Citizenship, democracy and social criticism
In our country, for a long time, social criticism has been understood as commenting, evaluating, giving suggestions, consulting, criticizing... Criticism actually includes those characteristics, however, it still has a difference in nature. Criticism is the discovery of errors, having arguments about those errors, from which to force the object to explain in order to defend the argument and prove its ability to implement. Without this compulsion, criticism cannot be called criticism!
(Baonghean.vn) -In our country, for a long time, social criticism has been understood as commenting, evaluating, giving suggestions, consulting, criticizing... Criticism actually includes those characteristics, however, it still has a difference in nature. Criticism is the discovery of errors, having arguments about those errors, from which to force the object to explain in order to defend the argument and prove its ability to implement. Without this compulsion, criticism cannot be called criticism!
Looking at human society, since the existence of the state, classes, and ruling parties, scholar Nguyen Tran Bat has reasoned when analyzing: Social criticism in general creates a buffer stage for the natural process of classes and interest groups; that is the stage of discussion and agreement between the social community and the ruling party with the state they represent. According to Mr. Bat, social criticism makes political, economic, and social behaviors less subjective, the conflicts between classes, interest groups, and the state government are adjusted through discussion and agreement.
On December 29, 1956, the 1st National Assembly unanimously elected President Ho Chi Minh as Head of the Committee to amend the Constitution promulgated in 1946.
The Communist Party of Vietnam, at the 10th Congress, put forward the viewpoint of building regulations and mechanisms for social criticism: "Building regulations for social supervision and criticism of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations and the people on the planning of guidelines, policies, major decisions of the Party and their implementation, including organizational and personnel work".
The above viewpoint of our Party, originated in the context of Vietnam being in the process of renovation, aiming to eliminate bureaucracy, overcome the irrationalities of the government system at all levels... One of the effective solutions is to arouse and promote democracy, openness, transparency - of which social criticism is the most effective method, especially in the conditions of a political system ruled by a single party.
Cover photo of the book "Social criticism and promoting democracy and rule of law".
In 2006, Da Nang Publishing House introduced to readers the book Social Criticism, Questions Raised from Life by author Tran Dang Tuan. Incorporating the achieved results and implementing new results, in 2009, the National Political Publishing House published the book Social Criticism and Promoting Democracy and the Rule of Law. The authors of this book are a collective, co-edited by Dr. Ho Ba Tham and Nguyen Ton Thi Tuong Van. A series of questions such as: What is social criticism (concept, nature, characteristics)? Subject, object, object, principles and methods of social criticism? Social criticism in the current democracy and rule of law in our country? Current characteristics, problems and difficulties in social criticism in a specific area such as Ho Chi Minh City? The appendix of the book helps readers have more references on social criticism in modern Western democracy, mainly in ancient Greece, England, France and America...
The survey of social criticism in Ho Chi Minh City in 5 areas: corruption, land, environmental pollution, education - health, traffic accidents has led to some conclusions that deserve attention and wide reference such as: It is necessary to build a specific mechanism to encourage people's participation in decision making; When implementing a project, it is necessary to be transparent and publicize information, especially information about the negative impacts of projects; Strengthen criticism and two-way dialogue between the government and people in solving emerging problems.
In the forms of social criticism, the press always plays an indispensable role, because criticism from public opinion is one of the important information bases, helping the government to make decisions that are suitable to social reality and the people's will. Collecting information on public opinion is done through many "channels", including print newspapers, radio, television, online newspapers... Public opinion is a dialogue between the opinions of citizens in society and the feedback of leaders. Currently, there are two forms of expressing this dialogue quite clearly, welcomed by cadres and workers, which are dialogue in the press with the participation of leaders, and direct dialogue between leaders and people, broadcast live... However, here it is necessary to distinguish the act of criticism from the act of protesting to claim rights. These are two issues with two ways of expression, leading to two different goals.
Based on real life, in order to answer the questions raised, combining the theoretical research perspective and summarizing the practice, the Social Criticism work issued by the Party, the State and related organizations, with the goal of development, each of us still needs to think a lot, do and dare to do many more things.
Eliminate the "arrogant" mindset, not needing to learn from anyone, including politics, technology..., our Party and State have recently opened the door to invite consulting organizations and criticism organizations in a number of countries, a number of international organizations and investment and criticism for our policies. This is a very encouraging sign in Vietnam, thanks to which we gradually eliminate old habits, creating a new breakthrough for open thinking, integration, building a civilized and modern way of doing business and behaving!
Kim Hung
