Comrade Nguyen Xuan Thang, Politburo member, President of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, Chairman of the Central Theoretical Studies delivered a keynote speech
Dear comrades,
Building the Party on morality and building revolutionary morality of cadres and party members is a very important issue, one of the ten tasks of Party building and rectification and a core content in Ho Chi Minh’s thought.
The great President Ho Chi Minh – a national liberation hero, an outstanding cultural celebrity, who devoted his life to national independence, freedom and happiness of the people, was a shining example, a model of revolutionary morality for Vietnamese cadres, party members and people to learn and follow.
Right from the time of propagandizing and advocating for the Party’s establishment, President Ho Chi Minh in his work “Đường Kách Mệnh” (Revolutionary path) determined that revolutionary morality was the first core content among fundamental issues of the Vietnamese revolution.
President Ho Chi Minh repeatedly emphasized that morality was the “root” of revolutionaries, because: “A river needs a source for water without which it will dry up. A tree needs a root without which it will wither. Similarly, revolutionaries must have morality, without which they cannot lead the people however talented they are” (1). Cadres and party members must have the responsibility to set a revolutionary moral example in terms of actions, words, lifestyles so that people would believe, respect, and love them.
The revolutionary morality in Ho Chi Minh’s thought is of course not conservative but a new one. It refers to precious qualities of a true communist and party member such as: loyalty to the Party, loyalty to the country, filial piety to the people; love for people; diligence, thrift, integrity, righteousness, justice and impartiality; benevolence, uprightness, wisdom, faith, courage; solidarity, unity, cordiality, kindness to comrades and compatriots; honesty, frankness, courage in self-criticism, bright international spirit, being consistent between actions and speech.
Revolutionary morality is not natural. It results from lifelong process of learning, cultivating, and training. President Ho Chi Minh also stated that “construction” and “resistance” should go hand in hand, which is a vital element in establishing and educating revolutionary morality.
He affirmed individualism must be wiped out in order to improve revolutionary morality. It is the most vicious “enemy” in every human being, “producing hundreds of dangerous diseases”. It daily destroys the Party’s body and reduces leadership, fighting power, discrediting, conscience and honor of the Party.
In his sacred testament, Ho Chi Minh admonished: “Our Party is a ruling Party. Each party member and cadre must be truly imbued with revolutionary morality, truly thrift, integrity, impartiality. Our Party must be pure, worthy of being a leader and a faithful servant of the people” (2).
Deeply ingrained his valuable instructions, our Party has always paid attention to and focused on building the Party on morality during more than 93 years of leading the Vietnamese revolutionary cause. The Party considers this as a regular and continuous task; an important and urgent requirement in the work of building and rectifying the Party, so that our Party becomes pure, strong, “ethical, civilized” as an organization of elite and brave people who have firm political will, adequate capacity and stature to lead the people, being worthy of the trust people place on them.
Building, educating and fostering revolutionary ethics for the contingent of cadres and party members is the central content of Party building on morality. Through the process of continuous studying, training and cultivating, our cadres and party members have constantly grown and matured in terms of ideological stance and political bravery. They are noble and exemplary examples of moral qualities and lifestyles; uphold the patriotic spirit; enthusiastically take the lead in production, study, work and fight; devote their heart, energy and intellect to the revolutionary cause of the Party. Many of them have sacrificed their whole life for the independence and unification of the Fatherland and the freedom and happiness of the people.
That team has become the outstanding citizens of the nation, vivid symbols of revolutionary heroism, of the Party’s noble ideals and culture. They bring widespread effects by motivating, persuading, educating, attracting the masses to trust and follow the Party, successfully implement the cause of national construction and development as well as national defense.
However, we also need to look directly at the fact that there are still a number of cadres and party members (even at high levels) whose deterioration in political ideology, morality, lifestyle, and other manifestations has shown “self-evolution”, “self-transformation”. It leads to discontent and worries, decreasing people’s confidence in the Party, State and the socialist regime.
Practice shows that when cadres and party members do not regularly study, cultivate and practice their qualities, they will gradually lose themselves, lose the “original foundation” of revolutionary morality, resulting in a decline in political ideology. This is a short, very dangerous step that leads to “self-evolution,” “self-transformation.”
Many cadres being disciplined by the Party and brought to court in the past time result from not paying attention to preserving revolutionary morality, violating the Party’s Charter and Regulations on what Party members are not allowed to do because of their personal interest, disregarding Party discipline and State law.
The world is witnessing uncertainties, unpredictable risks and unprecedented rapid changes. Evil, hostile, and reactionary forces take advantage of the violations of some cadres and party members who are disciplined or criminally handled to promote defamation, distort, and continue to oppose the Party and State and our regime. We need to be more aware of the importance of building the Party in terms of morality, building a contingent of cadres and party members with revolutionary qualities, morals, competence and prestige on par with their duties to meet the requirements of continuing to comprehensively and synchronously promote the Doi Moi process.
The Resolution of the 12th Party Congress identified building the Party in morality as one of the four important contents of comprehensive and synchronous Party building, along with Party building in politics, ideology and organization.
