Rambling with Provincial Party Secretary Truong Dinh Tuyen

(Baonghean) -I still want to call him Provincial Party Secretary, because to the people of Nghe An, he is a Provincial Party Secretary who left a lot of impressions about his integrity, frankness, decisiveness in work and honesty and simplicity in life, even though he was the Secretary for less than 3 years.

Traveling with him for 10 days in the West, I was fortunate to hear from him his reminiscences, his sharing, his own stories, many of which have long since become legends. Although he is at a rare age, he still looks agile and resilient. On his thin and somewhat austere face, his hair is also thinner and more gray than when he returned to Nghe An. Only his voice is still hearty, especially the things he says are always concise, attracting listeners with their freshness, enthusiasm and true meaning.



Mr. Truong Dinh Tuyen

Although he left the "official" position in August 2007, he is currently one of the few people invited by the Government Office, the Central Party Office and the National Assembly Office to work as a senior expert. Recent major policies such as: 3 strategic breakthroughs, Economic restructuring... all have his intellectual and enthusiastic participation. It is known that many international organizations when working with some ministries and localities in the country facing difficulties have sought his advice and have always received his enthusiastic help. According to him, a leader needs to have 3 factors: a spirit of innovation, decisiveness and especially prestige. These things are only formed from the capacity, qualities, and exemplary lifestyle of the individual and family. And he is always confident that he is a person who speaks to many people and, more importantly, hears many straightforward and honest words.

When asked about the most memorable mark during his time as Secretary of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee, he said that he did not intend to create marks in the form of these or other grandiose projects, but focused on promoting Nghe An's strengths, especially in rural agriculture and building an effective cadre and government apparatus for the people. When talking about Truong Dinh Tuyen's mark, many retired and current leaders of the province affirmed the effectiveness of major decisions initiated by him, such as the issuance of the Resolution on promoting rural traffic construction, with the result that thousands of kilometers of rural roads were renovated and upgraded; the construction of concentrated raw material areas such as Anh Son tea area, Tan Ky sugarcane area, Quynh Luu pineapple area; the development of craft villages and improving the lives of villagers with crafts; the issuance of the Drug Prevention Directive... Then came the reform of administrative procedures, the settlement of petitions and denunciations, making the government apparatus and organizations at all levels operate more actively and for the people. Up to now, many policies that he and the Provincial Party Standing Committee discussed and focused on directing implementation are still very practical and highly effective in Nghe An.

In Nghe An, he was famous for being a secretary who was close to the grassroots, grasped the situation very quickly and was decisive in directing the implementation of socio-economic development plans and policies as well as in personnel work. Recalling his time as Provincial Party Secretary, there were two districts that he visited the most: Quynh Luu and Thanh Chuong. The district was large and rich in potential, but the traffic was very poor, in the rainy season many communes had to roll up their pants and wade through. He directed that we must immediately focus on upgrading and expanding traffic routes to make a breakthrough for economic development. When working with provincial-level departments, seeing many people attentively taking notes, he said why take notes, the important thing was to remember the main issues and implement them. But when he returned to the communes and wards and saw that grassroots cadres attended the work but did not take notes, he bluntly criticized: if you do not take notes, how can you remember anything to work on? He was the one who always demanded specificity and practicality in the policies and implementation solutions of his subordinates. Working at a remote commune in Ky Son district, listening to the commune Party Secretary report on fighting peaceful evolution, he interrupted: You told me what needs to be done to fight peaceful evolution in your locality? The commune Secretary was confused and could not answer. After this trip, he advocated immediately establishing provincial working groups to base in mountainous areas, helping the commune-level government apparatus. Indeed, since the establishment of working groups to implement "3 together" with the locality, the movement in many remote border localities has changed significantly.

