II. Our Party viewpoint in controlling power and positive results

The abuse of power, without being controlled, will inflict negative impacts on the society, people, and even the organisations or individuals to which the power is granted. Therefore, once the power is authorised to somebody, it is necessary to put the power under control to make sure that it is exercised in accordance with its nature and goal.

Our Party’s viewpoint in controlling power

When alive, President Ho Chi Minh affirmed: “Our country is a democratic one. All power belong to the people”. Our Party's consistent viewpoint is that “All state power belongs to the people”. At the 6^th National Party Congress, for the first time, our Party introduced a formula fully institutionalising the power of social management in our country, i.e. “the Party leads, the State manages, the People master”. The National Construction Platform in the period of transition to socialism (supplemented in 2011) clearly states: “State power is unified. There is a division, coordination, and control among public institutions in exercising legislative, executive and judicial powers”; The 12^th National Congress of the Party affirmed: “Continuing to promote socialist democracy, ensuring all state power belongs to the people. All lines and undertakings of the Party, policies and laws of the State are derived from the aspirations, legitimate rights and interests of the People, and consulted by the People”. Our Party affirmed that the state's power belonging to the people is not only a matter of nature and principles, but also requires a mechanism to exercise the people's inspection and supervision power.

The 2013 Constitution affirms that: “The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is owned by the people, all state powers belong to the people”. (Article 2) “The State guarantees and promotes the people's right to mastery; recognises, respects, protects and ensures human rights and citizen's rights” (Article 3). “People exercise state power through direct democracy and representative democracy through the National Assembly, the People's Councils and through other State organs" (Article 6). “In order to ensure that state power belongs to the people, it is organized into three parts, namely: legislative, executive and judicial, with division, coordination and control among state agencies in exercising those rights aiming to ensure that power is unified, used for the right purpose and effectively enforced”. According to the Constitution, the National Assembly has made and approved many laws that institutionalize the control of State power, such as Law on Organisation of the National Assembly, Law on Organisation of the Government, Law on Organisation of People's Courts, Law on Organisation of the People's Procuracy, Law on the Organisation of Local Government, the Law on Supervisory Activities of the National Assembly and the People's Council and other legal documents, ... which are relatively complete and synchronous. Thus, our Party's viewpoint on building an effective mechanism for power control is also associated with the process of concretising the contents of building a socialist rule of law state of the people, by the people, and for people.

The power of an organizations, a group of people and individuals is not an inherent power but given and authorised for them by the people to serve the people, to serve the cause of building and developing the country. In fact, there are organisations, groups of people and individuals who are elected and empowered by the people to perform some functions and tasks for the common good, but disregard the discipline, turn the power given by the people into their own power and act for their own sake or for their group interest. Therefore, our Party has determined that controlling power must become the focus of building a rule of law state, especially when the corruption of power is threatening the survival of the regime.

The control of power must be associated with the inspection, examination and supervision mechanisms. At the same time, it is necessary to effectively implement the cadre work, because “Cadre is the root of all work”, “Work succeeding or failing is due to good or bad cadre”. If cadres are greedy and self-interested, they will try to benefit from the loopholes of the law and the mechanism. Therefore, the mechanism for power control in the state apparatus is, ultimately, the control of cadres. Realising that, our Party has issued many directives and resolutions on building and rectifying the Party, cleaning up the contingent of cadres and party members, notably: the 6^th Central Resolution (8^th tenure), currently the 4^th Central Resolution (11^th and 12^th tenure) on building and regulating the Party to prevent and repel degeneration and metamorphosis, “Self-evolution”, “self-transformation” internally. At the same time, the Central Steering Committee for Anti-corruption has been moved from the Government to the Politburo and headed by the General Secretary. Historical lessons show that in order for the Party to be strong, first of all those who “hold the reins” must be firm, not ambitious for power. An individual who is ambitious for power but holds important positions of the Party and State will cause immeasurable consequences. On August 4, 2017, for the first time, our Party issued Regulation No. 90-QĐ/TW, detailing the criteria for job titles and evaluation criteria for cadres under the management of the Central Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat, which clearly stated that those cadres must “absolutely not ambitious for power”. In particular, in order to control power and repel the corruption of power among cadres and party members, the Politburo (12^th tenure) issued Regulation No. 205-QĐ/TW, dated September 23, 2019 on the “Provisions on power control in cadre work and anti-bribery for power”. With the promulgation of these regulations, the control of power, and the fight against negative “interest groups” in the cadre work, the kinds of bribery for power have been specifically pointed out. That clearly affirms our Party's political determination to control and prevent negative “interest groups” and self-regulate in the “top-down” principle.

Initial results and positive effects in the fight against the corruption of power

Our Party and State are consistent with the policy of “repelling interest groups who are manipulating and benefiting from national public property”. With that spirit, over the past time, our Party and State have punished degrading individuals who exhibit power ambitions and individualism, no matter who they are. As a result, the Party's rectification has had unprecedented movements in the history of our Party. Since the beginning of the 12^th Congress to date, the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat, the Central Inspection Committee have disciplined more than 70 senior officials under the central management, including 01 member of the Politburo and 04 members of the Party Central Committee (12^th tenure), 14 former members of the Party Central Committee, 1 former Deputy Prime Minister, 05 ministers and former ministers, 02 secretaries of provincial Party Committee, 05 former secretaries of provincial Party Committee and 17 generals. Some officials have been sentenced to prison, while 07 party organizations have also been disciplined. These results have demonstrated the Party and State's determination to prevent and fight against corruption and the abuse of power in the Party and the State's public apparatus.

This fight is very painful as our Party and State have lost their cadres. Economic losses in corruption cases have slowed down the country's development and economic growth rate, decreased national income, etc., thereby increasing the gap between the rich and the poor, negatively impacting the policy of social equity. However, what is more meaningful is that our Party and State have earned the heart and mind of the people and consolidated people’s belief in the fight against corruption and the abuse of power. Never before have people anywhere been so excited about such fight and joined hand with the Party and State to bring out to light the cadres and party members who abused power, corrupted and degenerated. This shows that, the fight to repel the “corruption of power” of the Party and State has strong vitality, fiercely attacking into strongholds of corruption with sophisticated tricks and covered by interconnected “interest groups”. And the Party is still respected, trusted and expected by our people in this arduous, complicated and sensitive war.

Although some remarkable results have been achieved, in reality, the fight against corruption and power abuse in our country still has limitations, as the 4^th Party's Central Resolution (12^th tenure) has clearly stated: “We have been slow in building and perfecting a monitoring mechanism within the Party and in the political system, and the people's supervision over the activities of the Party, the State and the cadres and Party members”, “The inspection work, the Party's supervision and discipline have yet to deter, prevent and repel the recession of cadres”. Therefore, overcoming the above limitations and shortcomings becomes an urgent matter.

(Next: III. Building a capable mechanism for power control)