50 years ago, before passing away, President Ho Chi Minh left our entire Party, Military, and people with a historic Testament. This is a priceless asset and National Treasure of Vietnam. His Testament’s long-lasting values are reminding and encouraging us to continue implementing it as a National Treasure.
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| Prof. Hoang Chi Bao addressing the conference “Ho Chi Minh’s Testament: historical value and significance for Vietnamese revolution” (photo: VNA) |
1. Efforts to comprehend Uncle Ho’s last teachings in his Testament
On his 75th birthday (May 19th, 1965), Uncle Ho started writing the Testament which he simply called a letter to his compatriots and comrades. His last teachings for the whole Party, Military, and people were prepared extremely elaborately and represented a crystallization of his ideology, morality, and lifestyle. The Testament is one of the greatest works by Uncle Ho and recognized as a National Treasure of Vietnam in the modern era.
President Ho Chi Minh dedicated his whole life to fighting and sacrificing for the Independence, Freedom, and Happiness of our Homeland, nation, and people. He disregarded fame and privileges and devoted himself to serving the Homeland and the people. He said that “my love for my people and the people of oppressed countries will never change”. That saying was proved emotionally by the life, kindness, selflessness, and mercy of a man whom the people of Vietnam love, friends all over the world admire, and even his enemies respect. That man always thinks and cares about his people to his last breath. He wrote in the Testament that “If I should now depart from this world, I would have nothing to regret, except not being able to serve longer and more.” That is a noble regret. Ho Chi Minh set himself the goal of serving the people and bringing happiness to the people.
Uncle Ho’s Testament was first written in May 1965, edited and supplemented in the following years, and completed in May 1969 as the whole of his teachings. Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and lifestyle are crystallized in this 1,000-word document as follows.
First, the Testament confirms his unshakeable faith in our people’s victory in the resistance war against America, for national salvation. He stressed that our people’s victory in the resistance war would be a certainty.
Second, the first thing after the victory of our revolution and the liberation of the South was rectifying the Party. Within the Party, it is imperative to preserve the unity from the Central Party Committee to the party cells like the pupil of the eye. It must deserve to be a ruling Party. “Each Party member, each cadre must be deeply imbued with revolutionary morality, and show industry, thrift, integrity, uprightness, total dedication to the public interest and complete selflessness. Our Party should preserve absolute purity and prove worthy of its role as the leader and very loyal servant of the people.”
Third, one of the first things is human affairs. The Testament could be seen as a plan/program for reconstructing the country, with a focus on stabilizing the people’s life, “paying debt of gratitude” to war invalids, martyrs, and people with meritorious services to the nation, fostering traditional education and development of culture, health, and education, settling social issues, and improving the people’s mental and material life. Ho Chi Minh paid special regard to the youth and women. “The training and education of future revolutionary generations is of great importance and necessity.” The Party must foster their revolutionary virtues and train them to be our successors, both “red” and “expert”, in the building of socialism. Due attention must be paid to the development and progress of women, and women by themselves must proactively fight for equality. Party committees and authorities must set store by the liberation of women. Farmers should be exempted from paying agricultural tax while the mountainous and ethnic minority people’s life should be improved. Educational and administrative measures should be adopted to help the people and social strata in the old regime so as to cement unity, harmony, and consensus within the new society in a tolerant and humane manner.
Those things mentioned above represent Ho Chi Minh’s plan in short, medium, and long terms for the people’s right to life, freedom, and happiness. He believed that those affairs would be demanding and arduous, but extremely glorious in the national reconstruction after the war. It would be really a fight against the old, backward, evil things to build the progressive, new, better things. To win this massive fight, it is necessary to rely on the people and build the movement and force within the people under the Party’s leadership. The great value and significance of his strategic plan is that he mentioned reform and expressed the notion of reform as a revolution for the future development in an extremely delicate and thorough fashion. His last wish was about socialism of Vietnam which is now inherited and set to be the target of reform and general features of Vietnam’s socialist society by our Party. The new, modern things in his ideology form up the Testament’s long-lasting values and significance.
