Contributing to Party building: Need for a mechanism to receive and respond to information

Not only is there a need for a mechanism to receive and respond to information, the Party also needs to clarify "black and white" in receiving comments and contributions.

Continuing to explore the boundary between sincere Party building and taking advantage of Party building to oppose the regime, VOV reporters met with a number of experts and representatives of associations and organizations to clarify the need for a mechanism and appropriate way to receive opinions from cadres, Party members and people.

According to them, in order not to eliminate passionate opinions, as well as to clearly expose the tricks of political opportunists, our Party needs to have a specific mechanism to clearly distinguish between "building" and "opposing". At the same time, it is necessary to promote the supervisory and critical role of the Front at all levels.

Poster welcoming the 12th National Party Congress

Dr. Ngo Vuong Anh, an officer of the Propaganda and Theory Department of Nhan Dan newspaper, said that during his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh always emphasized the mobilization of people to participate in Party building. He wrote: "...We must welcome and encourage the masses to honestly criticize cadres and party members", thereby "bringing all issues to the people for discussion and finding solutions" to "rely on the people's opinions to improve our cadres and organizations".

Observing from the recent self-criticism and criticism of grassroots Party organizations, Dr. Ngo Vuong Anh commented: The opinions contributed on such occasions often have two extremes, one is too much praise, general praise; the other is frankness, thorny with good motives but sometimes does not reach the goal, some people even worry about being persecuted. Therefore, there needs to be a solution to overcome these two extremes.

“With heartfelt suggestions, there must be a mechanism to receive, notify, and respond, including direct comments at the conference or written comments, there must be a very specific response. With this opinion of comrade a, b, how have we received and handled it so that the person giving the suggestion can feel secure with his/her opinion and still want to give more suggestions. Otherwise, it will eliminate the motivation to give good suggestions of such party members,” Dr. Ngo Vuong Anh stated his opinion.

Mr. Duong Ngoc Son - Vice Chairman of Thang Long Club (a club for retired mid- and high-ranking officials in Hanoi) said that he and many members of the Club have repeatedly expressed their views and opinions on Party building through the Central Propaganda Department, the Propaganda Department of the Hanoi Party Committee, through the press or at meetings of Party cells and grassroots Party committees. However, he still hopes and expects the Front channel to have the function of criticism and supervision.

“The Front has focused on receiving opinions, but in the current conditions, the Front needs to pay more attention. Supervision and criticism are the roles of the Front, but they must be done regularly so that Party members can contribute their opinions,” said Mr. Duong Ngoc Son.

Mr. Nguyen Tuc

Has the Front - the place with the most authority to supervise and criticize - done its role well? In response to this question, Mr. Nguyen Tuc - Member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front said that social supervision and criticism were introduced at the 10th Party Congress (April 2006). However, it was not until December 2013 that the Politburo issued a Resolution on social supervision and criticism, which clearly stated that the Vietnam Fatherland Front, political and social organizations and the people participate in giving opinions to build the Party and build the government. However, when that mechanism was in place, the giving of opinions was not as strong as the Front had done in history. Therefore, in the current period, according to Mr. Nguyen Tuc, when facing issues that require widespread critical opinions, the Party should "place orders" with the Front organization.

“To build a clean and strong Party and State, the people must exercise their right to mastery in participating in the development of policies. In recent years, the contributions of the Party delegation of the Front to the Secretariat have not been regular. Our ancestors have a saying “the mother only breastfeeds the child when it cries”, which is not very appropriate in this case, but if we do not remind them regularly, the Party, especially the Politburo and the Secretariat, will easily forget many tasks. One of the things I have to learn from experience is to “urge” them, if we see that it is legitimate and beneficial to the people, the Front must do it”, Mr. Tuc stated his opinion.

Dr. Vu Ngoc Hoang

According to Dr. Vu Ngoc Hoang, former Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, the current mechanism for receiving opinions and contributions from cadres, party members and people to the Party is fundamentally unstable. Therefore, "there needs to be a better mechanism for listening and receiving, and it is necessary to create conditions for more multi-dimensional information. All feedback and reception must have feedback from responsible agencies.

“The Party must clearly assign which areas are monitored by which agencies. You discuss opinions with the agency, respond to them, and any opinions proposed to the higher authorities for comments must also be made public. That as this agency, we see that what you said is correct, and I will accept it. Regarding the other matter, I also see that it is correct, but there must be a phase, a step, and it cannot be done immediately. There are also matters that I do not accept for this or that reason, so I must also state them again,” Dr. Vu Ngoc Hoang expressed his opinion.

Freedom of thought and freedom of speech have been affirmed in our country's Constitution and have been specified in many documents of the Party and the State. Therefore, at this time, when our Party is promoting the implementation of Resolution 4 of the Central Committee, fighting against degradation, self-evolution, and self-transformation, the frank and responsible contributions to the people and the fate of the country by cadres and Party members through various channels, from the Central to the grassroots, are even more important. This also means that we should not wait for major activities such as collecting opinions on the Constitution or before Party Congresses, but need to have a regular and continuous mechanism so that our Party can promptly correct mistakes and shortcomings.

In particular, in the digital age, information interference is inevitable. Therefore, not only is there a need for a mechanism to receive and respond to information, but the Party also needs to clarify “black and white” in receiving contributions. Only then can we mobilize the strength of all cadres, party members and the masses in the current work of Party building and rectification./.

According to VOV