“People's hearts and minds posture” is an extremely important factor that has helped our nation firmly defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity and maintain sustainable development up to now. In the new era, the task of inheriting and promoting national tradition of building a solid “people’s hearts and minds posture” in consolidating the all-people national defence and the all-people national defence posture needs to be studied and effectively applied in practice.

A workshop on promoting the provincial-level armed forces’ role in building the people’s hearts and minds posture held in Military Region 1 (photo: qdnd.vn)

Viet Bac occupies a strategically important position in terms of politics, economics, society, national defence, security, and diplomacy, serveing as a “cornerstone of national fence” for the Northern region and the whole country. Fully aware of this, over the years, the Party Committee and Command of Military Region 1 (MR1) have implemented various synchronised policies and leadership solutions to strengthen the “people’s hearts and minds posture”, the all-people national defence, and the people’s security, thereby establishing a solid foundation for the successful realisation of the cause of building and protecting the Fatherland. Playing a core role in building the “people’s hearts and minds posture”, MR1’s armed forces have always promoted propagation work and encouraged ethnic communities to successfully implement the Party’s guidelines and the State’s laws whilst paying due regard to fostering socio-economic development, improving material and spiritual life of people from all walks of life and so on. As a result, the synergy created by people all walks of life has been mobilised to unanimously increasingly fortify MR1’s all-people national defence and local defensive zones.

However, Viet Bac is a vast area where ethnic communities with a relatively low level of education and lingering unsound customs still face difficulties. Hostile and reactionary forces exploit religious and ethnic issues to intensify sabotage activities aimed at dividing the people’s unity and instilling doubts about the Party’s leadership and the path towards socialism. Against this backdrop, building a solid “people’s hearts and minds posture”, strengthening the bloc of great national unity, and consolidating the people’s trust in the Party’s leadership and the State’s management in MR1’s area of responsibility are of importance and urgency. The article discusses several solutions to bringing into play the role of the armed forces in building a firm “people’s hearts and minds posture” in Viet Bac region.

First, thoroughly grasping and strictly adhering to the Party’s guideline, the State’s policies and laws, and resolutions and directives of the Central Military Commission and Ministry of National Defence on consolidating national defence and security in the region. Maintaining national defence and security as well as ensuring social order and safety for people’s daily life and working environment is crucial to bolstering trust in the armed forces, Party committees, and authorities at all levels, thereby building a firm “people’s hearts and minds posture”. Accordingly, MR1’s armed forces need to continue to responsibly cooperate with local Party committees and authorities in synchronously, effectively realising the Party’s resolutions, the State’s policies and laws, and national defence and security strategies while focusing their leadership and directions on properly implementing training and combat readiness tasks, building exemplary and comprehensively strong party organisations, bolstering the qualities of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in the new era. At the same time, there is a need for closely cooperating with relevant agencies and functional departments in proactively studying, forecasting, firmly grasping relevant situations and opportunely proposing recommendations to Party committees and authorities at all levels on effectively executing Government Decree 164/2018/ND-CP dated 21 December 2018 on “combining national defence with socio-economic development; socio-economic development with national defence”, and Government Decree 21/ND-CP dated 22 February 2019 on “defensive zones” in order to enhance national defence capabilities and contribute to improving the people’s lives and building a firm “people’s hearts and minds posture”.

Second, respecting and relying on the people and empowering them to exercise their right to mastery in building the “people’s hearts and minds posture”.  This has been a valuable lesson drawn from the Party’s cause of revolutionary leadership. Therefore, in all activities, agencies, and units must consistently demonstrate respect and trust towards the people, rely on them under the motto: “the people know, the people discuss, the people do, the people inspect, and the people benefit”. This approach promotes the comprehensive strength of the political system and the bloc of national unity in the cause of consolidating national defence and security, and safeguarding the Fatherland. In practice, it is necessary to place importance on expanding democracy in accordance with the Grass-roots Level Democracy Regulations to ensure that “the people know, the people discuss”, aiming to bring into full play the wisdom of the entire people in building the “people’s hearts and minds posture”. To earn the trust and support of the people, agencies and units must synchronously adopt measures of propagation and education and stimulate patriotism, the will for national self-reliance, and the aspiration to develop a prosperous and happy country. Additionally, emphasis should be placed on encouraging the people to strictly follow the Party’s guidelines, the State’s policies and laws, strengthening social consensus, and enhancing the people’s trust in the Party, State, and political system. It is essential to actively assist the people in boosting economic, cultural, and social development and improving their material and spiritual lives, especially in remote, isolated and border areas. It is important to stringently implement ethnic and religious policies, ensure equality, solidarity, respect, and mutual assistance among ethnic groups, and safeguard the freedom of belief and religion of the people as stipulated by the law whilst it is necessary to effectively leverage the roles of dignitaries and individuals with high prestige within the ethnic community in encouraging minor ethnic groups and religious believers to live “a good life and a virtuous faith”, thereby actively contributing to the cause of building and protecting the Fatherland. Finally, significant effort should be devoted to resolutely fighting against all forms of prejudice, extreme nationalism, violations of freedom of belief and religion, and effectively foiling separatist activities aimed at undermining the great unity bloc of the entire nation.

