Tuyen Quang is a northern mountainous province with a great revolutionary tradition. The ethnic minorities within the province have always shown their solidarity and assisted one another in well implementing the Party’s guidelines, State’s policies and laws, and local regulations. However, their level of awareness and understanding of the law remain low, especially in remote, isolated, and ethnic minority-inhabited areas. On the other hand, there exist complicated happenings regarding illegal religious propagation, land dispute, illegal mineral resource exploitation, etc. These factors directly affect the ideology, morality, lifestyle and sense of law observance among cadres and soldiers of the armed forces. Being fully aware of this situation, the Provincial Military Party Committee and Command have taken many measures to direct soldiers’ sense of law observance. In particular, emphasis has been placed on combining legal education with disciplinary management in order to produce steady improvements in both awareness and action of cadres and soldiers.

Sr. Col. Ha Kien Cuong presenting certificates of merit to individuals with outstanding achievements in the military-defence mission

To this end, the Provincial Military Party Committee and Command have always led and directed units to thoroughly grasp higher echelons’ instructions and resolutions on the work of legal education and disciplinary management. The Provincial Military Party Committee has issued a specialized resolution on making a breakthrough in “yielding steady disciplinary improvements” within the armed forces. Grounded on that resolution, the commanders and political commissars at all levels have included the resolution in their action programs/plans in a synchronous and effective manner. Due regard has been paid to promoting the role of political agency, political cadres and mass organizations to ensure the resolution’s realization, positively contributing to the soldiers’ disciplinary observance, building a comprehensively strong unit.

In order to clearly identify focal points and make significant changes in the legal propagation, dissemination and education, the Provincial Military Command has directed its units to focus on selecting specific content close to each subject when developing their plan for legal education, especially the units taking charge of training, combat readiness, and the ones stationed in remote, isolated, and ethnic minority-inhabited areas as well. The agencies and units have regularly made their cadres and soldiers thoroughly grasp legal documents and newly amended, supplemented, and replaced regulations with the attention paid to the regulations directly related to national defence and security. For the active force, significance has been attached to propagating and educating National Defence Law in 2015, Law on Military Service in 2015, Law on Professional Servicemen-women, National Defence Workers and Officials in 2015, Law on Civil Judgment Enforcement, Law on Road Traffic, Law on Anti-Corruption, basic contents of the Law on Management and Use of Weapons, Explosives and Combat Gears in 2017, basic contents of the Criminal Code in 2015, Law No. 100/2015/QH13 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Criminal Code, Circular 157/2017/TT-BQP by the Ministry of National Defence on the management and use of defence land for national defence purposes, etc. At the same time, consideration has been given to supplementing some Provincial Military Command’s regulations related to training, combat readiness, weapon and equipment preservation, soldier management, regularity building, and disciplinary observance. The provincial armed forces’ cadres and soldiers have been given time to watch the film “The Military Region 2’s Armed Forces promote tradition, strictly maintain discipline, deserve to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers” and to study the supporting document “Unifying awareness, equipping soldiers with a number of necessary skills”. For the reserve and militia and self-defence forces, attention has been paid to disseminating and educating basic contents related to the militia and self-defence force, our Party’s view on partners and opponents of Vietnamese revolution in the new situation, some basic contents of the law on military service, militia and self-defence force, defence and security education, reserve force, national defence mobilization, civil defence, and other relevant documents. For the people within the area of responsibility, the Provincial Military Command has mobilized them to well execute the Party’s guidelines and State’s policies and laws. The focus has been placed on popularizing the Law on Criminal Procedure, Law on Land, Law on Marriage and Family, Law on Complaints and Denunciations, Law on Environment, and Ordinance on Forests. For the sake of effective study, in each legal education topic, the contingent of disseminators has opportunely provided information about units’ situation of law and discipline observance; clearly analysed the benefits of law and discipline respect, compliance, and enforcement. Besides, importance has been attached to commending the exemplary models of “good people, good deeds” and criticizing acts of law and discipline violation, making every cadre and soldier have a thorough understanding of the contents.

