Communist Review - Looking back at the process of more than 35 years of comprehensive and synchronous renovation, it is also the moment when the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Vietnamese people assume a new responsibility with a vision to 2045: “Vietnam aims to become a socialist-oriented developed country by the middle of the 21st century”.⁽¹⁾ In order to fulfill that responsibility, in the immediate future, by 2025, it is urgent to build a pure and strong Party and political system, to enhance a compact, efficient State apparatus, to downsize payroll, restructure the contingent of cadres, civil servants and public employees to improve their efficiency, especially top - level managers so that they are able to accomplish their duties, to establish close-knit relationship with the people and rely on the people for the Party building and rectification.

Preserving and tightening the natural - moral and legal relationship between the Party and the people

On March 3, 1951, President Ho Chi Minh, on behalf of the Vietnamese Workers' Party, declared to the entire nation: “The purpose of the Vietnamese Workers' Party can be summed up in eight Vietnamese words: UNITY OF THE PEOPLE, SERVICE TO COUNTRY”⁽²⁾. That is Vietnamese morality. In President Ho Chi Minh’s Testament, Ho Chi Minh wrote: “Our Party is a ruling Party. Each Party member and cadre must be truly imbued with revolutionary morality, thrift, integrity, righteousness, justice and impartiality. We must keep our Party pure and worthy of being a leader and a loyal servant of the people”⁽³⁾. That ideology was constitutionalized and became the legal foundation.

During the past 91 years, that morality and legal spirit have always intertwined and harmonized with each step of the Party as an “offspring”, “a leader and also a servant of the people” who stay side by side with the nation to firmly advance on the path of independence, freedom and socialism. He pointed out: “In this period, the interests of working class and laboring people and the nation are united as one. Because the Vietnamese workers’ Party is the Party of working class and laboring people, it must be the Party of the Vietnamese people”⁽⁴⁾; “Our Party is the Party of working class and nation. It is impartial”⁽⁵⁾. It voluntarily lives in the heart of the nation, lives and dies for the nation and it is protected by the nation. Therefore, it is strictly required that the Party must always be worthy of being “the offspring”. By building national solidarity, it has succeeded to change the destiny of the country and safeguard it during 91 years of ups and downs. President Ho Chi Minh advised: “Unity is our strength. Unity is our victory”⁽⁶⁾.

The Doi Moi launched since more than 35 years has been a historical transformation in accordance with the law and the people's aspiration, which has changed the national status. Facing new challenges, to become stronger, we must promote reform more drastically in order to develop a modern market economy which is driven by the knowledge economy, digital economy, and especially private economy and other economic sectors under the leadership of the public sector economy to create breakthroughs. It is required to be aware that economic reform is implemented through renovation of culture and political thinking. To a certain extent, culture is the ultimate aim and the engine of growth for politics, economy, society and other aspects. That is the human nature of the renovation cause. That is also the right and unique way for the Vietnamese people to reach the cultural level through politics, economy and foreign relations for socio-economic development and fight against invaders by their “soft power”, to develop cultural spillovers and actively integrate into the world. That is also Vietnam’s philosophy of development!

Therefore, the success or failure in terms of scale, nature, speed and level of the current comprehensive and synchronous renovation is a response to the requirements of history, of the Vietnamese people led by the Party to ensure a truth “Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom” of nearly 100 million Vietnamese people and build a powerful country with happy citizens.

To be loved, protected and trusted by the people, the Party must rectify itself to satisfy the people's expectations

The Party must be truly genuine, revolutionary to build the people's trust.

As the leader and ruler, the Party continues to play a leading role in accomplishing its historic mission of national renewal so as to achieve the noble goal of “rich people, strong nation, equitable, democratic and civilized society”. Because of the requirements of the national history, the people entrust the State with national governance to build and develop an independent Vietnam under the leadership of the Party.

The relationship between the Party and the State is the relationship between the political leader and the country governor, between political orientation and national governance through Party members and Party organizations in the state apparatus. Therefore, more than ever, the role of the State is to create development and govern the nation on the basis of law. Its role should be constantly enhanced to be consistent with the country's reality, international practices and laws, under the leadership of the Party. Accordingly, the State needs to reform the public administration to serve the people and the comprehensive development of the country. It is necessary to build an elite public administration, always uphold publicity, transparency and accountability, effectiveness and efficiency, to enhance people's trust on the journey to the future. And, that is also the people's demand for their State.

