According to a unified understanding, power corruption is the act of some officials and civil servants abusing political power and state power to do wrong and shady things to benefit themselves or a group of people, causing harm to the common interests of the collective, the interests of the nation and people. In modern society, power corruption has become more sophisticated and transformed into many complex forms.
Recently, many people holding and exercising public power have been tempted by the "pink color" of power. When in power, some people only seek to exploit the benefits and perks that power brings without confining themselves to the organizational framework, Party regulations and State laws. During the 2012-2022 period, 2,740 Party organizations and more than 167,700 cadres and Party members were disciplined. In 2023, 459 Party members were disciplined for corruption.
Along with strictly handling officials and Party members who violate the law, the Party and State have issued many documents on controlling power and preventing degradation, corruption, and negativity to promptly stop the "termite nests" that are undermining the system, contributing to building an increasingly clean and strong Party and political system.
Illustration photo: VNA
Taking advantage of this, hostile forces have launched distorted arguments, deliberately distorting the truth, claiming that “power degeneration” is the nature of the Party, aiming to lower the leadership role of the Communist Party of Vietnam, eroding the trust of cadres, party members and people in the Party and its cadres. Their tricks and arguments can be identified on the following main issues:
Firstly, hostile and reactionary forces accuse the “one-party” regime of being the cause of power degeneration. They claim that the power degeneration of officials and civil servants originates from the “centralized, one-party” regime... Along with deliberately blaming one party as the cause, their purpose is nothing other than to eliminate the sole leadership role of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
According to Marxism-Leninism, power corruption is considered as “darkness following power”, causing a decline in state power, directly affecting the prestige and reputation of the Party and State, turning the government apparatus and party organizations into bureaucrats, far from the interests of the people. Nearly 200 years ago, Karl Marx issued warnings when he studied the power corruption in Western states, especially developed capitalist countries.
He concluded that the greater the state power, the more dangerous its corruption is, the closer it is to being an autonomous force that escapes human control. This shows that the corruption of power exists in every state, every class society, it is a social phenomenon that any social regime must deal with.
VILenin said that, “bureaucracy and corruption cause many cadres and party members to degenerate, become autocratic and dictatorial, and can even destroy a political party and cause the downfall of a regime”. Discussing this issue, according to President Ho Chi Minh, the deep-rooted cause leading to the degeneration of power is individualism. President Ho Chi Minh pointed out that, “because of individualism, personal interests are placed above the common interests, which then gives rise to indiscipline, disorganization, greed for position and fame, factionalism, embezzlement, waste, and bureaucracy”.
Inheriting and developing Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's thought, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong once emphasized during his lifetime: "Corruption is a "congenital defect" of power and is one of the threats to the survival of the Party and the regime; it exists in every era, every regime, and every country; corruption cannot be completely eliminated in a short time." Thus, it must be affirmed that individualism and the degradation of political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle of a number of cadres and civil servants, along with the lack of an effective power control mechanism, are the fundamental causes of power degeneration.
On the other hand, in both theoretical and analytical aspects, all studies and analyses have come to the conclusion that corruption is a social phenomenon, which exists inevitably and objectively in a society with a state (with classes), regardless of the multi-party or one-party political regime; any regime or country has corruption.
In fact, in countries with multi-party systems, corruption is still a national problem. The 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) report by Transparency International (TI) shows that there is no country in the world that does not have corruption due to power corruption. The country with the lowest score (highest level of corruption) is Somalia (11 points), South Sudan (13 points); the countries with high scores (low level of corruption) are Denmark (90 points), Finland (87 points)... Thus, from the above report, it can be seen that corruption and negativity due to power corruption do not depend on the one-party regime or the multi-party regime. The claim by hostile forces that power corruption is caused by the one-party regime is a fabrication.
Second, hostile forces distort the purpose of preventing and combating the corruption of power of the Communist Party of Vietnam. They spread the rumor that the purpose of preventing and combating the corruption of power is only to serve the "interests of factions and groups", is a "power struggle or war within the upper echelons of the Party", is a preparation step for "children and cronies" to advance...
