Creating awareness change for officials and people in resettlement areas

(Baonghean) - Although it has been consolidated, improved and is gradually adapting and integrating, due to both objective and subjective reasons, the grassroots political system in resettlement areas still faces difficulties and limitations, leading to the goal of enhancing the leadership and direction role not being as desired.

Uneven staff qualifications and capacity

In Thanh Son resettlement area (Thanh Chuong), the uneven capacity and qualifications of the staff, combined with the low unity, solidarity and collaboration, are some of the reasons leading to many limitations in the leadership and direction of the government: the division and allocation of land to the people, the clearance of encroached land in the area are not effective; the resolution of policies and regimes is not timely, leading to many errors and delays. Recently, in this commune, there have been scandals related to violations in the management and use of the budget; the settlement of social insurance and health insurance obligations, causing public outrage, affecting the leadership role of the Party organization and the management of the local government.

Also in Thanh Son commune, at the end of April 2016, there was an incident in which dozens of families were tricked into purchasing goods by the Vietnam Consumers Union Joint Stock Company to "trap" people, collecting billions of dong. But the sad thing is that some officials with positions (including the Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Council and the Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee in charge of culture) were the ones who "led" people into the multi-level spiral. Although these officials were later disciplined, it still had a negative impact on the reputation of the Party Committee and the government among the people...

Comrade Nguyen Thac Chau - Secretary of Thanh Son Commune Party Committee frankly said: In fact, the current cadre team in the area is still quite patchy in qualifications, while the population is relatively large with 5 ethnic groups: Thai, Kho Mu, O Du, Khmer, Kinh with different customs and levels of awareness. A number of cadres and party members are not really close to the people, do not have a firm grasp of policies and guidelines to advise. Some key cadres of the Party Committee are also limited in qualifications and capacity, especially in directing and leading, so they have not found optimal solutions to overcome difficulties and obstacles such as solving land appropriation for farm owners; clearing illegal houses and stalls, handling violations of forestry laws occurring in the area...

Dong Van commune builds a cage fish farming model on Hua Na hydroelectric reservoir to replicate among resettled people.

In some village party cells, through monitoring the minutes, it can be seen that the content of activities is still poor, the maintenance of party cell activities is not regular, some party cells only once a month or two months, party development work is difficult. Secretary of Tan Lap village party cell (Thanh Son commune) - comrade Luong Dai Xuan, said: Life is difficult so young people drop out of school to work, at home there are mainly old people and children, the youth union cannot operate so in the past 3 years the party cell has only admitted 1 party member. In the new party cell activities, it stops at implementing policies and guidelines from above, but the party cell has not yet proposed and implemented resolutions and contents related to issues happening right in the area.

Talking about the difficulties in party building work in the locality, comrade Nguyen Danh Hieu - Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Ngoc Lam commune (Thanh Chuong) said: in the locality, many party members go to work far away, causing difficulties for management work. Some party committees and branches have not paid attention to improving the quality of party cell activities, and the leadership and direction capacity of party committees and branches is low.

Still have a heavy mentality of waiting and relying

In reality, in resettlement areas, land is not fully divided and allocated to the people of the villages, such as in Thanh Son (Thanh Chuong), Mr. Lo Van Nguyen, Deputy Secretary of the Commune Party Committee said: "Currently, in Cha Coong II and Thai Lam villages, the allocated land is still less than the regulations, some households do not have land... making it difficult to direct the implementation of the tea planting project. In the 100-hectare agricultural tea planting project, 16 hectares have been planted with acacia trees mixed with tea or planted with acacia trees without care. The Commune Party Committee is focusing on directing the Commune People's Committee to review and resolve the issue."

Ngoc Lam commune is also facing the situation of land shortage and water shortage for production of some households that has not been resolved. In some villages such as Hien village and Xieng Lam village, the work of dividing land for people has not been completed. This causes many difficulties for the Party Committee and the government in leading and directing hunger eradication and poverty reduction, promoting socio-economic development, and stabilizing the lives of people in the area. For example, although the situation of people going back and forth between their old and new residences has decreased, there are still difficulties in population management, administrative management and party development work.

Party members of Kim Chuong village party cell (Thanh Son, Thanh Chuong) talk with reporters

However, what the Party committee and government officials in Thanh Chuong resettlement communes are concerned about is that some people, including officials and party members, still have a heavy mentality of waiting and relying on the State's support and are not willing to break through and rise up. This, in the political report at the Party Congress for the 2015 - 2020 term, the Thanh Son Commune Party Committee also pointed out: "The awareness of a number of officials, party members and people has not kept up with the general development trend and the new place of residence; the conservative, stagnant mindset, waiting and relying on officials, party members and people is still large".

