Over the past 90 years, generations of Vietnamese Communists and the entire people have fought and sacrificed their life for the national liberation and socialism and the people’s Independence, Freedom, and Happiness.
1. The glorious 90-year history of a true revolutionary Party
90 years ago, on February 3rd 1930, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) was founded by leader Nguyen Ai Quoc, also known as President Ho Chi Minh. The CPV has within itself the working class nature. It is the vanguard of the Vietnamese working class and nation with the absolute faith in the interests of the Vietnamese working class, nation, and people as well as in the true socialist internationalism, while striving to the end for the victory of socialism and communism. The aforementioned things represent the CPV’s noble ideal and goal and they are the historical duty assigned by the Vietnamese working class, nation, and people to the CPV. The CPV’s ideological foundation and the lodestar for the Vietnamese revolution which is under the CPV’s leadership constitute Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology. The wide and stable social foundation of the CPV is the people and the unity and close-knit bond between the CPV and the people; it is also the sacrifice and courage of the people who sheltered and protected the CPV throughout the years of hardships, challenges, and danger against the brutal colonialists and imperialists (1945-1975). Over the past 90 years, during the CPV’s development process, our people across the country and even those living abroad with their patriotism have always looked to the CPV, pinned their exceedingly pure, sincere faith and hope in the CPV, and deposited their life and destiny in the CPV, while desiring it to be really pure and strong as Uncle Ho ever wished to deserve the Vietnamese nation and people’s pride and trustworthiness forever.
The CPV doesn’t have anything except the interests of the Vietnamese working class, nation, and people, which could be seen as the reason for its existence and prove it ethnical and civilised. Mentioning the features of “the ideology of a revolutionary” and a revolutionary Party, Nguyen Ai Quoc emphasised the core things relating to scientific knowledge, political zeal, and revolutionary morality. According to him, revolutionaries and revolutionary Parties must maintain their ism and fight against material desire; they are not allowed to stay away from the people, or violate democracy, or transform themselves into “rulers,” or evade their responsibility to be the people’s loyal public servants. Staying away from the people will commence the “twilight” as they lose the people’s faith. Bureaucracy, wastefulness, and corruption are equal to a sin against the people and ruin the CPV’s reputation in the people’s eyes. Thus, the CPV must be “fair and square,” it must not hide its weaknesses and mistakes, and it should launch a crackdown against those with dishonesty and lack of integrity as a yardstick for a “healthy, strong, and progressive” Party. At the same time, great importance should be attached to making the CPV strong politically, ideologically, organisationally, morally and culturally and especially building the culture within itself and the culture of a ruling Party. Ours is an ethnical and civilised Party as its spiritual foundation is revolutionary morality and it resolutely sweeps away individualism which is the most dangerous enemy within each Party member and organisation.
Over the past 30 years plus, our country has experienced the national renewal initiated, led, carried out by the CPV with the impressive, historic achievements which have created advantages and strength for our revolution. More importantly, the CPV has always upheld its political guidelines at the turning points of its path to “Renewal, Integration, and Development.” In the national renewal cause, our CPV has always heightened its resolve and commitment to the nation and the people in the fight against corruption, degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle, “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from within so that it could fulfil its responsibility to victoriously conduct national renewal and realise the goal of sustainable development and national modernisation.
2. “Ours is an ethical and civilised Party”, which has been proved throughout 90 years
“Ours is an ethical and civilised Party” is an extremely profound and fine argument by President Ho Chi Minh. Grounded on reality of the Vietnamese revolution, he studied, searched, and developed Marxist theories about a Communist Party and a ruling Communist Party. This is one of the most outstanding devotion and an invaluable contribution by Ho Chi Minh as a Marxist to Marxism-Leninism, making Marxism-Leninism more diverse from Vietnam’s reality.
Ho Chi Minh said that “with the humility of revolutionaries, we could say that our CPV is really great.” Devoting themselves to the people’s life and the country’s development, Ho Chi Minh and our CPV understands that “defeating imperialists is rather easy. Defeating poverty and backwardness is much more difficult.” Thus, right after issuing the declaration of independence of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh adopted strategies to fight against “hunger, illiteracy, and foreign invaders” and the policy of “simultaneous resistance war and national construction,” believing that “the resistance war will be successful in parallel with national construction.” For the sake of the people’s improved life, he demanded the entire nation to promote production, practise thrift, and combat bureaucracy, wastefulness, and corruption.” He stated that “we must enable the people to have food, clothes, and accommodations, and access education.” “The Party is ethical and civilised” as it has always done everything for the people throughout its history. At the 30th founding anniversary of the CPV, he said that the CPV is great as it undertakes the sacred and onerous mission before the Vietnamese people and nation, adding that it is a Party which heightens its responsibility and formulates all guidelines and policies for merely the people. “Whenever a Vietnamese is exploited or impoverished, the CPV is heartbroken as it has yet to fulfil its mission. Therefore, while transforming and developing our country’s backward economy and culture as a major task, the CPV always pays due attention to providing supplies for the people’s daily life.” When emphasising that our CPV is great, Ho Chi Minh clarifies what makes it great. According to him, it is the CPV’s revolutionary ideal and goal as well as its combat motivation and target. It is also the courage, sacrifice, and absolute loyalty of generations of members of the CPV as well as their noble responsibility and close-knit bond with the people.
