CP of Vietnam, Viewpoints of V. I. Lenin on buidling Party and State to be pure and strong – Significance of building and revamping Party and political system in Vietnam now

3/21/23 2:42 PM
  • Vietnam, Communist Party of Vietnam En Asia Communist and workers' parties

Viewpoints of V. I. Lenin on buidling Party and State to be pure and strong – Significance of building and revamping Party and political system in Vietnam now

 

Assoc. Prof. Dr. BUI THI NGOC LAN

Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics

COMMUNIST REVIEW - After the 1917 Russian October Revolution, in the context that Russia was entering the transitional period from capitalism to socialism wuth innumerable difficulties, V.I. Lenin had attached special importance to the Party and State building to be poure and strong with effective operation. The valuable guidances of V.I. Lenin still continue to be of great significance for the process of building and revamping the Party and the political system to be pure and strong in Vietnam now.

Viewpoints of V.I.Lenin on building Party and State to be pure and strong

Firstly, to settle well the relationship between the Party – State – people and society

V.I. Lenin affirmed that when becoming the party in power, the Party is the nucleus to lead the State and the whole society in all aspects, in all fields of life. This is an issue of principle, because “if there is not the rule of the proletariat, the State cannot speak about socialism” (1). The Party leads the State, the people and the society by the scientific and revolutionary ideologies – it is Marxism, “the only correct Marxist theory”, a doctrine comoletely as firm as granite. On this scientific theoretical foundation, the Party maps out the political program, correct strategies and strategem; at the same time, it mobilizes, assembles, convinces the masses to follow it, to support and take an active part, because “among the masses of the people, we are like a drop of water in the ocean, and only when we express the right wishes of the people, then we can be able to manage the State. If not, the Communist Party will not be able to lead the proletariat, the proletariat will not be able to attract the masses of people to follow it, and all the appratus will be disintegrated” (2).

Even He affirmed the Party’s leading role towards the State, V.I.Lenin also laid stress on the harmonious settlement of the relationship between these two subjects: in which, the Party is not absolutely allowed to encroach the rights and do duty for the State. Therefore, He requested: “It is necessary to assign more clearly the tasks of the Party…. with the tasks of the Soviet adminitration; to increase more responsibilities and the proactiveness for the Soviet cadres and the Soviet agencies, and on the part of the Party, it reserves the right of common leadership in all the things of all the State agencies, without interfering more frequently, without regularly and often in the unimportant thing” (3).

Under the leadership of the Party, the State plays the key role in managing and service activities of society in order to realize the advocacies, lines and programs of the Party in life through its system from the Central to the local levels, through the agencies, the State apparatuses and organizations; therefore, it needs to set up the Soviet agencies (the organizations of the socialist state apparatus)). V.I.Lenin wrote: “So long as the socialization of land and nationalization of factories are only the exception, naturally the social management for the national economy cannot escape from (if we consider the national scope) the preliminary preparatory stage with the debates, discussions and explanations” (4).

Secondly, to point out the harm of the degeneration, negativity in the Party and the State’s apparatus.

Together with the confirmation of the Party’s leading role and the State’s management in the process of socialist building, V.I.Lenin also pointed out the inadequacies and the negativities in the Party and in the State that need being identified and aliminated to the root, because if not, they will weaken the Party’s leading role and the State’s management, erode the people’s confidence in the Party and the State and the regime, making the process of socialist building unsuccessful.

In the transitional period to advance towards socialism, the social evils and negativities have neaked into the agencies of the Pary and the State, causing the tumor to damage the prestige and strength of the Party and of the State, devastate the society. These negative manifestations are diverse. V.I.Lenin concentrated on identifying the fundamental manifestations as follows:

Firstly, it is opportunism, the degeneration of the political ideologies, the faded revoluionary ideal. In the ideological struggle to protect the scientific and resolutionary nature of Marxism, V.I.Lenin had struggled resolutely against opportunism in the workers’ movement. Its manifestation is “by words of mouth, it recognizes the revolution, but in fact, it abandons the revolution” (5). As for the Marxist doctrine, “they have revoked all the contents of the revolutionary doctrine, trivialized that doctrine and blunted its revolutionary sharp sides… They have forgotten, rubbed out, frequently distorted the revolutionary side, the revolutionary spirit of this doctrine” (6). This is very dangerous because opportunism has disheartened the willpower of struggle, creating vagueness in the theoretical consciousness, leading to the degeneration in the political ideologies, the fade in the revolutionary ideologies of the contingent of cadres, party members, making them “bribed and spoiled by imperialism” (7) V.I.Lenin pointed out that “all the things that make light of the socialist ideological system, all the isolation from the socialist ideological system have the meaning that the capitalist ideological system has been enhanced” (8). That is why, according to V.I.Lenin, the struggle against opportunism in the Party and the State, or in broader sense of the word, in the workers’ movement, is not only the problem of Russia, but also the common problem of each communist party.