In Dong Van commune (Que Phong), referring to the Hua Na hydropower resettlement area, according to comrade Lang Van Tuan - Party Secretary of the commune, at the beginning of the move, although the political system had been completed, due to the new conditions of moving to settle in the new location, the means of production such as land and rice fields were not yet complete, so it affected the lives of many party members and people when they had to focus on stabilizing their family life.

On the other hand, in Dong Van, 5/10 villages still have the situation where the heads of the branches are not party members. This also affects the leadership and direction of the grassroots party committees. Therefore, the commune is actively creating sources, discovering and nurturing outstanding masses to join the party, thereby creating conditions to improve the grassroots branches. Up to this point in 2016, Dong Van has admitted 14 new party members, exceeding the target set by the Resolution of the Commune Party Congress for the 2015-2020 term of admitting 11-12 new party members/year.

However, an important issue that the Executive Committee and Standing Committee of the Dong Van Commune Party Committee pointed out is that there is still a mentality of waiting and relying. “Therefore, the Commune Party Committee has issued a resolution determined to eliminate this mentality from now until 2020, and first of all, cadres and party members must be truly exemplary in implementing the resolution, creating a ripple effect for people to implement and follow,” said comrade Lang Van Tuan.

Need a strong change in perception

From the above reality, it can be seen that the core of the work of building the Party and consolidating the political system in the resettlement areas must first overcome the mentality of waiting and relying on others. To do this, we must start by changing the thinking and awareness of the cadres and party members through setting an example with specific actions and deeds. From there, we can create trust among the people, so that they can see that "we must use our strength to liberate ourselves" and feel secure in building a new life.

Discussing this issue, comrade Tran Dang Khoa - Head of the Organizing Committee of Que Phong District Party Committee said: Partly because of waiting and relying on the direction and support of the superior Party Committee, the capacity of some grassroots Party Committees in organizing and implementing specialized resolutions is still limited; the organization and implementation are still problematic.

This is an issue that Que Phong must continue to focus on training and educating to improve the quality of party committees and party members in resettlement villages. On the other hand, Que Phong is also making efforts to coordinate with the Hua Na hydropower project investor to provide land for production to the people, including rice fields. "Currently, 5/13 resettlement sites have not been provided with rice fields. Therefore, from now until the end of the first quarter of 2017, the district will focus on directing and coordinating to provide rice fields for the people to have conditions for production and stabilize their lives," said Que Phong District Party Secretary - Comrade Lu Dinh Thi.

Thai ethnic people in Ngoc Lam resettlement area (Thanh Chuong) still preserve traditional weaving.

In Thanh Chuong district, comrade Dang Anh Dung - Standing Deputy Secretary of the District Party Committee said: Practice shows that "what cadre, what movement" like in Ngoc Lam resettlement area, the leaders of the Party Committee and the government have a spirit of solidarity and collaboration, the cadres are more even-handed so the movement is better than in Thanh Son.

Therefore, for the characteristics of the resettlement area, the Thanh Chuong District Party Committee does not focus on qualifications, but focuses on training and fostering practical capacity, initiative and creativity in concretizing the Party and State's policies and guidelines into life. The District Party Committee has also established district-level working groups headed by comrades from the Standing Committee and the District Party Committee Executive Committee, who periodically go to Party cell meetings in the resettlement villages every 1-3 months to grasp the situation, answer questions and difficulties, and "hold hands and guide" the village cadres...

In addition, in Thanh Chuong resettlement areas, the people resettled in Tuong Duong include many ethnic groups (Thai, Kho Mu, O Du, Khmer...), so it is very difficult to implement the plan to strengthen local cadres for the Party Committee and government apparatus in the two resettlement communes. One is that local cadres do not know the ethnic language, two is that they do not understand the customs and practices of the people, so apart from the two border guards who have been reinforced to become Party Committee secretaries and deputy secretaries, the main source of cadres in the two resettlement communes is from their hometowns.

Therefore, a problem that arises for the resettlement areas is to regularly review children who have undergone basic training to include them in planning, training, fostering, screening, and gradually standardizing the staff. Focus on training and fostering young, capable and promising staff to create long-term resources... in which the source of staff in the hamlets and villages - the place closest to the people and directly bring the policies, resolutions, programs, actions, and projects of the Party Committee and the government into life is important.

PV Group