Fourth, the Testament also mentions Ho Chi Minh’s ideology and sentiment on the world communist movement and friendly socialist countries around the globe amongst the complex developments caused by differences in the relations between Communist Parties and socialist countries. Those are also his central and touching teachings for our Party. The more proud he was of the growth of the international communist and workers’ movement, the more pained he was by the current discord among the fraternal Parties. He hoped that our Party would do its best to contribute effectively to the restoration of unity among the fraternal Parties. He was firmly confident that the fraternal Parties and countries would have to unite again. He was the embodiment of the pure international sentiment and a loyal, true revolutionary soldier of the international communist movement. That is the shining of a noble soul of a great man.
Fifth, about personal matters, he cares about the people and the country to his last breath. He stated that “When I am gone, a grand funeral should be avoided in order not to waste the people’s time and money.” He devoted himself to the fight for national independence and freedom; when he passed away, he only wished to materialize within the people and country, in the three regions across the country. He felt that he could not wait for the final victory of the war or meet the people of the South which was always in his heart. He recommended that his ashes be put in three ceramic boxes, to be buried on three hills in the North, the Center, and the South, respectively.
That expresses not only his ideology on the environment but also his theories about human life and culture via his touching instructions. When he was alive, he ignored all benefits and fame. When he passed away, he peacefully returned to the nature and brought all his love to the people across the country. He did not want the people to suffer hardships for their visits to him. In fact, the passage about his personal matters once again makes us further comprehend Ho Chi Minh’s sentiment and soul - a man who loves, understands and sympathizes with all people.
The 1,000-word document which was written, edited, supplemented, and completed in 4 years by Ho Chi Minh crystallizes his wisdom, sentiment, ideology, morality, and lifestyle. It could be described as a Legal Treasure of all times.
2. Enhancing the implementation of Uncle Ho’s Testament as a National Treasure
50 years ago, making the farewell to Ho Chi Minh, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Le Duan, on behalf of the whole Party, Military, and people read 5 sacred oaths which included the core content of Uncle Ho’s 1,000-word Testament.
Over the past 50 years, the whole Party, Military and people have fulfilled the 5 oaths and made efforts to implement his Testament. The South was liberated, the Homeland was reunified, and national independence was maintained. The country has been reconstructed and developed since the end of the war. All people’s mental and material life has been improved, particularly in the past 30 years of national renewal and international integration. We have made positive changes and gained outstanding achievements in the Party building and rectification to make the Party really strong, pure, revolutionary, moral, and civilized and deserve to be a ruling one. The people’s faith in the Party and socialist regime has been preserved and promoted. The Party’s prestige and influence within the society and international community has been raised. The studying and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and lifestyle has become a cultural need within the Party, people, and even Vietnamese communities in other countries. The widespread influence and social effect from the studying and following of Uncle Ho have created new strength and faith within the Party and people as well as great spiritual motivation for us to overcome all difficulties and hardships, boost the country’s rapid and sustainable development in the cause of national construction and protection, and realize his aspirations.
To continue stepping up the implementation of Uncle Ho’s Testament as a National Treasure in the new condition, first of all, we need to actively propagate and educate widely and deeply the long-lasting values and great significance of the Testament of Ho Chi Minh and his works as National Treasures to improve all Vietnamese people’s awareness, sentiment, morality, and faith. While we are striving to implement the 12th Politburo’s Directive 05-CT/TW on studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, the propagation and education of his National Treasures are of more necessity and strategic significance, especially to building, rectifying, and making the Party really pure, strong, moral, and civilized according to his teachings. It is important to render every one fully aware of invaluable devotion of Ho Chi Minh to Vietnamese revolution and world revolution, particularly his contributions to diversifying Marxism-Leninism, his scientific method and political zeal to protect the purity of Marxism-Leninism. To do so, it is essential to fully understand Ho Chi Minh’s legacy, his whole life and career, and the Ho Chi Minh’s era as our Party’s assessment in the eulogy for him. It is important to make all cadres, party members, and people clearly understand that Ho Chi Minh’s ideology is expressed not only in his works and documents, but also in his 60-year-long career from the start of his journey to find the way to save the country to his deathday. Only by comprehending Ho Chi Minh’s legacy and ideology could we preserve socialist regime, improve revolutionary morality, wipe out individualism according to his teachings, create the strength and consolidate the scientific faith to protect the Party’s ideological ground and maintain its ideal and revolutionary goals.
