Building a strong Party Organisation of the Artillery Officer College in terms of politics, ideology, morality, organisation, and personnel has been a determinant to the College’s good performance of the education and training task in the past 65 years. This is also a central task of the College in the upcoming years.

Founded on February 18th, 1957, the Artillery Officer College is tasked with training commanding officers at artillery battalion, regiment, and brigade levels, military instructors as well as artillery officers of Laos and Cambodia. In nearly 65 years of construction and development, the College has successfully fulfilled the task of education and training, with more than 50,000 artillery officers for our entire Military, Laos, and Cambodia. Graduates from the College have always shown their political zeal and professional competence to meet their task requirements and many of them have become key cadres of the Party, the State, and the Military. Generations of cadres, instructors, cadets, employees, and soldiers of the College have built up the tradition of “self-reliance, proactiveness, creativity, good teaching, good learning, and good task performance.” Acknowledging those achievements, the State has presented the College with the title of Hero of the People’s Armed Forces (2009) and many other noble rewards.

Currently, the College’s education and training cause has new developments with more demanding requirements. To successfully fulfil this task, the College Party Committee has determined to continue achieving the goal of building a typically strong and pure Party Organisation capable of leadership over education and training and the building of a “regular, advanced, exemplary” College. To that end, the College Party Committee has focused its leadership on well implementing several fundamental measures as follows.

First, grasp resolutions, directives, and regulations on the Party building, particularly the Resolution of the 21st Artillery Officer College Party Congress for the 2020-2025 tenure. All-level party committees and commands have well realised the year of “responsibility, discipline, and quality” of 2021 and adhered to the motto: “the quality of the College’s training means units’ combat readiness capacity.” Emphasis has been placed on raising the quality of practical and intense training, enhancing military standard order building and discipline management, building a fine, healthy pedagogical environment, and creating a huge positive change in troops’ observance of the State’s law, the Military’s discipline, and the College’s regulations. Due attention has been paid to synchronously, effectively taking measures to execute the Party Central Committee’s Resolution No.4 (12th and 13th tenure) on the Party building and rectification and the 13th Politburo’s Conclusion 01-KL/TW, dated May 18th, 2021 on continuing to promote the studying and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle in tandem with  the Campaign titled “promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in the new period as well as emulation movements and campaigns launched by authorities and sectors.

Second, further improve cadres and party members’ political zeal, morality, and lifestyle. The College Party Committee has focused on boosting the effectiveness of political education and ideological management to increase all-level party committees, party organisations, cadres, and party members’ steadfastness in Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, and the Party’s ideal and goal. Due regard has been paid to renewing forms and methods of education and enhancing dialogues to opportunely grasp cadres, instructors, cadets, employees, and soldiers’ ideology and create a consensus within each office, faculty, and unit. All-level party committees have well managed cadres and party members’ ideology, morality, lifestyle, and social relationships, while complying with the 12th Politburo’s Regulations 213-QĐ/TW, dated January 2nd, 2020 on party members’ responsibility to maintain relations with party organisations and citizens in their residential areas as well as the Regulations on party members’ don’ts. Great value has been attached to raising the quality of initiating new members into the Party, particularly within cadet management units under regulations and guidance by the Party Central Committee and the General Political Department. Consideration has been given to proactively developing measures to prevent, combat, and repel the degradation in political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle as well as the signs of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” amongst cadres, party members, cadets, and soldiers. Besides, importance has been attached to inspecting and supervising cadres and party members’ ideology, ethics, lifestyle, and working method.

Sr. Col. Bui Bac Binh addressing the 21st Artillery Officer College Party Congress for the 2020-2025 tenure

Third, strictly maintain the Party’s principles of organisation and activity and renew leadership style and working method in a scientific, effective manner. All-level party organisations have placed emphasis on consolidating party committees and unceasingly improving the leadership capacity, combativeness, and quality of cadres and party members. They have strictly complied with the principle of democratic centralism, collective leadership, and individual responsibility and enhanced self-criticism and criticism. They have also strictly maintained the Party’s regulations on study and activity, while aligning the building of typically strong and clean party committees with the building of “typically, exemplarily” comprehensively strong offices and units. Superior party committee members have been required to attend inferior party committees and organisations’ meetings to directly exercise leadership over drawing lessons and handling weaknesses. All-level party committees have frequently reviewed and completed leadership and working statutes, well managed relationships, and achieved a sense of unity within themselves. At the same time, due attention has been paid to well conducting the work of internal political protection to avoid falling into passivity.

The College Party Committee Standing Board has required affiliated party committees to regularly build a scientific, effective leadership and working style and well implement the Party’s regulations on cadres and party members’ responsibility to set good examples, particularly the Central Military Commission’s Regulations 646-QĐ/QUTW, dated November 6th, 2012 on “the role model-setting responsibility of cadres and party members, especially all-level leaders, commanders, and managerial cadres across the Military.” Consideration has been given to developing resolutions in a succinct, specific, practical manner to well perform central tasks and deal with shortcomings. Democracy has been encouraged so that all party members would express their opinions about resolutions, while responsibility of all collectives and individuals has been heightened to effectively realise resolutions. All cadres and party members have been asked not to speak or act contrary to resolutions.

Fourth, raise the quality of building a contingent of cadres and party members to meet the task requirements in the new situation. To do so, the College has required all-level party committees and organisations to grasp and strictly execute the Central Military Commission’s Resolution 769-NQ/QUTW, dated December 21st, 2012 on “building a pool of military cadres in the period of 2013-2020 and beyond.” Emphasis has been placed on building a contingent of cadres and instructors with proper quantity and structure, good health, suitable age range, and high quality. In addition to general criteria, cadres and instructors have been asked to show their deep professional knowledge, their great command, management, and staff capacity, their good teaching method, their pure morality, their simple, healthy lifestyle, and their acumen in the fight against “peaceful evolution,” “self-evolution,” and “self-transformation.” To ensure the solid development between generations of cadres and instructors, the College has actively renewed the personnel work and the training of leaders, commanders, and managerial cadres. The management of cadres has been decentralised, while the work of personnel evaluation and use has been closely carried out. The College has proactively recommended higher echelons to deploy its cadres to hold commanding and managerial positions at grass-roots level units as the basis for improving their hands-on experience, developing high-quality human resources, and raising the quality of teaching and scientific research within itself and across the Corps. Significance has been attached to managing, training, and educating party members and improving their comprehensive knowledge, scientific thinking, and revolutionary morality to ensure that this force would set good examples in terms of morality, lifestyle, discipline management, and task performance. 

Fifth, better the work of inspection and supervision to strictly maintain the Party’s discipline. The work of inspection and supervision and the maintenance of the Party’s discipline play a role of special importance to the Party building and rectification. Therefore, the College Party Committee has always advocated that “supervisions must be expanded, while inspections must be focalised.” Inspection and supervision of affiliated party organisations, party committee members, and key cadres have been carried out simultaneously. Due attention has been paid to inspecting party members and organisations with the sign of violating discipline in a public, democratic, cautious, close fashion. Significance has been attached to resolutely fighting against negative practices, violations of the Party’s principles, and the signs of degradation in political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle amongst cadres and party members. In addition, the College Party Committee has focused on raising the efficiency and effectiveness of the party and political work and encouraging the role of mass organisations.

The successful implementation of those above-mentioned measures has contributed to building a politically, ideologically, morally, and organisationally strong Party Organisation and a “regular, advanced, exemplary” College capable of fulfilling the goal of education and training in the new situation.

Sr. Col. BUI BAC BINH, Commissar of the College