“Pluralism” has always been a topic of discussion of “democrats” with a view to eradicating the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). There appeared recently some articles full of incitement with impure purposes. It is just repeated rhetoric which cannot cheat anyone.
Our struggle for national liberation since the French’s invasion in the mid 19th century until the early years of the 20th century has seen many ups and downs in the history, including successes and failures. Patriotic movements broke out continuously and vigorously, such as: Duy Tan Movement, Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Movement, Yen Bai uprising… but without success. There are many causes to explain these failures, but they all have one thing in common: lack of a sound policy and a pioneering party.
Being inspired by the heavy losses of antecedent patriots, the miserable lives of people under the brutal rule of feudalism and colonialism, Nguyen Ai Quoc was determined to begin his trip abroad for country salvation. With an ardent love for the country, a deep sympathy towards miserable people, and a strong desire to gain independence and freedom for the country, he approached Marxism-Leninism, disseminated and creatively applied it to the specific situation of Vietnam. He then combined the ideology with the movements of workers and patriots to found the Communist Party of Vietnam, the one of working class, the representative for interests of the working people and the whole nation. During its leadership over the revolution, our Party has put forward sound and creative platforms and strategic policies in each stage; found out the way to save the nation, the society and people. Our people and nation all know that since the Party came into existence, it has always gone side by side with the struggle of the nation; all the upheavals of the revolution saw the flesh and blood tie between the Party and people. There were times in which many other parties existed and followed the same course as our Party, such as the Socialist Party of Vietnam, the Democratic Party of Vietnam. Acknowledging the leadership of the CPV, they have voluntarily disbanded after gloriously fulfilling their missions. However, there were still dissident parties running counter to the interests of people and country and became reactionary political organizations, supporting imperialism and colonialism in the fight against our people, hence being defeated with the losses of hostile forces. The history of Vietnam, since the incept of our Party, has shown that, in our revolutionary cause over the past 80 years, there has been only one leading and ruling party – the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Under the Party’s leadership, people’s mastership is always upheld; political-spiritual lives of all citizens are improved; national solidarity is consolidated, ensuring the whole country to overcome difficulties, challenges in the cause of Fatherland construction and defense, maintaining socio-political stability, accelerating the renovation process towards the goal of “prosperous people, strong country, democracy, equity, civilization”. The Party’s leadership is acknowledged by the entire people and stipulated in the Constitution, providing a legal basis for the Party’s position and ruling role towards the State and the whole society. Recently, our Party and State have conducted a survey of public opinion on the Draft Amendment of the 1992 Constitution. The vast majority agrees on the ruling role of the Party as stipulated in Article 4 of the 1992 Constitution (amended). To effectively perform its role, the Party must tie itself to people, serve people, put itself under people’s supervision, and be responsible to people for its decisions. Furthermore, Party organizations and its members must operate within the framework of Constitution and law. It can be concluded, on the basis of the above reality analyses, that: the Communist Party of Vietnam is the sole source of leadership of Vietnam’s revolution. This has become a historical and objective inevitability, chosen by people, not imposed by anyone.
However, on some social networks recently, there have appeared some articles with inciting words which run counter the trend of the history and people’s desire; calling for “political pluralism and a multi-party system”. They argue that one-party regime is the “one-party government”, “undemocratic”. In order to establish a democratic society, there must be opposition parties to counterweigh CPV. For this reason, they actively motivate and incite Party’s members to found a “Democratic Socialist Party to promote social democracy and progress”. This rhetoric is not new, even outdated, hence unconvincing. Those who had read those writings all said this was just an act of “throwing a spanner in the works” in the development of revolutionary cause; giving strength to hostile forces against Vietnam’s revolution. We all know that contributory thinking on political-social projects and the desire for a counterweight party belong to the freedom of thought of each citizen. However, the extent to which that desire is fulfilled depends on a number of factors, first and foremost the legitimate interests of the whole country and people. This is the decisive factor not the subjective wish of any one to deny the leading role of CPV, destabilize the country, especially in the current situation when our people long for socio-political stability to develop the economy, construct the country and firmly defend the unity, sovereignty, territorial integrity, borders, waters, islands of the Fatherland. Moreover, those dissidents don’t realize that many countries in the world today, in spite of realizing political pluralism and multi-party systems, are still undergoing political chaos and severe social disorder. In those countries, each party usurps a force to vie with each other for power, causing socio-political instability, hindering development of the country. Such societies not only fail to exercise people’s democracy but also seriously threaten the lives of innocent people. Reality in our country and the world has shown that democracy does not necessarily mean pluralism, and one-party regimes do not lack democracy. This can only be understood from the nature of democracy, nature of the ruling party.
