"Difficult" to find sources of village block cadres

(Baonghean) - In each residential area, the image of the village chief or the party cell secretary "talking and doing" has become familiar. However, currently, finding cadres who "eat at home, carry the prison and the village" is a difficult task in many blocks and hamlets.

We met Mr. Phung Ba Thieu - hamlet chief of hamlet 6, Khai Son commune, Anh Son district when the hamlet held a meeting to evaluate poor households. He is 67 years old this year, but in the Party cell congress, perfecting the grassroots political system in September 2013, Mr. Thieu was still "elected" as deputy secretary of the Party cell and hamlet chief. Although he had asked to retire due to old age and poor health, "looking back", there was no one in the hamlet who could take on this job, so the Party cell still recommended him for election by the people. In a soft voice, Mr. Thieu confided: "The work in the hamlet is very busy, uncle. Honestly, I also want to rest, but the Party cell assigned me the work, and the people trust me, so I have to try. But I also ask the people to do it just for this term!"

Executive Committee of Block 13 - Ben Thuy Ward - Vinh City visited policy families.

All the big and small tasks are at hand, from mobilizing the people, organizing the implementation of directives, resolutions, and policies at all levels to collecting funds, evaluating poor households, visiting, encouraging, performing funerals, and reconciling... If you are not knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and close to the people, it is really difficult to complete the task. In addition, village and hamlet cadres have not been trained in professional skills for a long time, and there is a lot of work. Ward management cadres lack attention and sharing. Meanwhile, not everyone is in high agreement with the people. All of this leads to the situation where there are fewer and fewer people taking on the role of block leader, deputy block leader, and mass organization work in the block and hamlet.

The hamlet chief and block chief are "elected by the people and elected by the commune", must be under the leadership of the hamlet party cell and directly managed in all aspects of work by the commune and ward people's committees. At the same time, they must mobilize the people in the hamlet to properly implement the Party's policies, the State's laws and the regulations of the superiors, fulfill the obligations of citizens to the State; together with the people, maintain political security and social order and safety in the locality. Thus, they must endure the pressure of "the anvil above, the hammer below". The role and responsibility of village and hamlet cadres are so important, but for a long time, this team has been popularizing the form of "taking advantage" of the source of retired cadres returning to the locality.

Basically, this team has pensions, so if we can find dedicated and enthusiastic people, the people will "benefit". Because they work with high responsibility, not just for the monthly allowance. However, besides that, due to low allowances (according to regulations, each month the village chief and block chief receive 60% of the minimum wage), along with the pressure of work, many people avoid responsibility when the Party cell intends to introduce them to be block and hamlet cadres because they are afraid of conflict. Mr. Hoang Van Binh - Secretary of Block 8 Party Cell, Nghi Van Commune (Nghi Loc) confided: “The work of the village and hamlet requires me to be present in the locality regularly, I cannot go far away to work, it is difficult to do other jobs. Roughly calculated, every month I spend 10 days in meetings at the commune, Party cell meetings, village and hamlet activities and that many days doing mobilizing work, visiting people. Not to mention the holidays, the work is even more. In this hamlet, everyone is busy making a living, so when nominated to be a hamlet cadre, everyone refuses…”.

For blocks in towns and cities, retired cadres can still be employed to take on the role of block leader. However, in rural areas, if retired cadres are employed as Party cell secretaries or hamlet leaders, there are also disadvantages. According to Mr. Le Quang Quan - Head of the Organizing Committee of Anh Son district, in rural areas, if a retired cadre takes on the role of hamlet leader, they will have more time for work, but they are not the ones directly involved in production, so they will encounter difficulties in the leadership and direction process.

On the contrary, taking cadres from people living in the village has difficulties because they have to directly produce and take care of the household economy, so the time fund for village and hamlet affairs is limited. In reality, at the grassroots level, there are many people who can take on the role of hamlet chief well because they are capable and have prestige with the people, but they refuse to "take up the position". However, there are also cases where they want to be hamlet chief but their organizational and management capacity is poor, they are not supported by the people... Therefore, it seems that finding people to "take the responsibility" in the hamlets is not simple. Meanwhile, most young people go to school or work far away, and those who stay in the locality have limited capacity.

According to Mr. Dau Vinh Thinh - Head of the Vinh City Party Committee's Organization Committee, many places have difficulty finding sources of hamlet chiefs because they have not really focused on discovering, mobilizing, training, and motivating capable and dedicated people in the branches (women, youth, war veterans, etc.). To solve this problem, the city is planning to improve the quality of Party cell activities to have more realistic decisions in finding sources of block cadres, as well as improving the effectiveness of work in residential areas.

Despite the difficulties, many villages and hamlets have seen positive changes when the Party cell and people boldly elected young people as village and hamlet chiefs. For example, in Puc village, Nam Giai commune (Que Phong), village chief Ngan Van Thuong and deputy village chief Vi Van Hieu were both born in 1982. During the last term, they and the villagers have carried out many tasks, promoting economic development, eliminating hunger and reducing poverty. In hamlet 7, Binh Son commune (Anh Son), hamlet chief Pham Van Son, born in 1989, is also gradually affirming his responsibility and dedication to the village. Talking with the Party secretaries of the communes, it is known that the locality really needs such "nuclei", because the rural area is vast, requiring youth and enthusiasm to undertake the work of mobilizing the people, bringing the Party's resolutions into life. The important issue is that the Party committees and authorities need to focus on training and educating skills and methods for this team, so that they can be more steadfast and confident when taking on the tasks assigned by the villagers.

Nguyen Son