Create common awareness and determination to fight bureaucracy and corruption
"Bureaucracy, corruption, and distance from the people will lead to immeasurable losses to the destiny of the country, the socialist regime, and the Party" - This is a new point added to the second lesson in the platform for building our country during the transitional period to socialism.
In the Platform for national construction during the transitional period to socialism (supplemented and developed in 2011), the five basic lessons learned remain the same as the 1991 Platform: "First, firmly grasp the banner of national independence and socialism; Second, the revolutionary cause is of the people, by the people and for the people;
Third, constantly consolidate and strengthen solidarity - solidarity of the entire Party, solidarity of the entire nation, and international solidarity; Fourth, combine national strength with the strength of the times, domestic strength with international strength; Fifth, the correct leadership of the Party - the leading factor determining the victory of the Vietnamese revolution". The new point, added to the second lesson that needs to be studied and thoroughly understood is: "Bureaucracy, corruption, and distancing from the people will lead to immeasurable losses to the destiny of the country, the socialist regime, and the Party".
Clean water project in remote commune Chau Hoan - Quy Chau. Photo: Le Ba Lieu
According to the Vietnamese Dictionary, "Bureaucracy" is far from reality, and corruption is a manifestation of greed and harassment. From very early on, Uncle Ho considered this problem a dangerous disease: Bureaucracy is far from reality, far from the masses, far from the ideal goals of the Party. Bureaucracy is a danger to the ruling Party, the cause of many different diseases. He emphasized: "The disease of bureaucratic orders only leads to failure..., so having eyes but not seeing clearly, having ears but not hearing clearly, having a regime but not keeping it properly, having discipline but not grasping it firmly. The result is that bad people, incompetent cadres are free to embezzle and waste."
As for corruption, which means greed and harassment, he also pointed out different dangerous forms and angles. Because greed inevitably leads to embezzlement and waste. Embezzlement, according to President Ho Chi Minh, "is robbery, the most evil act, the most despicable crime in society". For officials, embezzlement is "stealing public property for private use". Therefore, corruption and bureaucracy are harmful to the cause of nation building; harmful to the work of improving people's lives, harmful to the revolutionary ethics of officials and party members. According to him, bureaucracy incubates, tolerates, and protects embezzlement and waste, and nurtures the growth of embezzlement and waste. Therefore, to eliminate embezzlement and waste, we must first eliminate bureaucracy. (1).
Thus, we have seen the manifestations of bureaucracy, corruption, the dangerous and evil nature and the relationship between corruption and bureaucracy, as well as the role of cadres, party members and people in the fight against "internal invaders" (President Ho Chi Minh's words). The question is why does the Party Platform this time emphasize: Bureaucracy, corruption, and being far from the people will lead to immeasurable losses to the destiny of the country, the socialist regime and the Party?
Remember, in the middle of the 7th term, our Party warned of 4 dangers to our country's revolutionary cause: The danger of corruption; The danger of falling behind; The danger of deviation; and The danger of peaceful evolution. Since then, through more than three terms of the 8th, 9th, and 10th Congresses, those warnings of the Party still hold true. Corruption, moral degradation of a part of the cadres and Party members; manifestations of bureaucracy, detachment from the people, and bullying of the people by the State apparatus are eroding the people's trust in the Party and the socialist regime.
Our Party leads society and the people with faith, with persuasion, with words that go hand in hand with actions, with sacrifices and examples of each communist party member. In the two resistance wars against the French and the Americans, the reason why our Party led successfully to complete victory was because the people had absolute confidence in the Party's leadership, voluntarily listened to the Party, followed the Party with familiar slogans such as "Party members go first, the country follows", or "no regrets until the car has passed the house"... This is because the Party organization and Party members are the vanguard, the people's trust.
However, now, when our country has achieved the goal of escaping the status of a poor, underdeveloped country with a GDP per capita of 1,168 USD in 2010, the people see a large number of cadres, party members, bureaucrats, corruption, degradation of moral qualities and lifestyle, distance from the people, even using policies and extorting people, so inevitably the people's trust in the party has decreased.
There can be no trust when people knock on the doors of government agencies, when they come to the headquarters to receive people, they are treated coldly, unwelcomingly, their work is resolved in a perfunctory manner, they do not want to listen to what people say, what they present. There can be no trust when the mass media exposes corruption cases of officials and party members, losses of up to thousands of billions of dong, occurring in many fields, even in high-ranking agencies, agencies that firmly protect the law.