During a visit to a base to find out why this locality had so many petitions that had gone beyond the province's level, by chance, at a funeral, someone discovered that he was the Provincial Party Secretary. Immediately, many people surrounded him and expressed all their long-standing frustrations with the local government. He listened attentively and asked about everything in detail. Saying goodbye to the people, he promised to return to the commune soon. Returning to the district, he immediately asked the district Party Secretary if he knew about the complicated situation in this commune. It turned out that the district leaders knew, but did not care to resolve it. Immediately after that, he held a meeting of the Provincial Party Standing Committee and requested that the district Party Secretary be replaced immediately with a more capable cadre. With this closeness and determination, after just over 1 year as Provincial Party Secretary, he dismissed and transferred 6 district-level Party Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries. A responsible and dedicated working atmosphere for the people has moved more positively in Party agencies, government apparatus, and organizations from the province to the grassroots.

He was determined to replace incompetent and disciplinary officials, but he was also known as a generous and forgiving person. There was a director of a company that was making huge losses, and he suspended him despite many recommendations. He asked this director to quit his job to focus on debt collection and promised that after collecting the debt, he would reinstate him. And he kept his promise.

After going around and around many things, we return to the topic of WTO. His contributions to the negotiations of the Vietnam-US Trade Agreement (BTA) and the accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) will probably be written by historians in the future. However, what the press has reported, as well as anecdotal stories, all acknowledge him as a famous person who is sharp, straightforward, sincere and also very flexible in negotiations. Once working with him, the US Trade Representative Zoellick commented: I was very interested in meeting him, I really liked his straightforwardness and sense of humor. Perhaps thanks to these natural qualities, during the dramatic negotiation process, Minister of Trade Truong Dinh Tuyen was a dialoguer who was respected by European and US politicians. The resounding success after 11 years of intense intellectual competition through more than 200 negotiations and 28 negotiating partners for Vietnam to officially become a member of the WTO is a great lesson in many aspects for the country in the process of world integration; in which he personally played an indispensable role with significant contributions. But when asked about writing memoirs to record those memorable years, he pondered for a moment and then confided: he had intended to write several times, but then hesitated. Because of that hesitation, the memoir "From BTA to WTO" that he planned to date has only stopped at... the title of the book. Besides the things he confided, I was so bewildered that I did not dare to say: with his age, time, health, cruel misfortunes; if he unfortunately did not have time to record what he had done for the country with all his intelligence, talent, experience and great personality, it would be a loss for future generations.

While talking about WTO, we talked about Truong Dinh Tuyen's poetry. When talking about poetry, his eyes lit up. He read several poems and also commented on them. I had heard and read his poems many times here and there. But this was the first time I heard him read and comment on his own poems so emotionally. His poems were concise with intelligence and lyricism, subtlety: So I got to know you / So I missed you endlessly / You are gentle and sweet / My heart is a fire / The earth separates us / In the fresh spring / Heaven brought us together / In the cool autumn / Clumsy and late / Why are there so many passions / Does autumn still have enough sunshine / To stir up the coming season. His eyes seemed dreamy as he read the verses recording his feelings about meeting a girlfriend after many years apart, remembering the old days when they both only knew how to secretly love each other: I met you again/ Kissed your hair/ Pressed my lips to find the warmth of distant days/ Years passed/ You came to let me know the strange land/ I still recognized the scent of my hometown's shampoo. It was hard to imagine that in this upright, straightforward and determined man there was such a sensitive, easily moved and romantic soul. While talking, he read a few more poems he had just composed in the last days of the year: On New Year's Eve, the sky suddenly fell silent/ The depth of time remained/ Just a minute, my dear, but my heart was filled with love/ The sweet scent was as strong as the first kiss on your lips, forever sweet/ Then, just a minute, my dear, why is my heart so empty/ Open to the wind on all sides/ Cold and rainy. New Year's Eve, cold and rainy. The poems are heavy with the worldly concerns of a heart that is always "concerned with the times and sensitive to the world".

Having witnessed with my own eyes many overseas Vietnamese, from intellectuals working in foreign organizations to people I met by chance on the street, in shopping malls or at a restaurant, all knew him, respected and admired him. Many people called him by a very familiar and respectful name: Mr. WTO. I shared with him: You are a very happy politician, a "very Nghe" personality - character. He just smiled, his smile reflecting the joy of a person at peace after a long journey of dedication.

Nguyen Nhu Khoi