Part 5: Contributing to bringing the country into a new era
“Maintaining close contact, honestly reflecting the opinions and recommendations of voters and being subject to their supervision” – the emphasis of General Secretary To Lam at the National Assembly session has set out a strong requirement for innovation for elected representatives. Close connection with voters is not only a responsibility but also the key for representatives to promote their role as a bridge, solve urgent social problems, and contribute to bringing the country into a new era with the consensus of the people.
News and Political Reporters Group• November 19, 2024
“Maintaining close contact, honestly reflecting the opinions and recommendations of voters and being subject to their supervision” - the emphasis of General Secretary To Lam at the National Assembly session has set out a strong requirement for innovation for elected representatives. Close connection with voters is not only a responsibility but also the key for representatives to promote their role as a bridge, solve urgent social problems, and contribute to bringing the country into a new era with the consensus of the people.
“The country is standing at the door of history to enter a new era, an era of national growth. The country's burning reality is posing urgent issues that need to be resolved, and the people are waiting and expecting the decisions of the Party, the State, and the National Assembly,” General Secretary To Lam emphasized at the opening session of the 8th session of the 15th National Assembly.
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On that basis, the General Secretary set out the requirement: Strongly innovate the organization and operation of the National Assembly, ensure effective and efficient operations, improve the quality and efficiency of performing the tasks and powers of National Assembly deputies, considering this as one of the key factors to innovate the operation of the National Assembly; in which it is necessary to regularly maintain close contact, honestly reflect the opinions and recommendations of voters and be subject to the supervision of voters.
That is not only a question for the National Assembly and National Assembly deputies, but also needs to be looked at more broadly for elected bodies and elected deputies at all levels to be able to best promote the role of making the people masters through "the highest representative body of the people, the highest state power body" (National Assembly) and "the local state power body, representing the will, aspirations and mastery of the people (People's Councils).
Through monitoring and grasping information, voters and agencies, elected representatives, the Fatherland Front of Nghe An province highly appreciated the National Assembly Standing Committee's approval of the integration and will issue a joint Resolution detailing the contact with voters of National Assembly deputies and People's Council deputies at all levels with many new points, thereby strongly innovating the form and content of voter contact.
Mr. Tran Van Lam - Head of the Democracy - Law Committee, Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province said: The National Assembly Standing Committee and the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front issued Joint Resolution No. 525, dated September 27, 2012, up to now, after 12 years of implementation, it has also raised some shortcomings. This is a resolution that only regulates the form of voter contact of National Assembly deputies but has not regulated the form of voter contact of People's Council deputies at all levels, so it has not created unity between National Assembly deputies and People's Council deputies at all levels in voter contact activities. Or in the voter contact of National Assembly deputies, there are no specific regulations on the district or commune level directly chairing the voter contact conference, so in some places, the district or commune level takes the lead in organizing and running the voter contact conference; in some places, it is organized in a commune, in some places, it is organized in clusters of communes...
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Therefore, according to Mr. Tran Van Lam, the National Assembly Standing Committee's "finalization" of the issuance of a new Joint Resolution detailing the contact with voters of National Assembly deputies and People's Council deputies at all levels is very necessary, ensuring consistency in the contact with voters of National Assembly deputies and People's Council deputies at all levels. With its responsibilities and roles, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province also needs to strengthen the organization of training on skills in organizing and conducting voter contact conferences for the Front's staff at all levels to ensure openness, democracy and friendliness, because there is a reality that there are voters who, although having thoughts and aspirations, are afraid to speak in front of a crowd.
On the other hand, the Fatherland Front must also improve the quality of synthesizing voters' opinions, including full content, correct nature of the problem, with specific addresses and classification of the settlement authority of each level, from which to make appropriate recommendations for settlement; at the same time, proactively coordinate with the National Assembly Delegation and People's Councils at all levels in the stage of supervising and monitoring the settlement and response of State agencies to the recommendations and reflections of voters and the People.
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Vice Chairman of the People's Council of Tuong Duong district Kha Van Ot highly appreciated the National Assembly Standing Committee's consideration to supplement regulations on the form of online voter contact, direct contact combined with online; voter contact before and after the extraordinary session of the National Assembly; organizing voter contact in the situation of natural disasters, epidemics or force majeure; collecting and synthesizing voters' petitions before and after the extraordinary session of the National Assembly... to overcome the situation of "grand electors", "professional voters" or voter contact that is still "formal" and "monotonous".
“Contacting voters online or combining face-to-face and online is very suitable for our characteristics. Tuong Duong is the district with the largest area in the country, 3.4 times larger than Bac Ninh province. If there are more forms of contacting voters, it will be more diverse, expanding the contact area between delegates and voters; not to mention reducing costs and travel time for both delegates and people when the distance from the district center to the farthest commune is about 140 km,” said Mr. Kha Van Ot.
In addition, the National Assembly Standing Committee has agreed to add provisions on the concept of “voter contact” to clarify the content of voter contact activities of elected representatives. Because in reality, there are voter contacts that have “turned” into meetings to meet people, to resolve complaints and denunciations of voters and people.
Ms. Thai Thi An Chung - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province, commented that the draft Joint Resolution detailing the organization of voter meetings between National Assembly deputies and People's Council deputies at all levels (currently being consulted by the National Assembly Standing Committee) after being issued will create a breakthrough to improve the quality and effectiveness of voter meetings.
Ms. Thai Thi An Chung also said that at the meetings with voters, it is necessary to promote the role of chairing the meetings, flexibly selecting the contents that voters are interested in to inform and suggest, and guide voters to focus on giving opinions. At the same time, elected representatives must regularly contact localities and voters, proactively propose diversifying forms of contact with voters to grasp many opinions, recommendations and reflections from voters; the Standing Committee of the Fatherland Front Committee at the district level, the Standing Committee of the People's Council at the district level need to proactively grasp the situation and social opinion in the locality to propose the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, the Provincial People's Council Delegation Groups to contact on topics and key contact areas; pay attention to choosing the location and time to organize appropriate meetings with voters, creating the most favorable conditions for voters to participate, while overcoming the "professional" voters and representative voters.
