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The essence of the argument of "transitional party members"
The theory of the transitional period is a fundamental and very important achievement of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh thought and our Party. From the scientific and revolutionary viewpoint of Marxism-Leninism on the inevitability of the previous transitional period: “Between capitalist society and communist society is a period of revolutionary transformation from one society to the other. Adapting to that period is a period of political transition and the state of that period cannot be anything other than the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat”[1], bourgeois scholars, hostile forces and political opportunists today use that as an excuse to launch the argument that “Vietnam is in the transitional period to socialism, so party members also need to have a transitional nature”! So what is the essence of this argument? How dangerous is it?
The essence of the argument of “transitional party members” is to lower the standards of party members, acknowledge the degradation in quality, politics, ethics, lifestyle and consider corruption and negativity of cadres and party members as inevitable; from there, distort the good nature, vanguard and exemplary nature of party members, making our Party no longer “moral and civilized”, and move towards denying the Party’s sole leadership role. The argument of the so-called “transitional party members” can be identified in the following aspects:
First, the political transition of party members. Accordingly, party members have poor political awareness, are not steadfast in the development path of the Vietnamese revolution for national independence and socialism; acknowledge the possibility of returning to the capitalist path, deny the inevitability, characteristics, content, and nature of the transition period to socialism in Vietnam; acknowledge the existence of a capitalist superstructure and exploitation according to the old method of capitalism in Vietnam as inevitable; accept "political pluralism, multi-party opposition" in Vietnam.
Second, the ideological excess of party members. It is the surrender to bourgeois ideology, even the remnants of feudal ideology; denial of Marxist-Leninist ideology, Ho Chi Minh ideology; advocacy of the so-called unlimited “freedom of thought”, denial of the class nature of the ideological foundation of our Party; acceptance of the existence of many different ideologies in the Party.
Third, the excess of party members' capacity. It is the acceptance of lowering the standards to become party members, accepting the admission of the masses who are not the most elite, even allowing opportunists and reactionaries to become members of the Communist Party of Vietnam; therefore, party organizations become "clubs" of those who only need to "beat the drum and register their names" and nothing more.
Fourth, the excess of ethics and lifestyle of party members. It is to acknowledge the existence of old ethics and lifestyle - bourgeois ethics, petty bourgeois ethics, feudal ethics and to praise this "head down" ethics and inhumane and anti-cultural lifestyle; meanwhile, it belittles, degrades and denies the revolutionary ethics of party members; or acknowledges the parallel existence of both old ethics and revolutionary ethics. At the same time, it denies all efforts of the party organization in nurturing and improving revolutionary ethics for the elite masses preparing to join the party and for the party members.
Fifth, consider corruption and negativity among cadres and party members as inevitable. This is the result of acknowledging the excesses in politics, ideology, ethics, and lifestyle of party members.
Accordingly, they believe that the transitional period must "accept pain" - that is, accept corrupt and negative party members; then conclude that corruption and negativity are the attributes and nature of a single-party leadership; from there they issue open letters, petitions, recommendations, and calls for our Party to abandon its leadership in the fight against corruption and negativity; because according to them: The single-party leadership destroys democracy, the Party's leadership in the fight against corruption and negativity is no different than "playing football and blowing the whistle at the same time", or the so-called "internal fighting and purge"; furthermore, it denies the leadership of our Party over the whole society as stipulated in Article 4 of the 2013 Constitution...
The danger of the argument of "excessive party membership"
The danger of the “transitional party member” argument is enormous. First of all, it dampens the fighting spirit of the elite masses who want to join the Party; causes political disintegration, disintegration of beliefs, ideological chaos, creating “gaps” for bourgeois ideology to penetrate into each party member and party organization; and degrades the moral and lifestyle of cadres and party members. This is a very short step that can lead to “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” within the Party and the entire political system.
Therefore, in the XIII Congress Document, our Party self-criticized: “Some grassroots party organizations, a number of cadres, party members, civil servants and public employees are not exemplary. The work of building and developing party organizations and party members in non-state enterprises is still confused and limited; the work of developing party members in remote, border, island areas, areas with a large number of ethnic minorities, religions, and rural areas still faces many difficulties. The assessment and classification of party organizations and party members in some places is not yet substantive. A number of cadres and party members have faded ideals, lost their will, are afraid of difficulties and hardships, have degraded in political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, and have “self-evolved” and “self-transformed”[2].
