The Division 5 is a main mobile unit performing its tasks in one strategic defensive direction of the Military Region 7. Over the years, the Division’s Party Committee and Command have taken various measures to effectively carry out its missions, including legal propagation, dissemination and education associated with troop ideological management as a practical, important solution, thereby contributing to raising cadres and soldiers’ legal awareness and building a strong, pure Party Committee and comprehensively strong Division.

Grounded on higher echelons’ directives and resolutions on the ideological work and legal propagation, dissemination and education, the Division’s Party Committee have issued specialized resolutions on performing this work with proper measures. Monthly and quarterly, party organizations assess the outcome of their leadership and opportunely supplement the action programs. Commissars and commands at all levels concretize and include those resolutions in their action plan/programs. The Political Office has promoted its role in counselling and proposing measures for leadership and direction and cooperated with other offices and units in reviewing troops’ observance of the State’s law and the Military’s discipline as well as their ideology and aspirations. Doing so has helped step up the work of ideological education, orientation, management, and prediction, strictly maintain the order for reporting and settling ideological issues, prevent violation of law and discipline, and resolutely fight against the signs of ideological deviation and negative practice.

The Division’s Party Committee has directed offices and units to renew the work of political, ideological, and legal education and diversify the form and method of performing this work. As for special topics, the Division’s Party Committee has directed its affiliates to grasp and well execute the Project by the Ministry of National Defence (MDN) on “renewing political education at military units in the new situation” and gradually put the work of political education and legal propagation and education in order. It has required a contingent of law instructors and speakers to carefully prepare lesson plans, rehearse, build models, and cleverly deliver lectures to draw learners’ attention. In addition, the Division has attached importance to organizing training courses for this contingent, dispatching cadres to attend the conferences on law speakers held by the General Department of Politics and the Military Region, and sending cadres to colleges inside and outside the Military for further education. At the same time, it has frequently updated its law speakers on legal documents and information. The Division has focused on introducing the Military Service Law and the regulations by the MND, Military Region and units on discipline management, settlement of violations which do not constitute crimes, standard order, and traffic and training safety to first-year soldiers. It has educated second-year soldiers to successfully fulfil their task during their service and their citizenship when they come back home, while educating them on the Law on Road Traffic, the Civil Code, the Penal Code, and the Law on Marriage and Family. Besides, it has organized specialized topics for officers and professional servicemen to serve their commanding and managing work.

In the process, the Division’s affiliates have attached great value to promoting the effective forms of legal propagation and education, such as “studying one article of law everyday,” young communicators’ contest, news briefing, politico-ideological meeting, soldiers’ club, soldiers’ birthday, and artistic and sports program in order to make a positive change in cadres and soldiers’ awareness, improve their knowledge and political zeal, and orientate their political zeal and determination to fulfil their assigned task. On the political and spiritual days and legal study days, the Division’s Party Committee requires commanders of offices and units to have direct dialogues with soldiers to grasp their ideology and aspirations and the unit’s situation and to introduce new policies and documents to soldiers. To do so, commanders must have a thorough grasp of policies, open-minded and democratic attitude, heighten self-criticism and criticism, maintain the operation of “legal and mental consultation teams,” and provide their phone numbers.

The Divisions’ affiliates have combined basic education with regular education and aligned general education with education based on groups of soldiers and circumstances. They have promoted the role and responsibility of political cadres and law speakers and communicators in educating and orientating soldiers’ ideology. Notably, in recent years, offices and units have proactively made investments in developing initiatives on applying technological advances to the work of legal education, which has been highly appreciated and multiplied by the Military Region.

Besides, the Division’s affiliates have adopted various measures to manage troops’ ideology. Commanders of units have always maintained the order for grasping, managing, reporting, and settling troops’ ideology under their authority and closely combined direct and indirect measures for this work. At the same time, they have stayed close to soldiers during the performance of their task, particularly in combat readiness, training, military standardization building, and reception of new recruits. In addition, the Division’s Party Committee has directed its units and offices to frequently meet with soldiers’ local party committees and authorities and families to provide information about the units’ situation, regulations of the Military and units, and each soldier’ results of study and self-improvement. Doing so has enabled commanders of units and offices to grasp, manage, and effectively deal with soldiers’ ideological situation. To well perform the work of troop management, party committees, commissars, and political offices at all levels have grasped and closely managed the profiles, circumstances, and relationships of soldiers, particularly those working in key, secret sections. Commanders at all levels have focused on grasping new recruits’ capacity, morality, health, and relationships via their families and localities’ evaluation in line with their self-evaluation to take proper measures for managing their ideology closely. Emphasis has been placed on grasping cadres and soldiers’ political awareness, attitude and responsibility towards their units, their strengths and motivations for training and self-improvement as well as their sense of discipline, morality, and lifestyle. On such a basis, consideration has been given to advising commanders on the content, form, and method of political, ideological, and legal education properly and effectively.

Besides, the Division’s offices and units have stepped up the building of standard order, discipline management, and emulation movements and campaign. Based on each type of unit and task, commanders at all levels have proactively forecast, analyzed, and assessed the ideological situation in order to take remedial action. Importance has been attached to grasping the ideological trend in troops’ life, their faith in the revolutionary cause, and their enthusiasm for morality, lifestyle, unity, and discipline training. Also, significance has been attached to anticipating the signs of negative ideology, such as lack of vigilance in duty and combat readiness, fearfulness of hardships and difficulties, discord from within, and disunity between the Military and the people. Moreover, party committees and commands at all levels have frequently met with and educated soldiers with misbehaviour and poor task performance or those who are in difficult circumstances to take measures for management and education properly. The Division’s offices and units have stringently maintained the standard order, renewed the working method and style, rectified weaknesses, and raised cadres and troops’ legal culture and their awareness towards the observance of the State’s law, military discipline, and units’ regulations. At the same time, great value has been attached to building the healthy military cultural environment associated with implementing the Resolution of the 12^th Party Central Committee’s 4^th Plenum on the Party building and rectification and the Campaign on “promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s Soldiers.” Doing so has helped form a whole and diversify the building and training of revolutionary soldiers. Emulation movements have been maintained stringently and really become an incentive for units’ fulfilment of their task. Due attention has been paid to evaluating the task performance, commending and rewarding collectives and individuals with outstanding achievements in the Determination to Win Emulation Movement and campaigns, particularly in the task of training new recruits and the contingency, difficult missions, which has stimulated troops’ self-study and self-improvement. The emulation movements, namely “the youth with discipline management” and “the youth play a vanguard role in preventing and combating crime, narcotic, and prostitution” as well as the model “battalions and companies successfully fulfil the task, commit no violation of discipline, and ensure the absolute safety” have been well organized. The contests, such as “traffic knowledge” and “10 oaths and 12 disciplinary principles” have been made relevant to the particularities and tasks of each collective and individual.

Thanks to the measures mentioned above, the Division’s cadres and soldiers’ awareness towards the observance of the State’s law and military discipline has been significantly raised. Amidst the complex developments of the situation, the hostile forces’ severe sabotage, the increasingly higher task requirements, the Division’s cadres and soldiers have always kept their mind on their units. In the first half of 2019, cadres and soldiers within the Division have strictly abided by the State’s law and military discipline, ensured traffic safety, and committed no serious violation of discipline. The outcome has provided an important basis for the Division to continue successfully fulfilling all assigned tasks in the time to come.

Sr. Col. Thai Thanh Duc

Commissar of the Division