Democracy within the Party is the core and foundation for spreading democracy to society.
Head of the Delegation Work Committee Nguyen Thi Thanh said: "Democracy within the Party is the core and foundation for spreading democracy to society. Democracy in elected bodies is similar."
On the morning of March 23, continuing the 9th Session, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Law on Implementing Democracy at Grassroots Level.
Authorized by the Prime Minister to present the Report, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra said that this Law provides general provisions on implementing democracy at the grassroots level; the content, form, and method of implementing democracy in communes, wards, and towns, within state agencies, Party agencies, socio-political organizations, and public service units (except for some specific agencies and organizations); the responsibilities of agencies, units, organizations, and individuals in ensuring the implementation of democracy at the grassroots level and the functions, tasks, and powers of the People's Inspectorate.
Expanding democracy associated with discipline and order
Commenting on the draft, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue emphasized that this is an important and difficult law project because of its wide scope, many types of regulations, and many subjects. Therefore, it needs to be carefully researched and invested in, including at the submitting agency and the reviewing agency to ensure the quality of the submission to the National Assembly for comments at the 3rd Session next May.
“Overcoming the situation of submitting to "put aside" when asking for opinions for the first time. Many draft laws do not meet requirements because they are not done carefully from the beginning. This time, the National Assembly and the Standing Committee of the National Assembly have fundamentally innovated. As soon as they are registered for inclusion in the law and ordinance making program, they must study carefully and there have been cases where the documents were requested to be returned for redoing” – Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue noted; at the same time, he highly appreciated the efforts of the Government and the agencies of the National Assembly in preparing the documents of this draft law.
The National Assembly Chairman said that this is an opportunity to institutionalize the Party's major policies and viewpoints on promoting people's mastery; building and perfecting a socialist rule-of-law state of the people, by the people and for the people. The motto is that people know, people discuss, people do, people inspect, people supervise and people benefit as clearly stated in the documents of the 13th National Party Congress. Because, after all, the achievements of the renovation cause without people's participation will not be successful, and without people's enjoyment, they will be meaningless.
In addition, the draft content needs to properly handle the relationship between practice.Grassroots Democracywith strengthening the rule of law, ensuring social discipline. Through this law, the mechanism of Party leadership, State management and people mastery is institutionalized.
"There must be legal documents to implement democracy at the grassroots level in a practical and effective way, in real life, avoiding formality and ostentation" - Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue said.
Also mentioning that the XIII Congress Documents were deeply studied and summarized, showing the people's strength in implementing democracy at the grassroots level, Permanent Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man suggested that it is necessary to clearly evaluate the long-term implementation, in order to have appropriate and feasible regulations.
“There is still a state of formal democracy, not really listening to the people's opinions. The people's right to mastery is still violated, and corruption, bureaucracy, and harassment have not been prevented or pushed back. Besides, there is also a situation of taking advantage of democracy to oppose, distort, causing insecurity and disorder, and internal division. The submission and report need to be clearly assessed,” said Mr. Tran Thanh Man, emphasizing that the Party's goal is to improve the material and spiritual life of the people; to build a democratic, fair, and civilized society.
Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Quang Phuong also said that this is a difficult draft law in both content and form. The theory and guidelines are clear, however, to institutionalize it into law, specifically with the provisions that need to be carefully and thoroughly studied because in addition to the humanistic values of democracy, this is also a very sensitive field.
Regarding legislative techniques, Mr. Tran Quang Phuong suggested that the design clearly show 3 groups of grassroots democracy (in communes, wards and towns; agencies, units and organizations; enterprises and economic organizations) with 6 mottos: people know, people discuss, people do, people inspect, people supervise, people benefit.
In addition, it is necessary to assess the impact of policies more deeply, especially on limitations, weaknesses and inadequacies; the situation of losing grassroots democracy leading to complaints, denunciations, and people losing trust; sanctions to handle the situation of taking advantage of positions to cover up information, corruption, and negativity; and the impact on the economy and society.
Information must be public and transparent.
Referring more specifically to the scope of the draft law, Head of the Delegation Work Committee Nguyen Thi Thanh disagreed with the "exclusion of a number of specific agencies and organizations" within state agencies, Party agencies, socio-political organizations, and public service units and suggested that at least the regulations should be principled.
“Democracy within the Party is the core and foundation for spreading democracy to society. Democracy within elected bodies is similar. Therefore, it is necessary to have a chapter that stipulates it without excluding specific agencies and organizations.”
Regarding grassroots democracy in enterprises, according to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh, there should be general regulations for all types of enterprises and more detailed regulations for state-owned enterprises because there are many contents related to the organization, state budget, and policy mechanisms. However, the proportion of private enterprises, foreign-invested enterprises... is very large and is not regulated in this law, and to regulate in specialized laws is not strong enough to implement democracy.
Emphasizing the need for transparency to implement democracy at the grassroots level, Secretary General of the National Assembly Bui Van Cuong cited the situation of strikes, work stoppages, and mass complaints due to the lack of information disclosure to workers regarding increased working hours, wages, social welfare, etc. In local authorities, there are still many conflicts, especially related to auctions, bidding, leasing, and land allocation plans.
"Strict and consistent regulations are needed to avoid not wanting to disclose necessary regulations and only disclosing unnecessary information" - Mr. Bui Van Cuong expressed his opinion.
Concluding this content, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh said that the National Assembly Standing Committee highly appreciated the Government's preparation of the draft law; at the same time, requested the drafting agency and the reviewing agency to absorb opinions to complete the draft, supplement the draft of detailed regulations and instructions for the implementation of the assigned contents in the draft Law, complete the Summary Report to fully and comprehensively reflect the contents adjusted in the Law as well as the Report assessing the impact of the draft Law in the direction of focusing on assessing the impact on newly added policies./.