Can't think "skimming"

After 2 years of implementing Conclusion No. 01-KL/TW (abbreviated as Conclusion 01), in the process of organizing conferences to review experiences and practices in many agencies and units in the political system at all levels, many concerns were recorded. One of the issues that the public is interested in is: Why is it that the more our Party promotes studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style, the more cadres and party members violate discipline and the law? Why is it that in some ministries, branches and localities, although the leaders always call for strengthening the prevention and fight against negativity and degradation, after only a few days or half a month, they are already caught up in legal trouble?

Some officials who just yesterday went to the forum to preach morality, the next day they were handcuffed? Does this situation prove that studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style is just a formality, ineffective, first of all within the political system, even among high-ranking officials? Is it true that the more educated an official is, the more violations he commits...

The issues raised by a segment of public opinion as above partly stem from information distorted and manipulated by hostile forces. The achievements of Party building and rectification; the fight against corruption and negativity in Party organizations and the political system at all levels are always topics exploited by extremists, discontented subjects with hostile ideologies, who carry out media campaigns to distort and sabotage the Party and the State in cyberspace.

They cling to negative incidents, cadres with degraded political ideology, morality, and lifestyle who have been disciplined by the Party and prosecuted before the law to speculate, distort, and deny the achievements of the half-term implementation of the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress; distort and blacken Ho Chi Minh's ideology. False and toxic information on cyberspace has affected the psychology and ideology of a number of cadres, Party members, and the masses, leading to a "skimming" mindset, seeing the phenomenon without understanding its nature; seeing the trees without seeing the forest...

Illustration: tuyengiao.vn

To understand the positive changes and results achieved after 2 years of implementing Conclusion 01 as well as the achievements of the first half of the term of implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress in the fields of political ideology, Party building and rectification, we need to look at and evaluate the issue objectively and comprehensively. First of all, it is the spirit and guiding principle of combining "building" and "fighting".

Conclusion 01 clearly states the task: "Closely combine studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style in carrying out the political tasks of each locality and unit and in Party building and rectification work; effectively resolve breakthroughs and key, urgent issues in practice".

In the process of thoroughly grasping and continuing to implement Conclusion 01, it is necessary to clearly see that our Party has set out both general and specific requirements on closely linking and combining studying and following Uncle Ho with the implementation of political tasks of cadres, party members, party organizations and the political system at all levels; including the particularly important task of stepping up the fight against negativity and degradation within the Party. Thus, the results of studying and following Uncle Ho need to be specifically demonstrated through actions, work and the effectiveness of performing tasks. In other words, it must be specifically quantified in practice.

In the thematic conferences and the process of contacting voters, many times the key leaders of our Party and State have noted that the fact that many corrupt and degraded officials are investigated and handled is not because "the more we fight, the more mistakes we make", "the more we study, the less we learn"... but the essence of the problem is that we are increasingly strengthening and resolutely fighting and rectifying the team in the spirit of no forbidden zones. In the past, there were few cases handled not because there was no corruption and negativity, but because at that time the fight was not as fierce as it is now, so the detection and handling of negativity was not effective.

With the spirit of “cutting branches to save trees”, “ruling one person to save thousands” as General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has repeatedly emphasized, we need to clearly see that corruption, negativity, and degradation are extremely sophisticated manifestations, extremely difficult to bring to light of justice. Individualism is like termites gnawing away inside the tree trunk.

The work of Party building and rectification, the fight against corruption, and the promotion of studying and following Uncle Ho in the spirit of “building to fight” in recent times have brought out a series of degraded cadres within the Party. This is the achievement of a arduous and complicated struggle with many “sacrifices”. This achievement has contributed to making our Party increasingly stronger, more ethical and civilized to be worthy of the trust and confidence of the people.

