Discussion at the 12th Party Congress: Promoting the strength of great national unity

(Baonghean.vn) - On the morning of January 22, at the 12th National Party Congress, Comrade Nguyen Thien Nhan, Politburo member, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, delivered a speech titled: "Promoting the strength of great national unity, contributing to the successful implementation of socio-economic development goals and participating in building a clean and strong Party and government".

Comrade Nguyen Thien Nhan affirmed: Great national unity is an extremely precious tradition of our nation, forged through thousands of years of history of building and defending the country. Thanks to the strength of great unity, our people have defeated brutal invaders and achieved resounding victories in the history of the nation and of humanity. Thanks to the strength of great unity, our people have mastered nature, developed the economy and society; built cultural works of historical value, with profound national and contemporary significance.

Comrade Nguyen Thien Nhan presented a speech at the Congress.

The combined strength of the Vietnamese people is the result of many factors: the ardent patriotism and the spirit of great solidarity that have become precious traditions; the sense of independence, self-reliance, and national pride; the dynamism, creativity, courage, resilience, and willingness to sacrifice of the Vietnamese people in the process of conquering nature and fighting against foreign invaders. The arduous struggle of our people has increasingly fostered love for the homeland and the strong solidarity of the community living in Vietnam.

Since the Party and President Ho Chi Minh led the Vietnamese revolution, the strength of great national unity has been increasingly promoted by the smooth combination of the nation's precious traditions and the scientific orientation of Marxism-Leninism on the law of human development and Ho Chi Minh's thought on great national unity. It is the smooth combination of patriotism with Marxism-Leninism, national strength with the strength of the times; it is the initiative to establish and build the Vietnam National United Front into a core organization to promote the strength of great national unity only 9 months after the Party was founded. This is an unprecedented event in the history of Communist and Workers' Parties in the world before 1945.

Under the leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, all classes of people, regardless of class, ethnicity, or religion, gathered and united in the Viet Minh Front, creating the strength of the entire nation to achieve historic victory in the August Revolution of 1945, establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the first worker-peasant state in Southeast Asia. The Vietnamese people have made their mark in human history: Vietnam was the first country among the French colonial countries in the world to regain national independence on its own. Thanks to the strength of the great national unity under the leadership of the Party, our people liberated the nation, unified the country, firmly protected independence, unity, and territorial integrity, brought a prosperous life, freedom, and happiness to the people, and actively contributed to the struggle of the world's people for peace, independence, democracy, and social progress. Strengthening and promoting the strength of national solidarity has been an important content in the Party's revolutionary line over the past 85 years. The Political Report of the 12th National Party Congress affirmed: "National solidarity is the strategic line of the Vietnamese revolution, a great driving force and resource in building and defending the Fatherland."

According to the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the lessons learned in promoting the strength of national solidarity need to be inherited and strongly promoted in economic and social development, ensuring national defense and security, and building a clean and strong Party and government today. These are:

Lesson 1:The content and methods of promoting the strength of great solidarity must be constantly improved and supplemented to suit the needs and conditions of the country's development through each stage.

After the August Revolution, to prevent famine, President Ho Chi Minh called on each person to contribute a handful of rice and skip a meal to relieve hunger. The Government organized the Golden Week for people, especially businessmen, merchants, and capitalists to contribute gold to the national treasury. To support people in disaster areas, help people in difficult circumstances have a warmer Tet holiday, and support poor households to have more conditions to escape poverty, for decades, the form of donation by individuals, organizations and the Fatherland Front at all levels has been maintained and promoted with positive effects. This is the "Joining Hands" method of great solidarity.

In addition, national solidarity also has the method of people voluntarily associating and coordinating in stable groups to organize activities to meet the needs of life at the grassroots level, such as: protecting the environment, maintaining order and security, preserving and promoting ethnic cultures, maintaining bridges and roads, exchanging agricultural production experiences... These are very diverse self-management models of people in residential areas suitable to geographical, local, economic, social, ethnic and religious conditions.

This can be considered a method of “Doing together” of great solidarity for the lives of people in each community. The movement of “Learning and following advanced models” is also an effective method of “Doing together” of great solidarity because through it, the good and highly effective way of doing things of one person or a group becomes a new way of doing things of hundreds and thousands of people.

Carrying out the supervisory functions and tasks as prescribed in the 2013 Constitution, in 2014 - 2015, the Vietnam Fatherland Front chaired and coordinated with 6 organizations, namely the Vietnam Veterans Association, the Vietnam Women's Union, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, the Association of Former Youth Volunteers, the Association for Supporting Families of Martyrs, the Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin and the labor, war invalids and social affairs sector nationwide to conduct a general review of the implementation of preferential policies for people with meritorious services to the revolution according to the Prime Minister's directive. As a result, the program of general review of preferential policies for more than 2 million people with meritorious services nationwide was completed, thereby affirming that 95.75% of people with meritorious services have enjoyed the correct and full policies, with only 0.09% enjoying them incorrectly; at the same time, creating opportunities for more than 63,000 people to apply for the first time to be considered for policies for people with meritorious services.