On this issue, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong continued to warn in the article Proud and confident under the glorious flag of the Party, determined to build an increasingly rich, civilized, cultured and heroic Vietnam: “The organization of law and policy implementation and public service execution is still a weak link; discipline and order in many places are not strict, there is even a phenomenon of avoiding and shirking responsibility; whatever is beneficial is brought back to the agency, unit and individual; whatever is difficult is pushed out to society, to other agencies, other people.
Meanwhile, evil, hostile, and reactionary forces continue to take advantage of this situation to accelerate the implementation of the strategy of "peaceful evolution", promote "self-evolution" and "self-transformation" within us to sabotage our Party, State, and regime"[3].
If the above situation persists and is not promptly remedied, it will destroy the solidarity and unity within the Party; the Party will lose its revolutionary nature. As a result, it will cause the people to lose faith in the Party and our regime, even to lean towards hostile and reactionary forces.
More dangerous is the risk of causing some Party organizations to disintegrate politically, ideologically, and organizationally, and to be deformed in a negative direction in both ethics and cadres. The report at the National Conference summarizing the Party's inspection and supervision work in 2023 and deploying tasks for 2024 clearly stated: In 2023, Party committees at all levels and Party cells disciplined 423 Party organizations (an increase of 2.92% compared to 2022); disciplined 18,130 Party members (an increase of 10.64% compared to 2022), including 3,073 Party Committee members (accounting for 16.94%). Inspection Committees at all levels disciplined 183 Party organizations and 6,302 Party members, including 1,975 Party Committee members (accounting for 31.34%); In which, the local and unit Inspection Commissions disciplined 154 party organizations and 6,237 party members, and the Central Inspection Commission disciplined 29 party organizations and 65 party members.
| The essence of the argument of “transitional party members” is to lower the standards of party members, acknowledge the degradation in quality, politics, ethics, lifestyle and consider corruption and negativity of cadres and party members as inevitable; from there, distort the good nature, vanguard and exemplary nature of party members, making our Party no longer “moral and civilized”, and move towards denying the Party's sole leadership role. |
Finally, as an inevitable consequence, the Party will lose its leadership role in the whole society and the Vietnamese revolution will be at risk of deviating from socialism. Not only that, in terms of the Party's foreign affairs, and the international communist and workers' movement, our Party's position and prestige will also be seriously reduced. The Party will lose its position, role and historical mission, leading to its destruction.
This is a danger that cannot be ignored, because, as the historical reality of world revolution has proven, an experienced party like the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, along with other communist and workers' parties, has declined due to many reasons, of which the cause of all causes is that the Party building work in many countries has been fundamentally violated, specifically:
Many countries have strayed from the principles of building a new type of party based on Marxism-Leninism, turning the Communist Party into a monopoly organization. Some senior leaders have become bureaucrats, gradually distancing themselves from or betraying Marxism-Leninism.
In particular, there are two fundamental and directly closely related causes: (i) serious mistakes in political guidelines, Party building, ideological work, and organizational and personnel work during the reform process; (ii) hostile and reactionary forces implementing the strategy of "peaceful evolution", seeking every way to influence and divert the reform process in the Soviet Union, taking advantage of internal mistakes to achieve the goal of abolishing the socialist regime.
In the Soviet Union and most socialist countries in Eastern Europe, in the decades from the 60s to the 90s of the late 20th century, the Communist Party apparatus was not built according to Marxist-Leninist principles. The Soviet State gradually degenerated, no longer representing the power of the People but only the power of factions within the Party. The principle of democratic centralism in Party building was completely abandoned, becoming bureaucratic, dictatorial, and monopolistic centralism.
The contents of building a new type of Party: in terms of ideology, politics, organization, morality, and lifestyle of Party members have become strange in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and many other Communist Parties. Some high-ranking leaders in the Party and State apparatus of the Soviet Union have degenerated, become traitors in the name of “reform” and “reform”. This is the very direct cause that has led the Party and real socialism to crisis and decline.
[1] C. Marx and F. Engels, Complete Works, volume 19, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 1995, p.47
[2] Communist Party of Vietnam, Documents of the 13th National Party Congress, Volume I, National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2021, pp.91-92
[3] Quoted from: “Proud and confident under the glorious flag of the Party, determined to build an increasingly rich, civilized, cultured and heroic Vietnam”, Communist Party of Vietnam Electronic Newspaper, accessed January 31, 2024, https://dangcongsan.vn/tieu-diem/tu-hao-va-tin-tuong-duoi-la-co-ve-vang-cua-dang-quyet-tam-xay-dung-mot-nuoc-viet-nam-ngay-cang-giau-manh-van-minh-van-hien-va-anh-hung-658876.html
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