When he was alive, President Ho Chi Minh instructed: “Mass mobilisation is of paramount importance. Ineffective mass mobilisation leads to poor performance in everything. Effective mass mobilisation leads to success in everything”. Being imbued with his teachings, Military Region 1’s armed forces have actively enhanced mass mobilisation via various synchronous, effective measures, thus contributing to improving the people’s material and mental life, consolidating the posture of all-people national defence associated with the posture of people’s security, and particularly building an increasingly firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds”.

Mass mobilisation is a basic part of the Party work and an important, routine task of the whole Army and Military Region 1, laying a foundation for building a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds” and firmly protecting the Fatherland in the new situation. Thoroughly grasping Ho Chi Minh’s ideology and the Party’s resolutions and directives on mass mobilisation, particularly the 11^th Party Central Committee’s Resolution 25-NQ/TW, dated 3^rd June 2013, on “strengthening and renewing the Party’s leadership over mass mobilisation in the new situation”, the Military Region’s Party Committee issued Resolution 1357-NQ/ĐU, dated 18^th March 2015, on “enhancing and renewing mass mobilisation work of the Military Region’s armed forces in the new situation”. According to the Resolution, conducting mass mobilisation represents a regular political task of all-level party committees, party cells, commissars, and commands as well as all offices, units, cadres, soldiers, national defence workers and officials within the Military Region; well performing the work of mass mobilisation demonstrates the Army’s nature and glorious tradition, while helping create unity and a consensus between the Army and people. In the process, the Military Region has directed all-level party committees and organisations to grasp and flexibly apply Ho Chi Minh’s ideology on mass mobilisation to reality with a view to continuously raising the quality and effectiveness of this important work.

Leaders of Military Region 1 and Bac Son district (Lang Son province) give presents to cadres and soldiers performing mass mobilisation work within the locality              (photo: qdnd.vn)

Under President Ho Chi Minh’s teachings: “All government officials, union members, and members of the people's organisations (Lien Viet, Viet Minh, etc.) must be in charge of mass mobilisation”, the Military Region’s Party Committee and Command have required all-level party committees to adhere to the Statutes on Mass Mobilisation by the Central Military Commission and align the performance of mass mobilisation work with the leadership outcome of party committees and organisations and the task performance of cadres and party members as the basis for yearly evaluation, commendation, and appointment. Emphasis has been placed on dealing with the sign of disregarding mass mobilisation or the perception that this work is responsibility of political offices or mass mobilisation cadres. The Military Region has directed all-level party committees to enhance inspection and supervision of mass mobilisation work, regularly grasp the performance of this work to adjust methods of leadership, and pay due regard to cadres and soldiers in charge of mass mobilisation at grass-roots level. The Military Region has focused on detecting, developing, and multiplying typical examples and effective models of “clever mass mobilisation”. Offices and units have well implemented Resolution of the 13^th Party Central Committee’s 4^th Plenum on Party building and rectification in line with the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle and the Campaign titled “Promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in the new period. The Military Region has also enhanced the management and training of cadres, party members, and soldiers so that they would strictly observe military discipline and State law, particularly on mass mobilisation. Doing so has contributed to cementing the people’s faith in the Military Region’s armed forces and gaining the people’s support for the performance of tasks.

Following Uncle Ho’s teachings: “Cadres in charge of mass mobilisation work must be mind-thinking, eyes-observing, ears-listening, feet-walking, mouth-saying, hands-doing”, the Military Region has directed offices, units, party members, and cadres in charge of mass mobilisation to regularly renew the content, forms, and methods of mass mobilisation towards grass-roots level units and localities and actively settle arising issues, particularly in remote, isolated, border, ethnic minority inhabited areas. The Military Region has promoted the models, such as twinning, field march combined with mass mobilisation, deployment of working teams and cadres to localities. At the same time, consideration has been given to multiplying new, effective, highly practical models and approaches, associating the Army’s Determined to Win Emulation Movement with localities’ Patriotic Emulation Movement, the building of “units with clever mass mobilisation”, and other movements and campaigns launched by localities, continuing to step up movements, campaigns, and models, such as “paying debt of gratitude”, “the Army joins hands for the poor lest no one be left behind”, “building a fine, healthy, diverse cultural environment within the Army”, “all people unite in building new-style rural areas and civilised urban areas”, “meeting with village heads and persons with great prestige within ethnic minorities”, “twinning villages with villages from the two sides of the border” in accordance with the particularities of each area and local customs, thus contributing to raising the effectiveness of mass mobilisation.