Repaying this trust, the Party made enormous efforts to rectify itself so as to fulfill its sacred responsibility. President Ho Chi Minh said: “If we don't learn from the people, we can not lead them. If we know how to be a student of the people, then we can become their teacher”⁽⁷⁾. The prestige of leaders lies in their courage in dealing with self-criticism and criticism. They should learn from the people. Ho Chi Minh also pointed out: “The people know many things that leaders do not know. If everything is discussed with them; they will come up with good ideas”⁽⁸⁾. He affirmed: “Without the people, the Government is not powerful enough… We must love them, respect them, then in return for what, we will gain their love and respect”⁽⁹⁾.

Fostering morality within the Party to gain the people’s support.

Along with building the Party in terms of politics, ideology, organization and personnel, the question of morality constitutes the most pressing and urgent work in the current situation. It is a long lasting issue related to the fate of the Party and the survival of the polity. But many people still think that when it comes to building the Party’s ideology, it also includes ethical issues, and that should be enough. If so, it will only be a theoretical awareness of morality, while the most important and decisive factor is ethical behaviors that have not been paid due attention so far. If we neglect or underestimate Party building in term of morality or simply assimilate Party building in politics, ideology with Party building in morality, it could lead to unpredictable consequences such as degradation in morality, lifestyle amongst officials and party members. And to some extent, it might cause political corruption, ideological chaos, organizational decay leading eventually to the Party’s degradation as moral degradation inevitably results in political deterioration or even institutional disintegration.

Consequently, in order to fulfill these heavy responsibilities, it is imperative to maintain a strong and pure Party, foster morality, establish a far-reaching and broad political vision, enhance intelligence, improve its leadership and ruling capacity, combativeness. Building a pure and strong Party requires the combination of comprehensive and synchronous solutions, of which building the Party's morality is of great importance. If only focusing on awareness and perception about morality, it would not fully cover ethical issues in the Party building and rectification. What is pivotal in fulfilling political goals is not empty words but ethical behaviors which must become a way of life every single day. In fact, the deterioration of political ideology, morality and lifestyle in a large number of cadres and Party members, even managers at all levels is due to several reasons consisting of a lack of awareness of the importance of morality and inadequate consideration of ethical behaviors in the Party building and rectification. That is considered as an abandon of political ideology.

The Party must truly become a leader and a loyal servant of the Vietnamese people and nation.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist countries in Eastern Europe in the 90s of the twentieth century, their communist parties lost their ruling role largely due to their wrong direction and the erosion of morality, lifestyle, and personality amongst Party leaders, resulting in the distrust of the people - the socio-political basis of the Party. To build the Party, especially the ruling Party, it is thus needful to build and rectify the Party more drastically and comprehensively.

Through practice, we can identify more clearly the manifestations of deterioration in political qualities, morality and lifestyle among cadres and Party members at each level and in each field, thereby formulating a wide range of solutions for Party building and rectification. Various signs of immorality such as corruption, lordliness, “group interests”, negatives,... are the moral degradation in political action. When a leader is immoral, he will set a bad example and damage the reputation of the Party and it is challenging for him to defeat trivial temptations. When the deterioration of political ideology still exists, causing fraudulent appointment, morality of Party members becomes the most burning and urgent issue which is much more important than their professional qualifications or political capacity. As a result, the political position of the Party as the highest leader depends on the moral awareness and behaviors of each cadre and Party member, especially the heads of Party committees, agencies and localities at all levels. That is the reason why in order to foster morality in the Party, the top priority must be given to fostering morality amongst each cadre and Party member through their actions, their virtue and their competency.

Over the past 35 years, the market economy has made a comprehensive and multi-dimensional impact on the life of cadres and Party members. The deterioration of political ideology, morality and lifestyle has become more and more serious in a large number of leaders and managers at all levels, including top-level managers. Reality and experience have shown that no ruling Party can stand firm when its socio-political base weakens, the people no longer trust them due to the immorality of some leaders. The erosion of moral values might result in degradation in political ideology. On that account, in 1927, there is no doubt that in his work “The Revolutionary Road”, Nguyen Ai Quoc has deeply foreshadowed that the revolutionary Party “must be persistent to its tenet and less carve the materialistic  lifestyle”. Otherwise, the revolutionary will become corrupt and immoral and the revolutionary Party will hence degrade and collapse.

Building and rectifying the Party so that it is truly the wisdom, honor and conscience of our world today.

The Resolution of the 12^th Party Congress clearly stated: “It is required to hold firm to Party building’s principles, improve the Party's ruling capacity and ensure its effective leadership, maintain the political courage of Party organizations, cadres as well as Party members”⁽¹⁰⁾. Moreover, the Party requested that during the term of the 12th National Congress, it is needful to promote the comprehensive and synchronous renovation, bring into play all resources and driving forces for the rapid and sustainable development of the country. A special attention should be paid to the accomplishment of six key tasks, especially the following ones: “Strengthening the Party building and rectification; preventing and fighting the erosion of political ideology, moral values, lifestyle, manifestations of “self-evolution”, “self-transformation” within the Party, building a contingent of qualified and prestigious cadres, especially top-level managers so that they could complete successfully their assigned tasks”⁽¹¹⁾. This proves that the Party building and rectification is vital, that making our Party truly strong and pure constitutes an urgent and long-term issue.

