Communist Review - During the process of its leadership of the country’s revolution, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) has always attached great importance to the role of the masses in the revolutionary cause. The Party considers consolidating and strengthening the close relationship between the Party and the people as a very important task, firmly ensuring the Party’s comprehensive leadership and the socialist regime in Vietnam.

People are the "source" leading the Party's revolutionary cause guided by Ho Chi Minh thoughts

President Ho Chi Minh upheld  and creatively applied the Marxism-Leninism to form a unique thought on mass mobilization and promote the role of the masses in the national revolutionary cause under Party’s leadership Party. The people are the root of the country, the basis of all victories, and the force creating all material and spiritual wealth. He said that: “The country takes the people as the root of the tree”, “If the root is strong, the tree will last forever. All victories must be based on the people”⁽¹⁾. According to President Ho Chi Minh, to do that, the people must be trusted and respected. We must establish a close - knit bond with the people and rely on them. It must be aware of that “as the people are very clever, enthusiastic, and heroic, we must learn from them, ask, and understand them”. “With the people’s support, all difficult work can be done, otherwise, we will not be successful. The people know how to solve many problems in a simple, quick, and comprehensive way, which talented people and large organizations can't think of”⁽²⁾. He is fascinated with a saying that “without people’s support, even an easy work may not be completed. With people’s support, even an extremely difficult work may be well done”. Not only was he well aware of the role and strength of the people, but President Ho Chi Minh also pointed out that the people's strength can only be fully promoted if there is a revolutionary party to lead them. When the people's strength is mobilized, organized, and gathered under the leadership of the Party, it becomes an invincible power.

He emphasized the democratic nature of the regime and the operating principles of the revolutionary government - the precursor of the socialist rule-of-law state of the people, by the people and for the people. Under the leadership of the current Party: “OUR COUNTRY IS A DEMOCRACY. All interests are for the people. All power emanates from the people. The work of reform and building is responsibilities of the people. The cause of national resistance and building is the work of the people. Authorities from the commune level to the central government are elected by the people. Unions from the Central to commune levels are organized by the people. In short, all power and forces emanate from the people”⁽⁵⁾. President Ho Chi Minh also advised: “Our Party is a ruling party. Every Party member and cadre  must be truly imbued with revolutionary morals, industriousness, thrift, integrity, uprightness, public-spiritedness, and impartiality. It is a must to keep our Party pure and worthy of being the loyal leader and servant to the people”⁽⁶⁾. He especially emphasized the historical importance of the Party and the pioneering exemplary leadership and responsibility of cadres and members before the Party and the people. Imbued with the teachings of President Ho Chi Minh, since its foudation, the CPV has paid great attention to promoting the people's mastery and been consistent with the view that the revolution is the cause of the people, by the people, and for the people; the people are the masters and the people master the country. Under the leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese people stood up with great strength, established golden pages in the nation’s history, and won two resistance wars  against French colonialism and American imperialism, brought independence, unification and territorial integrity, and lead the country to peaceful development and move it toward the path of socialism.

After 35 years of implementing the Doi Moi under the leadership of the Party, Vietnam has obtained great achievements of historical significance due to the Party’s inherance and promotion of the people’s strength in building and defending the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland and in the current building and rectification of the Party. President Ho Chi Minh thoughts on the people’s role and strength have been completed  and concretized by the Party and State through the Party’s political platforms, resolutions, guidelines, and undertakings and the State’s Constitution, laws, and policies. The political - legal relationship of “The Party’s leadership - the State’s management - the People’s mastery” continues being built and improved.

In particular, in the past 10 years, the Central Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat have issued several strategic guiding documents on Party building and rectification, mass mobilization, and promotion of the people’s role in supervising and building the pure and strong Party and political system⁽⁸⁾. The 2013 Constitution further concretizes the Party's guidelines on the relationship with the people in Article 4: “The Communist Party of Vietnam maintains close ties with the People, serves the People, submits to People’s supervision, and is accountable to the People in its decisions”. The Constitution also clearly stipulates in Articles 2 and Articles 3 that “The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is the country where the People are the masters; all the State power belongs to the People and is based on the alliance of the working class, the peasantry and the intelligentsia.” “The State shall guarantee and promote the People's right to mastery; recognize, respect, protect and guarantee human rights and citizens' rights”; and pursue the goal of a prosperous people and a strong, democratic, equitable and civilized country, in which all people enjoy an abundant, free and happy life and are given conditions for their comprehensive development.

Implementing the Party’s guidelines and resolutions and the State’s Constitution and laws, the State has continued institutionalizing and concretizing the promotion of the people's mastery into legal documents and directs the implementation of these regulations  to promote the representative democracy, improve the quality and effectiveness of the National Assembly, the Government, the People's Councils, and People's Committees at all levels, and well implement the direct democracy at the grassroots level so that the people can directly discuss and decide important and practical issues in association with socio-economic development and participate in building a pure and strong Party and political system.