Secondly, bureaucracy, corruption, degeneration in morality, lifestyle. As V.I.Lenin viewed it, the nature of bureaucracy is the ideology of praising the position, governed by individualism, run after fame, wealth and titles: “Bureaucracy can be translated a noun into Russian: positionism. Bureaucracy means bringing the interests of the career to submit to the interests of the ideology of official standing, it means great importance is attached to position without paying a head to the business; it means there is a compettion with each other to be promoted” (9). The bureaucrastic persons only take care of individual interests, so they become lazy bones and selfish persons; become the arrogant, high-handed persons, the persons with special advantages and privileges, isolated from the masses and stand above the masses. They take advantage of ther titles and posts to be promoted. In the area of state management, bureaucracy relies mainly on paper work and those cadres who have contraced the “ bureaucracy disease” only listen to reports and usually used their order to urge the work done and isolated themselves form realities; they are arbitrary, authoritarian, undemocratic, cause contradictions, lose internal unity; so, to continue the socialist building with good results, it is necessary to continue to struggle against bureaucracy.

More dangerous, from bureaucracy, it leads to bribery, corruption, becoming acute, quite typical in Russia and it is one of “the three main enemies standing before everyone, whatever job he does and whatever post he holds…. The first enemy – communist arrogance; the second enemy – illiteracy; the third enemy – bribery” (10). Bribery, corruption not only does harm, hinder the economic and social development, but also leaves the serious political and social consequences and is the enemy of socialism. V.I.Lenin vehemently criticized this evil and pointed out: “If it can still be bribed, it is impossible to speak about politics…. In these conditions, it is impossible to do any political thing at all” (11). But, a part of cadres and party members “are infected, become corrupted by that atmosphere, leading to the degeneration in morality and lifestyle, violation of such bad habits as feebleness, absent-mindedness, individualism, from optimism to pessimitism” (12), degeneration, taking advantage of titles and posts, opportunities to “fish in troubled waters”. Therefore, preventing bribery, corruption, making the Party and the State apparatus to be pure becomes the urgent task, at the same time it is also a difficult, fierce and very complicated combat, demanding the high efforts and determination of the entire Party, of the whole political system and of the entire society.

Thirdly, the disease of communist arrogance; unorganization, indiscipline. According to V.I.Lenin, communist arrogance is manifested in: “a person who is in the communist party and is yet to be purged from the party thought that by the communist legal order, it is possible to settle all of his tasks” mainly through “the political education. It is not completely so! It is only the communist arrogance” (13). Due to the communist arrogance, they are self-conceited and when they commit mistakes, they try to find ways and means to cover their shortcomings and do not dare to admit them and it is this disease that will make the Party perish. V.I.Lenin stressed: “All the revolutionary parties that have perished so far are all perished because of their self-conceitedness and arrogance, because they cannot see clearly what has created their strength and because they are afraid of speaking their weaknesses and shortcomings” (14).

In the transitional period to socialism from a backward, small-production country, “the customs of the old society” have still existed protractedly, leading to unorganization, indiscipline. Its manifestation in the Party and in the whole state apparatus is to deny the partisanship and the party disciplne, to commit the bad characters of the petty bourgeoisie: Absent-mindedness, waveringness, indecisiveness, disunity in action. These vices have existed protractedly due to “The strength of the customs in millions, tens of millions people is the most horrible strength” (15). These negative manifestations once spread in the movement, they will “completely disarm of the proletariat and will benefit the bourgeosie”. This is the prolonged and complicated struggle because “The victory over the great concentrated capitalists is thousand times easier than the “victory” over millions and millions of small holders; and these people, due to their daily activities, to their familiar, unrecognizable activities, are the effects to recover the bourgeoisie” (16).

Thirdly, to show the mode of building the Party and the State to be pure, strong and effective activities.

On the basis of identifying clearly the negative manifestatilons in the contingent of cadres and party members, V.I.Lenin pointed out the fundamental modes to build the Party and the State to be pure, strong and with effective activities:

To ensure the motto: “It’s less but better”, streamlined, effective. Implementing this motto demands the Party building and renovation, the reform of the state apparatus, particularly in the central agencies, it needs to pay attention to quality, without running after quantity; so, it is necessary to review the implementation of merging, streamlining the apparatus, ensuring the model quality, and to operate in conformity with the modern scientific level. The contingent of cadres and party members must be carefully selected in accordance with the strict criteria in quality and quantity, with the firm political abilities, equipped with the revolutionary theory, with the good moral qualities and “these outstanding elements must not be afraid of accepting any difficulties and never flinch from any struggle so as to reach the goal” (17).

