Model of Party cell secretary concurrently being block or hamlet chief: To shoulder both "roles"

(Baonghean) -Based on practical needs, for many years now, a number of localities in Nghe An province have been implementing the model of unifying the positions of Party cell secretary and hamlet and block leader. Thereby enhancing the role and responsibility of the block and hamlet leader, streamlining the apparatus, shortening some steps in bringing the Party's policies and resolutions into life. However, not everywhere and at any time have the conditions to implement this model...

People who "fulfill the party's and the people's duties"

In the 2010-2012 term, Hong Son commune (Do Luong district) had 9/9 hamlets implementing the model of "unification" of the position of secretary and hamlet chief, of which 7/9 party cell secretaries were re-elected. After the hamlet block party cell congress for the 2013-2015 term, this model continued to be maintained in 100% of hamlets in the area, of which 5 party cell secretaries were re-elected. Comrade Nguyen Hong Xuan - Secretary of the Party Committee of Hong Son commune said: The structure of the position of party cell secretary and hamlet chief was highly approved by the majority of party members and people because through the actual implementation, it has shown that this model has promoted the role of dynamism, creativity, daring to think, daring to do, daring to take responsibility of the hamlet block leader, overcoming the "disparity" between the party cell secretary and hamlet chief in directing and implementing political tasks at the grassroots level.

Through the process of "fire testing gold, hardship testing strength", many secretaries and hamlet chiefs have made great strides in their experience in management, operation and handling of situations at the grassroots level. In the 2010-2012 term, the commune rotated a comrade secretary and hamlet chief to become vice chairman of the commune front, and the party committee structure. A number of secretaries and hamlet chiefs with prestige, capacity, new thinking and working methods and high spirit and responsibility have affirmed their particularly important role in "skillful mass mobilization", creating consensus between "the Party's will and the people's heart" in building new rural areas. The case of Mr. Nguyen Thanh Cuc - Party cell secretary and hamlet chief of hamlet 9 is a typical example.

It was his dynamism, creativity, pioneering, exemplary but extremely simple spirit that contributed to turning a hamlet with many difficult lives into a leading unit in all movements of the commune. The story of him discovering and growing bitter melon plants and multiplying them into a tree to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty in the hamlet and commune or his voluntary donation of 300m2 of land and commitment to "spare the land of 6 members of his family to divide among 14 households" in the hamlet to mobilize people to donate land to build the Hong - Boi Son inter-commune road is still mentioned as a valuable experience for those who are taking on "two roles" in the hamlets in the area.

Mr. Cuc confided: “Being the one who receives the policies, guidelines, and resolutions and directly leading their implementation, it is advantageous to deploy the work faster, easily creating high unity in the Party cell, Party branch, and hamlet executive committee. However, to shoulder the “two roles”, in addition to personal efforts, it also requires solidarity, high spirit of collaboration from the cadres, Party members, and support from the masses.” This was also agreed by Mr. Pham Cong Nga - Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Luu Son commune through the practical implementation of the model of unifying the title of head in 7/7 hamlets in the area.

Up to this point, Do Luong is the district with the largest number of commune-level units implementing the model of Party cell secretary concurrently as hamlet chief. In the 2010-2012 term, the whole district had 262/365 hamlets and blocks implementing the model of Party cell secretary concurrently as hamlet and block chief. Of these, 11 units had 100% of hamlets and blocks unifying this title, including: Hong Son, Ngoc Son, Lam Son, Boi Son, Town, Bac Son, Luu Son, Da Son, Trung Son, Thuan Son, Van Son. The district also organized an assessment of this model. Based on the proposal of commune and town units, after the hamlet block party congresses in the grassroots party committees in the 2012-2015 term, the whole district had 270/369 hamlets and blocks implementing the model of Party cell secretary concurrently as hamlet and block chief.

The Party cell structure in these hamlets includes: The Party cell secretary is also the hamlet chief; the Deputy Party cell secretary is also the head of the Front work committee; the Party cell committee member can also be a police officer (or village team leader), or a deputy hamlet leader. Comrade Truong Hong Phuc - Secretary of the District Party Committee assessed that this is a model with a streamlined organizational structure, with preferential treatment 1.5 times higher than that of a non-concurrent position. The model has promoted the comprehensive leadership role of the Party cell, the management and operation of the hamlet chief in all areas as well as maximized the capacity and dynamism of the leader; limited the situation of waiting, relying on, avoiding work as well as limiting overlap in the leadership and direction of the Party and the management and operation of the government... This model really needs to be replicated in Party cells with a source of cadres and Party members with qualities, qualifications and prestige among the people.

