Thoroughly grasping Uncle Ho's instructions that: “Our people have two forces. The first one is the Military for fighting foreign invaders, protecting the homeland, and preserving peace. The other is the Police for fighting against domestic enemies and the disrupters ... In wartime, the Military will fight against the enemy, in peacetime, they conduct training. As for the Police, they have to fight the enemy regularly; they work in wartime, and  even harder in peacetime”, the Police and the Military of Trieu Son District have always coordinated closely with each other in every task to build solid all-people defence posture associated with people's security posture.

Trieu Son District is located in the East-West development corridor, the central region connecting Lam Son - Sao Vang - Thanh Hoa city dynamic hub, so it has an important position in socio-economic, defence and security aspects of Thanh Hoa Province and the region. Implementing the renewal policy of the Party, the Party Committee, government, people and armed forces of Trieu Son District have brought into play the revolutionary tradition, dynamism, creativity, overcome difficulties, exploited potentials and advantages, and mobilised all resources to develop the District fast and sustainably. Over the past years, the urbanisation and industrialisation of the District has been growing with increasing speed; its service and tourism sectors are developing robustly; people's living standards have been improved; average economic growth reaches over 09%/year, national defence and security have been consolidated and strengthened. Besides the basic advantages, some potential risks of instability still persist in the District. The process of urbanisation, economic structural transformation, and tourism development has given rise to some problems in social management, such as: large-scale complaints; illegal mineral exploitation; legal violations of the environmental law, food safety and hygiene regulations, etc. In addition, the opportunistic and reactionary forces always try to take advantage of racial and religious issues to conduct subversive activities, causing socio-political instability in the area.

Recognising the advantages and disadvantages, over the past years, together with focusing on economic development, the District Party Committee and People's Committee have always paid attention to the task of defence and security. In particular, they have attached importance to leading and directing the Police and Military forces to well coordinate and promote the core role in advising and performing defence and security tasks. Thoroughly grasping that direction and deeply understanding Uncle Ho's teachings that: “The Police and the Army are the two arms of the people, the Party, the Government”, the Police and the Military of the district have thoroughly grasped and implemented the Government's Decree No. 77/2010/ND-CP, dated July 12, 2010 (now Decree No. 03/2019/NĐ-CP, dated September 5, 2019) on “Coordination between the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of National Defence in performing the task of protecting national security, assuring social order and safety, fighting, preventing and combating crimes and defence tasks” by many synchronous and effective measures. Accordingly, the two agencies have advised the District People's Committee to develop and promulgate the Regulation on coordination between the police and military forces in performing the task of protecting national security, social order and safety, crime prevention and combat, and defence and defence missions. At the same time, directing communes and towns to develop coordinated plans suitable to local characteristics. Every year, the District Police preside over and coordinate with the Military Command and related units to advise the District People's Committee to develop and implement plans to ensure security and order for political events, ceremonies; and carry out local defence and military missions, such as: party congresses at all levels; defence area exercises; troop delivery ceremony, ... according to functions and tasks, promoting the combined strength of forces and the entire people in implementation.

Signing emulation commitment between the Police and the Military

In recent years, the crime rate in the district tends to increase, causing anxiety among the people. Facing the issue, the Police has presided and coordinated with the military agencies and departments, branches and mass organisations at the same level to advise the District’s Party committees and authorities to promote the movement of all people protecting the national security and fighting against crime. Notably, implementing the Provincial People's Committee's projects on: prevention and settlement of strikes, illegal large-scale concentration, disruption of labourers in businesses; prevention and control of murdering and intentional injury infliction; prevention and fight to reduce traffic accidents on key highways in the province in the period of 2017 - 2020 and the project “Improving the quality and efficiency of the movement of all people protecting the national security in the area of Trieu Son District in the period of 2017 - 2020” of the District’s People's Committee, the Police and Military forces maintain a regular schedule of meetings, situation briefing to coordinate exchange, inspection and verification of information, agree on measures for handling. All information, incidents and situations are discussed, verified, agreed, classified, decentralised, and assigned in accordance with the functions, tasks and powers of each force according to legal regulations. In case of emergencies, the two forces hold an unexpected briefing or directly inform each other through phone via the command and duty system, promptly advise and propose to the District People's Committee, not to be left passive and unexpected.

Following Uncle Ho's teaching that: “Every policeman should instruct the militia and self-defence in his areas of operation how to investigate, check paper, prevent crime...”, the District Police and Military forces regularly coordinate and help each other in training, drills, enhancing combat strength, protecting the locality and the peaceful life of the people. Accordingly, the Police and the Military help the district periodically organise training and drills of the plans: fire and calamity prevention, search and rescue; anti-terrorism, anti-demonstration, anti-riot; changing the locality from peacetime to wartime; defence area maneuvers; protecting the airspace sovereignty; implementing civil defence, ... contributing to improving the management, commanding and executive capabilities of the party committees and authorities at all levels and the coordination of agencies, departments and branches in each plan. In 2019, the district held a defence area rehearsal with "Excellent" results; directed 06 communes to complete the safe defence combat drills. In particular, the District promptly implemented the Project of “Deploying regular police to communes of Trieu Son District”; now it has completed phase 1 for 05 communes and will continue to prepare phase 2 for the remaining communes and towns. Initial results show that coordination has been strengthened; high efficiency has been recorded, contributing to the quick and prompt handle of defence and security tasks right from the grassroots level.

Moreover, the District Police and Military forces focused on coordinating and doing well the mobilisation of the masses, preventing and dealing with potential risks causing political insecurity and instabilities in social order and safety in the grassroots. Thoroughly grasping and implementing Uncle Ho's instructions: “Fighting invaders and disrupters is the duty of the Army, the Public Security in particular and the entire population in general. This is a task that the Army and the Public Security have to rely on in order to accomplish well”, the Police and the Military at all levels have advised the party committees, the authorities to organise well the dissemination of defence and security knowledge and legal education for the people. In particular, they have focused on propaganda and education to raise awareness for cadres and people about national defence and local military work; operational tricks of criminals, social evils, heresy, illegal immigration, conspiracy and tricks of “Peaceful evolution”, sabotage, terrorist acts of hostile forces, etc. At the same time, to guide agencies, social organizations and citizens to fulfill their obligations to protect national security, maintain social order and safety; to build an all-people defence, people's security, and a strong “people's heart and mind posture”. In 2019, the Police force had 217 news, articles and photo reports broadcast on the District Radio and Information Portal; propagated traffic safety laws to more than 3,000 students, nearly 2,000 workers; hundreds of turns of vehicle owners and drivers; held 03 training courses and disseminated knowledge of fire prevention and fighting to over 1,000 people. The radio system of communes and towns spread thousands of propaganda, bringing about practical effects in preventing and reducing the number of legal violations in the area.

Promoting the achieved results, in the coming time, Trieu Son District Police and Military will continue to uphold their responsibilities, improve the quality of coordination, and strive to well perform national defence and security tasks, contributing to successfully implementing the goals set out by the Resolution of the 18^th District Party Congress, 2020 – 2025 term.

Senior Lieutenant Colonel NGUYEN VAN QUYEN, Standing Member of the District Party Committee, Head of District Police