Practicing seriously the principles of the Party building. Ensuring the principle of democratic centralism, because it is the fundamental feature of the revolutionary party drawn by V.I.Lenin from he revolutionary realities; accordingly, “the abolute concentrated regime and the extremely strict discipline of the proletariat is one of the basic conditions to win over the bourgeosie” (18). It is requested that the party discipline must be practiced in an extremely serious manner, the iron discipline must be maintained and each cadre and party member must strive hard to cultivate knowledge, train style and improve the quality of communist morality.

Practicing seriously criticism and self-criticism to create the unity and unification in the Party so that the Party can be able to always consolidate and develop. Self-criticism and criticism must be one of the important, regular contents in the party’s activities. V.I.Lenin wrote: “Openly admitting the mistakes, looking for the causes of mistakes, analyzing the situation giving rise to mistakes…. These are the signs to prove that it is a serious party, a party that has fulfilled its obligations; it is the education and training of the class and then the masses” (19).

Building the mechanism to control power closely and effectively. If this work is not carried out well, it will become extremely harmful, because “If the domestic political power stays in the hands of a class with interests being in conformity with the interests of the majority, then it is possible to materialise its control over the national affairs to really follow the aspirations of the majority. But when the political power lies in the hands of another class with its interests quite different from those of the majority, then the control over the national affairs in conformity with the aspirations of the majority cannot avoid becoming a cheating or leading to suppression of that majority” (20).

To control power, it is necessary to build the suitable scientific legal system, to ensure the activities of the Party and the State in accordance with the stipulations of the Constitution and the law, at the same time, to enforce democracy of the people. This is an objective inevitability and the urgent task. The power control is also implemented by the organizational work. The new-type Party, the new-type State must be closely, scientifically organized, always be unified organizationally, without accepting the dispersion, undiscipline, fraction and internal disunity. V.I.Lenin pointed out: “In the struggle to seize power, the proletariat has no other weapon than the organization…. The ideological unification of the proletariat based on the principles of Marxism strengthened by the material unification of the organization that assembles millions of the labouring people into an army of the working class” (21); at the same time, it is necessary to do well the inspection and control of the organization, human beings and work. Slackening the inspection also means slackening the leadership and management, thus leading to the weakness of the organization and the apparatus, the depravity, degeneration of cadres and party members.

Moreover, to control well the power, it is necessary to pracice broad democracy, in close combination with the people and to promote the people’s role of supervision of the activities of the Party and the State. This is the mode of paramount importance, because the success or failure of the revolution depends on the confidence and consensus of the people in the Party’a leadership and the State’s management.

At the same time, the Party and the State have to guard against and struggle resolutely against the manifestation of negativity, degeneration in the political ideologies and morality; to practice seriously the dismissal any time of the elected people who are degenerated. According to V.I.Lenin, it needs to expulse from the Party the cheating people, the bureaucratic, unfaithful, feeble party members so as to purify the Party and the State’s apparatus.

Significance of enhancing the building and revamping of the Party and the political system to be pure and strong in Vietnam now

Imbued with the ideologies of V.I.Lenin, creatively applying them in the concrete conditions of Vietnam, the process of its leadership, the Communist Party of Vietnam has always attached importance to building and revamping the Party and the political system to be pure and strong on the basis of promoting the willpower and strength of the great national unity in combination with the strength of the times to build the prosperous and happy country. This has been concretized and regularlyadded and developed in the advocacies and lines of the Party, in the policies and laws of the State and has been manifested in a concentrated way in the Conclusion and Resolution of the 4th Plenum of the Party’s 11th, 12th and 13th tenures. The Party’s Resolution has been deployed and implemented seriously and gone into the realities of life and created a lot of positive changes in the activities of the Party, the State and the society; through that, improved the leading capacities and the fighting power of the Party, at the same time, created the unity and unanimity between “the Party’s will, the people’s hearts” and made a contribution to enhancing and strengthening the people’s confidence in the Party, the State and the regime.

