Many officials were disciplined for organizing weddings that "exceeded standards"

The Hanoi Party Committee has just summarized 5 years of implementing Directive 11 (October 3, 2012) on implementing civilized lifestyle in weddings. This Directive requires officials and civil servants to organize weddings for their children or themselves not to invite more than 300 people to the party. The Directive also requires officials not to organize weddings in places with too much cost such as 5-star hotels, high-class tourist areas, etc.

Officials organize "excessive" weddings, the agency will not go to the party!

According to the assessment of the Hanoi Party Committee, most cadres and party members actively responded to the directive. Initially, there was public condemnation of the ostentatious, formal, wasteful, contrary to traditional customs and practices as well as the exploitation of wedding organizations for profit.

In particular, Directive 11 has limited the phenomenon of officials and civil servants attending weddings during working hours, using public vehicles to attend weddings, many agencies have included organizing office weddings in agency regulations and emulation evaluation criteria.

Mass wedding following new lifestyle organized by Hanoi Youth Union.

“A typical example is Dong Anh district, if key officials invite their children to the wedding without reporting to the Party Committee, the organization invites more people than the prescribed number, then the majority of officials and Party members of the agency do not attend the wedding... Or like Ha Dong district, there is a wedding model with less than 40-50 tables of food; many districts organize mass weddings...”, the report of the Hanoi Party Committee stated.

However, the Hanoi Party Committee also pointed out that there are still a number of party members and cadres who "disregard, avoid, and do not pay attention to implementing the contents of the directive, causing negative public opinion among party members and the people."

A typical case in Thanh Tri district occurred when a Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee organized a wedding for his son, violating the regulations by holding a wedding that exceeded the number of banquets according to regulations, with the reason being that there were many relatives and neighbors, so the number of banquets could not be reduced. This case was disciplined in the form of a reprimand by the Party and the government.

The Hanoi Party Committee also said that the Ha Dong District Party Committee has disciplined 20 officials and party members who violated regulations in organizing wedding parties. Most recently, at the end of 2017, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Vat Lai Commune (Ba Vi, Hanoi) had to criticize himself before the Party Committee and People's Committee of the commune for organizing his child's wedding during working hours.

Holding lavish weddings will cause social outrage

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Ngo Van Nam, Head of the Department of Building Cultural Lifestyle and Family (Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports) said that in conditions where the majority of people are still living in difficult circumstances, organizing lavish and wasteful weddings will cause social outrage.

“In my opinion, the more developed society becomes, the more complicated procedures must be reduced, and people living together must be more sharing and compassionate. Therefore, it is necessary to seriously correct the phenomenon of officials and civil servants organizing lavish wedding parties that cause waste,” said Mr. Nam.

Mr. Nam also said that during the implementation of Directive 11, "there may be reactions, but those reactions are only personal, not for the common good of the whole society."

“If a department has 2,000-3,000 officials, civil servants, employees and workers and the head of the unit organizes a wedding for his child and invites everyone, it will cause difficulties for the wedding attendees. If we invite more people from the city government system and central agencies... how many guests will there be?”, Mr. Nam said.

According to Mr. Nam, most of the city's ordinary officials and civil servants strictly follow the directive because they do not have the conditions to organize a grand wedding party. As for officials under the management of the City Party Committee, if they organize a wedding party in 2-3 places and make it grand, they will be punished.

“The implementation of the directive has built a monitoring mechanism for the whole society, especially the press and media. If you organize a wedding party that is too lavish, there will be public opinion, the people, and even the officials and civil servants who attend the wedding party will report it to the management agency for handling,” said Mr. Nam.

Mr. Nam also said that at the end of March 2018, the Hanoi People's Committee continued to issue a document requesting leaders of districts/towns/cities to seriously inspect, supervise and handle officials and party members who violate Directive 11, and periodically report the implementation results every six months and one year (on June 25 and December 25) to the City People's Committee.

Through the strong direction of Hanoi City, Mr. Nam hopes that officials and civil servants, especially those in positions of authority, will strictly follow civilized lifestyles in marriage, and violations will be limited.