As a coastal province located in the downstream of Hau River with a coastline of 72 km and 03 large estuaries, namely Dinh An, Tran De, and My Thanh, Soc Trang holds a strategically important position in politics, economy, culture, society, defence and security. Fully aware of its importance, over the years, the Party Committee, authorities, armed forces and people of the province have always shown their unity and high determination, strived to successfully complete all socio-economic development goals; constantly strengthened its defence and security and improved people's living standards. Nevertheless, many factors are adversely affecting its political security, social order and safety. Its social evils remains complicated in some places; hostile forces thoroughly take advantage of issues of "ethnicity", "religion", "democracy", and "human rights" to conduct their sabotage, especially in cyberspace,... significantly influencing its development and the implementation of military and defence tasks. To cope with this problem, the Provincial Military Command has promptly advised the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee to synchronously deploy many guidelines and solutions to lead and direct the close combination between socio-economic development and defence and security strengthening, focusing on promoting defence and security education for the targeted subjects and all people.
First of all, strengthening the leadership and direction of the party committees and local authorities for defence and security education in the localities. Thoroughly grasping the resolutions, directives and instructions of higher echelons on defence and security education, the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Committee, Party Committees and authorities at all levels have proposed guidelines and measures for leadership, direction; soon promulgated documents guiding the implementation, and mobilised the participation of the whole political system to improve the efficiency of state management of this work. At the same time, they have promoted the role of officials at all levels; strengthened the inspection of the implementation; taken the results of this work as a criterion to evaluate the leadership and management capacity of the Party committees, party organisations, authorities and leading cadres at all levels; conducted periodically review, summary, and proposed guidelines and solutions to improve the quality of this work together with conducting emulation, commendation and replication of good and effective practices.
The province attaches special importance to the operations of the Council for Defence and Security Education at all levels. It regularly reviews, consolidates and perfects the number and composition of the councils, especially after each change of the presiding cadres at all levels. The members of the Councils always follow the direction of the Council, maintain operations according to the regulations and plans; regularly cooperate closely with the committees, departments, branches and mass organisations of the province to advise and assist the Party committees and authorities at all levels direct the work of defence and security education suitable to each locality and targeted object. At the same time, they regularly coordinate to review and proactively develop plans for holding training courses on defence and security knowledge according to decentralisation. Along with that, they strengthen inspection work to improve the quality and efficiency of this important work in agencies and localities; conduct periodical reviews, strictly implement the information and reporting regime in accordance with regulations.
Promoting defence and security education for targeted objetcs from the province to the commune level. Accordingly, together with advising the Provincial Party Committee to send class 1 and class 2 cadres to attend defence and security training courses held by superior levels, the Provincial Military Command advises the Provincial Council for Defence and Security Education to develop a plan to open suitable defence and security courses for other objects according to Decree No. 27th November, 2020 of the Government. At the same time, the province requests its localities to base on their actual circumstance to include religious dignitaries, owners of ships, business owners, etc. in the courses. In focal areas in defence and security, the province deploys members of the Councils, and groups of reporters to directly direct and conduct propaganda and dissemination on defence and security issues, focusing on areas with large numbers of religious people, fishing villages and coastal fishing ports. This helps raising the awareness and responsibility for the subjects, making them perform well military and defence tasks, build a strong national defence in the locality and at grassroots level.
Identifying students as a very important force, the future human resource of the locality and the country, the province requires to improve the quality of defence and security education in schools in the area. Accordingly, the Provincial Military Command has closely coordinated with the Department of Education and Training to thoroughly grasp and effectively implement Joint Circular No. 123/2015/TTLT-BQP-BGD&DT-BLDTB&XH dated 5th November 2015 of the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Education and Training, and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, providing for the establishment, organisation and operation of the defence and security education centre, and coordination in defence and security education in colleges and higher education institutions. To date, 02 colleges in the province have signed with the Military School of Military Region 9 to carry out defence and security education for students. For the remaining schools, especially the high schools, the province requires that they regularly renew the content, programs and teaching methods for the subject, particularly updating new contents, and the teachers of defence and security must undergo basic training, and constantly improve their qualifications, and be enthusiastic, dynamic and creative in teaching. In order to make their teaching effective, teachers combine defence and security education with extracurricular activities, including visit to traditional houses, historical sites, etc. in the locality to improve students’ understanding and affection for the homeland and the country. In 2022, 29,362 student of 40 high schools in the province got defence and security education. 100% of test results were satisfactory, including over 90% were rated good and excellent, which were highly appreciated by Military Region 9.
Along with that, the province has stepped up propaganda and dissemination of defence and security knowledge to the entire people, for the sake of building a solid "people's heart and mind posture". The Provincial Military Command coordinates with the Provincial Propaganda Commission, the Department of Information and Communications to advise and direct the press agencies of the province and districts to launch specialised columns and programme on national defence and people's security to propagate and disseminate defence and security knowledge to the entire people, suitable to each target group and geographical area, especially remote areas, ethnic minority and religious areas. Emphasis is placed on propaganda about the Strategy for the Homeland protection in the new situation; attaching the responsibility of citizens to participate in socio-economic development with consolidating and strengthening national defence and security, protecting the localities, and protecting seas and islands; the nature, conspiracies and tricks of hostile forces; the issues of "ethnicity", "religion", "democracy", "human rights"; the revolutionary traditions of the armed forces and the localities. In order to make it effective, in addition to building a team of high-skill reporters, the Provincial Military Command closely cooperates with the Provincial Radio and Television and relevant branches to broadcast the "All people’s national defence" programme; combine propaganda on mass media periodical with irregular propaganda on major holidays, important political events of the country with suitable forms and methods to the realities of each locality. In 2022, 24 categories with 82 pieces of news and articles were broadcast on the Provincial Television; 1,310 pieces of news and articles were aired on the Provincial Radio; and 97 pieces of news and articles were posted in the Provincial Newspaper, thereby, raising the awareness of people of all strata about the task of protecting the Fatherland; promoting their active participation in maintaining political security, social order and safety in the locality.
The results and experiences in defence and security education over the past time have contributed to building a firm "people’s heart and mind posture”; building a strong all-people’s national defence; maintaining political security, social order and safety, creating a momentum for Soc Trang province to continue to successfully implement two strategic tasks in the new period.
Senior Colonel TRAN QUOC KHOI, Commander of the Provincial Military Command, Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial Council for defence and security education