In the past time, the Central Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat have issued many new directives, conclusions and regulations to promote Party building on morality which focuses on promoting the responsibility of cadres and party members in setting examples: Directive No. 05-CT/TW dated May 15, 2016 of the Politburo on promoting learning and following ideology, morality and style of Ho Chi Minh; Conclusion No. 01-KL/TW dated May 18, 2021 of the 13th Politburo on continuing to implement Directive No. 05-CT/TW, emphasizing the requirement to pay great attention to follow Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality and style apart from studying; Regulation No. 55-QD/TW dated December 19, 2016 of the Politburo on urgent activities to strengthen the role of setting examples among cadres and party members; Regulation No. 08-QDi/TW dated October 25, 2018 of the Central Committee on the responsibility to set examples of cadres and party members, especially Politburo members, members of the Secretariat, members of the Central Committee with the motto: the higher the position of cadres and party members, the more exemplary they must be.
In particular, in the last 3 consecutive terms, our Party has had very important guidelines and decisions along with strict handling measures, “no forbidden zones, no exceptions” to fight, prevent and reverse the deterioration of political ideology, morality, lifestyle, corruption, negativity, internal “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” expressions. Typically, the resolutions of the 4th Plenum of the Party Central Committee, the 11th session, the 4th Plenum of the Party Central Committee, the 12th Party Central Committee, and Resolution No. 35/NQ-TW on strengthening the protection of the Party’s ideological foundation, fighting and opposing wrong, hostile views in the new situation; and recently the Conclusions No. 21-KL/TW, Conclusion No. 12-KL/TW during the 13th Congress etc. It can be said that these are very new developments in perception, thinking, theory and actions of the Party in building and training ideology, political bravery, moral quality, style and lifestyle of cadres and party members.
On that basis, building revolutionary ethical standards of cadres and party members in the new period should meet the following basic requirements:
(1)- Inheriting and promoting the nation’s good moral tradition, selectively absorbing the cultural quintessence of humanity, crystallizing the values and ethical standards of Marxism-Leninism. Ho Chi Minh’s thought has been continuously improved and supplemented through the practice of the Vietnamese revolution. New values have been formed and developed through the practice of nearly 40 years of implementing the national renovation work, so that each cadre and Party member can cultivate and practice, deserving to be exemplary models for the masses and people to follow.
The viewpoint that culture “lights the way for the nation to go” needs to be deeply grasped as the spiritual foundation of society, the goal, endogenous resource and great motivation for rapid and sustainable national development. Accordingly, it is necessary to build revolutionary ethical standards of cadres and party members in association with building and implementing the value system of an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity and national values, cultural and political values, Vietnamese family values; contributing to arousing patriotism, solidarity, self-reliance and aspiration to develop a prosperous and happy country.
(2)- Closely combining between “constructing” and “combating”. Along with identifying the specific manifestations of the deterioration in ideology-politics, ethics-lifestyle, “self-evolution”, “self-transformation” internally, the building of revolutionary ethical standards is aimed to raise the sense of duty and morality, to promote the responsibility of setting examples, and to spread the good values of cadres and party members.
With the motto “taking the good, eliminating the bad”, this also has a great deterrent and warning effect against the increasingly sophisticated and complex manifestations of corruption, waste, negativity, “group interests”, “individualism”, “corruption of power”, taking advantage of their term to profit themselves, avoiding responsibility, even fear of responsibility. In addition, we should create a positive effect of strengthening the resistance and immunity of cadres and party members with allusions against the Party’s ideological foundation, distorting history, distorting the revolutionary cause and good national tradition. At the same time, this should also be considered as a basis to find out the causes, clearly distinguish the “good-bad” motives of the violations, to protect cadres and party members who dare to think, dare to do, dare to struggle, dare to innovate for the common good.
(3)- Not only ensuring systematic, comprehensive, but also meeting additional and concretized requirements in line with the reality of agencies, units and localities.
Many Party committees and organizations have actively produced working regulations, standards, and particular regulations on ethics and culture in recent years, properly understanding and strictly implementing the Party’s directives. The behavior of cadres and party members is consistent with the political characteristics and tasks of the agency or unit, as well as the cadres’ and party members’ profession and work. Signs, manifestations, and behaviors of “degradation”, “self-evolution”, “self-transformation”, “corruption”, “negative” are concretized along with determination to prevent, combat, and deal with these situations.
That practice shows that revolutionary ethical standards of cadres and party members need to be presented in a concise, clear, easy-to-remember, easy-to-understand, easy-to-learn, easy-to-follow, easy-to-check and supervise. From self-discipline and high unity of will, each cadre and party member needs to change from the right awareness and attitude into practical and concrete actions in implementing ethical standards.
Celebrating the 133rd birthday anniversary of the great President Ho Chi Minh is an opportunity for each of our cadres and party members to show boundless love and gratitude for his shining example of revolutionary morality. We are more and more determined to study, cultivate and practice revolutionary morality, build our Party to be pure and strong, forever “being moral, civilized, unified, independent, peaceful and prosperous” as Ho Chi Minh always wanted.
Sincerely thank you!
(1) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Volume, volume 5, National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2011, pp.292.
(2) Ho Chi Minh: Complete volume, Ibid, volume 15, p.622.
Source: https://hcma.vn/