Third, intensifying the work of mass mobilisation and actively participating in building a strong grass-roots political system. Realities have shown that only when their basic needs and desires are met do ethnic minorities will wholeheartedly trust and follow the Party. Therefore, in terms of mass mobilisation work, offices and units need to attach importance to advising local party committees, authorities, and people to implement programs and projects for socio-economic development, poverty alleviation and hunger eradication with a focus on constructing new-style rural areas through specific activities, such as building essential infrastructure for communities, guiding the people on transitioning livestock and crops, and applying scientific and technological advances to increase labour productivity. This will create a means of livelihood for the people, helping them improve their living standards, contributing to building new-style rural areas. Additionally, it is essential to actively and proactively cooperate with local party committees, authorities, and organisations in comprehensively building a comprehensively strong grass-roots political system, particularly in remote, border, and ethnic minority areas. Efforts should be concentrated on advising local party committees and authorities to effectively fulfil their state management functions regarding national defence and security, selecting cadres with sufficient qualities for local party committees. On a yearly basis, military conscription and enrolment work should be carried out effectively to supply personnel for localities. Party members should also be encouraged to participate in activities at the village-level Party cells. Moreover, it is crucial to enhance the roles and responsibilities of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, political and social organisations, and people from all walks of life in building and rectifying the Party and political system at grass-roots level while it is important to raise the quality and effectiveness of social supervision and feedback to contribute to building party committees and authorities of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, political-social organisations, and the people right from grass-roots level, thereby ceaselessly enhancing the trust, consensus, and unity of the people towards all-level party committees and authorities.

Fourth, strengthening the struggle to thwart hostile forces’ plots and artifices of “peaceful evolution” aimed at sabotaging the “people's hearts and minds posture”. Currently, hostile and reactionary forces are blatantly propagating distortions and alleging that our Party and State are violating freedoms, democracy, and human rights, committing ethnic discrimination and religious oppression, etc., with a view to inciting extremist nationalism and separatist ideologies, agitating for the so-called “autonomy” of ethnic minorities, sowing national division, and undermining the national unity bloc. Therefore, party committees and commands need to uphold the task of protecting the Party’s ideological foundation and fighting hostile viewpoints. This entails actively identifying and combating the conspiracies and sabotage activities against the “people’s hearts and minds posture” with an aim to sow discord within the national unity bloc. There should be a close connection between combating artifices of “peaceful evolution” and fighting degeneration in political ideology, ethics, lifestyle, “self-evolution”, and “self-transformation” from within, thereby contributing to firmly protecting the Party’s ideological foundation, strengthening the “people’s hearts and minds posture”, and safeguarding the Fatherland in all situations. For the sake of high effectiveness, offices and units need to closely cooperate with Steering Committee No.35 of provinces and cities in promoting the roles and responsibilities of organisations and forces, forming comprehensive strength to effectively counter hostile views. In particular, the role of Force 47 and the cyber warfare force should be emphasised to apply technical measures to prevent, detect, and eliminate misinformation, distortions, and incitement against the Party, State, and Army, especially on the Internet and social networks. Additionally, it is necessary to regularly provide news update on the domestic, regional, and international security and political situation, as well as to give ideological orientation to cadres, party members, and the people to foster social consensus on building a firm “people’s hearts and minds posture”.

The “people’s hearts and minds posture” is a source of motivation for all forces and all social strata to struggle for the revolutionary cause of the Party and nation. Only with a firm “people’s hearts and minds posture” can we gain the people’s support and mobilise material and spiritual resources, thereby creating tremendous momentum to ensure the victory of the cause of constructing and protecting the Fatherland. If we fail to establish and constantly nurture this crucial “posture”, immeasurable risks will be posed to our Fatherland, Party, and State. Hence, effectively implementing the aforementioned solutions to building a solid “people’s hearts and minds posture” in Viet Bac region is a strategic matter of urgency to creating the comprehensive strength of the entire Party and people in the current cause of national construction and defence.

Lt. Gen. DUONG DINH THONG

Political Commissar of Military Region 1