Over the past years, while facilitating socio-economic development, Son Dong district (Bac Giang province) has attached importance to strengthening defence and security potential and posture. To that end, the district has concentrated on building solid defensive zone via various synchronous, proper measures.
Son Dong has a large area (860.17 km2; 2/3 of its area is covered by mountains), complex terrain, poor road-traffic infrastructure, people’s low living standard and income, economic underdevelopment (one of 63 poor districts of Vietnam), and its budget mainly depends on higher echelons. Therefore, its capabilities to mobilize resources, especially material ones in building defensive zone have been limited. Meanwhile, illegal missionary work by hostile forces, unsettled deforestation and forest disputes, natural disasters (flash floods, landslide, etc.) have greatly impacted on the district’s the district’s socio-economic development and implementation of defence and military missions. Perceiving that, over the past years, grasping resolutions and directives by the Party Central Committee, the Military Region 1, and Bac Giang province, Son Dong district’s Party Committee, authority and locals have stood united in overcoming difficulties and accomplishing these important tasks.
Notably, awareness of cadres, party members and people within the district towards the defence-military missions and the building of defensive zone as well has witnessed a considerable change. Training courses on defence and security knowledge have been expanded. Importance has been attached to consolidating and improving the effectiveness of the Steering Board on defensive zone, military offices and military staff of committees, sectors, and localities in the area. The Military Office has promoted its role in counselling and implementing the construction Project in the defensive zone, in managing and using defence land, and in protecting military constructions. Significance has been attached to building comprehensively strong political bases, which has contributed to preventing and foiling the “peaceful evolution” strategy and plot of “subversion” by hostile forces, facilitating local socio-economic development. However, a part from the attained results, awareness of a section of cadres and people towards the building of defensive zone has yet to be comprehensive; some even think it is the task assigned to the armed forces only. The local budget for the defensive zone’s constructions, particularly defence ones has yet to meet the requirements set by the task of protecting the area in the new situation. The speed of several defence constructions has been still slow. Some local party committees and authorities’ capabilities to concretize higher echelons’ directives and resolutions into their own ones have been limited. In the coming time, to overcome those weaknesses and improve the quality of building the defensive zone, cadres, party members and people from all walks of life in Son Dong district should promote the tradition of a Heroic Unit and seriously, synchronously take the measures as follows.
First, enhancing the leadership capacity of party committees and management efficiency of authorities at all levels in the building of defensive zone. This is a matter of importance which ensures this task will be orientated and effective. To that end, first and foremost, party committees and key cadres at all levels should grasp higher echelons’ resolutions and directives on building defensive zone, such as the Politburo’s Resolution 28-NQ/TW, the Government’s Decrees 152/2007/NĐ-CP and 02/2016/NĐ-CP, the Military Region 1’s Directive 416/CT-BTL, and particularly Bac Giang Provincial Party Committee’s Directive 19/CT/TU, dated April 7th, 2015, on leadership over provincial, district-level defensive zones in the period of 2015-2020. Grounded on those documents, it is necessary to conduct the work of propagation and education to render the armed forces and all people fully aware of the importance of this prime task and their responsibility for the task. To protect the Party, regime, and people’s revolutionary achievements, the district’s Party Committee should focus on building the “people’s hearts and minds posture”, the all-people national defence posture associated with the people’s security posture, the armed forces and the military posture in both long and short terms. In this regard, it should direct offices and localities to combine the party committee’s leadership with the authority’s state management of defence to ensure that resolutions are implemented and obtain the effectiveness. On the one hand, the district needs to concentrate on building and enhancing the effectiveness of the political system; on improving all-level party committees and authorities’ capabilities to lead, direct and perform tasks, particularly the capability to issue the resolution and carry out the defence-military tasks among secretaries and key cadres of the district’s sectors and offices, communes, enterprises, even party cells, villages and groups of residential areas. On the other hand, it should proactively renew all-level party committees and cadres’ method and style to lead, direct and perform the task of building defensive zone under the guidelines: working according to plans democratically, responsibly and closely, receiving and opportunely, properly handling aspirations by lower echelons. Significance should be attached to consolidating and promoting the role of the Steering Board on defensive zone, and offices, organizations and localities with the Military and Public Security as the core in advising local party committees and authorities on policies and leadership measures. During the course of implementation, it is important to well conduct investigation and inspection of the building and operation of defensive zone as well as review to draw lessons and provide the basis for improving the quality of the subsequent steps.