If only using more than 11,100 cultural and social committee members at the commune-level People's Committees nationwide, it would be impossible to complete the general review of the implementation of preferential policies for people with meritorious services in more than 2 million households. In this general review, more than 200,000 volunteers who are veterans, union members, and members of 6 organizations participated, under the guidance of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front. This is a vivid example of promoting the strength of great solidarity through the method of "Linking" between the Vietnam Fatherland Front, member organizations and state management agencies to do things that seem impossible to do if only relying on state agencies.

Promoting the three methods of gathering people and organizations to promote the strength of national solidarity as above (Join hands, Work together, Link), in recent times, the Vietnam Fatherland Front has organized three major campaigns: "All people unite to build a cultural life in residential areas"; "Day for the poor"; "Vietnamese people prioritize using Vietnamese goods" and humanitarian charity activities, gratitude. The three campaigns carried out by the Vietnam Fatherland Front in recent times have contributed practically to hunger eradication and poverty reduction, building a new life in residential areas, and encouraging the production and consumption of good quality Vietnamese goods. In 2015, inheriting the achievements and experiences of implementing the two campaigns "All people unite to build a cultural life in residential areas" and "Day for the poor", at the same time to better meet the requirements of the National Target Program on new rural construction and the development of urban areas, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front issued a Resolution on implementing the campaign "All people unite to build new rural areas and civilized urban areas" for the period 2016 - 2020.

Currently, in the context of an increasingly developing market economy, increasing international integration and competition, promoting the strength of national solidarity must also aim at improving productivity, quality and efficiency of all production and business sectors, promoting the application and innovation of science and technology, and successfully integrating internationally. On the basis of creative movements of youth, farmers, workers, women, civil servants, scientists, and entrepreneurs, the Vietnam Fatherland Front needs to coordinate with member organizations, state management agencies, and enterprises to form the movement "Solidarity, creativity and thrift, improving productivity, quality, efficiency and successfully integrating internationally" to actively contribute to building and protecting the Fatherland in the current period.

Lesson 2:In order for the Vietnam Fatherland Front to perform well its functions and tasks, including the mission of building and promoting the strength of great national unity, it is necessary to constantly improve the operating mechanism of the Vietnam Fatherland Front.

The Party and State have issued many guidelines, policies and laws on the functions, tasks and operating mechanisms of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, reflected in the Platform for National Construction in the Transitional Period to Socialism 1991 and supplemented and developed in 2011, Decisions 217 and 218 of 2013 of the Politburo on supervision, social criticism, and participation in Party and government building of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations, the 2013 Constitution and the 2015 Law on the Vietnam Fatherland Front.

Along with the decisive factor of the Party's leadership, these are very important premises for the Vietnam Fatherland Front to fully perform its functions and tasks, including promoting the strength of great national unity.

Delegates attending the discussion session at the Congress.

To strongly promote the strength of national solidarity, contribute to the successful implementation of socio-economic development goals, ensure national defense and security and participate in building a clean and strong Party and government in the current period, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Nguyen Thien Nhan said that it is necessary to focus on implementing the following 5 specific tasks:

One is,The Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations need to improve the effectiveness of propaganda work, foster and promote patriotism, national pride, the tradition of remembering the source of water when drinking water, humanity, tolerance and awareness of the strength of great solidarity in the process of national development. This is the internal premise for each citizen to form the need to participate in building and promoting great national solidarity.

Second,The Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations actively propagate and organize the study of the Resolution of the 12th National Party Congress and the current socio-economic development policies and guidelines to create high consensus among the people on the country's development path and the Party's leadership.

Third,The Vietnam Fatherland Front actively contributes to participating in the formulation and concretization of the Party's guidelines and the State's policies and laws to fully promote national advantages, especially the advantages of Vietnamese people, take advantage of all opportunities of the new integration period and proactively and effectively respond to challenges, while protecting the legitimate rights and interests of all classes of people, including ethnic groups, religions, and Vietnamese compatriots abroad.

Fourth,Effectively organize campaigns and movements of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations to make great solidarity a driving force, a great spiritual and material resource for the country to develop faster and more sustainably in the current new integration period.

Five is,innovate the Party's leadership method for the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations as the Political Report at the 12th National Party Congress affirmed: "More clearly define that the Party serves the people, is subject to the people's supervision, and is responsible to the people for its decisions". The Vietnam Fatherland Front is willing to play a good role as a bridge between the Party, the State and the people, creatively and effectively implementing the functions of social supervision and criticism of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations.

Nghe An delegates attending the Congress.

Comrade Nguyen Thien Nhan emphasized: With faith in the Party's innovation and wise leadership, in the bright future of the country, the Vietnam Fatherland Front will strive to mobilize all classes of people to strengthen and promote the strength of great national unity, join hands and hearts with the Party and State to maximize internal strength, take advantage of opportunities, overcome difficulties and challenges, successfully carry out socio-economic development tasks, ensure national defense and security, participate in building a clean and strong Party and State, bring the Resolution of the 12th National Party Congress into life, in which special attention is paid to the 6 key tasks of the 12th National Party Congress term, for "Rich people, strong country, democracy, fairness, civilization".

Huu Nghia - Nguyen Son