This is the consistent viewpoint in the Party's leadership and direction of the World War II throughout the 93 years of construction and growth of the propaganda sector (August 1, 1930 / August 1, 2023); it is also an urgent and necessary requirement from practice.

Thoroughly grasping the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, in order to continue improving the quality and effectiveness of the world war in the new situation, it is necessary to engage and promote the combined strength of the entire Party, people and army; especially paying attention to promptly resolving and removing difficulties and obstacles regarding resources for the world war at the grassroots level.

Illustration: Cong Ly Newspaper

1. Many years ago, in the organization of the staff of communes, wards and towns (generally called commune level), there was always a fixed staff of propaganda officers (CBTG), and this position was even structured into the standing committee of the commune party committee... However, in recent years, facing the trend of promoting streamlining the staff, this position was only held concurrently, and was not structured to participate in the executive committee or standing committee of the Party committee. As a result, the effectiveness of implementing CTTG at the grassroots level was affected; the role and position of CBTG at the grassroots level were reduced and underestimated; raising many concerns and worries about the quality and effectiveness of an important aspect of the Party's work.

Theory clearly states: World War II, especially ideological work, must be operated and done well from the grassroots. In which, propaganda, mobilization, promoting people's strength, building "people's hearts and minds" are of special importance. However, to be fair, due to the thin force and the concurrent position, although the cadres in charge of World War II have made real efforts, in many places the effectiveness of their activities has not been as expected. Issues related to grasping public opinion, community psychology, crowd mood, especially grasping, controlling, and handling false rumors at the grassroots level are often not timely and ineffective. This is one of the many causes leading to frustration among the people, forming hot spots at the grassroots level.

In reality, only grassroots cadres, including CBTG, are the direct force, with sufficient conditions, capabilities, and experience to grasp and promptly detect negative ideological manifestations and problems arising from the "embryo" stage, proactively prevent, promptly correct, orient, and resolve; not allowing them to develop into "abnormalities" of ideological diseases and "sparks" for public opinion hotspots. However, due to many factors, the current CBTG team at the commune level is mainly part-time or semi-professional. Meanwhile, the implementation of the Central Committee's resolutions on streamlining the payroll at the commune level and its subordinate levels has significantly impacted the quantity, quality, psychology, ideology, and feelings of the CBTG team at the grassroots level.

Because the human resources for propaganda work at the grassroots level are thin, lacking and weak, it leads to a great deal of time, effort, intelligence and resources for this work being greatly affected. In other words, because of weak or lacking propaganda staff, it is easy to lead to a situation of laxity and underestimation of propaganda work right from the grassroots level. The consequence is that many people lack understanding of the Party's policies and guidelines, and the State's policies and laws.

In some places, due to the lack of official information, people are easily confused, wavering, and easily lured, bribed, or exploited by hostile and destructive forces to carry out evil political schemes. From the handling of hot spots in the Central Highlands (2001, 2004), Binh Thuan (2018) and many other hot spots, the obvious lesson is that ideological work in these places sometimes falls into passivity and lacks flexibility, especially the failure to promptly provide and orient official information... are the core causes of hot spots and political security complications in the area.

Not only that, because the CBTG at the commune level is mainly a concurrent position, the CTTG at the grassroots level has recently tended to focus on handling specific, trivial, and tail-smoothing issues, with low predictability and confusion; has not well implemented the motto "going first to pave the way, going together to implement, going later to summarize"; has not connected resources and forces to create a combined strength for CTTG at the grassroots level. That leads to the advisory work of the propaganda sector at the grassroots level for the Party Committee and the government on a number of tasks and fields being untimely, not sensitive, and ineffective; ideological work is sometimes lacking in sharpness, not very persuasive, and limited in combativeness...

In particular, the work of summarizing practices and researching theories at the grassroots level has not received due attention, is not consistent, does not meet requirements, and is even neglected and forgotten. The work of combating and preventing bad and toxic information, wrong and hostile viewpoints at the grassroots level is still passive and not very effective... All of these directly affect the quality and effectiveness of the whole industry's international integration in the new conditions.

2. The grassroots cadres recommend that the care and investment of resources for the World War in the new conditions must be consistent with the viewpoint that the World War in general, and ideological work in particular, must take the effectiveness from the grassroots as the focus, the foundation, the root. In that sense, if the World War in order to have quality, it is necessary to pay special attention and invest appropriate resources for the grassroots, especially in human resources to carry out the World War. Along with promoting the role of Party committees, authorities, and social opinion collaborators, it is necessary to arrange specialized cadres for the World War to be able to undertake and complete difficult and complicated tasks, especially ideological work, Party building, propaganda, mass mobilization, and the fight against "peaceful evolution" from the grassroots...

A survey of the team of officers concurrently working on CTTG at the commune level shows that this team has a fairly correct and sufficient understanding of the position and role of the commune-level CTTG, but most of them expressed concerns, difficulties and obstacles in the process of performing their tasks. Many officers said that with a huge amount of work, diverse and complicated tasks, strict and scientific processes and procedures for implementing CTTG, it is necessary to have specialized officers in this field. Not only that, the authorities need to research and set high requirements for the quality of personnel working on CTTG at the grassroots level; there should be a policy for the commune-level CBTG structure to participate in the standing committee, the executive committee of the commune party committee and plan to be a source of successors at the grassroots level.

From the above-mentioned basic practices, it is required that Party committees, leaders and competent agencies have a more comprehensive view of the position and role of cadres working in propaganda at the grassroots level. While consistently advocating streamlining the payroll and rearranging the organizational apparatus towards streamlining and effective and efficient operations, it is also necessary to combine and attach importance to selecting and rotating cadres, prioritizing high-quality people for the propaganda sector at the grassroots level.

Along with that, competent authorities should soon research and supplement appropriate policies and regimes for this group of cadres, helping them love their jobs and wholeheartedly devote themselves to their assigned positions and responsibilities. Party committees and authorities at all levels need to continue to innovate training, fostering, and improving the qualities, political mettle, and professional and technical skills of the team of cadres doing CTTG; ensuring that the team of CTTG is properly trained, regular, loyal, and developed through practical activities; enhancing interaction, sharing experiences, and "passing on the passion for the profession" between generations of long-time cadres and young cadres; between CTTG cadres at the central level and CTTG cadres at the grassroots level...

When discussing the role of the World War II and the cadres doing the World War II, President Ho Chi Minh affirmed: The World War II team and propaganda work are considered an ideological front to fight against what is old, corrupt, backward and support the new, the good, the progressive, arouse the will and mobilize the whole people, organize and educate the whole people, rely on the great strength of the whole people, make "The whole Party must have unanimity of thought, unanimity of action, unanimity of solidarity to fulfill the Party's tasks".

With such importance, it requires Party committees, political systems and even those working in the propaganda sector to have a unified understanding of the position, role, function and tasks of the propaganda sector and the propaganda sector. It is necessary to resolutely identify, correct and thoroughly overcome the situation of entrusting and outsourcing ideological work in particular and the propaganda sector in general to the propaganda sector and the propaganda sector at the grassroots level. It is necessary to raise awareness and innovate the thinking of all levels about paying attention to and investing resources, especially budget and human resources for the propaganda sector's activities at all levels, especially at the grassroots level, to be commensurate with the role, position and requirements of the propaganda sector and the propaganda sector in the new situation.

NGUYEN TAN TUAN

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