involved in crimes but have not turned themselves in. There are many who have been discovered and are awaiting punishment. There are many who continue to commit crimes, although they have become less blatant. There are many who want to commit crimes and still have the opportunity to do so. There are many who do not want to commit crimes, but it is not difficult for them to return.

It is impossible to list them all, but just that much is enough to see how much the people are lacking their truly loyal servants. One bad apple spoils the barrel, but a swarm of bad apples spoils the barrel.

From being reluctant to accept the seriousness, now it has exceeded the threshold, people are worried about this shortage because the consequences are very unpredictable, especially when the people's interests are placed lower than the interests of those who are leaders but have not yet had time to become truly loyal servants of the people.

The consequences are no longer in the future, but are already present in economic and social life.

People are in great need of "electricity, roads, schools, and stations" in rural areas, remote areas, and especially disadvantaged areas, but up to now, many places have not been able to meet these needs, or have not been able to meet them fully, with low quality, and without sustainability.

Meanwhile, large monumental projects, magnificent squares, and spacious headquarters, although not yet seen as urgent by the people, are competing to be planned, urgently started, and quickly inaugurated.

The people really need to reorganize the state-owned enterprise sector and develop the private economic sector. But after two or three decades, what needs to be reorganized is still in disarray, and what needs to be developed still faces many obstacles.

The people really need to reorganize the public apparatus, reduce the number of cadres and civil servants, but it has not been done yet, the apparatus is even more bloated, the number of staff is even more increased. In particular, many organizations, although not public, are organized like public agencies, receiving salaries from the State budget.

People really need openness, transparency, and accountability in the use of tools and resources by agencies and offices, but this is not met by the excessive use of "secret", "sensitive", and "taboo" lists.

The people need to seize the opportunity to soon make the people rich, the country strong, democratic, fair, and civilized. But many opportunities have been missed, many opportunities have slipped out of reach, and the country has stopped for too long at a low-middle level of development.

Behind the above adversities are the hands and minds of leaders who have not yet had time to be truly loyal servants of the people. The reason these people have been able to enter the Party, State and mass organizations is because they have not been carefully screened in the election process at Party Congresses at all levels, in the process of the Party nominating people to elect people's representatives at all levels, and in the process of appointing officials at all levels.

Although these processes have been revised, supplemented, and improved many times, it is still easy for “elephants to pass through the eye of a needle”. The existing screening systems have not been able to eliminate those who are not thrifty, honest, impartial, and selfless as Uncle Ho pointed out in those eight golden words in his Will.

The General Secretary and President said, “Next year, there will be congresses at all levels, and now we can start discussing personnel.” This is a moment of special significance. Party, State, and mass organizations are urgently preparing personnel for the new term. Hopefully, no matter how urgent, the list of candidates and nominees for leadership positions will only include those who have been and are truly loyal servants of the people.

Although it is not easy to recognize these people, it is completely possible if we put the 8 golden words into the filter to eliminate all those who are not thrifty, honest, fair and impartial.

This is truly a challenge for every leadership at all levels, sectors, localities, and organizations. There, those who are both leaders and loyal servants of the people must definitely win, not the other way around.

Although it is difficult, if we rely on the people, "it is a thousand times more difficult than the people can do it."