Stepping up regularity building and discipline management is one of the three breakthroughs set by the Resolution of the 11th Military Party Congress; it is also one of the central military - defence tasks of 2024 and the upcoming years. Well performing this task will lay a solid foundation for building a revolutionary, elite, modern Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) by 2030, raising the VPA’s synergy and combat power, and ensuring that the VPA will always be ready to undertake and successfully fulfil all assigned tasks.
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| Sr. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Van Nghia addressing the conference to review the building of typical units in terms of regularity building and discipline management and draw lessons on constructing shooting ranges and training grounds in 2023 (photo: qdnd.vn) |
Being fully aware of the importance of regularity building and discipline management, over the years, under the drastic leadership and direction by the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defence, thanks to all-level party committees and commands’ active, proactive involvement, this task has been closely, seriously implemented via various scientific, proper measures; it has also been seen as a prerequisite for building “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong offices and units across the Military. Law propagation, dissemination, and education within offices and units across the VPA have been creatively renewed in terms of content, form, and method, thereby achieving significant, practical outcomes. There has been a noticeable positive change in cadres and soldiers’ law-abiding awareness and responsibility; all-level leaderships, commands, and mass organisations have promoted their roles in regularity building and discipline management. Due regard has been paid to building healthy cultural environment and promoting democracy, unity, and discipline; great value has been attached to carrying out inspections, supervisions, and preliminary and final reviews to draw lessons; violations of discipline and law have been reported and handled opportunely under regulations. In the first half of 2024, the observance of State law and military discipline among offices and units across the VPA has witnessed a solid, positive change compared to the same period of the previous year.
Nevertheless, the work of ideological education and management in several offices and units has yet to be close or relevant to each group of troops. The work of investigation, inspection, and supervision relating to discipline management in combat readiness, training, and exercises by some party committees and commands has yet to be meticulous. Self-discipline among some soldiers has yet to be strong. There have been some serious violations of discipline and law damaging the noble image of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers”.
Currently and in the upcoming time, the situation on global and regional scales will continue to be complex and unpredictable. Domestically, political stability, economic development, national defence and security will continue to be maintained, while foreign relations will be expanded. However, hostile forces will keep taking advantage of the dark side of the market mechanism and social networks to step up their “peaceful evolution” strategy and encourage “self-evolution”, “self-transformation”, and “depoliticisation” of our VPA. Against that backdrop, the whole Military should continue to better realise the three breakthroughs set by the Resolution of the 11th Military Party Congress and grasp regulations and guiding documents on regularity building and discipline management to keep raising the synergy and combat power; to that end, it is necessary to focus on a number of main tasks and measures as follows.
First, continuing to well conduct propagation and education work to raise cadres and soldiers’ awareness of regularity building and discipline management. This measure plays a decisive role in improving the quality of discipline management within offices and units. Therefore, all-level party committees and commands should continue to exercise their leadership and direction over political education and law propagation, dissemination, and education to make all troops clearly understand the importance of strictly conforming to law and discipline and raise their awareness and responsibility in this regard. The content of propagation and education should be extensive and comprehensive; however, emphasis should be placed on regulations, directives, and guiding documents by the Central Military Commission and Ministry of National Defence on regularity building, discipline management, and the building of “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong offices and units.
To effectively perform this piece of work, offices and units should diversify and actively renew forms and methods of law propagation, dissemination, and education in accordance with each group of troops and their characteristics and assigned tasks. In addition to sufficiently, effectively conducting political and legal education programs, closely combining political and legal education with Troop Management Regulations training, and integrating education and training into daily activities, offices and units should step up propagation work via their internal radio system and forums and closely cooperate with press agencies both inside and outside the Military in law propagation, dissemination, and education. Besides, it is necessary to enhance the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, the Campaign titled “promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in the new period, and the building of typical units in terms of regularity building and discipline management. At the same time, it is essential to well implement Grass-Roots Democracy Regulations, the Determined to Win Emulation Movement, and the building of “regular, bright, green, clean, beautiful” barracks. Due attention should be paid to providing information about violations of law and discipline for all troops to draw lessons on discipline management and orientate troop ideology.
Second, better implementing measures for regularity building and discipline management. Party committees and commands of offices and units should grasp and well perform their functions and tasks under military regulations and State law, strictly conform to the example-setting responsibility, and set good examples for their subordinates to follow. Due regard should be paid to the training of all-level cadres, particularly at detachment level to ensure that they will have sufficient qualities and capabilities to manage and educate troops. Commanding officers showing bureaucracy, setting bad examples, or letting serious violations of discipline take place within their offices and units should be given timely, severe punishments.