As a result, if this problem is not given due consideration and if drastic measures are not taken to tackle it, it will be a vital challenge, a life-and-death risk to the position, the leadership and the historical responsibility of the Party and the survival of polity.

Sincerely respecting, protecting the people, obeying the law, uniting the nation, building, rectifying, protecting and developing the Party

The comprehensive and synchronous renovation work under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam has achieved meaningful results. In the vision to 2045, the Party building and rectification is given a particular priority by the 13th Party Congress: “It is essential to improve the Party's leadership capacity, ruling capacity and combativeness; build a pure, strong and comprehensive Party and political system; consolidate and strengthen the people's faith in the Party, State and the socialist regime; arouse the aspiration to develop a prosperous and happy country, bring the will and strength of the great unity of the nation and the world into full play; promote the comprehensive and synchronous renovation, industrialization and modernization; firmly build and defend the Homeland, maintain a peaceful and stable environment; strive to become a socialist-oriented developed country  by the middle of the twenty-first century”⁽¹²⁾. This shows that the national interest is paramount and the right to self-determination is invaluable under the leadership of the Party and with the support of the people. National interests will never be undone by domestic threats or foreign invasion if we gain support from the people. All are aimed at the noble goal of preserving interests of each individual and each organization in society in harmony with the national interests of Vietnam in the contemporary world in which political interests of the nation is the nucleus to which all renovations, regardless of their extent, are oriented towards. Therefore, naturally, the noble and specific goal of the comprehensive and synchronous renovation is to protect the supreme and inclusive interests of the people as they are the owners of history and power of Vietnam now and then.

In order to gather the whole nation, the Party must be both moral and civilized and represent the wisdom, honor and conscience of the nation and our time. It must thus be truly united and recognized by the people. On the one hand, the Party cannot ask the recognition of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, but it must prove by itself that it is really the most loyal and active. Only when the masses recognize its correct policies and leadership capacity will the Party get the leadership position. On the other hand, only when we respect the people, love them will they love us and respect us as President Ho Chi Minh requested. More than ever, today, great national unity is the top goal of the whole nation. The Party must fulfil its duties of gathering the people into an invincible strength in the struggle for national independence, freedom and happiness of the people. That is moral. The strength and prestige of the Party lies in this morality, in its relationship with the people. Accordingly, each cadre and Party member must raise their sense of responsibility before the Party and the people, always listen to and love the people, truly respect the people's right to mastery, wholeheartedly serve the people, absolutely avoid harassment, lordliness and so forth. They need to have a modest attitude, establish a close-knit relationship with the people and not to be arrogant. President Ho Chi Minh once said: “Cadres and Party members must be those who keep close contact with the people, understand them, and pay attention to their interests. Only then will the people trust them and recognize their leadership”⁽¹³⁾. The Party must build close relationship with the people, respect them, and organize them into a revolutionary force in the fields of economy - society, security - defense. The Party needs to develop a good plan for economic and cultural development in order to improve the people's material and spiritual life. An appropriate mechanism must be established for all walks of life to participate in Party building and rectification so that it is pure and strong in politics, ideology, organization and morality. Each cadre and Party member needs to sincerely keep in mind that when the people are still involved in the Party's affairs, it means they still believe in the Party and hope to build an untarnished and strong Party. So, it must forever be worthy of being an “offspring” of the people, “a faithful leader and servant of the people”. That is the morality and also the law of Vietnam.

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(1) Documents of the 13th National Party Congress, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2021, vol. I, p. 112

(2) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, vol. 7, p. 49

(3) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, ibid, vol. 15, p. 622

(4) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, ibid, vol. 7, p. 41

(5) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, ibid, vol. 13, p. 275

(6) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, ibid, vol. 14, p. 18

(7) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, ibid, vol. 6, p. 432

(8) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, ibid, vol. 15, p. 526

(9) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, ibid, vol. 4, p. 64 – 65

(10), (11) Documents of the 12^th National Congress, Office of the Party Central Committee, Hanoi, 2016, pp.199, 217

(12) Document of the 13^th National Congress, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2021, vol. I, pp. 111 - 112

(13) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, ibid, vol. 5, p. 315

This article was published in the Communist Review No. 968 (June 2021)