The roles and responsibilities of cadres and party members in cyberspace - Part 2: Democracy must be associated with discipline

In recent years, across the country, a number of individuals, including those who used to be in the ranks of the Party, cadres, civil servants, and public employees in the political system, due to personal dissatisfaction or being bribed by material and economic interests, have betrayed the Fatherland, betrayed the People, and trampled on the history of the nation. For example, Le Huu Thuan - Deputy Secretary of the Faculty Party Cell (term 2017 - 2020), Head of the Faculty of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought of Tran Phu Political School (Ha Tinh) used his personal Facebook to post fabricated content, insulting the leaders of the Party and the State; at the same time, he participated in distorted comments with uncultured words. Mr. Thuan's illegal behavior was handled by the competent authorities of Ha Tinh province according to the provisions of the law, and Mr. Thuan was also dismissed from all positions.

Các cơ quan chức năng lấy lời khai của Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh; Phiên tòa xét xử Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh.
Authorities take testimony from Nguyen Nang Tinh; Nguyen Nang Tinh's trial.

Or the case of Nguyen Nang Tinh (born in 1976), hometown in Quynh Hung commune, Quynh Luu district (Nghe An), while being a teacher at Nghe An College of Culture and Arts, instead of focusing on teaching students, Nguyen Nang Tinh colluded with a number of extremist and reactionary elements at home and abroad to write, film, distribute, post, share, and comment on content distorting the nature of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, denying the revolutionary achievements of the nation; defaming the people's government, distorting history, violating the people's government and the socialist regime, aiming to oppose the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; defaming the leaders of the Party and State; inciting people to protest and oppose the government; posting documents with fabricated content, causing confusion among the people; providing fabricated information to cause conflicts between the people and public authorities... on his personal Facebook page.

For those violations, Nguyen Nang Tinh was sentenced to 11 years in prison by the People's Court of Nghe An province for the crime of "Making, storing, disseminating or propagating information and documents aimed at opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 117 of the Penal Code.

It can be seen that, from the lack of self-awareness in cultivating and training morality and ideology, and then being "too blind to see the rain", there are cadres, party members, civil servants and public employees who have "self-evolved, self-transformed", sliding down the path of betraying the Fatherland and the nation. When being handled, regardless of the excuse of being unmindful, immature, frustrated, hasty, impulsive, unintentional or any other reason, these party members still show signs of degradation, "self-evolution", "self-transformation", violating Party discipline and must be strictly handled as affirmed by Resolution 4 of the Central Committee, Session XII.

Thanh tra Sở TT&TT phối hợp Công an Nghệ An làm việc với đối tượng “đưa thông tin sai sự thật, xuyên tạc, vu khống, xúc phạm uy tín của tổ chức, danh dự và nhân phẩm của cá nhân”. Ảnh: CSCC
The Department of Information and Communications Inspectorate coordinated with Nghe An Police to work with the subject "providing false information, distorting, slandering, and insulting the reputation of organizations and the honor and dignity of individuals." Photo: CSCC

The Party Committee of Nghe An Provincial Agencies Bloc has 63 grassroots Party organizations, with over 6,000 cadres and party members (over 5,200 party members). Cadres and party members in the Bloc generally have high professional qualifications and political theory, working in advisory and support agencies of the Provincial Party Committee, People's Council, Provincial People's Committee, provincial departments, branches, sectors, unions and a number of central agencies located in the province. Most cadres and party members in the Bloc know how to use and take advantage of social networks correctly and effectively, turning social networks into a useful means and channel to propagate the correctness, revolution and science of the Party and State's guidelines and policies, contributing to effectively preventing and stopping erroneous and distorted thoughts and viewpoints.

Through their own concrete actions and deeds, many cadres, party members, civil servants and public employees have proactively fought against the distorted arguments of hostile forces by sharing and explaining to the People the true nature of the problem, recognizing their tricks, plots and schemes, actively contributing to the work of protecting the Party's ideological foundation, preventing and repelling bad and toxic information, creating a healthy and clean cultural environment in cyberspace.

However, comrade Chu Ba Long - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee of Agencies said: Besides exemplary cadres and party members who have built trust and guided public opinion well on cyberspace, there are still a number of cadres and party members who are indifferent and ignore social issues of concern. The mindset of not protecting what is right, not condemning or criticizing what is wrong not only exists in real life but also exists on cyberspace: not sharing and spreading good, positive articles from official sources; not expressing attitudes towards negative and upsetting information in society... In particular, there are some cadres and party members who post false information, edited images to distort public perception of the security, political and social situation, causing public confusion; participating in commenting and responding to bad and toxic information on social networks.

It can be said that the role of cadres, civil servants, public employees, especially party members, must be demonstrated with all their heart, vision and exemplary actions before the people in their work and daily life. However, it is worrying that we have not yet promoted the widespread participation of party members and the masses in forming positive public opinion, criticizing the negative, evil, and bad things, and fighting against bad and toxic information.

Mỗi phát ngôn, bình luận, một lần nhấn nút like trên mạng xã hội của cán bộ, đảng viên cũng đem lại những tác động ở nhiều mức độ trong cộng đồng. Ảnh minh họa
Every statement, comment, and like on social networks by officials and party members also brings about impacts at many levels in the community. Illustrative photo

Because after all, cadres and party members are a team with knowledge and social status, a statement, a comment, a "like" on their social networks also brings impacts at many levels in the community. The higher the position of that person, the greater the spread, because the masses still believe that they are "informed people" with source information. This will be very good, if the information is accurate and highly directional; on the contrary, if it is bad, toxic news, the impact will be extremely harmful...

In addition, the situation of party members who do not violate the law but are not exemplary leaders, do not take the lead, do not fight when they see wrong, do not protect when they see right, "cover their ears", keep their own safety, and leave the threat to social peace to themselves, is a disease that has appeared for a long time. If there are no effective solutions, no "specific medicines", it will spread more and more and cause extremely serious consequences. Resolution 4 of the Central Committee (12th term) determined that "seeing the right but not protecting, seeing wrong but not fighting" is a manifestation of political and ideological degradation.

Hội nghị trực tuyến toàn quốc học tập Nghị quyết Đại hội XIII và học tập, quán triệt Nghị quyết Trung ương 5, khóa XIII của Đảng; Hội nghị học tập, quán triệt Nghị quyết Hội nghị Trung ương 6, khóa XIII; Đảng ủy Khối Các cơ quan tỉnh tổ chức học tập chuyên đề tư tưởng đạo đức, phong cách Hồ Chí Minh.
National online conference to study the Resolution of the 13th National Congress and to study and disseminate the Resolution of the 5th Central Committee, 13th tenure of the Party; Conference to study and disseminate the Resolution of the 6th Central Committee, 13th tenure; The Party Committee of the Provincial Agencies Bloc organized a study session on the ideology, morality and lifestyle of Ho Chi Minh.