However, besides the obtained results, there are still a lot of limitations and shortcomings, like “the state of degeneration in the political ideologies, morality, lifestyle, ‘self-evolution’, ‘self-transformation’ are still developing complicatedly” (22); a part of cadres and party members, in which the strategy-level cadres and the leaders have still had manifestations of having faded ideologies, without having any persistence in taking the socialist path, have declined in the fighting willpower, fallen into individualism, violated the Party’s discipline, violated the laws; the mechanism of power inspection in many areas, particularly for those people who are in high positions in the Party and in the political system, is yet to be really efficient; the supervision activities of the political and social organizations and of the people are yet to be promoted fully and effectively. General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong stressed: “From the degeneration in the political ideologies, morality and lifestyle, to “self-evolution”, “self-transformation is only a short distance, even very short and it is unpredictable danger, being able to lead to land a hand or work hand in glove with with the bad, hostile, opportunist forces, betraying the revolutionary ideologies and the cause of the Party and the nation” (23).

The facts show that the guidances of V.I.Lenin have up to now still had their intact values and remained a very important issue. That is why, the building and revamping of the Party and the political system need to be enhanced in accordance with the ideologies and guidances of V.I.Lenin and of President Ho Chi Minh with the fundamental solutions as follows:

Firstly, to improve the awareness of the importance of the building and revamping of the Party and the political system to be pure and strong; to propagate and implement intensively and extensively the contents of the Resolution, the Conclusion of the 4th Plenum of the Party’s 13th tenure.

Deeply aware of the importance of this issue, at the 4th Plenum of the 13th Party tenure, our Party issued Conclusion No. 21-KL/TW on October 25, 2021, on “Enhancing the building and revamping of the Party and the Political System; resolutely preventing, pushing back and handling seriously the cadres and party members who are degenerated in the political ideologies and morality, lifestyle, have the manifestations of “self-evolution”, “self-transformation”. To take the Party’s advocacies and lines into life, one the one hand, it needs to attach importance to studying, researching, continuing to add and develop Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought, creatively apply them to the socialist building in Vietnam now; on the other hand, the party committee levels, the party organizations have to rapidly build the plans on propaganda, study, thorough grasping and implementation of the Resolution, the Conclusion for the entire cadres, party members and people, through which, to be fully and deeply aware of the goal, requirements and content of the Resolution and the Conclusion, at the same time, to firmly grasp the guiding ideologies, the important tasks that need being carried out. To renew the content and the mode and to improve the quality of the political and ideological education, creating the active change in the consciousness and action of cadres, party members and people. To implement seriously self-criticism and criticism from the Central level to each party cell, to overcome the state of showing regard, standing apart, “live and let live”.

Secondly, to grasp thoroughly, apply creatively the ideologies and method of V.I.Lenin so as to continue to enhance the building of the Party and the political system in terms of organization.

To continue the renovation work, to perfect the apparatus organization and to improve the effectiveness of the activities of the political system in the spirit of “it’s less but better”, because “only making our apparatus the purest, only reducing to the maximum all that is not absolutely necessary, can we be able to stand firmly” (24).

To build the contingent of cadres who are the leaders and managers at different levels, particularly the strategic level and the leaders who have both virtue and talent to meet the requirements and tasks of the socialist-oriented national renovation. To determine clearly the authorities, individual responsibility of the heads of the party committee levels and of the administration in the close-knit and harmonious relationship with the collectives of the party committee levels, the administration, agencies, units and with the people.

Thirdly, to promote the role and responsibility of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the political and social organizations and the people’s role of masters in the building of the Party and the political system to be oure and strong.

V.I.Lenin once pointed out: “If the domestic political power lies in the hands of the class which has the interests conforming to the interests of the majority, then it can be able to implement the control of national affairs to really meet the aspirations of the majority” (25). So, the Party has to have its regular close and harmonious contacts with the masses, practice broad democracy, attract the majority of people to join the supervision of the activities of the Party and the political system.

The people’s supervision of power over the political system is carried out mainly via the mechanism of operation of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and the political and social organization. Therefore, “The Fatherland Front and the people’s masses should continue the renovation of the content and mode of operation, mobilize the majority of people to join the patriotic emulation movement, to promote ever better the role of representing the legal and legitimate rights and interests of the members of the youth union and the mass organization and the people; to be proactive in participating in the social supervision and debate; to implement well the role of the bridge between the Party, the State and the people; to join the building of the Party, the State and the political system, making an active contribution to the common achievements of the country” (26).

The Vietnam Fatherland Front and the political and social organization need to be proactive in the renovation of the mode of operation in order to promote the efficiency of the people’s role in joining the prevention of corruption and negativity, practice thrift, particularly the supervision of the cultivation and training of morality, manner, lifestyle and role of setting an example of the contingent of cadres, party members in the political system; to implement well the motto “the people know, the people discuss, the people do, the people inspect, the people supervise, the people benefit”.