Second, building strong local armed forces – a determinant to the synergy and operational capacity of the district’s defensive zone. Thus, the district focuses on making local military forces (both regular and reserve forces) and the militia and self-defence forces comprehensively strong to be really the reliable political, combat forces to protect the Party, authorities and people in all situations. Specifically, the regular forces should be made “compact, strong, mobile, and flexible”. Focuses should be placed on improving political zeal, capabilities in staff and operation, mastery of combat projects, particularly in a hi-tech war, cyberspace war as well as the projects to protect the political regime, maintain security and political stability in the area, and capabilities to master new materiel. It is vital to ensure that the forces must be the core in performing the defence-military tasks and cooperating with other forces in forest fire and flood prevention and control, etc. As for the reserve forces, reviewing the 20-year implementation of the Ordinance on the reserve forces (1996-2016), the district’s Party Committee and People’s Committee continue to closely combine the registration, management, arrangement and human resources preparation for the reserve forces with the management of technical equipment and means of the national economy to mobilize when necessary. It is essential to cooperate with cadres-based units (mainly staffed by cadres) in reviewing, appointing, raising and removing salary grade as well as in sufficiently, opportunely providing entitlements and financial policies for objects in accordance with higher echelons’ regulations. Moreover, it is vital to build the reserve forces both qualitatively and quantitatively to readily supplement the regular forces. The militia and self-defence forces should be made “strong, extensive”, with emphasis devoted to building cadres in charge of grass-roots level units who wear two hats and enhancing their capability and responsibility under the Provincial Military Party Committee’s Project 263-ĐA/ĐUQS, dated May 8th, 2017, on “improving the quality of military cadres of villages until 2020 and beyond”. The quantity of party members within the militia and self-defence forces of enterprises in the area should be increased, and it is necessary to make this force politically strong and absolutely loyal to the Party, the regime and the people as the core in settlement of defence-security situations, fire and flood prevention and control at grass-roots level.
Third, the district’s Military Party Committee attaches great importance to building the inter-connected, solid, in-depth military posture in the defensive zone in accordance with the local armed forces’ method of combat. Based on the master plan for socio-economic development associated with defence-security consolidation in the area, the district determines to combine the building of new works with the use and repair of caves and existing terrains to make them combat works to reduce the cost. The building of new works in the military posture according to the military construction Project in the defensive zone in the 2016-2020 period has been totally funded by the district’s budget in a procedural manner from making surveys to designing, appraising, approving, implementing, supervising and inspecting the project in order to serve the training task in peacetime and the combat task in wartime. In short term, the district will accelerate the process of constructions in the defensive zone. It strives to complete 2-3 constructions in the combat base (headquarters and evacuation zone) and several constructions in the rear base (roads for manoeuvre and firing ranges), to put those into use by 2018 while gradually completing others as planned yearly. The building of the military posture must not affect localities’ socio-economic development; it should be in accordance with the general defensive zone of the province and the Military Region 1 as well as the project to build new-style rural area, and promote the tradition, capability and combat method of the armed forces in the area.
In addition to combat constructions in the defensive zone, on a yearly basis, the district’s Party Committee should direct the Military Office to cooperate with committees and sectors in opportunely supplementing documents and plans on combat task, mobilization and reception of the reserve forces, people’s air defence, natural disaster prevention and mitigation as well as search and rescue. In its tenure, the district’s Party Committee strives to organize the defensive exercises and forest fire prevention and control drills for all communes and wards, and the district-level defensive zone exercise in a safe manner with good results. Those exercises will help enhance all-level party committees and authorities’ capabilities in leadership and operation as well as the capabilities of coordinated settlement of situations by forces in the defensive zone, contributing to defeating hostile forces’ plots of sabotage, safeguarding the area, creating a favourable condition for making Son Dong economically developed and strong in political, defence and security terms, and stand firm in the road of renewal and integration.
Nghiem Xuan Huong, Standing Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Secretary of the District’s Party Committee