Distorting and dividing the unity and solidarity within the Party is a malicious tactic used by hostile forces, especially during the period when Party congresses at all levels are taking place, heading towards the 14th National Congress of the Party. Therefore, identifying and resolutely fighting to expose this tactic is a contribution to protecting the Party and maintaining the leadership and ruling role of the Communist Party of Vietnam in the era of national development and prosperity of the nation.

It has become a “custom” that whenever there are important national events, hostile forces intensify their efforts to sabotage the Vietnamese revolution by all means. It is no surprise that they consider distorting and dividing the Party’s unity and solidarity as one of their main purposes, especially when we are conducting Party congresses at all levels in preparation for the 14th National Congress of the Party.

Firstly, they blatantly fabricate that the Communist Party of Vietnam has many factions constantly fighting and purging each other. This tactic is not new, but the methods have become more diverse, and insidious; whether through “beat around the bush” or direct accusations, their ultimate goal is to drive the country’s political system toward capitalism. Taking advantage of mass media, and the development of information technology, the internet, social media, and artificial intelligence (AI), they “dig up the dirt”, “make a mountain out of a molehill”, and create sensational, scandalous “behind-the-scenes” stories, even distort and smear the private lives of senior Party and government leaders. With all sorts of “conspiracy theories” surrounding Party personnel, they even claim that one person is forming cliques to “overthrow” or “sabotage” another, etc.

An illustrative photo of the great national unity bloc

We do not deny the reality that in recent times, some Party members, including senior Party members under the management of the Political Bureau and the Secretariat have been disciplined, and even prosecuted for criminal responsibility. However, this is the price that must be paid by those who lack self-discipline, fall into individualism, and violate Party principles and government laws. The process of “self-examination and self-correction”, of removing “worms and pests” is a normal task of the Party, an inevitable mission in order to preserve discipline, maintain order, and build our Party to be truly clean and worthy of the people’s trust. This effort not only strengthens unity and solidarity within the Party but also reinforces the bond between the Party and the people. Our Party has always been candid in admitting its mistakes and shortcomings, including those of individual Party members and even high-ranking members. More importantly, the Party considers these problems as obstacles to its development and to the progress of the revolution, and is always determined to rectify and correct them. The achievements in combating corruption, misbehaviour, waste, and the positive response of these achievements from the public has clearly demonstrated this resolve. The distortions and incitements of hostile forces about the Party’s internal human resource in recent times have only been able to deceive a few gullible individuals with weak political stance, poor judgment, or lack of understanding, but they cannot divide or undermine the unity of our Party; on the contrary, these efforts only contribute to making the Party cleaner and more united. And that, in itself, refutes all the distorted arguments and schemes of hostile and reactionary forces.

Secondly, hostile and reactionary forces are trying every possible way to undermine the unity and blood-bonded relationship between the Party and the people. They aggressively attack, fabricate, and exaggerate shortcomings and mistakes to downplay the Party’s leadership and governing role, falsely claiming that the Party does not represent the people, but only represents Party members or those in power, and brings no benefits to the people. With malicious purposes and cunning tactics, this distortion can only deceive those who lack understanding and cannot distinguish between eventual incidents and the essential nature of the issue, it cannot weaken the great national unity bloc or the unity and solidarity within the Party. This is because one of the fundamental principles in building the Party is to always maintain a close relationship between the Party and the people, because the Party’s strength stems from the strength of the great national unity bloc, or in other words, when we talk about the strength of great national unity bloc, we must first affirm the blood-bonded relationship between the Party and the people. President Ho Chi Minh constantly emphasised: “Our Party did not fall from the sky. It was born from society” and “...is the Party of the working class and working people, therefore it must also be the Party of the Vietnamese nation”. For that reason, the Party continuously educates its members to uphold the spirit of being loyal to the nation and devoted to the people, “to be both a leader and a faithful servant of the people”. In contrast, the people always actively participate in building the Party and developing the country, following the motto: “People know, people discuss, people do, people check, people supervise, and people benefit” within the relationship framework of “The Party leads, the government manages, the people master”. This is an undeniable reality. At present, the Party congresses at all levels are underway, toward the 14th National Congress of the Party, the successful results of recent congresses are vivid proof of the strong bond between the Party and the people - a bond that no hostile or reactionary force can break.