Party committees and authorities at all levels have accelerated the implementation of mass mobilization work in line with strengthening the vitality of democratic practice to contribute to promoting the role, potentials, and creativity of the people in discussing the issues of the Party and the country and suggesting to build the pureand strong Party and authorities. A due consideration has been given to perform various types of supervision over the Party and cadres. It has became  routines in different localities to regularly provide transparent information for people to discuss about the Party’s guidelines and undertakings, the State’s policies and laws, and the local directions and tasks and to engage people in supervising the activities of party organizations, cadres, and party members.

The mobilization of people to contribute opinions to develop Party’s guidelines and undertakings and the State’s policies and laws has been effectively implemented, especially the referendum to develop the 2013 Constitution and draft documents of party congresses at all levels, draft documents to be submitted to the 12^th and 13^th Party Congresses. The Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations have actively renovated the contents and modes of operation; taken care and protected legitimate rights and interests of their members and the people; and paid attention to performing the role of supervision, social criticism, and suggestion on building the Party and the authorities. Many people's self-governing organizations have been established at the grassroots level to promote direct democracy of the people. The people's inspection boards, the community’s investment supervision boards, or mediation groups at the grassroots level... have worked effectively to contribute to promoting socio-economic development and assuring security and order in localities, agencies, and organizations.

Summarizing 30 years of Doi Moi, the 12^th Party Congress drew many lessons in which a valuable lesson learned is  that Doi Moi must be always grasped with the thought of taking the people as the root, for the sake of the people, relying on the people, and promoting their mastery, sense of responsibility, and creativity, and promoting the strength of great national unity. The Political Report at the 13^th Party Congress continued drawing a lesson that “The thought of taking the people as the root, the center, the subject, and the source of strength in the process of renewing, building, and defending the country must be grasped. All undertakings and policies must really derive from the people's legitimate aspirations, rights, and interests. The people's happiness and well-being must be a goal to strive for in order to consolidate, and enhance the people's trust in the Party, State, and socialist regime.

Continuing promoting the role of the people in the Party building and rectification in the new situation

To build and promote the role and strength of the people in the Party building and rectification in the current situation, the Communist Party of Vietnam should focus on solving the following issues.

Firstly, the Party committees, authorities at all levels, and the whole political system continue being imbued with and implementing Ho Chi Minh thoughts, the Party's guidelines and undertakings, and the State's policies and laws on mass mobilization work and performance of democracy in association with enhancing  the role of the people in building a pure and strong Party and political system.

The Party should lead the State to quickly and promptly institutionalize the Party's guidelines and undertakings on mass mobilization and democracy into policies and laws that are suitable to the reality and meet the legitimate interests and aspirations of the people. Democracy should be widely practiced within Party and society and at all levels, areas, and sectors to ensure the people’s mastery and gradually perfect the socialist democracy. The relationship of “The Party’s leadership - the State’s management - the People’s mastery” and the motto that “People have the right to acces information, discuss, implement, inspect, supervise, and enjoy” should continue being institutionalized and concretized.

In all work of the Party and State, it is necessary to always take “the people as the root”; truly trust, respect the people, and promote their mastery; adhere to the motto that “People have the right to acces information, discuss, implement, inspect, supervise, and enjoy”. The people are the center and subject of the renovation work. All undertakings and policies must really derive from the legitimate aspirations, rights, and interests of the people. It is also compulsory to consolidate and promote the strength of solidarity of the entire Vietnamese nation and the close relationship between the Party and the people to create a broad  societal consensus under the leadership of the Party and management and administration of the State. In addition, it is required to strengthen social dialogue with citizens to listen to their innermost aspirations and desires; take full and deep care of people's life and interests; build a close relationship with the people; and take the work results, satisfaction, and trust of the people as important criteria to evaluate the quality of organizations, cadres, and party members.

Secondly, the Party building and rectification should be comprehensively implemented so that the Party is always the pioneering force to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the people and the whole nation. Renovation of leadership methods should be associated with improvement of the Party's ruling capacity to build the politically, ideologically, organizationally, and ethically strong Party on par with the revolutionary requirements and tasks in the new period and build a pure, strong, compact, and efficient political system.

Promoting democracy should be associated with tightening disciplines amongst Party members and in the society and strengthening the protection of the Party's ideological foundation to resolutely and regularly criticize and reject disinformation and hostile views and struggle against political, ideological, ethical, and lifestyle degradation, “self-evolution”, “self-transformation” within Party and political system. Building the socialist rule-of-law State of the people, by the people, for the people should be associated with strengthening administrative reform, reducing bureaucratic burdens  for the people, and listening attentively to the people to promptly and effectively handle their legitimate recommendations and complaints. The fight against corruption, bureaucracy, and wastefulness should be promoted to purify the apparatus of the Party and the State and the contingent of cadres and party members and resolutely fight against, deter, and handle corruption cases in a timely, strict, and definitive manner to fortify the people's trust in the Party, State, and the socialist regime.

