Personnel work is an important content of party congresses. Therefore, grasping and creatively applying Ho Chi Minh thought on personnel work in the preparation of party congresses at all levels in the run-up for the 13^th National Congress of the Party is of paramount importance.

 In the work under the title “Revolutionary Road” published in 1927, on the very first page, President Ho Chi Minh mentioned about the morality of a revolutionary cadre. Later in his work titled “Adjusting working style” published in 1947, He affirmed that: “cadres are the root of all cause”, and added that “success or failure of all causes depends on whether cadres are good or bad”.

The most generalised criteria of revolutionary cadres, according to Ho Chi Minh thought, are Morality and Capability. At present, in the building of the country’s political system, these two criteria are interpreted by different words, such as: “wholehearted and talented”, “both red and expert”, “both moral and capable”, etc.

President Ho Chi Minh talks with the intellectuals at the Special Politica Conference in March 1964 (A file photo)

These days, we are now conducting party congresses at all levels in the run-up for the 13^th National Congress of the Party. Grasping Ho Chi Minh thought on personnel work while seriously implementing the Directive No. 35-CT/TW dated 30 May 2019 of the Politburo on party congresses at all levels in the run-up for the 13^th National Congress of the Party, the personnel work should concretize the criteria of Morality and Capability with emphases on the following matters:

First, it is necessary to choose the cadres with good revolutionary ethic. Ho Chi Minh emphasized that ethic is the fundamental factor of a revolutionary cadre. This is also the requirement set out for implementing some new contents in the Resolution of the 12^th National Party Congress, i.e. together with building the Party strong in politics, ideology and organisation, it is necessary to build the Party in morality. Facing the multi-faceted impacts of the socialist-oriented market economy, revolutionary ethic should be attached with more importance. Moreover, in the building of a socialist rule of law State, of the people, by the people, and for the people under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the relation between revolutionary ethic and the observance of State’s law is increasingly tightened. Seriously adhering to the State law means having revolutionary ethic and a person will be supposed to have revolutionary ethic when they obey laws.

The requirements about revolutionary ethic of cadres and party members include: (1) loyal to the revolution; (2) inspiring in a way that can create solidarity in party organisations; (3) loyal to the Party, dedicated to the people: industrious, thrifty, honest, righteous, public-minded, selfless; (4) positively fighting against wrong-doings, especially bureaucracy, corruption, wastefulness; (5) having healthy lifestyle and pure private life.

Second, cadres must be capable of implementing the Party’s resolutions, guidelines, State’s laws and policies. President Ho Chi Minh taught that we should not make cadres passive, conservative and stagnant. To that end, cadres must dare to think, dare to do and adhere to the principle of collective leadership and individual accountability. Cadres should have the following abilities: (1). Successfully lead the realization of the resolutions, regulations, guidelines, policies in life; (2) Be highly qualified and have firm political steadfastness. To be highly qualified, cadres should be proactive in study and self-study of political theory and expertise to meet the requirements of their positions. In order to have firm political steadfastness, cadres should regularly nurture their mind; be ready to take on any tasks assigned, especially difficult ones so that they will not be defeated in any situations.

Third, cadres should possess fine working style. According to Ho Chi Minh, fine working style should be defined as enthusiastic, scientific, thoughtful, careful, highly productive and effective. At present, fine working style should include attaching to the people; understand the people, for the people, counter bureaucracy, dictatorship while staying highly responsible in work. Cadres should always care for people’s lives. Cadres should be the most active ones in earning the prestige for the Party, and making people believe in the Party’s leadership as people’s belief in the Party and regime in our country is the most valuable asset of the ruling Party, a measure for the strength of the Party. Such belief is built by many ways, including the quality of cadres.

To prepare personnel for the party congresses at all levels, it is necessary to renew the personnel work. President Ho Chi Minh stated that cadre work is of important position, and should be conducted in a careful, effective, transparent, democratic manner, meeting the requirement of each phase of the revolution. Applying his thought on renewing cadre work in the preparation of party congresses at all levels, it is necessary to carry out the following measures;

1. Renewing the evaluation of cadres. Cadre assessment should be done in a careful and practical manner, basing on the assessment of party committees and party organisations, the authorized persons with special attention being paid to concrete qualities, credibility, achievements, and relevant to the circumstances of each organisations and individual. Actively avoid, prevent and combat so that this work would not be influenced and impacted by fake and wrong information.

2. Training and challenging cadres. Cadres should be challenged in real life activities, even with hardships and difficulties which require much of their effort and determination. This relates to the planning, training and fostering of cadres including training through academic institutions and rotation of cadres. This should be done essentially not formally.

3. Choosing and promoting the right cadre. It is necessary to further uphold the accountability of the leading cadres; detect, introduce to the party committees new cadres with ethic, talent, prestige and potentialities which have been verified through practical activities, especially young, female and ethnic minority cadres. Those who recommend cadres must hold accountability to the party congress for the cadres they nominate.

4. Promoting cadres of different ages. President Ho Chi Minh used to mention the combination of experienced cadres with young ones suitable to each phase of revolution and each locality. He was fully aware of the strong points and weak points of these two kinds of cadres and reminded us to make the most of them so that they would supplement for each other and minimize the weak points of each.

5. Avoiding and preventing localism. According to President Ho Chi minh, our Party is like a living body, hence, any cadres, regardless of their place of origin or profession, as soon as they meet the requirements, can be promoted. He stated that the quality of cadres is still the most important thing, structure comes after. Therefore, it is necessary to have the all-round leadership of party committees over the important sectors and areas. We should not disregard the qualities of cadres because of structure. Cadres can be promoted in place or posted from a different sector and locality; avoiding disunity, envy and localism.

6. Strengthening the inspection, control, and supervision of the power of cadres. President Ho Chi Minh used to emphasize the mobilisation of all socio-political organisations and people for the checking, control and supervision of cadres. He noted that: “A great nation, party and person yesterday will not necessarily be respected and hornoured today if they are no longer creditable and fall into individualism”. It is necessary to pay attention to fostering cadres, combine prevention with countering. Have strict punishment in accordance with the Party’s disciplines and State laws; and there is no "forbidden zone", “no exception” for the cadres with signs of degradation in politics, morality, lifestyle to make our Party pure and educate, deter, prevent others, contributing to making the congresses big successes and realizing the resolutions of the party congresses in general and of the 13^th Congress in particular.

Professor, Doctor MACH QUANG THANG  and Master DO THI TRANG