The 13^th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam - Photo: vnanet.vn

The Platform for National Construction in the Transitional Period to Socialism (supplemented and developed in 2011) stated the main leadership methods of the Party: “The Party exercises its leadership over the State by means of its Political Platform, strategies, and guidelines on major points and policies; by communication, persuasion, mobilization, organization, inspection and supervision and by exemplary actions of Party members. The Party unanimously leads the personnel work, manages the pool of cadres, and introduces qualified Party members to work in the leading bodies of the political system. The Party exercises its leadership via Party organizations and members in the political system; the Party strengthens the individuals’ responsibilities, especially the heads”⁽¹⁾. In the documents of the 13th Party Congress and the plenums of the Party Central Committee prior to the 13th National Congress, our Party presented many views, tasks and solutions on the renewal of the Party leadership modes, including the promulgation and implementation of the Party’s resolutions; renovation of the ideological work; renovation of the organizational work; renovation of the personnel work; renovation of the people’s mobilization work; renovation and improvement of the inspection and supervision work; etc.

In the Documents of the 13th National Party Congress, our Party has presented a system of comprehensive, specific and profound views, of which there are many new and breakthrough views on Party building in general, including policies on enhancing leadership and ruling capacity, and renewing leadership modes of the Party in particular. Improving leadership and ruling capacity is the basis and condition for reforming leadership and ruling modes. The main contents and requirements for improving leadership and ruling capacity and renewing the Party leadership and ruling modes can be summarized as follows:

To improve forecasting capacity and strategic vision in planning the Party’s guidelines and policies

This critical new point demonstrates the development and renewal of the Party leadership thinking. Unlike the previous tenures with specific leadership thinking, and the influence of the “term” thinking, the 13th National Party Congress emphasized: The Party must show superior thinking and strategic vision in seeing the international and national contexts and the country’s development orientation. It is necessary to improve the capacity to forecast the influencing factors and development trends in order to plan appropriate guidelines and policies. This is to meet the requirements of immediate and long-term tasks, avoid issuing resolutions that are not close to reality, have short-term visions, and lack feasibility. To meet this requirement, the 13th National Party Congress emphasized: “To continue innovating the elaboration and promulgation of Party resolutions and improve their quality. To promulgate resolutions only when essential, reasonable, practical, succinct and feasible”⁽²⁾. For the Party’s resolution to be concise, easy to understand, easy to remember, and feasible, the basic contents of views, tasks, and solutions in the resolution must be at a strategic level. They should have been studied, summarized, and met domestic and international requirements. Each new resolution of the Party must have policies and solutions with breakthroughs and creativity. Resolutions of Party congresses and Party committees at different levels have different requirements: resolutions of the Party Central Committee and Politburo must express strategic views and visions while those at lower levels should have more specific, explicit and relevant contents and tasks, and be closer to local and grassroots realities.

To improve leadership capacity in institutionalizing and concretizing the Party’s viewpoints and guidelines into the State policies and laws, and effectively leading, directing and organizing their implementation.

This is the point of view, a task and a solution of significance that determines the Party leadership and ruling capacity and effectiveness. This is because leading the institutionalization and concretization of the Party’s guidelines into State policies and laws is one of the primary, essential, direct and effective ways to actualize the Party’s views and guidelines and to bring the Party’s resolutions into life, especially in the current conditions of building a socialist law-governed state. Functions, tasks, roles and responsibilities of the Party are to provide leadership while those of the State are to manage all areas and activities of society by law. Therefore, improving leadership capacity in legislative, executive and judicial activities is also the basic, core and decisive content in reforming the Party leadership and ruling modes. Therefore, the 13th Party Congress clearly stated: “Improve the capacity and effectiveness of the State’s operations on the concretization, institutionalization and implementation of the Party’s guidelines and resolutions”⁽³⁾ and “timely institutionalize, concretize, properly and effectively implement the guidelines of the Party, policies and laws of the State, overcome weaknesses in the leading, directing and organizing the implementation”⁽⁴⁾.

To renovate ideological work, to communicate, persuade, mobilize, and create unity within the Party and consensus among the people to effectively implement the Party viewpoints and guidelines, the State policies and laws.

