Home    Theory Research    Promoting great national unity, and successfully building and firmly safeguarding the Fatherland in the present context
Tuesday, 17 January 2017 13:23
1556 Lượt xem

Promoting great national unity, and successfully building and firmly safeguarding the Fatherland in the present context

(LLCT) - Great national unity is always a matter of strategic importance, a consistent way of thinking and a common thread running through the Party leadership on the country’s revolutions. Continuing the implementation of the “great national unity” policy, given the current globalization and international integration, the Party’s 12th Congress pointed out, “Great national unity is a strategic policy and a major source of inspiration and resource for national building and protection”(1).

(Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Most Venerable Thich Duc Thien - General Secretary of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha Executive Council on the great national unity day, 86th Anniversary of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (18th November, 1930 - 18th November, 2016), Bac Ninh province _ Photo: VNA)

Creatively applying Marxist - Leninist theory and Ho Chi Minh Thought, the Communist Party of Vietnam has clearly defined great national unity as both an objective and a central task of its revolutionary path. Its historic mission is to awaken people’s legitimate yet spontaneous needs and demands and turn them into self-discipline and organization within the framework of great national unity for the sake of national independence and people’s freedom and happiness. It is this policy of constantly building and strengthening great national unity that has led the Vietnamese revolution to great victories. The truth about the importance of great national unity was summarized in the Brief Political Platform, Brief Policy and the Party Statutes drafted by President Ho Chi Minh and passed at the Party founding Conference in early 1930. From there, different forms of organizing great national unity took shape and evolved in accordance with specific periods and revolutionary circumstances. Great national unity was built up and became extremely strong. That strength was confirmed through historic victories such as the August Revolution of 1945, which turned Vietnamese from slaves into masters and which handed over the government and power to people, and the world-famous Dien Bien Phu Campaign, which put an end to the nation’s prolonged resistance against French colonialists. Encouraged by the Dien Bien Phu victory, the entire nation stood up against the U.S. invasion, culminating in the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign, which unified the country and drove it into a new era, that of peace, independence, unification and socialism.

Taking advantage of the strength of great national unity has been constantly confirmed as the consistent policy during the 30 years of national renovation, which has gained historical results.

Evaluating achievements in the building of great national unity, the 12th Party’s Congress emphasized, “Great national unity should be continuously intensified, while the country is facing with numerous difficulties and challenges. The Fatherland Front of Vietnam and mass organizations are to be renewed to promote the important role in building great national unity, working closely with the Party and State in protecting people’s rights and legitimate interests, participating in the building of the Party and management of the State and society and regularly organizing patriotic movements and contributing to the country’s achievements”(2).

However, sometimes, the strength of great national unity has not been fully promoted in some places. We have not accurately evaluated or predicted changes in the social structure as well as people’s wishes in order to introduce appropriate policies and solutions. The rights and legitimate interests of various social classes have not been timely institutionalized or seriously pursued. The Fatherland Front of Vietnam and mass organizations at various levels in some places have not stayed in close touch with people and have not proved to be practical or efficient. People’s right to mastership in many places and domains has been violated. Abuse of democracy to cause internal division and disagreement and damage national security and social order and safety still occurs in a number of places.

At present, the domestic, regional and international situations are dynamic, complicated and unpredictable facilitating both opportunities and challenges to the cause of renovation in general and the building of great national unity in particular. Taking advantage of the open-door and integration policy, hostile forces have intensified “peaceful evolution” activities, inciting separatism, division and religious disunity and damaging national unity in the country. They have deepened existing disagreements and have caused social disturbance. They have incited street demonstrations, causing socio-political unrest. They are trying to divide the Party and State from people, make ordinary people an opposition force to the armed forces, divide ethnic groups and religions, sabotage the worker-farmer-intellectual alliance, incite opposition, undermine national protection resources, and cause serious harm to national security and social order and safety. All these issues are posing grave challenges to the strategy for protecting the Fatherland in the new situation as well as the ongoing protection of national security and social order and safety in Vietnam today.

Vietnam is intensively and extensively integrating itself into the region and the world. Integration and globalization are conducive to both cooperation and competition. They do not only create opportunities but also challenges to the security and national defense of all countries, especially developing ones like Vietnam. A clear understanding of the Party’s point of view that those who respect Vietnam’s independence and sovereignty and establish friendly, cooperative, equal, mutually beneficial relations with it are its partners, and that any forces with plots or acts against the country during its construction and protection is its enemy, is a criterion and principle for using international solidarity for the cause of national building and safeguarding. Our ancestors’ experience and the country’s history show that only when we manage to combine closely the strength of the nation with that of the times and domestic strength with foreign one and turn external strength into internal one can we protect the territorial integrity, independence, self-reliance and socialist construction.

Thus, the Party’s guideline does not only continue to confirm the enormous importance of great national unity but also points out while emphasizing national pride, humanitarianism and tolerance, it is necessary to make use of “patriotism” to enlist people’s support and unite “all Vietnamese at home and abroad” in order to “create new vitality for great national unity”. For greater national unity, unity within the Party and a closer bond between the Party and people play an extremely important role. Unity within the Party must become a firm foundation for greater national unity. To that end, each Party organization must be transparent and strong and each Party official and member must be an exemplar, in terms of theoretical thinking and practical action for the entire population.

