"If we are determined to clean up the team, people will trust and support the Party more."

From 2011 to 2017, the entire Party screened and removed nearly 51,000 party members from the Party by deleting their names, of which more than 38,000 party members were deleted due to violations, and nearly 12,500 party members were disciplined and expelled from the Party.

Notably, the number of screening and removing unqualified party members from the Party has tended to increase. In particular, since the beginning of the term until now, 60 cadres under the management of the Politburo and Secretariat have been disciplined.

The Party has looked the truth straight in the eye.

Commenting on these figures, Mr. Nguyen Viet Chuc - former Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture, Education, Youth and Children said that the Party's regular work of purifying and removing unqualified Party members from the Party is a high-level political organization that must be clean and strong, and to be clean and strong, it is inevitable that Party members must be filtered.

Mr. Nguyen Viet Chuc - former Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children.

However, we should not look at the annual disciplinary figures for Party members to judge that the Party's prestige is declining and the Party organization is weakening. On the contrary, this is proof that our Party has been consistent between words and actions. The Party has looked straight at the truth, recognized the factors and members who are no longer worthy of being in the team and resolutely eliminated them.

It also warns that the admission of new party members must be done carefully, and there must be a testing process to ensure proper admission. That testing process is not only for new party members but also for developed party members, even those with positions and power.

“Recently, a number of Party members and officials who have degraded in political ideology, morality, lifestyle, corruption, embezzlement, and do not follow the communist ideal have been removed from the Party's ranks, which is in line with the development law of a political organization. It is also the spirit of determination to clean up the ranks that makes the people trust and support the Party,” said Mr. Nguyen Viet Chuc.

Explaining why many leaders and managers were disciplined, even facing criminal charges, the former Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture, Education, Youth and Children said that it was an inevitable consequence of officials lacking regular training and education, being subjective about themselves, their achievements and contributions, and not having the courage to fight against "sugar-coated bullets". Meanwhile, the work of inspection, supervision and internal management in some places is still loose, formal, lacking a mechanism to control power; the situation of planning and appointing officials entirely by relatives, and group interests are widespread, causing discontent in public opinion.

“In the new era, the Party needs to be stronger, more transparent and cleaner to lead the country. In a context where there are many opportunities but also many challenges, if there is no truly transparent, capable and qualified team, how can we grasp the great and heavy responsibility that the Party and the people have entrusted to us?” - Mr. Chuc expressed his concern.

Determined to screen out party members who no longer have prestige

General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong pointed out: "Only good Party members can have good cadres and good Party cells, so the Party can be strong and lead the country to develop." The message of the Party leader is also an order for Party committees and organizations at all levels to implement with determination to screen and purify to eliminate Party members who have faded ideals, are degraded, have lost prestige before the Party and the people, and cadres who "climb high and go deep" with impure intentions.

To do this, according to Mr. Nguyen Viet Chuc, it is necessary to strictly implement the Secretariat's Directive on "Improving the quality of Party membership admission and reviewing and screening those who are no longer qualified to be Party members and removing them from the Party". In particular, it is necessary to resolutely overcome the disease of achievements in Party membership admission, not chasing quantity but overlooking quality; ensuring the admission of truly excellent people into the Party with pure motives, with moral qualities, qualifications and abilities, tested through practice.

Along with eliminating unworthy elements, it is necessary to have measures to improve the quality of those in the team. Party committees and organizations need to pay attention to training, encouraging and motivating party members to cultivate and train themselves to become positive elements. In practical activities, cadres must be arranged according to their capacity, and even trained so that cadres can complete their tasks well.

Another important factor is that local Party committees and units need to create conditions for cadres to be trained, challenged, and demonstrate responsibility in practical activities, and arrange positions from low to high. When they do not have knowledge, experience, and management skills, they should definitely not be assigned to leadership positions, and even less be influenced by relationships that deviate from appointment standards. In addition, the work of creating cadre resources, especially young, capable, and dedicated cadres, needs to be carried out regularly, creating opportunities for training, fostering, and even being ready to promote them so that cadres gradually get used to the heavy responsibilities assigned by the Party and the State.

Emphasizing one of the many requirements of the Secretariat for Party committees and organizations in 2019 is to conduct a general survey on the situation of Party members, Mr. Nguyen Viet Chuc said that this is very necessary in the current context.

According to him, this is also an opportunity for each Party organization to conduct criticism and self-criticism, recognize the limitations within, and from there have practical and effective directions and action programs. If the Provincial Party Committees and District Party Committees conduct internal self-inspections and self-criticism and affirm their innocence, but when the organization conducts an inspection and discovers shortcomings, then not only will the Party members be disciplined, but the Party organization will also have to take responsibility.

“It is sad that in recent disciplinary cases, very few Party cells or agencies have pointed out their own shortcomings and mistakes, but they are often discovered by the press, public opinion, and inspection and examination organizations, partly because of the mentality of respect and avoidance within the organization, and partly because of the fear that “being frank and honest will lead to losses” - Mr. Nguyen Viet Chuc said, adding that with the new requirements of the Secretariat, the above situation will soon be overcome./.