Speaking at the 24th thematic session of the 18th term Nghe An Provincial People's Council, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Council Hoang Nghia Hieu affirmed: Continue to strongly promote the spirit of solidarity, unity, democracy, concentration of intelligence, striving, upholding the sense of responsibility before the Party, voters and people; constantly innovate and improve working methods to continue to improve the quality and efficiency of the Provincial People's Council's operations, worthy of being a local State power agency, representing the will, aspirations and mastery of voters and people of the province.
According to many opinions of delegates and voters of Nghe An, innovation in the form of voter contact also needs to be associated with innovation in handling voters' petitions. In recent times, although there have been many steps forward, it has not met the expectations and requirements, there are still issues that voters have petitioned over and over again, and one of the reasons is that the responses of the authorities still contain general content, focusing on "explanation and explanation", but lacking "solutions and resolutions".
Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa - Deputy Chief of Office of the National Assembly Delegation and People's Council of Nghe An province said: Currently, the response rate is 100%, but the resolution is not guaranteed to be 100%. This raises concerns for the Office of the National Assembly Delegation and People's Council of the province, trying to "separate" more clearly, which content has been resolved, which content is answered, answered, explained; at the same time, it is necessary to take a higher step: which content is a new recommendation, which content has been recommended for the first, second, third time... to easily monitor, supervise, and urge the competent agencies to resolve. On that basis, all levels and sectors clearly see their responsibilities to focus on handling.
The results of the thematic monitoring of "Resolving voters' petitions from the beginning of the 2021 - 2026 term" by the Standing Committee of the People's Council of Nghe An province also pointed out: Some voters' petitions have not been resolved in a timely manner because the units assigned to resolve voters' petitions have not been resolute, "sticking with" the resolution of voters' petitions to the end, only paying attention to informing and responding to voters' petitions; coordination between departments, branches and between departments, branches and localities at times and in some cases is not tight and effective. Although there have been many solutions to resolve some voters' petitions, the changes are still slow and not conclusive, there are petitions of an urgent nature but the resolution is still prolonged, so voters petition again many times.
“The quality of reports and responses to the results of resolving some voters' petitions is not high, some contents are general, not focused on the issues of voters' petitions, and have not proposed a specific roadmap and solutions to resolve voters' petitions. Some reports on the results of settlement do not have specific solutions and roadmaps, are mainly in the nature of responses, and do not focus on solutions,” the Standing Committee of the Nghe An Provincial People's Council pointed out.
There are many objective and subjective reasons for the above situation, but it is clear that the responsibility factor needs to be properly assessed when monitoring shows that the responsibility of some departments, branches and localities in receiving, resolving and responding to voters' petitions as well as the awareness and responsibility in performing public duties of a number of cadres and civil servants is not high, but the handling of responsibility is not strict, and the results of resolving voters' petitions are not taken into account as one of the criteria to evaluate the performance of agencies, units, localities, cadres and civil servants; there is even still a situation of pushing and avoiding in receiving and resolving voters' petitions.
Mr. Cao Van Son, a voter from Vinh city, suggested: It is necessary to study more specific regulations on the responsibility of participating in voter contact and resolving and responding to voters' petitions by relevant agencies; have strict sanctions for cases of slow resolution or failure to resolve voters' opinions and petitions sent by National Assembly deputies, National Assembly delegations, or People's Council deputies and standing committees of People's Councils at all levels.
Mr. Nguyen Nhu Khoi - Vice Chairman of the People's Council of Nghe An province said: The responsibility of each delegate must be raised to both answer and resolve issues of concern to voters; and to synthesize, classify, convey, and urge competent authorities to resolve quickly and effectively, especially urgent recommendations that are close to people's lives; avoid just receiving, synthesizing and transferring to competent authorities to resolve and then completing the task. Only then can the role of "representing the will, aspirations and mastery of the people" be well performed.
During his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh once affirmed: “In the sky, there is nothing more precious than the people. In the world, there is nothing stronger than the united force of the people.” The ideology of “People as the root” that he left behind has become a guiding principle for all actions, placing the people at the center of the cause of innovation and development of the country. Inheriting that spirit, our Party always affirms that the unanimity, prosperity and happiness of the people are the highest goal of all policies and strategies, and are the solid foundation for building the great national unity bloc.
On the journey into the new era, the urgent demands of the country require strong changes in all areas, especially in the innovation of the activities of elected representatives. The role of representatives is not only to reflect the thoughts and aspirations of the people but also to directly create effective bridges between the will of the people and the strategic decisions of the Party and the State. Each representative needs to become a "bright torch", proactively listening, understanding, and promptly resolving recommendations, not letting the voices of voters fall into formality or be forgotten.
Innovation in voter contact activities is not simply about expanding the forms of listening, but also about enhancing the substance, turning meetings into spaces for democratic, frank and effective dialogue. Thereby, elected representatives not only receive the trust of voters, but also contribute to arousing the strength of solidarity and creativity of the entire people - the decisive factor to overcome all challenges and make good use of development opportunities.
As General Secretary To Lam has emphasized, strongly innovating the activities of the National Assembly and elected bodies is a key task to clarify the democratic nature of our regime. When each elected representative continuously enhances his/her responsibility, enthusiasm and vision, the country will have more powerful driving forces to make breakthroughs, entering an era of independence, self-reliance and sustainable development, with the People at the center of all actions, and national unity is the key to all victories.
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