Bureaucracy and corruption can only be done by officials and civil servants with positions and power, that is, by the State apparatus. Therefore, in the review and evaluation of the 5-year term (2006-2010) on the construction of a socialist rule-of-law state that has not kept up with the requirements of economic development and national management, the 11th Congress document clearly stated: "The work of preventing and combating corruption and waste has not met the set requirements. Bureaucracy, corruption and waste are still serious with sophisticated and complicated manifestations that have not been prevented or repelled, causing social outrage". Or when evaluating the Party Building work in recent times, which has revealed many limitations, weaknesses, and slow to be overcome, our Party has also frankly pointed out: "The state of political, ideological, moral, and lifestyle degradation in a large number of cadres and Party members, and the state of corruption, waste, bureaucracy, negatives and social evils have not been prevented or pushed back, but continue to develop in a complicated manner, along with the polarization between rich and poor and the weakness in management and administration at many levels and sectors, reducing people's trust in the Party and State, threatening the stability and development of the country".
The Platform (supplemented and developed in 2011) points out that bureaucracy and corruption cause "unpredictable consequences", meaning they are out of control, extremely serious, and extremely dangerous to the fate and survival of the country, the socialist regime, and the Party. This is a very accurate and appropriate assessment, a profound warning from the Party that every Party organization, every cadre, and Party member needs to think about and cannot ignore.
Corruption is increasingly occurring in all forms, sophisticatedly: in land management, mineral resources, project approval, capital construction investment management, budget allocation, personnel organization, etc. There are also opinions that corruption, embezzlement, taking money, taking state assets, turning public assets into private ones, for personal gain are dangerous, but more dangerous now is the form of political corruption, that is, corruption in personnel work. The Congress documents clearly state that the situation of "buying positions, buying power" has not been overcome (Page 174, Congress documents). The consequence is that the arrangement of cadres to leadership positions of the country, of each locality, and industry is not based on task requirements but due to other personal reasons, which will lead to direct and indirect losses that are enormous and unimaginable for the Party, the country, and the regime. Because corruption leads to mistakes in personnel work, it will take a long time, not knowing how many Congress terms, to correct and recover.
Drawing lessons from experience is very important, but what is more important and meaningful is knowing how to avoid, overcome and correct shortcomings and shortcomings in the upcoming tasks. The Party's socio-economic development strategy for 2011-2020 emphasizes: "Persistently, resolutely and effectively implementing the fight against corruption and waste is a very important, urgent and long-term task of Party building and State building". "Encourage the detection and strict handling of acts of corruption and waste" (Pages 143, 144 of the Congress documents).
More specifically, in the period of 2011-2015, the Party requires "All leaders of the Party, the State, the Fatherland Front, and people's organizations from the Central to the grassroots level and each Party member, first of all the leaders, must be exemplary in implementing and directly participating in the fight against corruption and waste", "Be open and transparent about mechanisms, policies, investment projects, basic construction, procurement from the State budget, mobilize people's contributions, manage and use land, public assets, and receive and appoint officials", "Complete the procedures for the responsibility of leaders when corruption and waste occur in agencies, organizations, and units. Handle corrupt officials in accordance with the law, promptly and publicly; confiscate and confiscate corrupt assets and assets originating from corruption", "Have a mechanism to encourage and protect those who fight against corruption, waste, and negativity; at the same time, strictly discipline those who cover up and deliberately prevent corruption and waste". "Hindering the fight against corruption and waste or taking advantage of corruption denunciations to slander, harm others, and cause internal disunity" (Pages 253, 254 of the Congress Documents)
To effectively fight bureaucracy, corruption, and alienation from the people, in terms of implementation methods, we need to remember Uncle Ho's teachings and rely on the experiences and lessons that have been successfully carried out over the years. President Ho Chi Minh requested that first of all, creating a common awareness and determination to fight corruption, waste, and bureaucracy is as important and necessary as fighting the enemy on the front line. This is an internal revolution, a fierce struggle between the good and the bad, the old and the new, between the revolutionary ethics of diligence - thrift - integrity - uprightness - impartiality and the enemy of corruption and bureaucracy. We must be of one mind, boldly volunteer, and mobilize the participation of the people.
Correctly recognizing the dangers of bureaucracy, corruption, and alienation from the people to the destiny of the country, the socialist regime, and the Party, promoting the victories and experiences gained in the past, we believe that our Party will certainly lead successfully, achieving the goals set out in the Strategy: Striving for our country to basically become an industrialized country in the modern direction by 2020; stable politics and society, democracy, discipline, consensus; the material and spiritual life of the people is significantly improved; independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity are firmly maintained; Vietnam's position in the international arena continues to be raised; creating a solid premise for further development in the following period. (Documents of the 11th Congress, page 31)
(1): "Ho Chi Minh's ideology and moral example on practicing thrift, fighting corruption, waste and bureaucracy". Ho Chi Minh National Political Publishing House, Hanoi 2008; page 21.
To Hong Hai-
