'To fight against vested interests, power must be controlled'

According to Mr. Vu Ngoc Hoang, when power is not controlled, it will lead to the degeneration of officials and organizations in the leadership and management apparatus.

In Government meetings, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also frankly pointed out: Resolutely eliminate group interests that dominate policies. Regarding this content, VOV.VN interviewed Mr. Vu Ngoc Hoang, former Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department.

Mr. Vu Ngoc Hoang, former Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department

PV:In June 2015, you wrote an article titled “Group Interests and Crony Capitalism – Warning of Risks”. Could you elaborate on this risk?The risk of “group interests” overshadows all other risks.

Mr. Vu Ngoc Hoang: Legitimate interests (of an individual or a group) are interests that are consistent with the common interests of the nation or people, contribute to and complement the common interests; do not conflict with or cause damage to the common interests. For national governance, it is necessary to pay attention to those legitimate interests to create motivation. Forgetting this, not paying attention to the legitimate interests of people, preventing those legitimate interests, then social leadership and management cannot succeed, and sooner or later will definitely fail.

On the contrary, “group interests” (in a negative sense) contradict the common interests of the nation and people; harm the common interests and the community, weaken and cause serious damage to the common interests. “Group interests” are the direct cause leading to the formation of “interest groups”. The characteristics of “interest groups” are the combination of the same interest goals, the same actions, the same division of interests, between those with a lot of money and those with power in the state and in the ruling party. Having money transforms into having power. Having power transforms into having money. Those with money will have power and those with power will have money. They act together to have more and more power and money.

Money combined with power creates the power to control and dominate organizations and society. Realizing the importance of information, “interest groups” also collude, “recruit” and combine with some unhealthy media groups to influence public opinion in a direction that is beneficial to the “interest group” and distort and slander people and businesses that are not in the same group to compete for power and benefits. “Group interests” will follow and go hand in hand with the ambition for power and the ambition for money.

Corruption of seats, corruption of power, positions, corruption of policies… are all related to group interests. Group interests are also a type of organized corruption, the most serious corruption.

“Crony capitalism” is not a stage of capitalism, but a phenomenon, a complication, a degeneration in the unhealthy development of countries. It is not only in capitalist countries but also in countries with different political regimes. Even in capitalist countries, or countries that have just applied market economy… people are very afraid of this danger, because it destroys the country and society.

“Group interests” develop widely, widely, and seriously, it inevitably leads to “crony capitalism”. Therefore, “crony capitalism” is the inevitable result, a consequence of group interests. When group interests develop into crony capitalism, it is extremely harmful to the development of the country, trust is lost, culture is degraded, the political system is broken, and the endogenous strength of the nation is also seriously reduced. It leads to comprehensive harm and it is also a danger that covers all other dangers.

The Party Resolution mentions four risks: the risk of falling behind, the risk of corruption, the risk of deviation, and the risk of peaceful evolution. These four risks are all related to group interests and are influenced by group interests.

The Resolution has not yet made this clear, but today we have another risk, which is the expansionist power of China that wants to occupy the East Sea. This risk has not been clearly shown in the risk groups, it is an all-encompassing, cross-cutting risk, related to other risks, and makes other risks worse.

PV:In the field of group interest economics, crony capitalism favors businesses with close relations with the state, reducing the ability of state agencies to issue regulations consistent with sound economic management. Could you elaborate on this issue?

Mr. Vu Ngoc Hoang:They are familiar with state management agencies, they influence state management agencies, they “advise” to make regulations in state documents in a direction that benefits their group. And when it benefits a group of individuals, it is detrimental to the whole. In the fields of import and export, tax, preferential policies… people can absolutely do that and it only benefits a part of the businesses. That creates an unequal environment, without fair competition and makes those who do legitimate business very bored.

Now, group interests are internationalized, going beyond borders to have relations with foreign enterprises. The Formosa incident in Ha Tinh recently, we cannot eliminate group interests in it. Why is it that the environmental pollution problem has been going on for so long but it has only been discovered after a long time?

There are many corruptions that government agencies and Party activities cannot detect, but the people and the media can detect. That is the weakness, lack of responsibility, and corruption of the agencies and the officials in those agencies.