As a party member of Catholic origin, matured from the practice at the grassroots, after 6 years as a deputy hamlet leader, comrade Nguyen Van Sy, born in 1969 in hamlet 1, Nam Nghia commune (Nam Dan) was trusted by party members and people to take on the important responsibility of Party cell secretary and hamlet leader from 2004 to present. The process of "carrying the prison and" in a Catholic hamlet with 125 households, 570 people, whose lives depend on agricultural production is not simple, but Mr. Sy has wholeheartedly fulfilled the "two roles" of actively mobilizing the parishioners of Tan Nghia hamlet, Trang Den parish to live a good life, respect God and love the country.

Talking to us, the leader of hamlet 1 sincerely confided: "I don't have any great experience, simply wanting people to listen to me and believe in me, I have to create prestige, demonstrating by being an exemplary "words go with actions" from raising children, maintaining harmony in the family to contributing to various funds, fees and participating in local movements". For example, implementing the policy of expanding rural roads, to mobilize parishioners to donate land to open roads, the secretary and hamlet chief Nguyen Van Sy took the lead in voluntarily demolishing the fence, retreating nearly 2m according to the plan to build the road, from which many households in the hamlet voluntarily followed suit.

He is also a pioneer in developing the family economy with 7 fields, regularly raising 20 goats, 2 fattened cows and growing spinach for high income. It is known that in addition to his role as secretary and hamlet chief, Mr. Sy is also the head of the local intergenerational club with 98 members, maintaining regular activities on the 15th of every month.

As for comrade Nguyen Duc Hanh - Secretary and Head of Hamlet 10, Nam Nghia Commune: "The important thing is to be fair and impartial in everything you do. If you lose the people's trust even once, it will be very difficult to regain your reputation." Having grown up as the secretary of the hamlet's youth union, when he initially took on "two roles", Mr. Hanh also faced a bit of pressure because he lacked experience. In the party cell, there were many senior party members, so the process of implementing tasks in the village and hamlet could not avoid conflicts, but he determined that this was an environment for training and testing. Thanks to his enthusiasm, pure heart, impartiality, and the encouragement and high cooperation of the party cell committee, and the support of the people, Nguyen Duc Hanh completed the party and people's work completely."

Although it is a mountainous commune, with Catholics accounting for 1/3 of the population, after the last Party Congress, Nam Nghia has 11/11 hamlets continuing to implement the model of unifying the position of secretary and hamlet chief. The leaders of the Party Committee and government of Nam Nghia commune affirmed: "This model brings unity and high consensus, is bound by party spirit, and saves meeting time. Thanks to that, the implementation of work from the commune to the grassroots level is also faster and more effective thanks to the effective reception of resolutions from higher levels. Besides, along with the concentration of authority, the responsibility of the head also increases, no one can pass the buck or blame anyone for right or wrong...".

Party cell secretary and Hamlet 9 head (Hong Son commune, Do Luong) Nguyen Thanh Cuc (middle) shares experiences in growing bitter melon.

Difficulty due to lack of resources or lack of systematic implementation?

Reality shows that not everywhere is it convenient to implement the policy of Party cell secretary concurrently being the hamlet chief. Up to now, some localities in the province have applied this concurrent model as a "situational" solution because some rural hamlets currently lack cadres. In the Party cell, the majority of party members are elderly and in poor health, and young party members, in addition to those who are civil servants of communes and wards, have limited qualifications and capacity. Retired party members are afraid of conflict, prefer to rest and do not want to "eat at home and carry the whole prison and the whole village", so they often make up thousands of reasons to "avoid" participating in the Party Committee and hamlet executive committee.

