The 'furnace' must always burn when corruption and waste are still very serious.

The fight against corruption, which the General Secretary likened to a hot furnace, will always have to burn as long as corruption, waste, and bureaucracy remain very serious.

The ethical issues of the Party and within the Party have been posing extremely urgent problems, threats to the fate of the country, the socialist regime and the vitality of the Party. These are: corruption, negative group interests, term-based thinking, waste and the degradation of political ideology, ethics and lifestyle of a significant number of cadres and Party members... causing the people's trust in the Party and the State to seriously decline, the great national unity bloc to be violated, and the endogenous strength of the Vietnamese people, therefore, to be violated.

Faced with that reality, the 12th Congress set forth the requirement of "Strengthening Party building and rectification; preventing and repelling the degradation of political ideology, morality, lifestyle, manifestations of self-evolution and self-transformation within the Party..." as an extremely important task.

Mr. Ha Dang

Analyzing more deeply the urgency of building the Party in terms of ethics, Mr. Ha Dang, former member of the Party Central Committee, former Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, former Head of the Central Ideology and Culture Department (now the Central Propaganda Department) said that the Party-wide campaign to build ethics has been carried out for quite a long time, especially to combat the degradation of political ideology and lifestyle ethics, which was set forth from the 9th and 10th Congresses, but the degradation, especially from the 11th Congress until now, has not been prevented or pushed back, and is becoming increasingly sophisticated and complicated.

“The degradation of political ideology is strongly “attacking” the cadres, especially the upper-level cadres. Saying so does not mean that all the higher-level cadres are corrupt, but there are cadres at many levels, including the upper-level ones, who are involved in group interests,” Mr. Ha Dang emphasized.

According to Professor Hoang Chi Bao, Senior Expert, former Member of the Central Theoretical Council, one of the reasons leading to the decline in ideology and morality is that the issue of morality has been neglected when we entered the market economy, leading to the consequence of increasingly serious decline in ideology and morality, increasingly hypertrophic individualism, only seeing benefits but not spiritual values, leading to the consequence of apathy not only in society but also in the Party, in each individual.

It is worth thinking about that the state of degradation and weakness has been discovered for a long time but has not been resolutely and thoroughly corrected, causing the negative aspects to become more complicated and sophisticated. Most obviously, corruption has become a national disaster, a problem that has not been pushed back. Not only petty corruption but also grand corruption, not only in the economy but also in politics. The mistakes and failures of the mechanism and policies have unintentionally "encouraged" incurable diseases for party members and civil servants, leading to corruption, greed for positions, power, fame, profit, taking advantage, colluding, condoning, and covering up for each other because of mutual constraints on illegitimate and unclear interests.

The degradation and weaknesses in ideology and morality have been seen and pointed out; many resolutions on this issue have been put forward but the situation has not improved, but has become increasingly complex and sophisticated. That shows that the destructive power from within of the internal invaders and of individualism is extremely dangerous and difficult to solve.

Professor Hoang Chi Bao

To build ethics in the Party, according to Professor Hoang Chi Bao, the key issue lies in eliminating privileges and benefits. As long as they are not eliminated, they will remain a “fertile ground” that nurtures the degeneration of political motives, power, and lifestyle.

Therefore, the exemplary role of leaders, leadership agencies, Party committees, and heads of Party committees is extremely important on the basis of establishing correct policies, strict discipline, and strong sanctions.

Most importantly, according to Professor Hoang Chi Bao, it is necessary to attach importance to moral education and practice ethical lifestyles for Party members and cadres in each Party organization and throughout the Party on a regular, long-term, and persistent basis. “This is an important and decisive issue for the Party to be clean and strong, to consolidate the relationship between the Party and the people, and to maintain the people's trust in the Party,” Professor Hoang Chi Bao emphasized.

Along with that is tightening discipline and order in the Party and in society. Strictly handle corruption and other crimes according to the law. No exceptions, no forbidden areas, transparency in trials, discipline in execution of sentences and disciplinary enforcement.

In particular, we must educate party members, civil servants, and incumbents on honor, dignity, integrity, and self-respect. We must feel ashamed of wrongdoings, greed, and personal desires. We must consider corruption a crime and punish corruption as a crime.

After the 12th Congress, with a spirit of fierce struggle, the Central Committee has dealt with many "corrupt" officials and received sympathy and understanding from public opinion. However, the fight against corruption, which General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong likened to a hot furnace, will always burn when corruption, waste, and bureaucracy are still very serious. This is the people's wish. The recognition of the people shows that they have faith in the Party's determination, but the Party cannot be satisfied with that, but needs to be strengthened so that the fight can have even greater changes./.

According to VOV