Such a great Party and cause have been proved by the 90-year history of the CPV and the country. The greatness of the CPV and the nation since the inception of the former is honoured and guaranteed by the unbreakable unity between the CPV and the people, by the revolutionary ethics of a true revolutionary Party, and by the CPV’s cultural values which have been imbued within the Party, from the founding fathers and leaders of the CPV to its elite members who are always “absolutely loyal to the Party” and “absolutely pious to the people.” That is the CPV’s spiritual and material strength which helps create its culture and civilisation as well as its prestige and strong, profound influence in the people’s hearts and minds and within the society.
The history of the CPV and the nation since the inception of the former proves the above-mentioned things. A 15-year-old Party with nearly 5,000 members managed to lead the August 1945 Revolution - the greatest revolution in the 20th century, eradicating the rule of colonialism and feudalism, giving birth to the first democratic republic in Southeast Asia. It is our people’s patriotism and the country’s patriotic movement that served as the inevitable elements in the CPV’s inception while the Vietnamese nation’s traditional and modern strength acted as the spiritual motivation and the material strength to create the social, historical, cultural, and civilised foundation for our CPV’s formation and development. That is a source of strength for our CPV to become a ruling party. The CPV’s ethics and civilisation are our nation’s ethics and civilisation inherited and developed in the new era. In Vietnam, in other words, it is the Ho Chi Minh era, the era of national independence and socialism, and the most glorious era in the nation’s history of thousands of years.
A 30-year-old Party (1930-1960) made glorious history imbued with loyalty between itself and the people and a “golden chronicle” as rated by Ho Chi Minh. In that period, the CPV led the people to fulfil the national liberation revolution and defeat the French Colonialists and the US Imperialists, while remaining steadfastness in the revolutionary ideal and goal to advance towards socialism and communism, regardless of numerous difficulties and challenges.
Our ethical and civilised CPV brought Vietnam, which had been invaded and enslaved, to national independence, freedom, and self-reliance, and placed our country in the vanguard against colonialism and imperialism. Moreover, countless soldiers and compatriots under the flag of the Homeland and the CPV sacrificed their blood and life to realise the greatest value of the times: “nothing is more precious than independence and freedom,” “we would rather sacrifice everything than lose our country and be enslaved.” Thanks to the CPV, the Vietnamese nation has taken a pride in human dignity across the world.
Since 1986, our CPV has led the country to carry out the national renewal with tremendous achievements which have fundamentally changed the countenance of the Vietnamese nation and people as well as created new advantages and strength. The national renewal initiated and led by the CPV has really become a strategy for proactively, opportunely seeking an escape from the crisis, making a breakthrough in theories about socialism, transforming the development model, and gradually creating the present-day Vietnamese socialism. Thanks to the national renewal, Vietnam had a “narrow escape” in the world’s extremely complex context, maintained the political guidelines at the turning points, gradually stabilised, developed, and proactively integrated the country into the work for the sake of sustainable growth and modernisation, with a combination of internal and external elements and a harmony between the CPV and the people. Vietnam has escaped from poverty and backwardness, while gradually stabilising its development and striving for sustainable development. “Rich people, strong nation, democracy, equality, and civilisation” as the national renewal’s goal represent Ho Chi Minh’s ultimate wishes written in his Testament more than 50 years ago.
Such a great cause is attributed to the whole Party, people, and Military. It is the most persuasive and objective historical evidence on our CPV and nation. Being proud of an “ethical and civilised Party,” our CPV clearly understands the vital importance of the unity within itself, of the close-knit bond between itself and the people, and of the purity and solidity of the CPV, the State, and the entire political system to the survival of the regime and itself.
Thus, more than ever before, our CPV and people both comprehend the glorious achievements proved by the former’s 90-year history and clearly realise the strict warnings and requirements from the history for fighting against the degradation in political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle as well as the signs of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” among a section of cadres, party members, and people. If we are not capable of preventing and repelling the above-mentioned things, the consequences will be unpredictable. That is the reason why Ho Chi Minh until the rest of his life still thought about maintaining unity, sweeping away individualism, and enhancing self-criticism and criticism within the CPV, while asking party members to love one another. According to the President, it is vital to maintain unity within the CPV, from its Party Central Committee to its party cells, like protecting the apple of the eye. A ruling Party must know how to become the people’s leader and loyal public servant. Those instructions by Ho Chi Minh remain valuable forever and become extremely important to our CPV, particularly in the current situation.
Under a spirit of looking directly at, clearly telling, and correctly assessing the truth, our CPV is devoting its efforts to rectifying and making itself really pure and strong. It should be noted that our CPV has been taking strict disciplinary actions against its members, particularly the senior-level cadres who had serious weaknesses undermining its prestige and reputation as well as the people’s sentiment and faith in itself.
An “ethical and civilised Party” will certainly express its honesty and courage to punish anyone who lacks integrity as instructed by President Ho Chi Minh. That is a noble, necessary action to defend the people, protect the goodness, and destroy the evil and treachery. And that is a requisite for keeping the people’s faith in the CPV and making it ethical and civilised forever.
Prof. Hoang Chi Bao, PhD