Eliminate opportunism, pragmatism and trendiness

(Baonghean) -“Opportunity” and “pragmatism” are not words with bad meanings. However, in life, there are people who do not hesitate to use all means to take advantage of opportunities and lucky conditions for personal gain or for their group. They focus too much on immediate benefits without considering long-term benefits. The famous saying of a foreign leader “it doesn’t matter if the cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice” has become an unpleasant motto for a part of our party members today.

Resolution 4 of the Central Committee (11th term) assessed that “A large number of cadres and party members, including those in leadership and management positions, including a number of senior cadres, have degraded in political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, showing various manifestations of fading ideals, falling into selfish, opportunistic, pragmatic individualism, chasing after fame, money, status, localism, corruption, waste, and arbitrariness without principles...”.

In life, it is not easy to identify opportunistic, pragmatic or trendy people, because they, especially cadres and party members, have many clever ways of disguising themselves. Recently, a female National Assembly delegate was dismissed from her position as a delegate because of her dishonest personal history. She was an opportunist because she knew that the organization needed to structure a female candidate, outside the party and in the business sector, so the businesswoman did not disclose that she was a party member who had stopped participating in party activities.

Moreover, the businesswoman did not disclose her husband, Mr. X, who is a Vietnamese-American who has committed a crime and is being wanted by the police. During the election campaign, she also used many tricks such as charity work, gift giving... to win the hearts of voters. And indeed, because she knew how to seize opportunities and calculate pragmatically, this businesswoman became a member of the National Assembly until the press exposed her.

Many similar things have happened, especially before elections, congresses, or leadership promotions, transfers of officials to "sensitive" positions or land allocations, and even during internal reviews, self-criticism, and criticisms within the Party and agencies, opportunists, pragmatists, and time-seekers have appeared.

There are jokes that mock opportunists and flatterers like "However, the chief has a very serious flaw, especially serious, which is not taking care of his health. Because the health of the chief is a precious asset of the collective, of the State"... These people often act in the way of "supporting those who are on the rise, no one supports those who are on the decline". This type of party cadre is very ignorant of the situation at the grassroots level, but all the changes of the superiors from emotions, private life to cadre organization work are closely monitored.

Meanwhile, the concept of virtue and talent today is also different from that of two or three decades ago. In the eyes of many people, nowadays, cadres and party members, especially those with positions, power, and "good" job positions, who drive fancy cars and have shabby houses are "incompetent" and "have intellectual problems...". Meanwhile, opportunists, pragmatists, and opportunists who do not give up any evil tricks (lying to superiors and subordinates; oppressing and persecuting talented and virtuous people) to gain positions and gain special privileges and benefits may be respected by many people (!).

Therefore, in the current situation, exposing the nature of opportunists, pragmatists, and followers is a necessary and important task that requires the consensus of the whole society. To do that, it is necessary to think that each cadre and party member must seriously, courageously and sincerely implement the principles of criticism and self-criticism. Only then can we gradually eliminate the worms in the Party and State apparatus. Only then can we contribute to building the Party in the spirit of Resolution 4 of the Central Committee (11th term) "Some urgent issues on Party building today".

Viet Long