Additionally, it is important to stringently maintain regulations on regularity building, daily and weekly activities, Political and Cultural Day, and troop management, especially on days off and in rest hours. Offices and units should closely cooperate with localities and families in grasping and managing troops’ ideology and social relationships, with much importance attached to independent units, local military agencies, officers and professional service men and women who are allowed to take rest at home after work and duty, and soldiers with abnormal psychological manifestations, in order to adopt preventive measures, avoid falling into passivity, and prevent simple incidents from transforming into serious ones. In the process, it is necessary to closely combine “building” and “fighting”, with the former as the main option, align education and persuasion with administrative measures, and take positive things to push back negative ones. Violations of law and discipline must be handled in a strict, democratic, objective, and equal manner. In the second half of 2024 and the upcoming years, the rate of normal violations of discipline must be below 0.2%; the entire VPA will strive to minimise serious violations of law, discipline, and safety regulations in training, exercises, and participation in traffic. Military enterprises should raise the quality of recruiting contracted labourers, step up management work and equip its workforce with knowledge of law, and review, opportunely supplement, and complete regulations and guiding documents on labour management and employment to prevent their staff members from violating the VPA’s discipline and the State’s law.
Third, promoting the role of soldiers’ councils and mass organisations in regularity building and discipline management. Over the time, organisations within the VPA, such as youth union, trade union, women’s union, and soldiers’ council have made significant contributions to offices and units’ regularity building and discipline management via effective, creative approaches and models, thereby directly building “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong offices and units. For that reason, all-level party committees and commands should continue to encourage the role of soldier’s councils and mass organisations, particularly youth unions in regularity building and discipline management. Soldiers’ councils should attach importance to promoting democracy and encouraging troops to propose measures for regularity building, discipline management, and safety assurance, with “three-strong” teams, “security soldiers”, “mass mobilisation teams”, and “legal and psychological consultancy teams” acting as the core force. Meanwhile, trade unions and women’s unions should encourage their members to heighten self-discipline and actively contribute to making their own organisations excellently strong. Youth unions should concentrate their activities on building regular offices and units and raise their members’ law-abiding awareness. More importantly, offices and units should frequently organise forums and knowledge contests on the State’s law and the VPA’s discipline, bring into play the role of law bookcases to equip troops with knowledge of law and discipline in their task performance, and require cadres and soldiers to write commitments not to violating law, discipline, or traffic safety regulations. Moreover, due attention should be paid to enhancing culture, art, sport, and physical training activities to improve troops’ awareness and health and satisfy the requirements of training and combat readiness.
Fourth, intensifying inspection work and carrying out preliminary and final reviews to opportunely draw lessons. This is a routine task aimed at ensuring that all activities and pieces of work will be carried out closely, effectively under the Military’s regulations and the State’s law. Therefore, all-level party committees and commands should intensify both regular and irregular inspections to adopt preventive measures, especially in training, exercises, and the performance of all tasks. Inspections of offices and units’ implementation of conclusions, directives, and regulations on regularity building and discipline management must be conducted in an objective, honest, substantive manner. It is vital to promote the roles of military training, operations, investigation, and security agencies in inspection and supervision to opportunely take measures of leadership and direction for handling violations and issues and stringently maintaining discipline. Consideration should be given to resolutely preventing and eliminating the signs of “self-evolution”, “self-transformation”, power abuse, and loose management and responsibility which could lead to violations of discipline and law. Due attention should be paid to directing the military police force to strengthen inspection of all troops and military vehicles participating in traffic and closely coordinating with competent offices in strictly handling violations of traffic laws.
Furthermore, it is essential to regularly carry out preliminary and final reviews to draw lessons on regularity building and discipline management, develop plans to overcome drawbacks, and formulate new measures of leadership and direction. The results of regularity building and discipline management should be seen as an important criterion for evaluating individual and collective task performance as well as for emulation - commendation work. Besides, due regard should be paid to ensuring troops’ material and mental life, building healthy cultural environment, effectively fighting against negative impacts from the dark side of the market mechanism and social networks, and resolutely preventing social evils from penetrating into offices and units.
Building a revolutionary, elite, modern VPA under the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress is a task of importance and urgency; therefore, party committees and commands of offices and units across the Military should continue to effectively perform the tasks of training, combat readiness, regularity building, and discipline management. This is not only a sense of responsibility but also a cultural trait among each cadre and soldier to contribute to building “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong offices and units with a high level of synergy and combat power to readily undertake and successfully fulfil all tasks assigned by the Party, State, and people.
Sr. Lt. Gen. NGUYEN VAN NGHIA
Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the VPA