The 13^th National Party Congress emphasized the need to renew ideological work, communicate, persuade and mobilize the people of all classes to renew the Party leadership modes. This is also the supplementation and development of the Party leadership awareness and thinking in general and the renewal of the Party leadership mode in particular. The Party’s motto and leadership principles are to orient, lead, suggest, communicate, persuade, mobilize, create trust and inspire the leaders to be enlightened, self-aware, positive, proactive and creative in implementing the Party’s guidelines, and the State’s policies and laws. To that end, all levels of Party committees and organizations must accelerate the renewal, improve the quality and efficiency of the ideological work, to communicate, persuade, and mobilize organizations and classes. Under that spirit, the 13th National Party Congress pointed out: “To continue innovating vigorously the content and modes of ideological work along the line of proactiveness, practicality, timeliness and efficiency; to raise combativeness, instructiveness and persuasiveness in the communication and education of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought, Party viewpoints and guidelines, and State policies and laws”⁽⁵⁾, in which continues “To radically innovate the curricula, content and methodology of politico-theoretical education under the motto of scientificity, practicality, creativity and modernity”⁽⁶⁾.

Along with promoting the roles and responsibilities of Party committees and organizations at all levels, this Party Congress also emphasized the need to promote the roles and responsibilities of the Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations, news agencies and press in communicating, mobilizing and rallying the strength of national unity under the leadership of the Party. The Resolution of the Congress clearly stated: “To innovate the content and modes of information and mobilization, and make efficient use of the mass media and social network along the line of practicality, invigorated consensus, consolidated confidence of the people in the Party, the State and the socialist system, and promotion of the enormous strength of the great all-nation unity bloc for socio-economic development and ensured national defense and security”⁽⁷⁾.

To improve leadership capacity to build organizational structure and groom a pool of cadres who are sufficiently qualified, capable and credible, commensurate to their assigned tasks

Exercising its leadership over the State and society via the organization-personnel work, cadres and Party members working in State agencies, the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations is a fundamental and irreplaceable mode of leadership and ruling of the Party. Therefore, renewing the Party leadership and ruling modes cannot fail to innovate and improve the leadership capacity to build the organizational apparatus and contingent of cadres and civil servants. The Party’s leadership capacity to build the organizational apparatus is reflected in many aspects, first of all, in the strategic thinking and vision in the design of organizational models of agencies in the political system. That organizational model must both ensure the Party’s unanimous, comprehensive, effective and efficient leadership and ruling role, and at the same time, ensure a streamlined, non-overlapping, dual-power apparatus, and promote the role of the Party, authority, responsibility and initiative of member organizations in the political system. In that spirit, the 13th National Party Congress emphasized the need to continue renovating and perfecting the organization of the Party apparatus and a streamlined political system, operating effectively, efficiently, and synchronously with economic, cultural, social and people reforms... to meet the requirements of improving the Party leadership and ruling capacity, perfecting the socialist law-governed State, developing a socialist-oriented market economy and socialist democracy in our country. The Congress requested: “To conduct reviews on experimental models of organizational apparatuses of the Party and the political system, and overcome overlaps and irrationalities in the Party’s organization and the political system’s organizational apparatuses. To push ahead staff streamlining in association with a job-based restructuring of the pool of cadres, public officials and contracted public employees”⁽⁸⁾.

Along with the requirement to improve leadership capacity to build the organizational apparatus, it is necessary to build a contingent of cadres and civil servants. The Party leads the State, the political system and society through a contingent of cadres and civil servants, especially the Party members who are cadres, civil servants and public employees in the State apparatus, the Fatherland Front and other social and political organizations. The 13th Party Congress required: “Party organizations and members, particularly those operating in State agencies, are to be exemplary in the observance of the Constitution and laws while upholding their vanguard role in the execution of Party stances, guidelines and regulations and State policies and laws”⁽⁹⁾; it is necessary to build a contingent of Party members and cadres at all levels, especially those at the strategic level, with sufficient quality, capacity, prestige, and on par with their assigned tasks.

To innovate working methods, styles and patterns of the Party’s leading bodies from the central to grassroots levels; and to cultivate and exercise a scientific, collective and democratic working style characterized by respect for the people, closeness to the people, understanding of the people, devotion to the people, close link to reality, and association between words and deeds.

This is the viewpoint, the task and the solution with new requirements, additions and developments compared to the views and solutions stated in previous documents of the Party. The 13th Party Congress emphasized that it is necessary to renew the working methods, styles of the leading bodies from the central to the grassroots level, that is, to renew the methods and working styles of the whole Party, from top to bottom, synchronously, unifiedly, including renewing methods, styles and practices of leading agencies (Party committees, standing committees of Party committees, Party groups, Party personnel committees) and advisory agencies at all levels. The whole Party and organizations in the political system must develop a methodical, reasonable and scientific working style and method in the spirit of unanimity as General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has repeatedly emphasized. In particular, in each level of Party committees and organizations, the Party must develop a scientific, collective and democratic working style, ensuring the strict implementation of the Party’s principles of organization and operation. The whole Party must exercise a working style characterized by respect for the people, closeness to the people, understanding of the people, devotion to the people, close link to reality, eagerness for learning, and the association between words and deeds.

