Being surrounded by the sea on its three sides, Ca Mau province has a coastline of nearly 254 km and a sea of about 80,000 square km, with the islands of Hon Khoai, Hon Chuoi, Hon Buong and Hon Da Bac acting as the outposts of the country’s defensive posture in the Southwestern sea. The province also has a large-scale fishing ground and vast oil and natural gas reserves; it has great potential for developing tourism and domestic and international seaport services. Those are advantages for the province’s socio-economic development but present a lot of difficulties in national defence and security, particularly the defence of sea and island sovereignty, political security, and social order and safety. In recent years, climate has been unusual and unpredictable; droughts, storms, floods and epidemics have negatively impacted on the province’s economy and its people’s life. Fully aware of its important position, advantages and challenges, together with facilitating its economic development, the province has always focused on well performing the military-defence task. In this regard, priority has been given to defence and security education as a central piece of work in order to build the all-people national defence, increase the provincial defensive zone’s politico-spiritual potential and foster the province’s rapid, sustainable socio-economic development.

A defence and security course intended for cadres of the third group

First of all, the Provincial Military Party Committee (PMPC) and the Provincial Military Command (PMC) have proactively advised the Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee to issue documents on defence and security education to ensure that this important work will be carried out in a uniformed and synchronous manner. As a result, documents by the provinces have been relevant to the area and enabled offices and units to proactively make preparations. Recently, especially after all-level party congresses, the PMPC and the PMC have closely cooperated with local party committees and authorities in quickly supplementing groups of receivers of defence and security education under the Law on this work to ensure that all cadres within the political system would be equipped with knowledge of national defence and security. As the standing office of the Provincial Defence and Security Education Council, the PMC has actively suggested consolidating the Council at provincial level, while directing all-level military commands to advise localities on staffing councils at district and commune levels both qualitatively and quantitatively so that they would operate more effectively. The all-level defence and security education councils have given advice to local party committees and authorities on proactively expanding groups of learners, such as vessel owners, business owners, and religious dignitaries. Great value has been attached to organising defence and security education courses in key, remote, isolated areas and on large islands. At the same time, consideration has been given to cooperating with relevant departments, committees and sectors in inspecting and reviewing the work of defence and security education. Doing so has enabled localities and units to handle weaknesses and difficulties right at grass-roots level, detect and multiply effective, creative models and approaches, and ensure that this work would be carried out in a uniformed, effective manner.

The PMPC and the PMC have advised the Provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee on leadership and direction over defence and security education for cadres of authorities and sectors. All-level party committees have been fully aware that it would be a compulsory task of every cadre and party member and one of the criteria for cadre appointment. On a yearly basis, the Provincial People’s Committee assigns the targets of defence and security education to each locality, office and unit so that their cadres would proactively arrange their affairs to attend training courses. Grounded on the training programmes under the regulations, the province has actively supplemented the additional contents relevant to local conditions and each group of learners. Emphasis has been placed on grasping and concretising the Party’s guidelines and the State’s law and policy on the two strategic tasks of national construction and protection. Greater importance has been attached to new points, such as defending the Homeland from afar, resolutely, persistently fighting to firmly protect national independence, sovereignty, unification and territorial integrity on land, in the air, at sea and even in cyberspace, and maintaining readiness to respond to non-traditional security threats and wars. In addition to dispatching cadres of the first and second groups to attend defence and security education courses held by the Ministry of National Defence and the Military Region 9, the province has actively organised such courses for cadres of the third and fourth groups. In 2019, while sending 86 cadres of the first and second groups to higher echelons’ defence and security education courses, the province held such courses for 430 cadres of the third group and 3.880 cadres of the fourth group. Moreover, localities have worked with competent offices to open tens of defence and security education courses for thousands of people from various groups, such as religious dignitaries, vessel owners, and business owners. Doing so has allowed the province to raise all-level leaders and managerial cadres’ awareness, responsibility, theoretical thinking, and practical ability to perform the military-defence work, direct, implement and counsel guidelines and policies on socio-economic development associated with defence-security consolidation and the Homeland defence.

At present, the province has 36 schools and educational institutions; hence, the demand for defence and security education is very great. In order to improve defence and security education for students, prior to each school year, the PMC directs district-level military offices to cooperate with schools in their areas in organising refresher courses for teachers of defence and security education. Under the regulations by the Ministry of Education and Training, high schools have provided defence and security education for their students at different times while colleges have organised full-time defence and security education courses. It should be noted that military offices have assisted several schools in dealing with a lack of teachers and facilities for defence and security education. Besides, the province has organised Defence and Security Education Contest and extracurricular activities, such as “Military Semester,” visits to historical sites, and talk shows with historical witnesses. Doing so has helped equip students with necessary military knowledge and skills, improve their qualities, and build up their love for their hometown, country, seas and islands as well as their aspirations for doing military service and defending the Homeland. Thanks to those measures, the quality of defence and security education for students has been unceasingly raised while all students have been provided with defence and security education courses.

The province has focused its leadership and direction on providing knowledge of national defence and security for all people in various forms. On an annual basis, the PMC cooperates with the Provincial Party Committee’s Propaganda and Education Commission, the Television and Radio of Ca Mau, the Newspaper of Ca Mau, the Newspaper of Dat Mui, and the Military Region 9’s Newspaper and Television in developing plans, programmes, and columns on national defence and security. Doing so has enabled the province to better propagate our Party and State’s guidelines and policies, particularly Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea, the National Border Protection Strategy, the military-defence work, political security, social order and safety, and typical examples with outstanding achievements in performing the military-defence task within its area. Additionally, the PMC has actively worked with competent offices to raise the quality of the core force in the fight against wrong viewpoints by hostile forces and political opportunists in cyberspace. As a result, accurate, official information has been provided to facilitate our struggle and orientate the people’s ideology. Besides, the PMC has included defence and security education and propagation in the armed forces’ activities, such as training marches associated with the mass mobilisation work, “Gratitude” movement, implementation of the policy for the Army Rear, cultural, artistic and sports programmes, military call-up and military-people Tet holidays.

As the province has a large number of fishing vessels, the PMC has directed the coastal districts’ military commands to promote the role of the coastal self-defence force and a contingent of propagandists in working with relevant competent forces to provide knowledge of national defence and security for fishers so that they could grasp our Party and State’s guidelines and policy on developing the marine economy and defending the country’s sea and island sovereignty. At the same time, these forces have been required to cooperate with the Border Guard Force and law enforcement forces at sea in delivering leaflets, CDs and DVDs on the knowledge of national defence and security to each vessel and household so as to raise fishers’ awareness of Vietnamese and international law on fishing. Consequently, violations of foreign seas by the province’s fishing vessels have been considerably reduced while fishers have kept their mind on their work at sea and better dealt with all situations. The posture of people’s hearts and minds at sea has been consolidated as the basis for defending the national sacred sovereignty over seas and islands.

Grounded on the obtained results and experiences, in the upcoming time, the PMPC and the PMC will continue to give better advice on defence and security education to local party committees and authorities in order that the provincial defensive zone’s politico-spiritual potential will be improved and the all-people national defence and the people’s security will be made strong to meet the requirements set by the Homeland construction and protection in the new situation.

Sr. Col. NGUYEN THANH PHONG, Commissar of the PMC, Member of the Provincial Defence and Security Education Council