To make use of the strength of great national unity, accomplish major, glorious missions and contribute to successful implementation of the resolution of the 12th Party’s Congress on the task of national building and safeguarding, authorities at various levels and sectors need to focus on carrying out the following tasks in the time to come.

Firstly, they are to continue to institutionalize and concretize the Party’s points of view, guidelines and polices as to great national unity. According to the Resolution of the 12th Party’s Congress, the State is in charge of issuing legal documents, mechanisms and policies on ethnic, religious and social issues in order to encourage great national unity and make use of its strength during the construction and protection of the Fatherland. There should be specific policies for different social classes such as workers, farmers, intellectuals, business people, the young, women, war veterans, and the elderly. Also, there must be social policies, especially those on war invalids, war martyrs’ families, and people with distinguished service to the revolution. These policies must help them overcome their difficulties, earn their living and actively participate in the construction and protection of the Fatherland. Only by doing so the aggregate strength of the entire nation are to be promoted. The people’s right to mastership in the socialist law-ruled state is to be respected; the people’s participation in discussing and commenting on the country’s important issues are to be encouraged; and the State power belongs to people is ensured. The work of disseminating the “Grassroots Democracy Regulations” should be more widely and effectively in solving social issues. Accordingly, Party committees and authorities at all levels must regularly communicate with people, listen to their comments, solve their problems and satisfy their legitimate demands; trust and respect people; at the same time improve the legal system enable people to express their wishes through the Fatherland Front and mass organizations.

Secondly, we must reconcile differences between interests among social classes; harmonize individual, collective and social interests; encourage people to take part in patriotic movements in an organized manner; protect people’s lawful, legitimate rights and interests; constantly improve the material and spiritual lives of people, especially ethnic minority groups and those living in remote, border, island, old resistance base, strategic and religious areas; create jobs for people, improve their incomes and pay attention to the building of welfare projects for them; attach importance to the modernization of rural areas; increase agricultural productivity; expand the range of basic services such as electricity, clean water, healthcare, education and information and improve their quality; hold intellectuals in great respect; introduce special mechanisms or policies aimed at attracting talents; appreciate business people who make considerable contributions to national development; foster the sense of respecting and abiding by the Constitution and law among young generations; devise suitable mechanisms and policies facilitating young people’s learning, research, work, entertainment and intellectual, skill and physical development; implement gender equality policies and create favorable conditions for women to develop their talent; improve policies and laws on religion and religions; and promote fine cultural and moral values of different religions. As for people living abroad, we need to help them preserve and promote the nation’s culture and contribute to the protection of their lives, assets and legitimate rights and interests.

Thirdly, the bond between the Party, State and people must be tightened. “People-based arrangements” are to be strengthened with “the Fatherland Front playing the key role in enlisting people’s support”. The mission and method of operation of the Fatherland Front of Vietnam and mass organizations are to further innovate so as to make the bond even stronger and ensure the Party’s wishes coincide with those of the people. With a variety of activities and a wide range of forms of advocacy through its member organizations, the Fatherland Front must regularly carry out communication and education of patriotic traditions, socio-economic development guidelines of the Party and State, and national security and defense tasks. They must encourage people to play a greater role in the building of the strong Party and government, thereby creating social consensus. They must encourage different walks of life to overcome difficulties and bring the country to development.

Fourthly, the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations need to function well as supervisors and critics according to the 2013 Constitution, the Law on the Fatherland Front of Vietnam, and the Politburo’s Decision 217-QD/TW on 12th December 2013. Supervision is to intensify in order to create consensus and unanimity and achieve social stability and comprehensive, sustainable national development. The Fatherland Front must play a central role in encouraging people to comment on guidelines and policies adopted by the Party, Party committees at various levels and local authorities, as well as crucial issues directly related to people’s legitimate rights and interests. The Fatherland Front of Vietnam needs to serve as a mediator coordinating its member organizations in performing their supervisory and critical functions. Scientists and leading experts should be encouraged to comment on policy documents of the Party and State so that they can be adjusted to people’s legitimate rights and interests.

Finally, The Fatherland Front of Vietnam and its member organizations need to carry out extensive communication so that all walks of life are aware of evil plots by hostile forces who are trying to distort the Party’s guidelines and the State’s policies and laws on ethnic, religious and social issues and writers, artists and intellectuals in order to sabotage great national unity. It is imperative to create fundamental changes in our awareness and increase our vigilance and acumen when it comes to identifying and combating wrong, hostile points of view.

____________________

(1), (3), (4), (5) CPV:Documents of the 12th National Congress, Office of the Party Central Committee, Hanoi, 2016, pp.158-159, 156-157, 147, 158-159.

(2) HoChiMinh: Complete Works, vol. 3, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2002, pp.216-217.

Prof., Dr. Nguyen Thien Nhan

Member of the Politburo

President of the Central Committee of the Fatherland Front of Vietnam

Related Articles

Contact us

Links