Fourthly, to combine between the setting of example of good people, good deeds with the proactiveness in the prevention and the determination in the struggle and serious treatment of the degeneration in the political idiologies, morality, lifestyle and the behaviours of corruption and negativities.

 

To continue to implement well Conclusion No. 01-KL/TW, on May 18, 2021 of the Political Bureau, “On the continuity of implementing Directive No. 05-CT/TW of the Political Bureau ‘On enhancing the learning and following the ideologies, morality and style of Ho Chi Minh’”, considering it the regular, daily work of each organization, individual and unit with a lot of abundant and practical contents. In combination with the responsibility and task of each cadre and party member. At the same time, to continue to implement well Stipulation No. 08-QĐi/TW on October 25, 2018 of the Party Central Committee on “The responsibility to set the examples of cadres and party members, first of all, the Politburo members, the members of the Secretariat, members of the Party Central Committee”. Accordingly, to pay attention to praising the good examples of good people, good deeds; to renew the manner, the working style, words go along with deeds, to implement seriously Stipulations No. 37-QĐi/TW on October 25, 2021 of the Party Central Committee, “On the things the party members are not allowed to do”.

To be proactive to prevent and determined to struggle against sabotageous activities of the hostile, reactionary forces, the opportunist elements, the political discontent in all forms. To seriously handle the cadres and party members who are degenerated, get involved in “self-evolution”, “self-transformation”, have ideas of localism and fractions, “group interests”, or take advantage of the means of the mass media, social networks to distort, excite and cause the internal disunity.

To build the forces to struggle and protect the Party’s ideological foundation which is strong enough to refute the wrong, hostile and reactionary viewpoints to foil all the plots, tricks and activities to sabotage the Party and the State, through which contributing to building the Party and the political system to be pure and strong. Modernization of the technical measures to serve effectively the struggle; to train, foster and improve the professional level for the forces specialized in this work.

Fifthly, to pay attention to perfecting the legal system and the mechanism of controlling power in the important, key areas.

To pay attention to perfecting the legal system in a sufficient, synchronous, unified, feasible, transparent manner, creating the impetus to promote renovation and creativity. To build the service, developing, democratic, rule-of-law, professional, modern, oure, strong and effective State administration.

To control closely the power in each link of the personnel work, particularly the leader of the party committee level, at the same time the chief of the office, unit, along with the combat against the bribery for titles and power. To firmly maintain the discipline; enhance the inspection and supervision; do not let those people who have the manifestation of having the political opportunity, the ambition for power sneak into the contingent of leading and managing cadres at different levels; at the same time to discover in time, foster and add those cadres and party members who have virtue and talent, dare to think, dare to do, dare to make a breakthrough, to act for the common benefits, have high prestige and are really the vanguards, examples, the nuclei of the unity.

From the guidances of V.I. Lenin, the Communist Party of Vietnam has applied creatively, added, developed in conformity with the conditions of the country in order to constasntly enhance the effectiveness of the building and revamping of the Party and the political system to be pure and strong, creating the unification between “the Party’s will, the people’s hearts” so as to carry out the goal of “rich people, powerful country, democracy, equality, civilization”, our country has become ever more prosperous and happier./.

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(1) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, the National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2006, tomb 36, p. 368

(2) V.I.Lenin, Complete works, Ibid, tomb 46, p. 134

(3) V.I.Lenin, Complete works, Ibid, tomb 45, p. 75

(4) V.I.Lenin, Complete works, Ibid, tomb 36, p. 190

(5), (6) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 33, p. 145-147

(7) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 41, p. 43

(8) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 6, p. 50

(9) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 8, p. 424

(10), (11) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 44, p. 217, 218

(12) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 41, p. 34

(13) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 44, p. 217

(14) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 45, p. 141

(15), (16) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 41, p. 34

(17) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 45, p. 445

(18) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 41, p. 7

(19) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 41, p. 51

(20) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 34, p. 52

(21) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 8, p. 490

(22)The documents of the 4th Plenum, the 13th Party tenure, the National Political Publishing House Su That, Hanoi, 2021, p. 90-91

(23)The documents of the 4th Plenum, the 13th Party tenure, Ibid, p. 135-136

(24) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 45, p. 459

(25) V.I.Lenin: Complete works, Ibid, tomb 34, p. 52

(26)The documents of the 13th Party Congress, the National Political Publishing House Su  That, Hanoi, 2021, tomb I, p. 70

Source: COMMUNIST REVIEW No. 1002 (November 2022)