We should have a culture of dismissal and resignation. In other countries, even if there is no direct responsibility, if there is a mistake, the manager will resign. Because that is morality, self-respect, not a shame as many people think. Only reviewing and learning from experience is not enough of a deterrent and also means "unintentionally" condoning. And condoning means continuing to let negative phenomena develop. Punish seriously, provide transparent information, do not act out of hatred for anyone for the sake of great things, because military law is impartial, for a better state apparatus, a more sustainable nation.

Appointing relatives is a manifestation of corruption of power.

PV:Recently, the press has continuously reported on the appointment of relatives and entire families to positions of authority in some localities. In your opinion, is this a manifestation of group interests?

Mr. Vu Ngoc Hoang: This is a manifestation of group interests, or commonly known as power corruption, “seat” corruption. For those people, having power means having more money; having more money means having more power. They use money to “run”. Thus, power and money push each other forward. But they both push each other and corrupt each other, affected by the dark side of money and the dark side of power.

PV:Why are all "problematic" appointments of officials considered "in accordance with procedures", sir?

Mr. Vu Ngoc Hoang: The process is not a goal, nor is it the ultimate principle, but the main goal is that the process will produce a good product. There are many cases where the process is said to be correct but the end result is not good.

The ultimate goal of personnel work is to find good and talented cadres, to gather talented people, that is the requirement. But if we gather bad and corrupt people into the apparatus without gathering talented people, it means that the process has not met the requirements, that process must be revised, must be changed to suit the requirements. On the other hand, we must review whether someone is taking advantage of the process or not. The same process, with people with good motives, will produce good products and vice versa. In fact, many people with power also apply the process, also conduct a full show of hands vote and the consensus rate is 100%. In the end, with such a process, the leader's family members are promoted to high positions very "according to the process".

PV:Regarding the case of Mr. Trinh Xuan Thanh, some people say that it still takes time to clarify, but initially we can see signs of “group interests”, of the evils of buying positions, power, titles… What is your comment on that opinion?

Mr. Vu Ngoc Hoang:I think the case of Mr. Trinh Xuan Thanh shows signs of group interests. If there were no group interests, how could Mr. Thanh avoid responsibility like that to rise to higher positions. I agree with the direction of the General Secretary. It is necessary to clarify: To what extent is Mr. Thanh's responsibility? Who has helped, tolerated, and covered up behind Mr. Thanh? Who has continued to push Mr. Thanh to do these things and other things? The case needs to be further investigated to expose the group interests.

Because of the responsibility to society and the country, the incident must be clarified and transparent to the end to have enough deterrence. If the information is covered up and not thoroughly investigated, it will cause the "body" of society to lose its resistance.

PV:Group interests and crony capitalism are holding back the country's development. So, in your opinion, what specific solutions are needed to combat group interests, control crony relationships and eliminate the risk of crony capitalism?

Mr. Vu Ngoc Hoang:The first solution is to control power. When power is not controlled, its negative side is the most important factor that corrupts officials, corrupts those who are given power, and then corrupts the entire apparatus, causing the apparatus to degenerate, no longer a state of the people, but gradually becomes a state that betrays the people.

In any conditions, the degeneration of power among cadres and management agencies is the biggest cause of social morality degradation, cultural decline, the nation gradually losing its endogenous strength, society stagnating and the country unable to prosper, not having enough strength to protect the Fatherland, the beautiful goal of socialism that many people once wished for also becomes distant and vague.

Over the years, our Party and State leaders have repeatedly proposed policies and called for the fight against corruption and negative “group interests”, and have spent a lot of effort on this difficult and arduous task, but the results have been very limited. The situation of corruption and “group interests” has not only not stopped, but is still quite widespread and complicated, causing social pain and headaches for the country’s leadership agencies.

It gradually spreads into all areas of social life, of national management and administration, even into areas that have been considered clean and sacred (such as teaching people, saving people, national security, holding the scales of justice to protect strictness, including high-level agencies, churches, pagodas, charity, humanitarian work, gratitude policies...).

The most important direct cause of that is the failure to control power well, to put it more bluntly and strongly, power is basically uncontrolled, which leads to the degeneration of cadres and organizations in the leadership and management apparatus. Controlling power is an extremely important story, it is related to many other issues, including areas that have long been called "sensitive", but must be discussed deeply, discussed thoroughly, and soberly, to make changes for the better.

PV:Thank you!

According to VOV.VN