The Municipal Border Guard (MBG) of Hai Phong has always considered “self-examination” and “self-correction” via specific deeds as an important incentive for performing border defence work, successfully fulfilling its political task, and firmly protecting national sovereignty, political security, and social order and safety within the city’s sea border and port border gate areas.

Properly identifying contents of “self-examination” and “self-correction”

Currently, due to malicious artifices by hostile forces and negative impacts made by the dark side of the market economy, it is vital that each cadre and party member “self-examine” and “self-correct” under Ho Chi Minh’s style. This is a matter of critical importance to preventing and repelling degradation in political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle as well as the signs of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation.” There is a fact that the manifestations of degradation amongst a section of cadres and party members mainly derive from themselves; in spite of impacts made by the “situational factor,” they themselves play a decisive role in solving this issue. Therefore, each cadre and party member must examine themself; after noticing the signs of degradation, they must determinedly and self-consciously adopt remedial measures. No matter how active the work of propagation and education is, and no matter how close inspection and supervision work is, without cadres and party members’ self-awareness and resolve, it is really hard to repel the manifestations of human consciousness. Being fully aware of that, the MBG’s Party Committee and Command have properly identified contents of “self-examination” and “self-correction” for their cadres and party members.

First of all, cadres and party members must raise their awareness of self-education. This measure plays a decisive role in building up cadres and party members’ skills, self-education, and self-improvement in accordance with task requirements. Self-education and self-improvement amongst party members become effective only when they correctly perceive criteria for a party member’s political, intellectual, and moral qualities, lifestyle, and task performance. To build those qualities amongst cadres and party members, the MBG’s Party Committee and Command have directed offices and units’ party committees and commands to enhance the work of propagation and education to raise their staff members’ awareness of the importance of self-study and self-improvement. Doing so has enabled each cadre, party member, and collective and the whole MBG to be fully aware that everyone is not endowed with revolutionary morality and professional competence; they must experience a continuous, serious, endurable study and self-improvement process, “like jade, the more it is polished the more it shines, like gold, it grows ever purer as it goes into the melting pot.”

Each cadre and party member must heighten self-criticism and criticism. In order to effectively exercise self-criticism and criticism, it is necessary to seriously follow a correct method, avoid complaisance and compromise, and remain flexible and clever so that cadres and party members could realise their weaknesses, willingly listen to critics, and work towards remedial measures. Self-criticism and criticism must derive from pure motives; they must be constructive and public under comradeship. Being fully aware of that, the MBG’s Party Committee has required all cadres and party members to step up the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle and know how to criticise themselves first. Cadres and party members holding key positions have been asked to exercise self-criticism before their subordinates and all other ones. Each cadre and party member have designed their own methods to closely combine self-criticism and criticism with correction of defects. More importantly, when exercising self-criticism and criticism, all-level party committees have brought into play democracy. As a result, there have been many initiatives to promote collective knowledge during Party meetings, which has contributed to building pure, strong party organisations and comprehensively strong offices and units capable of fulfilling their assigned missions.

Each cadre and party member must devote effort to improving their professional competence and task performance. According to Ho Chi Minh, a virtuous person without talent is of little use. Practically, task performance is a yardstick for measuring cadres and party members’ competence. Thus, the MBG’s Party Committee has directed all-level party committees and organisations to keep improving their cadres and party members’ political qualities, morality, lifestyle, and professional competence. Currently, border defence work in the city’s sea border and port border gate areas is laying down strict criteria for each cadre and party member’s professional competence, political zeal, and morality. To meet their task requirements, each staff member must heighten the progressive spirit and devote more effort to bettering themself. Each cadre and party member must consider self-study and self-improvement as their own task and requirement. Study is the only way for progress and development. Study must be seen as a duty, a desire, a passion, and a source of joy for each cadre and party member. Without study, cadres and party members will not be capable of meeting their task requirements. Under the spirit of “self-examination” and “self-correction,” all cadres and party members of the MBG have always regarded study as their life’s work, and they have adopted methods of study in accordance with their assigned tasks.

Patrolling the city's port border gate area

Cadres and party members must promote their exemplary role in all activities. When he was alive, President Ho Chi Minh often reminded cadres and party members to set good examples and use good deeds to educate one another as one of the best measures to build the Party, revolutionary organisations, new people, and new life. Being imbued with Uncle Ho’s teachings, the MBG’s Party Committee has required offices and units to bring into play their cadres and party members’ vanguard role in stringently complying with the Party’s regulations on setting good examples for the masses to follow. At the same time, due attention has been paid to developing and seriously abiding by ethical standards of border guard cadres, actively researching and seeking for creative approaches to enable the study and following of Uncle Ho’s moral example to produce practical outcomes and positive effects within offices and units. Great value has been attached to commending, rewarding, and multiplying typical examples in terms of “self-examination” and “self-correction,” and criticising cadres and party members with a lack of effort or laziness in study and self-improvement.

In addition to those above-mentioned measures, to make “self-examination” and “self-correction” become more effective, offices and units of the MBG have actively built a healthy environment for cadres and party members to promote their self-consciousness. Importance has been attached to raising the responsibility of key cadres and building really strong, united party organisations, party committees, and party cells. In any circumstance, leaderships and commands of offices and units must heighten their role model-setting responsibility, maintain the principle of democratic centralism, and ensure the Party’s uniformed leadership. Besides, due regard has been paid to actively renewing contents and methods of Party meetings, well executing Regulations on Democracy at Grass-Roots Level, and encouraging party members to express their opinions in order to bring into play collective knowledge and deal with formalism during Party meetings. Emphasis has been placed on regularly supervising and inspecting cadres and party members to opportunely handle wrongdoings and violations and make contributions to building an increasingly strong, pure contingent of cadres and party members.

The outcomes and spread of “self-examination” and “self-correction”

Thanks to close leadership and direction as well as proper, uniformed methods concretised into annual resolutions and action programmes, “self-examination” and “self-correction” under Ho Chi Minh’s style have been instilled into cadres and party members of the MBG and become a vibrant revolutionary action movement. “Self-examination” and “self-correction” have been exercised within party organisations and mass organisations as well as during Party meetings and work conferences. Cadres and party members, particularly the key ones at all levels have been highly responsible and dedicated to their work, actively improved their capacity, remained proactive and creative, dared to think, dared to do, and dared to take responsibility for the performance of their missions. As a result, all-level party committees and organisations’ leadership capacity and combativeness have been raised as an important contribution to building pure, strong party organisations, “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong offices and units, and excellently strong mass organisations. It should be noted that the MBG has promoted its core role in assisting local party committees and authorities in performing border defence work and defence-security task in the new situation, grasping  the situation at sea, maintaining the Vietnam-China Agreement on Maritime Boundary Delimitation in the Gulf of Tonkin and the Vietnam-China Agreement on Fishery Cooperation, effectively fighting against violations of our national sovereignty by foreign vessels and crime of various types within the city’s sea border and port border gate areas, preventing and combating natural disasters, and conducting search and rescue operations.

The outcomes of “self-examination” and “self-correction” have provided a solid foundation for the MBG of Hai Phong to continue enhancing the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, well executing the Central Military Commission’s Resolution 847-NQ/QUTW, dated December 28^th, 20221 on bringing into play the virtues of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers” and resolutely fighting against individualism in the new situation, and making contributions to building pure, strong party organisations and “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong offices and units capable of fulfilling their assigned missions.

Sr. Col. PHAM HONG PHONG, Commissar of the MBG