Political education is a basic form of  ideological and cultural work; a basic content of the task of training soldiers, which contribute to improving and practising the political acumen, ideological standpoint, morality, lifestyle, consciousness of complying with the State’s law, the Military’s discipline for cadres and soldiers. This is also the work that Military Region 7 has much considered both in grasping and implementing with many practical and effective solutions.

In the cause of building the Military, strengthening the defence and protecting the Homeland in the time of enhancing the industrialisation and modernisation have set high requirements of political acumen, morality, lifestyle, morale, responsibility, working capability, methods and style for cadres and soldiers. On clearly understanding this, in the past few years, Military Region 7’s Party Committee and Command have seriously led and directed the  implementation of Direction No. 124-CT/QUTW, dated 31 March 2011 by the Standing Committee of the Central Military Commission and Decision No. 2677/QĐ-BQP, dated 23 July 2013 by the Defence Minister approving the Project on “Renovating the political education in units in the new period”. In the implementation process, the Political Department has issued documents to timely make leadership and direction; bring into play the roles of political commissars and instructors, political offices and cadres at all levels to effectively implement this important task.

The outstanding feature in the Region’s political education is that all offices and units have proactively renovated the contents and programmes to make the knowledge be comprehensive and suitable with each participant, having main focuses and high feasibility, and being synchronous with the training duties and other tasks. It should consider choosing the basic and practical contents in the theory system of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s thought, the Party’s guidelines, the State’s policies and laws, the Military’s, Region’s and units’ political tasks. It is necessary to closely combine the education contents of cultivating the patriotism, the nature of working class, combating goals and ideals; propagandising and disseminating the law with speeding up studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality and lifestyle and campaigns; actively preventing the internal “self-evolution” and “self-transformation”, raising the revolutionary vigilance, avoiding being passive and sudden in all situations in terms of ideology particularly.

Basing on the evaluation and judgement on the knowledge, ideological awareness and soldiers’ tasks in each time, all-level armed forces in the Region have compiled 1,980 special subjects (63 of them belong to the Regional level), making them timely, detailed and practical to meet the demands for building the units, the Region’s armed forces and the tasks of military affairs and defence. Forms and methods of political education have been flexibly applied and drastically renovated by offices and units in the way of taking learners as the centre, their awareness, political acumen, belief, emotion, will, responsibility and working effectiveness as the measure of quality. In order to improve the quality of political education, together with the regular completion and quality improvement of the teaching staff, the investment, management and usage of political education budget, facilities and means have been assured and closely directed by all-level party committees and commands. At the same time, attention has been paid to attentively improving the quality and effectiveness of political activities in grassroots units, especially the Day of Politics and spiritual culture; the Day of Law, news announcement, reading newspapers, listening to radios, watching TV; competitions and contests, forums, seminars, cultural and art exchange, etc. With the motto of “Listening to soldiers and talking to soldiers” and “Giving the reasonable answers”, the direct dialogues between the seniors and juniors have proved the democratic spirit at the grassroots levels, making the high agreement in carrying out the tasks. Offices and units have coordinated with the party committees, governments, social political organisations and soldiers’ families to educate and manage soldiers¹. The Steering Committee 35 and Task Force 47 at all levels have well implemented the propaganda and struggles against wrong and hostile viewpoints, timely provided information and directed the thought for cadres, soldiers and people in order to maintain the Party’s ideological battlefield among the Region’s armed forces².

Due to the right policies, with many creative methods and solutions, the Region’s political education has gained important results, directly contributing to enhancing the awareness of tasks; building the political acumen, morale; consolidating the trust in the Party’s leadership for cadres and soldiers. Before the complex situation, most of the party members, cadres and soldiers have stood steady and consistent; they have been rightly aware of the situation, the duties of the Military, the Region and units; their self-awareness of the law and discipline observance has been strengthened; the rate of violations has been decreased. These results have contributed to the construction of the pure and strong party cells, comprehensively strong, “exemplary and typical” units.