Thirdly, the Party and State should continue performing well the guidelines and policies that are “satisfactory to the people” to take care of the material and spiritual life of all strata of people, especially those in difficult areas, former revolutionary bases, remote areas, highlands, borders areas, islands... The socialist-oriented market economy should be built for fast and sustainable development, and the production forces should be constantly developed to create material and technical foundations, improve the material and spiritual life of all strata of people, especially gradually narrow the rich-poor gap in the whole country. Social issues should be anticipated and handled well to ensure social welfare, especially pressing and outstanding issues and legitimate aspirations of the people.

Along with taking care of people's life and respecting and ensuring the rights of citizens as stipulated in the Constitution and laws, Party committees and State agencies at all levels need to encourage the people to participate widely and regularly in socio-economic management... Regarding the policies that are directly related to people's life, the party committees should collect people's opinions before making decisions. If proper policies are not well understood or disapproved of, they should be widely propagated adjusted to adapt the real life.

Fourthly, it is recommended to strengthen publicity, transparency, and confidence in the people to inspect, supervise, and evaluate the performance of cadres. Particularly, attention should ben paid to building the contingent of cadres, party members, civil servants, public employees... of the Party and political system which are ethical and talented with good political qualities, lifestyle, professional competenciesand working methods and style. They should be worthy of being loyal leaders and servants of the people. Besides, their words must be accompanied by actions, and they must “believe in the people, respect them establish a close-knit bond with them, understand them, learn from them, rely on them, and take responsibility before them”. The exemplary role of cadres and party members, especially those at strategic level, and leaders should be promoted. It is essential to raise vigilance to fight against demagogic tendencies and plots to incite the people before negative phenomenom and resolutely criticize and combat  against manifestations of indifference, bureaucracy, harassment and others...

Besides, the Fourth Industrial Revolution requires the diversity in selection of cadres without missing talented and responsible people for the country. The Party and State need to rely on the people to discover, recruit, and foster talents in society, especially those among the youth, the non-state economic sector, and overseas Vietnamese.

Fifthly, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations should continue renovating contents and modes of operation towards the grassroots levels to mobilize people to participate in patriotic emulation movements, promote their role in protecting the legitimate rights and interests of members and people, actively implement social supervision and criticism, and play a good role  as a bridge to connect  the Party and State with the people in building the Party and the State. In the process of mobiling  union members to perform their supervisory rights, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations should facilitate the people to perform their rights of representative and direct democracy in the building and rectification of the Party.

Finally, it is indispensable to continue improving the quality of the propaganda work to raise awareness, roles, and responsibilities of the people in Party building and rectification. The provision of information to the press and people should be accompanied by accountability of individuals and organizations./.

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(1), (2) Ho Chi Minh's Complete works, Publishing House of National Politics Truth, Hanoi, 2011, vol. 5, p. 501 - 502, 333 – 335

(3) Ho Chi Minh's Complete works, ibid. vol 15, p. 280

(4) Ho Chi Minh's Complete works, ibid, vol 10, p. 453

(5) Ho Chi Minh's Complete works, ibid. 6, p. 232

(6), (7) Ho Chi Minh's Complete works, ibid, vol . 15, p. 622, 672

(8) As the Resolution of the 4^th Plenum of  Party Central   Committee, 11^th Tenure, 12^th Tenure on strengthening Party building and rectification; Resolution No. 26-NQ/TW, dated May 19, 2018, of the 12th Central Committee on “Concentrating on building a contingent of cadres at all levels, especially at the strategic level, with good  quality, capacity and prestige to accomplish assigned  tasks”; Directive No. 05-CT/TW, dated 15 May 2016, of the Politburo on “Speeding up studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle”; Resolution No. 25-NQ/TW, dated June 3, 2013, of the Central Committee on “Strengthening and renewing the Party's leadership in mass mobilization work in the new situation”; Decision No. 218-QD/TW, dated 12-12-2013, of the Politburo, “Regarding the Vietnam Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations and the people contributing ideas to build the Party, Government”; Conclusion No. 120-KL/TW, dated January 7, 2016, of the Politburo, on “Continuing to promote and improve the quality and efficiency of the formulation and implementation of the Regulation on democracy at grassroots”; Regulation No. 08-QDi/TW, dated October 25, 2018, of the Central Committee, on "Regulating responsibilities to set an example of cadres and party members, first of all Politburo members, members of the Committee. Secretary, member of the Central Committee”; Regulation No. 11-QDi/TW, dated February 18, 2019, of the Politburo, “On the responsibilities of the head of the Party Committees in receiving people, having direct dialogues with the people and handling complaints and recommendations of the people”; Regulation No. 205-QD/TW, dated September 23, 2019, of the Politburo, “On controling the power in cadre work and anti-illegal lobbying in recruitment and nomination”. Regulation No. 213-QD/TW, dated January 2, 2020, of the Politburo, “On the responsibilities of working party members to  regularly keep in touch with party organizations and people in their residence”...

This article was published in the Communist Review No. 961 (March 2021)