Democrat regime in Vietnam is the victorious achievement of the revolution launched by people under the leadership of the Communist Party. Our Party fights not only for itself but also for the people’s benefit, the country’s prosperity, hence earning people’s support. For this reason, one-party regime in our country and the Party’s leadership is the history’s choice, the indispensable result of a long, arduous and challenging revolution of people. When gaining the power, the Party has organized, led and constructed its government to become authority of people, by people and for people; uphold people’s ownership to construct and protect the country. Thus, it can be said that, in our country, in our society, there is no contradiction between people’s democracy and the Party’s leadership; in contrast, the more the Party’s leadership is strengthened, the more people’s democracy is ensured. Likewise, the better the people’s mastership is implemented, the more stable the Party’s leadership is. This is the dialectic between “Party’s purpose” and “people’s wish”.
Leading the struggle for national independence, Fatherland construction and defense, our Party has earned the absolute trust of people because it has always gone side by side with people, fought for people’s benefit, listened to people and respected their mastership. Without these, the Party could not protect itself and no one would protect the Party. So it is not “pluralism” that brings about democracy. The bottom line is to consolidate the Party, make it truly pure and strong, capable of leading the country in the new context, to make people believe in the Party and reinforce that belief. However, it must be seen that, besides achievements, there still exist some shortcomings, wrongdoings in the party building work which may undermine people’s belief in the Party, namely: the degradation in political ideology, morals, lifestyle of a number of cadres, party members including leading and high-ranking ones; corruption, wastefulness, and lack of democracy elsewhere…
Facing the truth, our Party does not hide but exposes these shortcomings as well as points out the subjective and objective causes. Thereby, the Party clearly stated: a number of cadres, party members lack self-improvement, training, decline in terms of revolutionary spirit, show inadequate responsibility to the Party and people; some organs do not fully implement guidelines and policies of the Party and State, resolutions, decrees and regulations on party building and rectification; centralized democracy, criticism and self-criticism in many places are not implemented conscientiously and strictly regulated to lay the basis for supervision; propagation and education in politics, ideology, morals and lifestyle are sometimes stereotyped, unconvincing. To overcome these situations, party organizations must better implement the Central Resolution 4 (Tenure XI) on party building while continuing to consolidate and build up a mechanism for criticism and self-criticism. Moreover, people’s opinions on Party building in general and on cadres, party members in particular should be stressed. This is necessary because in fact many corruption cases and wrongdoings were revealed by people. To ensure practical results of people’s opinions, the Party should have a tight mechanism and leadership to uphold people’s democracy; meanwhile honest people who dare to fight and disclose wrongdoings need to be protected. By doing so, we will avoid cases in which individuals utter arbitrarily and unconstructively due to their personal outrage, creating gaps for political opportunists to take advantage of, slander, deny the Party’s leadership, the tie between the Party and people and call for “pluralism”. Authorities need to check, supplement, amend rules which are no longer suitable with the demand of democracy expansion and strengthening the Party’s disciplines; rectify the periodic party meetings… On the other hand, practices must be summarized; theory on the ruling party and Party building in the new context must be studied. At the party’s meetings, democratic atmosphere needs to be created, freedom of thought needs to be fully upheld; independent and creative thinking should be encouraged and respected; in debates and discussions, opinions should be listened to with frank and sincere manner, without prejudices. At the same time, it is necessary to proactively fight against adverse viewpoints of political opportunists and hostile forces; safeguarding stance, guidelines, solidarity and unity of the Party.
The Communist Party of Vietnam leading the State, the society is the right choice of history. During the process of leadership, the Party cannot avoid shortcomings, mistakes, but these are just particular matters in the development process. All ploys calling for “pluralism” are unacceptable. The problem is to make the Party truly pure and strong, compatible with mission’s requirements, and meeting people’s expectations.
Tran Duy