There are many new points in the Draft Political Report for submission to the 13^th National Party Congress to meet the requirements set by practical developments. Within the scope of this article, the author would like to introduce several new tasks and measures for the Vietnamese culture and people development in the Draft Political Report.

Regarding the theme

At its 11^th National Congress, our Party developed the theme: Taking care of cultural development. Meanwhile at its 12^th National Congress, the theme was: Building and developing culture and people. Apparently, the connotation of this direction was expanded from the Party’s 11^th National Congress to its 12^th National Congress. That could be seen as a new development in our Party’s theoretical ideology on culture and the relationship between culture and people. It is understandable that culture is always related to people, culture includes all material and mental values created by people, and culture and people are inseparable from each other. Culture itself is not people; therefore, in order to build and develop culture, we must build and develop people as culture is created by people only and it acts as one of the factors in nurturing, developing and perfecting human personality.

The Draft Political Report set the theme: “Building and promoting cultural values and strength of Vietnamese people.” In comparison with the theme “Building and developing culture and people” set by the Political Report at the 12^th National Party Congress, the theme at the 13^th Congress seems to be narrowed down and only mention the cultural values and the strength of Vietnamese people instead of the whole Vietnamese culture and people. However, it is reasonable to establish such a theme in the Draft Political Report as all material and spiritual values created by people are included in the concept of culture. Thus, to build and develop culture is intrinsically to build and promote the values created by people, in other words they are cultural values. More exactly, it is creativity and humanism according to the Truth, the Goodness and the Beauty.

Besides, after 5 years of execution of the 11^th Party Central Committee’s Resolution 33-NQ/TW, dated June 9^th, 2014 on building and developing Vietnamese culture and people to meet the requirements of sustainable national development, we have obtained significant achievements as assessed by the Politburo’s 76-KL/TW, dated June 4^th, 2020 on continuing to implement the 11^th Party Central Committee’s Resolution 33-NQ/TW. However, “the building of cultural values and standard values of Vietnamese people in the period of industrialisation, modernisation and international integration has yet to satisfy the requirements.” To some extent, morality and lifestyle degeneration is serious. Hence, the theme “Building and promoting cultural values and strength of Vietnamese people” in the Draft Political Report is totally scientific, sufficient and correct.

Concerning specific tasks and measures for developing culture and people, the Draft Political Report has identified noticeable new issues as follows.

First, “emphasis should be placed on studying, identifying and building the system of national values and the system of cultural values and human standards as well as preserving and developing the system of Vietnamese family values in the new period.” It is the first time that our Party has mentioned the term “system of national values” in its documents. To well implement this task and measure, we should concentrate on completing and establishing a system of cultural values of the Vietnamese people in the new period. It is an objective and extremely necessary requirement, especially in the period of national renewal and development when our country is more deeply and widely integrating into the world. The system of national cultural values in the new period will be harmoniously combined by the country’s traditional cultural values built up in its thousand of years of construction and protection and the selective internalisation of the human race’s cultural quintessence for the sake of “wealthy people, strong nation, democracy, equality and civilisation.” Such a system of cultural values will lay a solid foundation for the sustainable national development in all aspects of the social life and provide directions for the Vietnamese people’s personality nowadays. Moreover, it is necessary to build a system of standards of Vietnamese people in the period of industrialisation, modernisation and international integration to ensure that our people will have a scientific worldview, good personality, and healthy lifestyle with the basic characteristics, namely patriotism, compassion, attachment, honesty, solidarity, diligence, and creativity. At the same time, it is vital to build a law-abiding lifestyle, respect the cultural values of “remembering the source when drinking water” and “paying debt of gratitude,” honour and multiply humanistic values.

President Ho Chi Minh ever instructed us that “a society is good only when having good families; families are at the core of the society.” Vietnamese family culture for thousands of years has become our country’s cultural and traditional identity. To preserve and develop Vietnamese families’ system of cultural values, we must bring into play their fine traditional cultural values, while integrating traditional values into modern ones in accordance with the society’s development. Amid today’s globalisation and international integration, Vietnamese families have good opportunities to integrate into advanced, civilised cultures. However, they are confronted with a lot of challenges. Multidimensional impacts by today’s economic and social condition have partly damaged Vietnamese families’ cultural values, particularly family morality and behavioural culture within families. Therefore, preserving and developing a system of cultural values of Vietnamese families represent an urgent requirement.

Second, while the 12^th National Party Congress advocated “building culture within the Party and state agencies,” the goal of “building and realising cultural standards in leadership and management” set by the Draft Political Report of this Congress is appropriate to the development of reality. In order that our Party will be “both leader and servant of the people,” it is vital to build its leadership culture and make it “ethical and civilised.” The Party’s leadership culture has been formed and developed during its process of leading the revolution. It is demonstrated by the Party’s political zeal, morality, knowledge, and leadership style and skills as well as by its party organisations, cadres and party members’ working method and style. Building and realising the Party’s leadership culture act as a determinant to raising the Party’s leadership and combativeness as the vanguard and loyal representative of the working class, the labouring people and the entire nation. This is an important, effective measure for unceasingly building and rectifying the Party in the current situation.

In addition to building the Party’s leadership culture, it is a must for building public service culture within state agencies. President Ho Chi Minh ever confirmed that “ours is a democratic country,” which means “the people are masters and they take control of the country.” The building of management culture within state bodies must be aimed at promoting democracy and all policies by the State must be directed towards the people’s aspirations and legitimate benefits. We must resolutely build a socialist rule-of-law State of the people, by the people and for the people and a Government of “integrity, creation and action.” Ministries, sectors and state offices from central to local levels must heighten a sense of responsibility before the Party and the people, while matching their words with their action. Due attention should be paid to building a contingent of cadres and public servants with integrity, pure morality, political zeal, great prestige and capacity, good health and dedication to the people. Besides, we must resolutely fight against the abuse of power, job title bribery, and corruption as the signs of counterculture and anti-leadership culture.

Third, while placing emphasis on building and developing a pool of cadres in charge of the cultural work, the Draft Political Report advocates “not tasking cadres who have limited capacity or those who lack political zeal with the cultural work.” It clearly proves the Party’s consistent viewpoint on the role of culture in the country’s development and the role of cadres and the personnel work in cultural activities. The implementation of the 11^th Party Central Committee’s Resolution 33-NQ/TW over the years has revealed that the main reason for weaknesses has been a lack of responsibility of local party committees and authorities, offices and units for building and developing culture and people. More specifically, “the work of leadership, direction and management, particularly the building, training and use of cadres in charge of the cultural work has yet to be really renewed.” In any field, cadres are always “the root of all work.” In the Party’s cultural and artistic work, cadres should satisfy the requirements for qualities, capacity and cultural stuff. In other words, cadres in charge of the cultural work must be men of culture, from their awareness and words to their action, and they must set cultural examples for the masses to follow. In fact, in many localities, offices and units, some cadres in charge of the cultural work have limited knowledge of culture or limited capacity to lead, direct, manage and counsel the cultural and artistic work.

In general, in its Draft Political Report, our Party attaches great importance to training and developing a contingent of cadres in charge of the cultural work. It will also “not task cadres who have limited capacity or those who lack political zeal” with the cultural work. Those measures mentioned above will be important steps in today’s building and development of Vietnamese culture and people.

Col. DO DUC GIANG, MA

The Political Academy, the Ministry of National Defence