While our entire Party, people, and political system are determined to successfully carry out the revolution to streamline the political system’s organisational structure, paving the way for the nation to stride confidently into a new era of national rise, hostile forces and political opportunists are pushing a multitude of schemes to undermine it. Among these, “merging land means losing the hometown” is an extremely insidious and dangerous narrative, which must be resolutely refuted.

“Merging land means losing the hometown” - a cunning rhetoric and the malicious plot of hostile and reactionary forces.

Streamlining the political system’s organisational structure is a major policy of our Party and State, aiming to create a new drive for national development. Naturally, this is not something that hostile forces wish to see. It is, therefore, unsurprising to encounter distorted narratives designed to sow doubt and erode confidence in the Party and State’s decisions, particularly on social media platforms and in news channels with an unfriendly stance towards Vietnam. Among these is the claim that “merging land means losing the hometown”, accompanied by wholly baseless arguments, such as: “land merging erases one’s hometown, severs heritages, and destroys local cultural identity”, “merging communes means wiping village names off the map”, “abolishing a district is tantamount to erasing local history”, and so on.

Public Administrative Service Centre at Gia Vien commune, Ninh Binh province (photo: baoninhbinh.org.vn)

These are highly sophisticated and dangerous narratives being spread by hostile forces, exploiting the deep love to one’s origins and the instinctive attachment to ancestral roots held by every Vietnamese citizen in order to distort our policy, incite dissents, and subvert the Party’s leadership. Even more insidiously, they take advantage of the profound emotional bonds with one’s native land, family, and village, tapping into the cohesion of village, commune, and regional culture - unique cultural values that have helped preserve our national identity through thousands of years of history - to make their message more persuasive, and thereby oppose the Party’s policy of streamlining the political system’s organisational structure. By doing so, they have used village and regional culture as a “detonator” to incite the gullible and the credulous, sowing suspicion, internal division, and dissent towards the Party’s reform policy, hoping to undermine the nation’s aspiration for building a prosperous, civilised, and happy country. At a deeper level, their aim is to provoke a spirit of resistance and “civil disobedience” within our society.

Behind the fine-sounding words and slogans, such as “merging land means losing the hometown”, “protecting traditional culture”, and “protecting the home village” lies the malicious and deeply sinister political calculation of hostile forces. First, they use such rhetoric to stir up localist sentiment, create friction between the people and authorities, and sow discord between communities, thereby undermining great national unity. Second, they seek to make the people doubt the soundness and transparency of the Party’s strategic decisions, to diminish the Party’s leadership credibility, alienate the people from the Party, turn them against reform policies, and destroy public trust in the leadership of the Party and State. Third, on the “fertile ground” of confusion, suspicion, discontent, and opposition to authorities, hostile forces will find it easier to plant their agents, incite protests, and create political instability. This is precisely the scenario they most desire, for division and “chaos” will obstruct national reform and development, weaken the government from within, create opportunities for hostile and reactionary elements to “fish in troubled waters”, intensify “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” within our ranks, destabilise political and social order, and ultimately overthrow the socialist regime in our country.

Clearly, the narrative “merging land means losing the hometown” is nothing more than a facade, a cunning disguise for hostile forces’ malicious intent. They have no concern whatsoever for the interests of the nation or the people, despite their claims; nor are they genuinely seeking to preserve or protect traditional culture. Their real aim is to sow division, destroy national great unity, erode the people’s trust in the Party and State, sabotage the policy of streamlining the political system’s apparatus, and obstruct the country’s development. For this reason, we must remain vigilant, resolutely expose and combat the distortions inherent in such reactionary narratives, contributing to safeguarding the stability and sustainable development of our homeland and nation.

Streamlining the political system’s apparatus - a major, revolutionary and logical policy of our Party

Over nearly 40 years of implementing the Doi Moi policy, with tireless efforts of the entire political system and people, “the country’s fortune, potential, position, and international prestige have been enhanced as an important foundation for the nation to rise in the new era of development”. However, the risks our Party has candidly identified remain present, with the most pressing being the danger of falling further behind economically. With the aspiration to build a peaceful, prosperous, and thriving nation, where all citizens enjoy a warm, happy, and fulfilling life, our entire Party and people are determined to carry out a “revolution” to streamline the political system’s apparatus, creating strong momentum for the country to advance in the new era.

Historical experience has shown that each nation has the opportunity to accelerate its development only when all the necessary factors converge, particularly during a period of demographic advantage. Fully aware of this, when the opportunity arises, our Party and State have acted - and are acting - resolutely and uniformly to implement a range of strategic solutions, with the aim of making our country a developed nation by 2045. Among these, the policy of building a streamlined state apparatus that operates with greater effectiveness and efficiency is of paramount importance, aligning perfectly with the demands of national development in this new stage.

