Tra Vinh provincial Border Guard (hereinafter the Unit) is a key force tasked with managing and defending sovereignty and security of its assigned sea border line. In recent years, in addition to implementing central political missions, the Unit has cooperated with other relevant forces in protecting and managing the great exit-entry number of  people and equipment for constructing and operating Duyen Hai Thermal Company. Therefore, against the backdrop of facing higher mission requirements and operating in negative practices-prone work environment and confronting stronger promotion of “peaceful evolution” strategy and “self-evolution” and self-transformation” via complex artifices and stratagems by hostile forces, the Unit’s Party Committee and Command have comprehensively executed all set tasks on all fronts with emphasis devoted to military regularity and discipline maintenance for the sake of improved overall quality and combativeness. Some valuable experiences and solutions drawn from the reality of establishing military regularity and maintaining discipline have been put in practice effectively as follows.

First,  the Unit’s Party Committee and Command have promoted their leadership and direction over the work of political and ideological education, thereby fostering higher awareness and sense of responsibility amongst cadres and soldiers. Accordingly, the Unit has concentrated its leadership and direction on briefing its affiliates on higher echelons’ resolutions, directions, and guidance on military regularity and discipline maintenance, notably Directive No. 733/CT-BTLBP by Commander of the Border Guard; Resolution No. 452-NQ/ĐU by  Party Committee of the Border Guard on strengthening military regularity and discipline and law observance and traffic safety. To put this into practice, the Unit has directed its affiliates to closely combine the work of education with the launch of emulation movements and promotion of studying and following Uncle Ho’s thought, morality, and lifestyle via effective deeds, taking the performance of promoting military regularity and discipline maintenance as a yardstick for assessing individual and collective mission performance, thereby creating a remarkable transformation in awareness and feelings of responsibility among cadres, soldiers, party members, and all-level party committees and commandants, and contributing to heightening the Unit’s overall quality and combativeness. In 2017, A Flag of top Unit of “determined to win” emulation movement was conferred upon the Unit by Ministry of National Defence; eight affiliates under the Unit were recognized as comprehensively strong unit by the Border Guard High Command.

Cadres of Long Vinh Border Defence Station conduct the work of legal propagation and dissemination for fishermen

Second, bringing into full play model role-setting responsibility as well as the leadership and directive role of all-level party committees and commandants  in the implementation process, which acts as a determinant to the quality and effectiveness of military regularity and discipline maintenance in every office and unit. Accordingly, the Unit has instructed its affiliates to include this task into periodical leadership resolutions and specific action programs. To this end, the Unit has attached great importance to building and streamlining strong and pure party organizations in line with Resolution of the 4^th Plenum of the Central Party Committee (12^th tenure); combining the building of party committees with that of a contingent of all-level key cadres with adequate leadership and directive capabilities. Grounded in the proper implementation of principle of collective leadership and personal responsibility, the Unit has attached great value to promoting individual roles, particularly placing every party committee member in direct charge of monitoring and inspecting grassroots-level units with a focus on units with potential discipline violation and unsafety. This has been one of the significant measures for boosting military regularity and minimizing disciplinary violations within the Unit.

The reality has shown that the more the contingent of cadres and party members set their example of following their unit’s regulations, the better military regularity and discipline maintenance will be. Hence, the Unit has required its cadres and party members to observe their work regulations; to well execute the mottos, namely “a match between words and actions”, “higher echelons set example to lower ones”, “party members set example to the masses” and “the offices set example to the grassroots units”. While actively and effectively carrying out the Campaign “promoting tradition, devoting talents, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers”, which has been concretized through various movements, namely the Youth’s self-governing day; “upholding traditions, maintaining discipline, assisting one another, and promoting accountability”, the Unit has enhanced the operational effectiveness of various mass organizations such as the Youth’s Unions; Women’s Unions; soldiers’ Councils, etc., thereby strengthening a higher sense of duties and responsibilities towards military regularity promotion and discipline management and maintenance amongst cadres and soldiers in offices and units.

Third, enhancing the quality of legal education; strictly and comprehensively maintaining routine activities and discipline on all fronts. The Unit has regarded it as a determinant to soldiers’ grasp of legal knowledge and military regulations as a basis for unified promoted military regularity within the whole Unit. To this end, all offices and units within the Unit have ceaselessly updated themselves on new points and reformed the method of legal dissemination under the motto “close to reality and directly relevant to border affairs”. In parallel with shared training programs, the Unit also strictly adheres to “Day of military regulations” initiated by the Border Guard High Command, which primarily involves introducing regulations and guidance on soldiers’ military uniform and etiquette and practicing line-up regulations. For the sake of comprehensive efficiency, the Unit has directed its affiliates to foster military regularity building on all fronts with a focus on the work of combat readiness training, which acts as a direct contributing factor to enhanced overall quality and combativeness. The affiliates under the Unit have stringently followed training plans, programs, and contents; tightly maintained training protocol while adequately educating cadres and soldiers on heightening combat readiness vigilance and awareness; strictly following on-duty regimes; grasping situations in stationed areas; and regularly supplementing and perfecting combat plans and search and rescue schedules, etc.

Also, the Unit improves its military regularity via a close combination of discipline training, law observance and traffic safety. The affiliates within the Unit have firmly adhered to work regulations on a daily, weekly and monthly basis; promoted the management of discipline and technical materiel and guaranteed traffic safety while rigidly abiding by soldiers’ uniform etiquette and resolutely handling incidents of discipline violations, thereby contributing to building a brilliant image of border guard soldiers; to strictly observing rules and regulations and minimizing incidents of discipline violations and traffic unsafety among offices and units.

Fourth, attaching great importance to promoting democracy and taking care of soldiers’ physical and mental life. Offices and units within the Provincial Border Guard have properly executed democratic principle at grassroots level with a view to closely combining the spread of democracy and promotion of discipline; ensured transparency in the Unit’s operations, especially in personnel work and construction investments; and harmoniously handled relationship between party committees and commandants whilst enhancing the effectiveness of “political, cultural, and spiritual Day” and “legal Day”; encouraging dialogue between all-level  commandants and soldiers, thereby opportunely handling arising ideological developments and petitions and complaints as well as policies regarding soldiers’ duties and responsibilities. In addition, due attention has been paid to building “regular, green, clean, and beautiful” military precincts as evidenced by the fact that annually, a portion of earnings from gardening activities has been earmarked for refurbishing border posts’ facilities. A flurry of cultural, sports, recreational, and leisure activities have been undertaken, pulling in a majority of cadres and soldiers. All the Unit’s cadres and soldiers thereby have expressed their single-minded devotion to duty; been sufficiently self-aware to stringently follow higher echelons’ command, directions, and regulations, and willingly undertaken and accomplished every set task.

With sensible leadership and directive policies and practical solutions, Tra Vinh provincial Border Guard has recorded great achievements in military regularity promotion and discipline maintenance, contributing greatly to improving overall quality, combat readiness capability and building comprehensively strong unit; genuinely promoting its key role in managing and defending national sovereignty and security in its assigned sea border areas.

Senior Colonel Pham Thai Son, Commander of the Provincial Border Guard
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* At present, he is working as Deputy Chief of Staff of the Border Guard.