Being imbued with Uncle Ho’s words: “it is a must to seek every single way to make every citizen clearly understand that job is beneficial to them, belongs to them, and they must passionately do it at any rate”, the Military Region has directed its affiliates to select topics of propagation and education relevant to the people’s educational level so that the people, particularly ethnic minorities would easily understand, remember, and realise those topics. Significance has been attached to raising public awareness and achieving a consensus about implementing the Party’s guidelines, the State’s policies and law, and resolutions and directives by the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defence on closely combining socio-economic, cultural development with defence and security and vice versa. Due attention has been paid to remaining vigilance and fighting against illegal missionary work, hostile forces’ exploitation of “ethnicity” and “religion” issues to sabotage our Party, State, and local authorities, preventing and pushing back negative practices, social evils, and depraved customs. The Military Region has deployed mass mobilisation teams and groups to border villages to disseminate the National Border Law, the Law on Marriage and Family, the Law on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children, Regulations on Borderline. At the same time, the Military Region has proactively cooperated with the Border Guard Force in encouraging the people to fight against illegal farming, illegal immigration, illegal exploitation of forest products, and illegal transportation of people across the border. As a result, a majority of cadres, soldiers, and ethnic minorities in the area have been sufficiently aware of the Party’s guidelines, the State’s law and policies, the unity between the Army and people, while proactively combating hostile forces’ plots and artifices, actively taking part in protecting political security and social order and safety, consolidating the postures of national defence and security, and firmly defending the national border.

Performing the function as “an army ready for work”, over the years, the Military Region has deployed hundreds of companies and working teams, tens of thousands of cadres and soldiers, and a lot of projects (developed by Economic – Defence Units 338 and 799) to remote, isolated, border, extremely difficult areas for the sake of hunger eradication and poverty reduction. The Military Region has proactively cooperated with local party committees, authorities, sectors, and organisations in strengthening political bases, defence, and security. In 2023 alone, the Military Regions’ armed forces took part in building 428 strong political bases (249 in ethnic minority inhabited areas, 25 in religious people inhabited areas, 44 in border areas) and 56 politico-social organisations; 62 district-level and provincial-level military cadres joined local party committees and authorities; 37 ethnic minorities was initiated into the Party; it provided vocational training for nearly 1,500 citizens. Moreover, due regard has been paid to well carrying out policy work and actively providing assistance for families under preferential treatment policy, persons with meritorious services to the revolution, and families in extreme difficulty within the Military Region’s area. Under the motto of “communicating with the people to make them understand, taking practice to make the people believe and follow”, the Military Region has directed mass mobilisation teams and intellectual volunteer groups to learn ethnic minority languages as the bridge for disseminating science and technology among ethnic minorities to develop forestry and agriculture. Members of those teams and groups have had meals with, lived with, worked with, and spoken the same language with the people to encourage the people to follow new cultural lifestyle and help the people develop production and apply science and technology to animal and crop husbandry, while carrying out poverty reduction projects and building examples in household economy, thereby contributing to reducing the rates of poverty and hunger, bolstering the image of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in the people’s hearts and minds,

Specific, practical activities in mass mobilisation work by cadres and soldiers of the Military Region’s armed forces have directly contributed to enabling the people to improve their life and keep their mind on economic development, maintaining political security and social order and safety, cementing the national great unity block in the Fatherland’s strategic region. Those good results not only serve as a tribute to the people of Viet Bac – the cradle of the Vietnamese revolution or reinforce the tradition of being “pious, pioneering, united, victorious” of the Military Region’s armed forces, but also contribute to making the posture of all-people national defence associated with the posture of people’s security, particularly the “posture of people’s hearts and minds” increasingly strong, creating a favourable environment for localities to foster socio-economic development and strengthen defence and security in the cause of Fatherland construction and protection.

Maj. Gen. LA CONG PHUONG

Deputy Commissar of the Military Region