This is a long-term strategy clearly defined by our Party, with prudent, logical steps and a well-defined roadmap. In this regard, Resolution 18-NQ/TW by the 12^th Central Party Committee, dated 25 October 2017, on continuing to reform and reorganise the apparatus of the political system into a streamlined structure operating with greater effectiveness and efficiency, stands as an important milestone. It provides the basis for the Party and State to set out specific tasks and decisive, clear measures for reforming and reorganising the political organisational structure. The focus is on reducing intermediary bodies, streamlining the workforce, rearranging administrative units, and reviewing and consolidating organisations within the political system so that it operates in a more streamlined and effective manner - one suited to the requirements of national development in the new period - thus laying an important foundation for implementing Conclusion 126-KL/TW by the Politburo and the Secretariat, dated 14 February 2025, on several objectives and tasks for continuing to reorganise and streamline the political system’s apparatus in 2025.

In practice, the merging and streamlining of the organisational structure not only reduces the burden on state budget and addresses the problem of cumbersome, overlapping administrative structure, but also rationalises population size and administrative boundaries in line with the socio-economic realities of each locality. This fosters consistency in planning, infrastructure development, regional connectivity, and investment attraction, thereby contributing to the sustainable growth of both local and national economies. At the same time, it creates favourable conditions for building a compact yet capable contingent of cadres and civil servants, improving the quality of public service. Furthermore, streamlining the political organisational structure carries profound significance in innovating state management thinking and working methods, promoting the application of information technology, advancing administrative reform, and building a service-oriented administration that places citizens at the centre - generating strong momentum for societal development in a modern, professional direction and serving the people more effectively, thereby enriching the cultural identity of localities and the nation.

Although preparations had to be completed within a short timeframe, once the new arrangements came into operation on 1 July 2025, governments at all levels quickly stabilised, with operations becoming effective and seamless from the outset, reducing overlap and avoiding inconvenience for the public. The cadre corps at all levels, particularly at commune level remained close to the people, dedicated, and swift in addressing citizens’ needs. Many localities adopted flexible, creative approaches, taking the initiative to resolve arising difficulties and challenges during the process of receiving and handling cases, ensuring that all public administrative procedures continued as normal without interruption. This has created a positive public response, with the vast majority of citizens expressing strong agreement and satisfaction with positive changes in administrative service delivery in their local areas.

In the time ahead, alongside the acceleration of administrative reform and digital transformation, administrative procedures will be conducted primarily online. This will undoubtedly further enhance the quality and efficiency of government operations at all levels, ensuring transparency and openness, while reducing time and costs for citizens and businesses. This stands as clear evidence of the correctness of the policy to streamline the political system’s apparatus, strengthening the people’s trust in the Party and State. And when the people have trust, distorted narratives will inevitably be rendered ineffective.

Given such significant benefits, each of us must remain vigilant to prevent hostile forces from exploiting cultural issues or the emotional attachment to one’s hometown in order to undermine the “revolution” of streamlining the political system’s apparatus. Ultimately, culture, tradition, and love for one’s hometown are enduring values of the nation, nurtured and preserved over generations through customs, traditions, and the people; they cannot be erased by the merging of administrative boundaries, nor do they depend on the name of an administrative unit. The name of an administrative boundary may change, but the origin and cultural identity will never disappear. Merging administrative units is simply a means to create a more streamlined and efficient organisational structure, not to erase cultural identity or deny the history of a locality. Moreover, the benefits of merging administrative units are now obvious, not only opening up new spaces for development in each locality, but also generating more resources and creating conditions for the economic, cultural, and social development of the whole country. As a result, the people’s material and spiritual life will continue to improve, ensuring the successful achievement of the goal of prosperous people, strong country, democracy, equality, and civilisation, steadily advancing towards socialism.

Furthermore, improving the people’s material and spiritual well-being, and maintaining the development of localities and the nation is the best way to preserve and promote traditional cultural identity, and to nurture and deepen the love for one’s hometown and country in every citizen. Therefore, we must remain highly vigilant, never allow our emotions to be misled, nor fall into the psychological traps set by hostile forces. We must refrain from sharing or spreading false, harmful information and make contributions to safeguarding political security, social order, and public safety. By doing so, we join hands and unite to build our homeland and nation ever more prosperous, civilised, and beautiful, firmly entering the new era of national rise.

Sr. Col. TRUONG THANH QUANG

Maj. NGUYEN TRAN NHAN NGHIA