The Testament crystallizes Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and lifestyle. It also crystallizes noble values of other National Treasures of Ho Chi Minh. It is not only a National Treasure as a guiding document, but also a Legal Treasure. Thus, due attention should be paid to educating and propagating Uncle Ho’s Testament, seeking forms and methods that would be the most effective all cadres, party members, young people, and social strata.
Second, one of the most practical and important solutions is to continue enhancing the Party building and rectification according to Ho Chi Minh’s teachings in his Testament in order that ours deserves to be a really pure, strong ruling Party, and each cadre and party member is a really loyal servant of the people. It is necessary to heighten the role model-setting responsibility of cadres and party members, particularly the key ones from the Central to grass-roots level. Each person must remember that being exemplary is the best way of leadership, and that a living example is more valuable than hundreds of speeches. It is essential to widely exercise democracy within the Party as a motivation for promoting democracy within the society and the people’s right to mastery. Due regard should be paid to strengthening the Party’s discipline and charter, the State’s law, and the fight against bureaucracy and corruption without any exception or restricted area according to the Party Central Committee’s direction; to publicly, transparently, and strictly handling cases of corruption under the law as well as retaking assets from cases of corruption in order to protect the benefit of the people and society. Tax money earned by the people and their labour must be closely managed and used to meet their demands. That is also the most practical measure for restoring the people’s faith which has been undermined by corruption.
Third, consideration should be given to improving the mental and material life of the people, particularly the poor, venerable people, and those who have meritorious services to the country. More specifically, we need to take care of families and relatives of martyrs and war invalids and create a favourable condition for children and young people to promote their talent for the sake of the Homeland’s prosperity.
Fourth, the 50th anniversary of Uncle Ho’s Testament coincides with the 70th anniversary of his famous work entitled “Mass mobilization” (1949-2019). It is truly a Platform of mass mobilization written by Ho Chi Minh. The relationship between the Party and the people is like a blood relationship. The people’s hearts and minds are like the revolution’s stronghold. The word “people” is always in Ho Chi Minh’s mind and represents the most outstanding ideology and sentiment of Uncle Ho in his Testament: we must rely on, love, and do everything for the people. Thus, to continue implementing the Testament as a National Treasure, we should well perform the mass mobilization work in order to make the people believe, love, support, help, and protect us. That is recipe for success.
Fifth, the key issue is the quality of party members and the Party’s personnel work. To implement Uncle Ho’s Testament as a National Treasure, we should consider cadres as the root of all work and the personnel work as the central task of the Party according to Ho Chi Minh’s teachings. As the 13th National Party Congress is about to take place, it is imperative to frequently train cadres so that we could select elite, gifted, moral cadres for the state apparatus, particularly the leading offices to deserve the people’s faith and trust. We have relied on the people to build the Party, and now we should further rely on them and listen to their opinion to select the right cadres. Only by doing so could we build a contingent of cadres who are really loyal and dedicate themselves to the people, the country, the Party, and the revolution.
Following Uncle Ho’s teachings, we should devote more efforts to realizing his last wishes. The entire Party and people must unite as one to build a Vietnam of peace, unification, independence, democracy, and prosperity and make great contributions to the world revolution. His wishes express and crystallize the goals and values of Vietnam’s socialism. They also crystallize the ideology, pure morality, noble mind, and simple style of a great man - Ho Chi Minh. We should better realize Uncle Ho’s last wishes so as to deserve his merits and make his Testament deserve to be a National Treasure.
Prof. Hoang Chi Bao, PhD