The arguments of hostile forces are very dangerous and completely wrong. Because as analyzed above, power degeneration always exists and never disappears when there are classes in society. Therefore, to prevent it, the Communist Party of Vietnam always seeks and implements in practice solutions to effectively control power, and must "lock power in a cage of mechanisms". In the process of leading the revolution, especially since the implementation of the renovation process until now, the Communist Party of Vietnam has always deeply recognized that preventing and combating power degeneration among a part of cadres and civil servants is a particularly important task in the work of building and rectifying the Party and a clean and strong political system.
Along with synchronously implementing political, ideological, organizational, economic measures... the Communist Party of Vietnam always attaches importance to preventing, proactively detecting, strictly and promptly handling acts of power degradation in order to build a clean Party and State; building a team of disciplined, honest cadres and civil servants who are both "red" and "professional".
In fact, the "degenerate" cadres and party members who have been disciplined for their violations in the past have all been handled strictly, fairly, impartially, transparently, correctly, and widely informed to all classes of people. At the same time, through discipline, we can warn, deter, and help cadres and party members, especially those with positions and power, to "self-reflect", "self-correct", constantly cultivate and train their capacity, political qualities, ethics, and lifestyle, and strictly prevent and stop them from the root.
The strict handling of corrupt cadres and party members in recent times has made the vast majority of people express their confidence in the Party's leadership in the fight against corruption of power. This further demonstrates that the purpose of preventing corruption of power is for the benefit of the nation, the people, and is supported by the people, not as the enemy distorts. This has created strong sympathy and fostered great trust among the people in the integrity, prestige, strength and purity of the Party.
Third, they assume that "power degeneration" is widespread and is the nature of the cadres and civil servants of the Party and State of Vietnam. Hostile and reactionary forces distort that "the prevention and fight against power degeneration of the Communist Party of Vietnam will eventually fail". Citing those inferences, they patch together and link together a number of isolated negative incidents in a group of cadres and civil servants and then assume that "worms are everywhere" and that the cadres and party members "are falling into a state of degeneration and degeneration".
The accusations of hostile forces are lies and go against the good purposes of our Party.
In the process of leading the cause of innovation, building and defending the Fatherland, the Communist Party of Vietnam has had to face fierce resistance from hostile forces, especially facing risks and challenges from corruption, negativity, waste, and bureaucracy, which have affected the life of the Party, the survival of the regime, and the happiness of the people. The Party has frankly admitted its mistakes and shortcomings in leading the innovation process; at the same time, resolutely fought to expose those who carry the name of the Party and disguise themselves as Party members to sabotage the Party, harm the country, and harm the people.
The efforts to build and rectify the Party and a clean and strong political system not only demonstrate the Party's great political determination but also prove that the Party is always open-minded and ready to correct mistakes, limitations and shortcomings to make the country rise and become better. The underlying cause leading to the degeneration of power of a part of cadres and party members is falling into individualism... along with the lack of control, inspection and supervision at all levels. Those bad apples are only a few out of a total of more than 5 million party members, and need to be eliminated to make the ranks of cadres and party members cleaner. Thus, from handling a number of degenerate cadres and civil servants to equating and labeling them as the nature of the cadres and civil servants is a distorted and extreme view of a few people with the sole purpose of lowering the prestige of the Party.
The recent distortions and sabotages against the Communist Party of Vietnam are baseless, one-sided, and unscientific, but they will be extremely dangerous if not identified and combated promptly. The problem is that we must thoroughly grasp and consistently implement the Party's leadership principles for personnel work, along with promoting the responsibility of organizations and leaders in carrying out personnel work.
Every cadre, party member and the masses need to heighten revolutionary vigilance, identify and expose the plots and sabotage tricks of hostile forces to resolutely fight to refute those false and reactionary arguments.
At the same time, each cadre and party member needs to constantly study, cultivate, and train to improve their political and ideological qualities, cultivate revolutionary ethics, working methods and styles; always "self-reflect and self-correct" to continuously progress; know how to put the interests of the revolution, the people, and the collective above personal interests. Thereby, making an important contribution to building our Party and State to be increasingly clean and strong, for the aspiration to develop a prosperous and happy country.
According to People's Army Newspaper
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