To vigorously push ahead administrative reforms and information technology application in all Party operations; to focus on reviewing the system of documents of the Party to ensure consistency, synchronization and connectivity in the political system

This is the guideline and solution stated by the Party in its previous documents. However, in the Documents of the 13th National Congress, our Party supplemented the content and associated administrative reform with the requirement to review the system of documents, amend, supplement and perfect the regulations and working procedure. This is because one of the characteristics of leadership activities as well as internal building activities of the Party is administration, meetings and document issuance. The documentation of resolutions, decisions, the Party leadership guidelines and the State policies and laws is an indispensable requirement in the operation of the Party and the law-governed State. Like the activities of administrative agencies, the Party’s administration documents will become more and more diverse. Due to the requirements of tasks, the frequency and density of meetings of the leading agencies, the number of advisories and assisting agencies of the Party committees at all levels are also increasing while still having to consolidate the organizational apparatus, streamlining the mechanism. If there is no administrative reform, no application of information technology, no review of the document system, and no digital transformation, the Party’s activities will be inefficient, the document systems of the Party will overlap, and even mutually conflict. Therefore, the 13^th Party Congress requested: “To strengthen administrative reform and apply information technology in all activities of the Party”⁽¹⁰⁾. The Documents of the Congress also proposed solutions to this issue with new contents and requirements, associated with a number of other solutions, creating more synchronization, communication and efficiency in leadership activities and internal Party building activities.

To ensure vigorous leadership, determined guidance and close supervision vis-a-vis the concretization, institutionalization and implementation of resolutions; and to attach importance to scrutinization, supervision, and mid-term review and final evaluation of the implementation of Party resolutions, regulations, instructives and conclusions for experience

In order to improve the Party leadership capacity, effectiveness and efficiency, there must be a focus on leadership, resolute direction, and complete work. The lack of concentration of thought, wisdom, resources, resolute attitudes, and robust actions will not ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the Party leadership. This has been tested and proven by the reality of the Party’s revolutionary leadership over many tenures. When the Party leadership is loosened, everything has easily deviated, the Party’s resolutions and policies do not go deep into life and do not bring about practical results.

Inspection and supervision is a task and solution to build the Party, contributing to improving the Party’s capacity and reforming the Party leadership and ruling modes. That is well reflected in the Political Report as well as the Report on Party building, the review on the implementation of the Party Charter at the 13th National Party Congress. These documents all emphasize the requirement of vigorous, regular, comprehensive and synchronous implementation of inspection, supervision and Party discipline, implementing political tasks, construction and rectification work, and building a clean and strong Party. The 13^th National Party Congress emphasized the viewpoint: To ensuring focused leadership, determined guidance and close supervison vis-a-vis the concretization, institutionalization and implementation of resolutions. To focus on inspecting and supervising Party organizations, leaders and key officials in places where violations are likely to occur, where there are many pressing public interest concerns; to promptly, resolutely, thoroughly, synchronously and strictly handle violations of Party organizations and members. To strengthen management, inspection and supervision of cadres and Party members, especially leaders and key managers at all levels, to promptly detect and prevent from afar, from early minor mistakes, without letting them be accumulated into large, long-lasting and widespread ones. To step up the supervision work of higher-level inspection organizations over lower-level Party organizations. To associate closely, and ever more efficiently, Party scrutinization and supervision work with supervision, inspection and auditing by the State, and investigation, prosecution and adjudication by law protection agencies. To enhance coordination between Party supervision and scrutinization and supervision and inspection by the State, and oversight by the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations and people to increase the aggregate strength and raise the effectiveness and efficiency of supervision and scrutinization work, and avoid overlaps, repetitions, resources wastefulness, and ineffectiveness. Along with strengthening the inspection and supervision work, it is necessary to attach importance to the summaries, reviews, and lessons drawn from implementing the Party’s resolutions and directives at all levels, sectors, and fields.

To continue concretizing at all levels the modes of the Party’s leadership as determined in the Political Platform for National Construction in the Period of Transition to Socialism (supplemented and developed in 2011) by specific regulations