The development of thinking and the strict demands of practice

The task of studying and following Uncle Ho is not something that our Party has just set out to do, but it is a systematic journey, demonstrating the development of the Party's theoretical thinking and the requirements set forth by the Vietnamese revolutionary practice in each period. Immediately after Uncle Ho's death, in the Eulogy of the Party Central Committee read by First Secretary Le Duan at the Memorial Service for President Ho Chi Minh on September 9, 1969, the oath was firmly expressed: "To study his morality and style for the rest of my life...".

Since then, our entire Party, people, army and patriotic overseas Vietnamese all over the world have kept in mind the aspiration to “Live, fight, work and study following the example of great Uncle Ho”. Through each historical period, the national revolution has set new requirements and tasks, and studying and following Uncle Ho also requires development and addition of new contents and requirements. That is the inevitable development of dialectical thinking.

Over the past 17 years, since the 10th Politburo issued Directive No. 06-CT/TW on organizing the Campaign "Studying and following Ho Chi Minh's moral example", studying and following Uncle Ho's example has been constantly adjusted and supplemented in terms of content, form, and implementation solutions. Our Party has concretized the development of theoretical thinking and met the strict requirements from the country's reality through resolutions, directives, conclusions, etc. In particular, in recent years, the issuance and implementation of Directive No. 05-CT/TW dated May 15, 2016 of the 12th Politburo "On promoting studying and following Ho Chi Minh's thought, morality, and lifestyle" and Conclusion 01 have demonstrated increasingly high requirements for our entire Party, people, and army.

Conclusion 01 clearly states: The self-cultivation, training, following Uncle Ho, especially the responsibility to set an example of cadres and party members, especially leaders, is not regular; some cadres and party members have degraded in political ideology, ethics, lifestyle, violated Party regulations, and violated the law. The implementation of Directive 05 associated with the work of Party building and rectification, performing political tasks and solving breakthroughs, urgent and pressing issues is still confusing, not very effective...

The fight against signs of degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle is not yet strong; self-criticism and criticism are sometimes and in some places still formal; the lack of self-awareness in admitting shortcomings, blaming, being considerate, avoiding, and being afraid of conflict still occurs in many places...

With the motto of closely combining “building” and “fighting”, in the near future, there will certainly be many more cadres and party members who have degraded in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle in the political system who will be disciplined and brought to justice. Especially now, when the activities of the provincial Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption and Negative Action continue to be strengthened and promoted, the number of cadres and party members who have degraded and corrupted and will be inspected, investigated, and dealt with at all levels will certainly increase.

The fight against corruption, negativity, degradation, “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” will continue to be fierce and complicated, but with the spirit of perseverance and determination, no forbidden zones, “building to fight”, we have firm faith in the victory of the Party.

The issue that cadres, party members, civil servants and public employees in the political system at all levels need is a thorough, complete and profound understanding of the nature of the problem through dialectical thinking. Absolutely do not think in a "skimming" way, leading to listening to, following, and following the distorted and destructive arguments of hostile forces and opportunists. Only when cadres and party members have a thorough and complete understanding will they have a solid foundation to propagate and mobilize people to increasingly deeply and effectively carry out the study and follow of Uncle Ho. The spirit of "building" and "fighting", "using construction to fight" needs to be consolidated and fueled regularly and continuously by "front and rear support", "one call, all responses", "unanimity from top to bottom", "throughout the whole"... not to be broken for any reason, under any circumstances.

Synchronously implement "building" and "fighting"; "building" is a fundamental, strategic, long-term task, "fighting" is an important, urgent task. "Building" is to organize patriotic emulation movements well; to motivate cadres, party members, and people to successfully carry out socio-economic development tasks, ensure national defense and security as set out in the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the resolutions of the Party congresses of localities, agencies, and units. "Fighting" is to fight, prevent, and push back the degradation of political ideology, morality, lifestyle, manifestations of "self-evolution", "self-transformation"... (excerpt from Conclusion No. 01-KL/TW dated May 18, 2021 of the Politburo)

PHAN TUNG SON