Spring comes, thinking about the Party

On the occasion of welcoming the new year 2024, on the afternoon of January 3, 2024, Party Cell No. 10 - where I regularly participate in Party activities, held a ceremony to admit new Party members: Comrade Bui Ngoc The Truong, 23 years old, graduated from university, volunteered to work at his place of residence, taking on the task of Deputy Secretary of the Youth Union of Residential Cluster No. 10, O Cho Dua Ward, Dong Da District, Hanoi.

Before this event, a friend I knew from my school days in the Soviet Union in the early 80s of the 20th century came to visit and talked with me for quite a while.

Stories from heaven and earth; stories of human affairs; stories of why US President Joe Biden and previous presidents always quote Kieu during their talks in Vietnam...

Of course, I also contributed to that lively discussion, sometimes even having to debate and respond to a specific topical issue he raised, such as the above-mentioned story of admitting new party members.

He listened attentively and then said slowly: "That is a rare thing, very worth pondering! But in my opinion, perhaps the more worrying side is the one, because the phenomenon of "dry Union, bland Party" is happening quite commonly in many places."

Then he cited a phrase that many high-ranking leaders, especially General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, have warned about "the need to prevent and repel manifestations of "group interests" that are corrupting many cadres and party members."

I nodded in agreement with that opinion, but reminded him: What benefit does a young man who graduates from a regular university, lives in harmony with his neighbors, and enthusiastically participates in neighborhood activities, especially social organization activities, get? What benefit do the party members who help him join the Party get?

After a moment of contemplation, he reminded me to remember the poem of Trang Trinh Nguyen Binh Khiem: "If the cutting board is smelly, flies will come/If the liver has no gall, ants will crawl!"

I argued passionately: “You have confused the phenomenon with the essence. This is a real story, a real event in the place where I live, so it is impossible to infer that because of some "secret sauce", this young man applied to join the Party?!”.

My friend "changed lanes" to the story of a series of ministers and deputy ministers who are involved in major cases and are being tried by law enforcement agencies; from there, he affirmed that: "In the end, they are all controlled by "group interests".

I agree with your general statement, but to be clear, you are a social scientist, and understand more clearly the laws of survival and elimination in nature and in society.

It is true that ministers, deputy ministers, members of the Party Central Committee... have recently been administratively and legally disciplined. But if we use that as a basis to assert that this Party is "completely corrupt", that "the Party is disintegrating", then that assessment is somewhat extreme and lacks dialectics...

A few weeks later, he called to praise my article "Adding New Strength" about the ceremony of admitting Mr. Truong into the Party, then said sincerely: "It is true that when looking at the nature of an event, one cannot be confused or hasty, and even more so, one should not speculate or make arbitrary assumptions."

What surprised and touched me was when he said he had read the article "Spring and the Party" published in the Propaganda Magazine, Tet Quy Mao 2023, and found the content mentioned in the article to be basically reasonable, emotional, and convincing.

In that article, I quoted President Ho Chi Minh at the 30th anniversary of the Party's founding: "With all the modesty of a revolutionary, we still have the right to say: "Our Party is truly great!"

To prove Uncle Ho's assertion, I explain: Our Party is great because besides the interests of the class, the people, and the nation, our Party has no other interests.

Our Party is great because of its intellectual vision and strategic vision. It has absorbed and applied the precious experiences of our ancestors in building and defending the country, combining national strength with the strength of the times, and has thus won four wars of aggression since the Party's founding.

Our Party is great because it knows how to rely on the people's strength, listen to the people to build and rectify the Party, making the Party truly clean and strong.

In the joy of national reunification on April 30, 1975, our Party did not forget Uncle Ho's warning: "A nation, a Party and each individual who were great yesterday, with great appeal, may not necessarily be loved and praised by everyone today and tomorrow, if their hearts are no longer pure, if they fall into individualism."

Uncle Ho's words are indeed prophetic because in the market mechanism era, a large number of cadres and party members, due to arrogance and self-importance, have not cultivated or trained themselves, so they have allowed individualism to reign, giving rise to "group interests", forming cliques, taking advantage of their positions and power to exploit the people.

Faced with this heartbreaking reality, our Party has seriously and urgently issued many resolutions and directives on strengthening Party building and rectification.

Dozens of Party organizations were disciplined, hundreds of cadres and Party members, including many high-ranking officials, were sentenced to prison and had to compensate the State for their assets.

The fight against "internal invaders" with the motto "no forbidden zones, no exceptions" has been resolutely and persistently carried out by the entire Party and people.

We don't want that and it's very painful to have to discipline many officials, but if we need to "cut a bad branch to save the whole forest", we still have to do it.

We can do this because our Party has a revolutionary and scientific nature based on Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's thought. We can do this because the Party's ideas are in line with the people's wishes, and therefore, we gain the people's sympathy and support.

Therefore, if someone only bases the disciplining of many officials as a sign of "the disintegration of a ruling Party" - that is the argument of those who "only see the trees, but not the forest", only look at a few people with specific shortcomings without seeing that our Party with millions of members, many of whom are pioneers in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland.

That is why our Party still exists, has been and is carrying out its mission of leading the country and society as recognized by the 2013 Constitution. Without a ruling party with a steadfast line; without a heroic, resilient and creative people; without that strength, how could our country have the “foundation, potential, position and international prestige it has today” - as affirmed by the Resolution of the 13th National Congress of the Party; how could in 2015, despite two opposing ideologies, the leaders of the United States invited General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to visit the United States and received him with the solemnity of a head of state?

Without the great achievements and history of nearly 40 years of innovation, how could most of the major powers have signed agreements to upgrade their relations to comprehensive partnership or comprehensive strategic partnership with our country?

Why did US presidents such as Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden, when they visited Vietnam, all cite Kieu in their official speeches?

Because Nguyen Du is an outstanding cultural figure honored by UNESCO; because that work is the embodiment of the quintessence of Vietnamese culture that has been cultivated and developed over thousands of years of history, so that our nation has risen from pain and slavery to "shake off the mud and stand up shining" (Nguyen Dinh Thi); and today we are joining hands and hearts to build the country "on par with the world powers" as Uncle Ho wished during his lifetime.

To conclude this article, I would like to repeat the words of Mr. Joe Biden when he was Vice President, when entertaining General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, he recited the verse of Kieu: "Heaven still allows us to have today/The mist at the end of the alley clears, the clouds in the sky part."

The verse contains many meanings that Mr. Bidden wanted to convey; but for me, it simply means that, "to have today", millions of Vietnamese people fell in the wars for independence and freedom.

And when that goal has been achieved, our people are ready to close the past, erase hatred, look to the future, always open their arms of love and friendship to be friends with all countries that share the same goal of peace, stability and development.

Who is leading and directing this noble mission? It can be affirmed that it is none other than our glorious Communist Party of Vietnam, which will be a century old in 2030!