To avoid boredom in the process, the Provincial Military Command has instructed the units to regularly renew legal education methods. Under that spirit, the units have flexibly manipulated forms of legal education. Accordingly, they have organized full-time classes or integrated legal education content into political classes and news briefings. Simultaneously, value has been attached to combining this form with many other ones of propagation, such as: talks, forums, cultural and arts exchanges, law knowledge contest, law story telling contest; good disseminator and good communicator contests so as to regularly update cadres and soldiers on legal knowledge. The units have stringently operated the “Law Day” (once a month). Focuses have been placed on disseminating higher echelons’ legal documents, directives and instructions related to the soldiers’ disciplinary observance; exchanging and discussing legal issues combined with checking the cadres and soldiers’ awareness of law and discipline observance. Thereby, this has made all cadres and soldiers firmly grasp and understand basic contents of the law, making a great contribution to stimulating a positive and sustainable development in the sense of law and discipline observance. In addition, units have been encouraged to enhance the effective exploitation, management and use of legal books and newspapers in Legal Book Compartments and Legal Bookcases within themselves; actively exploit many sources to supplement new legal books, newspapers, and documents, enriching legal content to attract cadres and soldiers to read, study, and broaden their knowledge in this field.

In order to create an extensive change in both awareness and action of each soldier, the units have often incorporated legal education into disciplinary management measures. Specifically, regard has been paid to strictly maintaining regimes and regulations, intensifying regularity building and disciplinary management; conducting training on Military Regulations, ensuring soldiers’ uniform and manners; closely combining the performance of training and combat readiness tasks with regular manner training and discipline maintenance; consolidating the inspection of units, especially at the battalion level. The commanders and political commissars have always upheld their responsibility for managing soldiers; shouldered responsibility towards the superior and Provincial Military Command for the work of discipline management and training in their units; reviewed and clarified responsibility of individuals and organizations for violations of the State law and Military discipline by their subordinate cadres and soldiers. The Provincial Military Command has requested its units to manage soldiers strictly, especially during days-off, holidays, New Year occasion; had thorough understanding of specific individuals to take appropriate educational measures. Moreover, great importance has been attached to resolutely preventing cadres and soldiers in units from committing social evils and serious disciplinary violations; to well complying with the Grassroots Democracy Regulations, strengthening internal solidarity and the unity between soldiers and people. The units have actively advised local party committees and authorities to well carry out legal education work; closely cooperated with local functional agencies and local people in firmly grasping the situation of political security, social order and safety in the stationed area. As a result, they has opportunely detected and solved incidents, reaching a consensus and solidarity between soldiers and people, contributing to the construction of “a steady people’s hearts and minds posture” within the defensive area.

The practical and effective performance of legal education and disciplinary management has contributed to steady improvements in many aspects of the provincial armed forces. Throughout the evaluation of the quality of party organizations and party members in 2018, the Provincial Military Party Committee was rated pure and strong. Specifically, 100% of party members fulfilled their tasks, in which 97.63% well and excellently completed their tasks. These achievements have earned the Provincial Military Party Committee recognition as a pure and strong party committee from Tuyen Quang Provincial Party Committee. The cadres and soldiers have strictly abided by the State’s law and Military discipline, with absolute traffic safety and no serious disciplinary violation. As a result, it has directly contributed to enhancing comprehensive quality, combat readiness capability, ensuring that the provincial armed forces have successfully accomplished all assigned tasks. With the achievements, the Military Command of Tuyen Quang Province was awarded the Flag of the Leading Unit in the Determined to Win Emulation Movement; 97 collectives and 225 individuals were commended by all-level higher echelons.

In the coming time, Tuyen Quang Provincial Military Party Committee and Command will continue to carry out synchronous practical solutions in order to ceaselessly heighten the quality of legal propagation, dissemination and education as well as disciplinary management, contributing to building comprehensively strong provincial armed forces as the core in local national defence and military tasks.

Sr. Col. Ha Kien Cuong, Member of the Standing Board of the Provincial Party Committee, Commander of the Provincial Military Command