However, there are some weaknesses in the political education in the Region, such as: some people’s awareness has not been high enough, the soldier’s changing rate from awareness to trust, will and practical actions has been slow;  the hesitation to learn politics among soldiers; the examination and evaluation in some places have been focused on achievements, etc. In coming time, there are high demands for the tasks of protecting the Homeland, building the Military, building the Region’s armed forces which are strong in politics, being the basis to improve the general quality and fighting strength. As a result, the Region needs to have many synchronous policies and solutions for improving the effectiveness of this task, mainly solving the basic issues as follows:

Firstly, heighten the responsibility of the party committees, political commissars, junior political commissars, instructors, commanders and political offices at all levels in carrying out the political education. Profoundly grasp and creatively apply the Party’s viewpoints and guidelines, the State’s policies and laws, the Central Military Commission’s and Defence Ministry’s directions and resolutions to have policies and solutions for leading, directing, managing and operating the political education with higher quality and effectiveness. Together with the party committees’ and leading cadres’ leadership and direction, all units need to well prove the roles of the public unions, forces and vehicles; improve the effectiveness of the cultural institutions at the grassroots, build the healthy environment of culture and education. Proactively forecast, direct and timely solve the raising problems. Well ensure the material and spiritual life for soldiers to make general strength in organising and improving the quality of political education in units.

Secondly, continue to drastically, comprehensively and synchronously renovate the contents, programmes, forms and methods of political education. Make sure they are basic, scientific, diverse, plentiful, practical, feasible and suitable with the features of learners, the situation and tasks of each unit and office; combine the political learning with enhancing the propaganda, news announcement, ideological activities, the Day of Politics and spiritual culture, promote the democratic dialogues and activities of culture and art. Flexibly combine traditional and modern methods; between giving knowledge and exchanging experience; between education and self-education; enhance the practical relation, ideological orientation and action guidance. Beside the basic contents, it is necessary to flexibly define the education contents, especially the issues attracting the social opinions and strongly influencing the Military. Pay attention to the education of fighting goals and spirits, the glorious traditions of the nation, the Military and units; combining the “construction” and “prevention” to create the active factor to defeat the negatives. Closely combine the political education with ideological management, timely solving the raising difficulties. Build and widen the new models, creative and effective working methods in the political education to contribute and develop new solutions for the reality and task requirements of the units.

Thirdly, regularly retrain to improve knowledge and teaching skills for political officers, especially the ones in units. Lead and direct the units to survey, evaluate and classify political officers so as to make detailed retraining plans for each learner group; at the same time, have solutions for encouraging political officers, concurrent teachers and newly-graduated carders to self-study and improve their knowledge, skills and teaching methods; actively and proactively look for forms and solutions for best implementing the political education in units.

Fourthly, proactively orient cadres and soldiers’ thinking to create the high agreement and unity before the complex and sensitive issues. Strengthen the struggles against wrong viewpoints, disoriented awareness, plot of “depoliticising” the Military; the expressions of internal "self-evolution", "self-transformation", etc. to firmly protect the Party’s ideological battlefield in the Military. Intensify the inspection to timely correct deviations; well carry out the partial and total summaries, learning from experience, rewarding, reporting the statistics of the political education in units. Annually, take the political education as one content to evaluate the quality of cadres, party members and party cells; timely reward the typically advanced collectives and individuals gaining achievements in the political education in units.

Fifthly, closely combine the political education with building the pure and healthy cultural environment; well implement the Regulations on Democracy at grassroots level, through which, for the units’ leaders and commanders to timely grasp cadres’ and soldiers’ thinking and aspirations, directly solve the soldiers’ difficulties, legitimate demands and aspirations. Closely combine the political education, ideological management with the work of policy, emulation and commendation, well assure the standards of the spiritual life for soldiers, timely encourage cadres and soldiers to unite and manage to successfully accomplish all assigned tasks.

Senior Colonel, Dr. NGUYEN NHU TRUC, Vice head of Political Department of Military Region 7