Thirdly, hostile and reactionary forces blatantly slander and spread rumors about a so-called “Party totalitarianism” regime, lacking democracy, therefore, from this distorted view, they call for the abolition of Article 4 of the Constitution, and constantly demand political pluralism and multi-party opposition. However, reality in Vietnam has clearly demonstrated that a one-party system, where the party plays a central leadership role in the political system like our Party, still ensures and promotes democracy, as long as the Party is supervised by the people and subject to feedback from the Fatherland Front and other socio-political organisations. More importantly, our Party’s sole leadership is a decisive factor in safeguarding and effectively implementing democracy. The quality of democracy does not depend on how many political parties a country has, but rather on the quality of the single ruling party, in our case, the Communist Party of Vietnam. Making the Party clean, strong, and worthy of its leadership and governing role is the most important guarantee for a true democratic system. The leadership capacity and combat strength of our Party depend on many factors, especially the preservation and promotion of solidarity and unity within the Party itself, just as President Ho Chi Minh instructed: “All comrades from the central down to each Party cell must preserve the unity and solidarity of the Party as if protecting the pupils of their own eyes”, and “broadly practicing democracy and regularly, seriously conducting self-criticism and criticism within the Party is the best way to strengthen and develop its unity and solidarity. There must be a spirit of comradeship and mutual love”. Unity and solidarity within the Party must be based on the Party’s platform, guidelines, viewpoints, and principles of operation. Focus on the leadership of the Party, especially over the armed forces, and must ensure the principle of absolute and direct leadership of the Party in all aspects, not “depoliticisation” or “neutralisation”. The Party has the leadership and ruling role, and is the nucleus of leadership over the political system and the whole society. This principle is clearly noted in Article 4 of the Constitution and reflected in reality.

Not only does our Party ensure democracy in society, it also preserves and promotes democracy within the Party itself. In Party meetings, differing opinions and so-called “non-consensus” viewpoints are respected and must follow the principle of democratic centralism, without any discrimination, prejudice, or suppression of minority opinions, as hostile forces often distort and falsely claim. This approach fully aligns with President Ho Chi Minh’s affirmation: “Our system is a democratic system, and freedom of thought must be ensured. What does freedom mean? It means that on any issue, everyone is free to express their opinion and contribute to the search for the truth. That is both a right and a responsibility of every citizen”.

Fourthly, in order to “undermine idols” and create disunity within the Party, hostile and reactionary forces have made great efforts to distort and defame the life, revolutionary career, ideology, ethics, and style of President Ho Chi Minh. As the founder and trainer of our Party, and together with Marxism-Leninism, President Ho Chi Minh’s ideology serves as the ideological foundation and compass guiding all actions of our Party. Attacking President Ho Chi Minh is one of the key tactics used by hostile forces to weaken the Party’s unity, as well as directly strike at its ideological foundation and guiding principles. Therefore, they resort to every possible deception to fabricate, distort, defame and downplay the ideology, morality, life, and great revolutionary career of President Ho Chi Minh. If such tactics succeed, the Party would begin to waver in ideology, gradually become corrupted, and fall into a state of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation”. However, all such sabotage attempts have completely failed, because the ideology, morality, life, and great revolutionary career of President Ho Chi Minh, along with his enormous contributions to our nation and to oppressed peoples around the world have refuted all distortions and fabrications.

“Unity is an extremely precious tradition of our Party and our people”; it is a value crystallised through the active leadership of the Party and the unwavering struggle against hostile forces attempting to distort and undermine that unity and solidarity; it is a regular and essential mission that requires strong leadership and decisive, effective implementation. From its very founding, unity and solidarity have been matters of survival for the revolution, a foundation for class unity, a condition for national unity, leading the revolution to victory and a basic, top-principle in the organisation and operation of the Party. “Thanks to strong unity, wholehearted serving the working class, the people, and the nation, our Party has, since its founding, united, organised and led our people to enthusiastically fight from one victory to another”.

Building and promoting the strength of unity and solidarity within the Party is the responsibility of every Party organisation and each cadre and Party member. Therefore, each Party member must deeply imbue revolutionary ethics, truly diligent, thrifty, honest, impartial, and uphold the vanguard and exemplary character. This is also the most concrete way to confront and defeat all distorted rhetoric and malicious schemes of hostile and reactionary forces seeking to damage and divide the Party’s longstanding tradition of unity.

Prof. Dr. MACH QUANG THANG and Dr. BUI THI HOAN