Our Party proposed this solution from the 12th Party Congress. However, during the term of the 12^th Party Congress, the concretization of the Party leadership modes into statutes, regulations and processes had not been fully and synchronously implemented at all levels, especially at grassroots level. For example, up to now, the Party has not had specific regulations on the procedure of formulating, promulgating and implementing the Platform, resolutions, directives and significant orientations of the Party; up to now, there have not been complete and specific regulations on the implementation process or working regime for other leadership modes of the Party such as communication, persuasion and mobilization, organization work, and Party members in the political system, strengthening individual responsibility; etc. The 13^th National Party Congress also pointed out that the capacity to concretize resolutions and policies of some Party committees and organizations are still limited, and the organization and implementation capacity of cadres has not yet met the requirements of tasks and duties, thus slowing down the implementation of the Party’s resolutions, the State policies and laws and result in low effectiveness. Therefore, the Congress emphasized: “To continue concretizing the leadership modes given in the Platform for national construction in the period of transition to socialism (supplemented and developed in 2011) at all levels by ways of specific and open regulations, rules and processes for Party cadres and members and the people to know and oversee their implementation”⁽¹¹⁾. The Congress required to set up mechanisms and specific regulations on close association with the people, in the service of the people, subject to the people’s oversight, and accountable to the people for its decisions; on the authority and accountability of the heads and their relations with members of the Party committees and Party organizations, ensuring observance of the principles of democratic centralism, collective leadership and individual accountability; on the promotion of the role, accountability and proactiveness of the heads, and mechanisms for handling their offenses.

To renovate the leadership modes, improving the Party leadership and ruling capacity requires clear, complete, specific and synchronous definitions of the authority and responsibility of each collective and individual in the Party committees and organizations as well as in the organization and operation activities of other member organizations of the political system. Therefore, the 13^th National Party Congress emphasized continuing to implement the motto of concreting and personalizing “the powers and responsibilities of the heads and the relationship between the collective committees, Party organizations and the heads, ensuring the observance of the principles of democratic centralism, collective leadership and individual accountability”⁽¹²⁾.

To continue to lead, direct, perfect and strictly implement regulations on example setting responsibilities of cadres and Party members, especially the heads of Party committees, organizations, agencies and units.

Example setting is a vital leadership mode, an essential attribute of the Communist Party which was pointed out very early by our Party, especially President Ho Chi Minh. However, for many years, all levels of Party committees and organizations have paid insufficient attention to this leadership. It has not been synchronously, consistently and vigorously implemented. In recent years, the Party Central Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat have continuously issued regulations on setting examples for cadres and Party members, especially those holding key positions, members of the Party Central Committee, members of the Politburo, members of the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee. The 12^th Politburo issued Directive No. 05-CT/TW dated May 15, 2016, on promoting the learning and practicing of Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality and style. However, the implementation results have not been as expected; the sense of self-discipline, the pioneering, the exemplary of many cadres and Party members is not high. Therefore, the 13^th Party Congress emphasized “to strictly implement the Party’s regulations on example setting responsibility, under the motto that the higher one’s rank, the more exemplary one should be. Subjects, first and foremost, are members of the Politburo, members of the Secretariat, and members of the Central Committee”⁽¹³⁾. It is necessary to consider example setting a mode to promote the renewal of the Party leadership, improving the quality and performance of organizations and agencies in the political system. Party members are to set examples on their own to confirm their leadership position and their vanguard and exemplary role, generating a ripple effect, and promoting revolutionary emulative activities. To attach importance to intra-Party scrutinization and supervision in coordination with promoted overseeing role by elected bodies, the Fatherland Front, the mass media and the people over implementation by Party cadres and members of “example-setting” regulations.

To push ahead decentralization and devolution of power in association with attaching responsibilities to the local level authorities, ensuring close and unified leadership, management and control and combat degeneration.

This is also our Party’s new viewpoint, guideline, and thinking on reforming the Party leadership mode. The Party needs to renovate the way of generating influences, orientating and leading the Party in the direction of creating a mechanism, basis, and legal corridor for Party committees and subordinate organizations to promote their roles, responsibilities, creativity, flexibility in implementing the Party viewpoints and guidelines, and the State policies and laws. Accordingly, instead of leaders’ direct involvement in giving instructions, which are of the lower level organizations’ responsibility, the Party must promote decentralization and devolution associated with inspection and supervision, strict control over the implementation of decentralization, and combat against degeneration. The Party clearly stated that there should be a mechanism for localities to promote their initiative and creativity while upholding responsibility and ensuring the unified leadership, direction and management of the Central Government. In order to implement this policy and solution, the Party needs to set up a framework on authority and responsibility for Party committees and organizations at each level; speed up reform of administrative procedures, decentralization and devolution of powers, associated with strengthening disciplines, promoting individual responsibility and enhancing responsibility for working coordination among all levels and sectors.

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Received: February 14, 2022; Revised: February 15, 2022; Accepted for Publication: February 22, 2022.

Endnotes:

(1) CPV: Documents of the 11th National Party Congress, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, pp.88-89.

(2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12), (13) CPV: Documents of the 13th National Party Congress, Vol.I, Truth National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2021, pp.199, 42, 180-181, 181, 182-183, 191, 185, 197, 199, 197-198, 198, 183-184.

Assoc. Prof., Dr.DUONG TRUNG Y

Vice President,

Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics