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On this occasion, VietNamNet would like to present an article by Dr. Vu Ngoc Hoang.
We cannot ignore what we have achieved in the task of Party building. Yet we must say that the deterioration of political ideology, morals and lifestyle of Party members tended to increase in recent time, although the Party Central Committee of all terms always issued policies on Party building.
From the degradation of some Party members, it came to part of the Party and then a bigger part. And in that part, there are some high-ranking officials.
These were comments made by the Party’s official resolutions and are correct, although it did not describe the actual severity of the situation.
Since the 12th National Party Congress, the Party General Secretary and the Politburo have made noteworthy efforts in the fight against corruption and "group interest." However, we need more time to see how the situation will change.
Let’s listen to the people and party members who are not officials speak about the degradation to see how serious the situation is. Many corruption cases were not detected by Party organizations but by the people and the media. In the Party’s reviews and inspections of Party members, almost all Party members and Party cells were certified to be good or excellent. That situation itself is a signal of degradation.
Regarding political ideology, it is very dangerous that the trust of the people and many officials and Party members to the Party and State agencies has declined. That's a fact! Although we do not want that, or do not want to say about it, it is still an objective fact. We should not dodge that fact. We must look at the truth, face it, understand it to the end, and from that look for the most effective solutions. It is the responsibility, bravery, and a scientific approach. In our current situation, facing the truth, telling the truth is also a solution and the first solution. From which we can find the next solutions. If we avoid it, hide it, the Party organizations will weaken.
In true politics, if we have the people’s truth then we have everything and vice versa. The people's trust is the most important political foundation of a regime, a government.
Why has the trust declined?
Don’t ever think that the people’s trust in the Party and the State fell because the people are not good and they don’t want to believe in leaders. Such thinking is absurd. "Reproaching yourself first before reproaching others”. It is the experience and advice from our fathers. The first reason and the most important, most crucial reason that makes the people’s trust plummet is the moral deterioration of officials.
In other words, the degradation of morals and lifestyle is the biggest cause for degradation of political ideology. The trust must be built gradually and it can change. When the morals of many officials degrades, then people do not believe in the sincerity of the organization and from which they do not believe anymore in the goals and the path of that organization.
If the morals of too many members are severely degraded, the Party organization’s intact nature will not be maintained. In other words, if moral degradation of members is solved, the degradation of trust will be overcome, and it also means that we can overcome degradation of political ideology. For the small part of degraded members, they have themselves left the true ideal, and were morally corrupted. Some may be disillusioned, have remorse and improve their conduct but such people are a few.
Ethics is the core of culture, and culture is the foundation of society in general, including politics. Culture must be the foundation of politics, and not vice versa. "Politics is the command of everything, politics defines culture" is a very misleading, unscientific argument. Of course faith is not just ethics, but ethics is the foundation and the first one. Ethics is truthful behavior ofhumans and organizations. And of course it is not only that, but also the wisdom and capability of staff which contributes to creating full and durable faith, but first of all it must be morals. Ethics is the root.
Our theory and theoretical work are now backward and weak. This is also a cause of eroding the people’s faith. The Party’s resolutions have pointed out the backwardness and weaknesses, though not all. Our methodology-related science has lagged behind the world, which has been changing rapidly in the non-linear direction.
For a few decades, our theory has always been said to be conservative, dogmatic. That comment is not totally wrong. Or at least, they were right for a significant part of our theory. Many issues are vague, unclear in terms of scientific basis, even fragmentary, contradictory, far from reality, and unconvincing. The theoretical task with unscientific approaches, is far from practice, ie far from its origin, so that it is less vital.
Many intellectuals say that science has been politicized. We cannot talk back to them. Our ideological work is generally one-way, imposed, and anyone who has different ideas can put a label of “having wrong standpoint" and is even pushed towards opposition.
With such ideological method, we can isolate ourself from the eventful world and block the path approaching objective truth. For natural science, a man can sit alone in the lab, work hard and find the truth. For social sciences, dialogue, equal debate is the way to approach the truth, otherwise we have stopped the path to objective truth.
Another reason to lose the trust of the people is leadership. Management competencies are still poor, resulting in failure to deal with the problems of daily life, so that the country lags behind in many aspects. When the country lags behind and morals decline, the meaning of the glorious past also decreases. The cultural capital built up by blood and bones of millions of the people and party members in the part, the foundation for today, is being depleted.
Many legal cases are dealt in a way that lacks transparency, at least lack of transparency in terms of information, making the people suspicious. They suspect corruption, bribery, "group interest", toleration and covering up for each other, even political suspicion (in relation with neighbors).
Actually, there are many corruption cases related to state corporations, state banks, state projects that are not transparent and not explained clearly. Since then, people have questioned whether the government is still the government of the majority people.
Even six months after the massive dead fish in the central region occurred, no official has been punished. Then hundreds of factories were smashed but the culprit has not been identified and punished.
For many cases, we said these happened because of the enemy’s sabotage. No, they are not so “talented” so we should not inadvertently enhance their role. There are many more issues that are still vague in terms of responsibility and solutions.
There are enough reasons for the people’s suspicion and they have the right to be suspicious, Why not? We cannot ban people from having doubt and cannot put a label of "reactionary" on them. That way makes us opposite to the people, whose faith is the foundation of national politics.
Regarding the decline of morality and lifestyle of officials? General social ethics is also the habitfor officials. So, when the social ethics degrades, it has adverse impact on the ethics of officials. But we should not blame society and evade responsibility by saying that officials’ moral degradation is due to decadent social ethics.
In the relationship between social morality and ethics of officials, social morality is consequence of officials’ ethics. When morality of officials degrades, it is the most important cause for the degradation of social ethics.
As in a "family", if a child corrupts, it is the corruption of the child but if the parents are corrupted, then it is the corruption of the whole family and the whole generation. Let’s look at Vietnamese feudal dynasties, whenever an imperial court was depraved, the society outside was also corrupt and in disorder.
There are many manifestations of social moral degradation in our country, which are complex and serious. Among them, the most notable things are corruption, "interest groups", bribery, falsehood and fraud, violence and murder...
The situation is partly due to the negative impact from the downside of the market policy. However, we cannot blame that mechanism because everything always has two faces but in this case the positive side is dominant.
The tasks and competencies of leaders, managers is to know how to promote the good and prevent the side effects. The country needs such leadership! Many countries have a full market economy but the effect of the downside of the market economy is not serious like ours.
The downside of the market economy has an adverse effect on social morality, but it is not the main culprit. So what is the main culprit? Most notably, it is the corruption of power. That is the main reason causing all corruption. I use the word corruption of power in general. More clearly, it is the corruption of the people who are assigned to use power, the abuse of power for personal benefit of individuals. Those who are given power do not use their power for the right purpose, to protect and serve the people, but on the contrary they use the power as facilities for personal purposes, to trample justice, to bully people and benefit themselves.
Power is a very effective tool to gather forces in order to build and protect the country, if it is awarded to the right people, who have good personality. On the other hand, it always corrupts those who are granted powerif they don’t have good personality and the power is not controlled.
The greater power and the longer the power is used, the risk of corruption is higher. To a certain level of corruption of power, the nature of a state will change and it will no longer be a state of the people and the party will also change the nature. It will be no longer a true party and it will break as a rule of nature. This lesson was proven in the early '90s in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Strong innovation of personnel tasks must be carried out in the direction of organizing elections and expanding nomination rights of political - social organizations, as well as individual candidates. Without election, degradation of officials is undeniable.
With one party, it is more difficult to implement but it does not mean that we cannot do it and we must do it. With one party, the Party must uphold the banner of democracy.
Elections are for selecting leaders and for technical staff, they must be selected through examinations. The number of state officials must be slashed while their salary must be raised so they can live on their salary, not from other sources. [Please do not tell me that there is no budget for raising salaries? It is only the matter of changing the way of governance].
It is necessary to strictly handle negative cases, all cases. All the cover of "corrupt officials" is the path to the collapse of the regime. True party members and party cells must be resilient and take initiative in joining the fight against corruption and "interest groups" and strongly support the right things, especially in the fight against "interest groups" and conservatives (who do not promote innovation), which was launched by the Party General Secretary and the Politburo and the Party Secretariat.
Among the solutions, the handling of corruption cases is important in preventing such cases and dealing with the conditions and agents causing corruption.
In many cases, the transparency of information is more effective than discipline, because evil will no longer have a place to hide. Without transparent information, leaving everything vague, people will doubt everything.
Dr. Vu Ngoc Hoang
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