Being fully aware that discipline is the Military’s strength, the Provincial Military Party Committee (PMPC) and the Provincial Military Command (PMC) have focused their leadership and direction on raising the quality of military standard order building, discipline management and safety maintenance, while making offices and units comprehensively strong and capable of successfully fulfilling all assigned tasks.

In recent years, social evils, especially narcotic trafficking and use, betting, illegal gambling, and black credit have had complex developments. Moreover, the dark side of the market economy and social networks has negatively impacted on cadres and soldiers’ sentiment and ideology. Several offices and units have yet to stringently maintain the military standard order; some cadres and soldiers have even violated the State’s law and the Military’s discipline. Against that backdrop, the PMC has drastically, synchronously adopted measures for military standard order building, discipline management, and safety assurance.

Cadres of the PMC giving presents to locals affected by storms and floods

First of all, the PMC has enhanced all-level party committees and commands’ leadership and direction over the work of military standard order building, discipline management, and safety assurance and regarded it as a breakthrough and a routine political task. Grasping and executing the Directive 103/CT-BQP, dated November 28^th, 2019 by the Ministry of National Defence on strengthening legal and discipline education and management and ensuring safety within the Military, and the Resolution 893/NQ-ĐU, dated March 30^th, 2020 by the Military Region 4’s Party Committee on enhancing military standard order building, law and legal management, and safety assurance within the Military Region 4’s armed forces in the period of 2020-2025 and beyond, the PMPC and the PMC have issued the Action Programme 1510-CTr/ĐU, dated April 20^th, 2020 and the Directive 02/CT-BCH, dated January 2^nd, 2019. At the same time, they have directed offices and units to include this work in regular resolutions, develop action plans, completely overcome their weaknesses, and closely manage their troops’ political quality and social relationships. To raise the effectiveness of military standard order building and discipline management, the PMPC has assigned its members to monitor and inspect offices and units, with emphasis placed on groups and soldiers who would possibly commit violations of law and discipline and safety regulations as well.

In addition, the PMC has asked its offices and units to improve the quality of political education, ideological management, and legal dissemination. More specially, the PMC has directed offices and units to renew and flexibly apply methods and forms of political education associated with legal education, military standard order building, and discipline management. Focuses of education have been placed on clarifying the importance of military standard order building and discipline management to units’ task performance and introducing directives and regulations on this work by higher echelons in order to build up cadres and soldiers’ law-abiding awareness, particularly within units stationed in the remote, border areas and within the militia and self-defence force. While enhancing political education, managing and orientating information on social networks, preventing evil information from negatively impacting on troops’ ideology, managing troops’ social relationships, and opportunely dealing with ideological situations, the PMC has focused on raising the quality of legal dissemination and education, stringently organised the “Legal Study Day,” maintained and multiplied models, such as “one legal question on a daily basis,” “one law and safety regulation on a weekly basis,” and “legal study club,” and establishing teams of legal and psychological consultation. The PMC has sent its cadres to attend training courses, built a contingent of law reporters at all levels, and organised refresher courses on legal dissemination and education for political cadres. It has required offices and units to combine oral dissemination with propagation via mass media, promoted the role of youth unions, women’s unions, and soldiers’ councils, and directed the operation of those organisations towards military standard building and discipline management. It should be noted that the PMC has aligned military standard order building, discipline management, and safety assurance with the implementation of emulation movements and campaigns, particularly the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, the Campaign titled “promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in the new period, and the study and following of General Vo Nguyen Giap’s moral example. As a result, all cadres and soldiers have actively taken part in building the military standard order, observed law and military discipline, and made their offices and units comprehensively strong, “exemplary, and typical.”

The PMC has directed offices and units to review, supplement, and complete their statutes, strictly maintain the regulations on military standard order building, discipline management, and especially training and combat readiness, closely manage personnel, weapons, and technical equipment, build and multiply comprehensively strong affiliates, combine discipline education with the settlement of violations, and avoid masking weaknesses. Moreover, it has asked offices and units to grasp the situation, correctly evaluate and classify their cadres and soldiers, develop plans for helping, educating, and supervising soldiers with the signs of ideological instability and violations of law and discipline. Commanders at all levels have been required to inspect their offices and units, maintain the regulations on duty and work on a daily and weekly basis, especially on days off and in rest hours. Offices and units have been ordered to cooperate with localities and families in managing and educating cadres and soldiers, and preventing social evils from penetrating into units.

Together with military standard order building and discipline management, priority has been given to ensuring safety during missions, particularly training, combat readiness, and traffic. To that end, the PMC has directed offices and units to thoroughly grasp the safety regulations and procedures and practise safety projects. As for COVID-19 and natural disaster prevention and control and search and rescue, the PMC has required offices, units, and teams to opportunely organise safety training courses, such as armed swimming, boat sailing, driving to evacuate people and assets during storms and floods, develop epidemic prevention measures, and closely inspect skills prior to missions. Significance has been attached to formulating and completing projects with the handling of situations and the participation of mobile reserve units for rescue, ensuring communications for report, and mobilising forces for settling incidents in the quickest time. Furthermore, the PMC has required offices and units to effectively implement the Campaign 50, stringently maintain the regulations on banning alcohol and on using helmets. Offices and units have been asked to cooperate with public security offices in ensuring safety in their stations areas. Consideration has been given to regularly organising contests on standard, green, clean, scenic barracks. In this regard, the Contest on military standard order building, discipline management, and safety assurance in 2020 within offices and units did help raise cadres and soldiers’ awareness of law, discipline, and safety. In 2020, in spite of performing the heavy training task, receiving over 8,000 people in quarantine zones for COVID-19, and helping the people to respond to 7 storms and floods, the provincial armed forces ensured the absolute safety.

In the process, the PMC has attached special importance to encouraging cadres and party members’ role model-setting responsibility and building military cultural environment within units. Over time, the PMC has directed offices and units to heighten the exemplary role of cadres, party members, and especially party committee members and commanders in improving morality and lifestyle and observing law and discipline. Under that direction, offices and units have placed emphasis on establishing and including the targets for building cultural units in party committees’ resolutions and commanders’ working plan. 100% of cadres and party members have written commitments to performing their duties and setting good examples. Besides, offices and units have regularly maintained and inspected cadres and soldiers’ military etiquette, upgraded the system of signboards, built standard, uniform barracks, and ensured troops’ mental and material life. Due regard has been paid to implementing the policy for military families and improving cadres and soldiers’ mental and material life. Cultural, artistic, and sports programmes, collective birthday parties, and youth’s forums have been organised to create healthy, diverse cultural environment and enable cadres and soldiers to keep their mind on their work.

Thanks to those above-mentioned measures, between 2015 and 2020, there was a positive change in discipline management and the rate of normal violations was reduced by 16.7%. In 2020, offices and units witnessed no serious violation of law and discipline, which greatly contributed to executing the provincial armed forces’ Determination to Win Emulation Movement. With those achievements, the PMC has been given 41 rewards of all types by the Party, the State, and the Military. That has provided a solid foundation for the provincial armed forces of Quang Binh to raise their synergy and combat power and successfully fulfil the Resolution of the 15^th Provincial Military Party Congress for the 2020-2025 tenure.

Sr. Col. LE VAN VY, Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Board

Commander of the PMC