Also because there is no source of qualified and dedicated cadres for the "leading positions" to meet the practical requirements of the hamlets, many localities have not implemented or have implemented the pilot model but had to stop. A typical example is in Yen Thanh district. Previously, the pilot policy of the model of secretary cum hamlet chief was implemented in 23 hamlets in the area of ​​My Thanh and Phuc Thanh communes, but after the congress of the block and hamlet party cells for the 2012-2015 term, they unanimously agreed to stop implementing this model. According to the head of the district party committee's organizing committee, the main reason is that currently, along with the policy of implementing land consolidation, plot exchange and completing the criteria for building new rural areas, the work pressure in the hamlets is heavy, one person taking on two roles will be difficult to handle. In Xuan Hoa commune (Nam Dan district), previously all 12 hamlets implemented the model of secretary cum hamlet chief, but now only two hamlets maintain the model: hamlets 4 and hamlets 12.

According to Mr. Nguyen Canh Tuan - Secretary of the Commune Party Committee, the hamlet block is full of old and retired party members, while in reality, the secretary and hamlet chief must ensure both leadership and management capacity, be healthy and have a good understanding of the fields to be close and proactive in directing agricultural production. Besides, they must also have a good understanding of Party work, have experience and high prestige in the Party and among the people. Therefore, some Party cells have difficulty in selecting personnel, the person who can take on the position of secretary is old and weak and cannot shoulder both roles, the person who can do well as hamlet chief is not a party member and therefore cannot be a Party cell secretary. Not to mention the difficulty in structuring female cadres to create a source of cadres from the bottom up.

The reality of implementing this model in some localities also shows that many secretaries who are also hamlet chiefs have not been trained in professional skills, their capacity and experience are not comprehensive, they have capacity in Party work but are limited in government work, so they have not fulfilled their two-in-one role well. In addition, concentrating the most important power of a hamlet in one person without inspection and supervision can easily lead to subjectivity and great inertia. Not to mention that where there is a strong Party Committee, the struggle to promote public democracy is high, but where there is a weak position, the position of secretary and hamlet chief can easily lead to autocracy and dictatorship.

In fact, in some places, there have been comrades who are also village secretaries or have been replaced mid-term, such as in Luu Son (Do Luong) or Xuan Hoa (Nam Dan). On the other hand, through research at the grassroots level, there are also many opinions that another difficulty is that the current allowance regime for village cadres is still inadequate, and the regulation that commune civil servants must pass an exam reduces the motivation to strive and enthusiasm to participate in social work of village cadres. Besides, in some special areas, if the two roles of secretary and village chief are separated, and the hamlet chief is specially arranged to be a mass person, it will better promote the role of "skillful mass mobilization" in promoting internal strength to build new rural areas...

Look at the person assigning the task

Mr. Nguyen My Tang - Head of the district branch office (Provincial Party Committee's Organization Board) said: The province does not have specific instructions but encourages localities to implement this policy depending on the actual situation and conditions to streamline the apparatus, reduce costs, and increase operational efficiency. The most important issue is that the mechanism for selecting cadres and supervision work must ensure publicity and democracy to promote responsibility, management capacity, and operational efficiency to improve the "party work, people's work" of the block and hamlet leaders.

Agreeing with the above viewpoint, but with the experience of two terms of effectively implementing the model of secretary and hamlet chief, Mr. Nguyen Huu Thanh - Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Nam Nghia commune (Nam Dan) said that the characteristic of the Party cell secretary and hamlet chief is the person who is directly closest to the people, so when restructuring, democracy must be promoted, opinions and votes of confidence from cadres, party members and people must be sought. The person chosen to be secretary and hamlet chief, in addition to capacity, qualifications, enthusiasm and dedication, the most important thing is to have prestige with the people. Although the capacity of the cadre is limited in one way or another, but "winning the hearts of the people" will be favorable in management, operation, propaganda and mobilization. On the contrary, even if you have capacity and qualifications but the hearts of the people are not favorable, it will be difficult to shoulder both roles.

In the process of implementing this topic, we (PV) really appreciate the saying of Mr. Hong - who has 10 years of experience as secretary and hamlet chief of hamlet 4, Xuan Hoa commune (Nam Dan): "Difficult or easy, heavy or light, all depends on oneself". It will be a "burden" if the wrong person is chosen, the wrong job is assigned, it will be "within strength", "fulfilling the role" if the right person is chosen and the chosen person is wholeheartedly devoted to "Party affairs, people's affairs, village affairs, commune affairs", promoting the role of "servant of the people", then he will be trusted, supported by the people and will be successful.

Article and photos: Khanh Ly - Mai Hoa