Solid legal knowledge before each voyage

(Baonghean) - In recent years, the work of propagating and disseminating laws to people in coastal and island border areas has always been focused on by all levels and sectors. This has helped fishermen understand the regulations on management and protection of resources, maritime borders and the State's legal policies to be more confident and steadfast before each trip to sea.

The move from awareness

Many fishermen shared, disseminated, and propagated the State's policies and laws related to the sea and islands as well as other social security policies, and local people always strictly comply with the State's laws and the Party's policies. What is more noteworthy is that, thanks to being equipped with full legal knowledge, in recent years, when exploiting fishing grounds, if there are collisions or disputes, in the spirit of understanding and respecting the law, most fishermen themselves settle and reconcile.

Fisherman Ho Sy Tho, Quynh Lap commune (Hoang Mai town) said: In the past, some boats still used explosives to catch fish. Since the dissemination of legal knowledge, fishermen have raised their awareness of protecting aquatic resources and not using explosives or electric shocks in fishing. Up to now, coastal aquatic resources have grown rapidly, and many species of fish live close to the shore at the boat anchorage area.

Quynh Phuong Border Guard Station disseminates legal knowledge to fishermen in Hoang Mai town. Photo: Quynh Lan

Fishing boat NA 90868TS of fisherman Ho Sy Dai, Tam Hop hamlet, Quynh Lap commune, each fishing trip in Hoang Sa sea area lasts 15 days. Although the fishing ground is relatively far, there are many seafood products with high economic value. Each trip back from the sea harvests more than 20 tons of fish, worth about 250 million VND.

Mr. Dai said: “Our fishing boats regularly operate in the Hoang Sa fishing grounds, so being equipped with legal knowledge helps us confidently go out to sea and respond to all situations that occur at sea. In addition, the boats are supported with fire extinguishers, life jackets, and long-range communication devices to help make business at sea more convenient and safer. We can confidently stick to the fishing grounds, contributing to protecting the sovereignty of the sea and islands of the Fatherland.”

Not only that, fishermen have now promoted the spirit of solidarity, mutual love, and mutual support in all aspects during their work at sea. The clear change in thinking and working methods has helped fishermen and ships get closer together and be ready to rescue and support each other when encountering unexpected and risky situations at sea, as well as sharing large fish stocks with other fishing vessels.

Mr. Le Ba Ky - Chairman of the Farmers' Association, Vice Chairman of the Fisheries Association of Quynh Lap commune said: "The good news is that in recent years, fishermen have been very aware of community solidarity at sea. The whole commune has established 27 cooperative groups for fishing at sea to support each other in all aspects, each group consists of 5 fishing boats. On each trip, the boats go in groups, thereby regularly supporting each other in searching for fishing grounds, food, raw materials, and timely rescue when other boats have problems, etc. Especially, with fleets that regularly exploit in the seas far from the Gulf of Tonkin and Hoang Sa, going in groups creates a collective at sea, affirming our sovereignty over our seas and islands and limiting the threat of foreign ships".

Strengthening propaganda coordination

Located in Quynh Phuong ward (Hoang Mai town), Quynh Phuong Border Guard Station is responsible for managing and protecting 15.5km of the maritime border. Implementing the Government's Decision on the Project "Strengthening the dissemination of legal education for officials and people in border and island areas", Quynh Phuong Border Guard Station coordinates with the Justice Department of Hoang Mai town and local departments and organizations to actively propagate and disseminate the State's legal policies to fishermen.

Quynh Thuan Border Guard Station, supporting to bring a fisherman who was seriously injured while working at sea to shore. Photo by Le Thach.

In addition to distributing leaflets for each crew member to read during the voyage, the Station also propagates daily on the loudspeaker system of communes and wards for people to easily receive. The synchronous implementation gradually raises awareness for the masses in the coastal border area, contributing to creating positive changes in the economic, cultural, social, defense and security development in the area.

Lieutenant Colonel Hoang Thanh Quyen - Political Commissar of Quynh Phuong Border Guard Station said: Due to the nature of fishermen often going to sea for long periods, the work of disseminating legal knowledge to people is difficult. The unit often chooses the time when fishermen are off for training. "Slow and steady wins the race" people gradually realize the importance of understanding legal knowledge in life.

Previously, a group of fishermen in the area used trawling, used octagonal nets, explosives, and electric shock to catch seafood, etc. After being educated about the law, fishermen became aware of their responsibilities in fishing, exploiting, and protecting aquatic resources. The good news is that people have changed their fishing methods to suit the current situation, no longer using destructive fishing tools.

Determining the main task of the main force in implementing the project, Quynh Thuan Border Guard Station (Quynh Luu) plays the role of a focal point connecting functional agencies and local associations in maintaining legal education and dissemination activities. As soldiers directly present in the area, the soldiers always listen to the thoughts and aspirations of the people to know what is stuck and needs to be resolved.

From there, the unit coordinated with associations to organize community activities, building content close to the actual needs of each specific target and locality. Choosing appropriate, concise, easy-to-understand and easy-to-receive propaganda methods. This active approach has helped the dissemination of legal education in the locality to be more deeply absorbed.

In the past time, the Provincial Steering Committee of the project has provided border and coastal communes and wards with 44 loudspeakers, 44 amplifiers, 22 microphones, 22 portable speakers, and 10 legal bookcases. In addition, the Provincial Border Guard also coordinated with the Nghe An Provincial Library to organize the issuance and circulation of 10,500 new books in border and coastal communes and wards and Border Guard Stations.

Along with that, propaganda forms are carried out in a variety of ways, suitable to the characteristics of each locality such as: Propaganda through fixed and mobile loudspeaker systems; direct oral propaganda at ward and commune meetings; organizing mobile film screenings combined with propaganda. Dramatizing legal contents to propagate and serve the cultural and spiritual needs of ethnic people on the two borders. Organizing mobile trials of a number of cases in communes and wards in border and coastal areas to propagate, educate, deter and prevent violations.

However, in addition to the results achieved, there are still limitations that need to be overcome. Due to the nature of fishermen often working at sea, their awareness of the law as well as the sovereignty of the sea and islands is still limited. Therefore, in the coming time, there needs to be documents that are close to the actual situation, concise, easy to understand, and have a more suitable time for organizing propaganda to achieve the expected results.

The implementation of the project shows that the coordination between member agencies in the Steering Committee in some localities is not tight, in some places it is still completely delegated to the Border Guard and specialized agencies at the same level. Therefore, in the coming time, there needs to be proper leadership and direction from local Party committees, authorities and units, promoting the role and responsibility of the entire political system to achieve higher efficiency.

Quynh Lan