Nguyen Van Thuy^*
Tap chi Cong san, No.106-2006

Ho Chi Minh Thought on the prevention and control of red tape and corruption was complete and consistent. He left us with more than 60 theoretical works on this matter.

We study Ho Chi Minh Thought on red tape and corruption prevention and control to become further aware of our responsibility in this long-term, difficult and fierce struggle and to further understand his concern about this vital issue.

First, individualism must be eliminated

Ho Chi Minh strongly denounced individualism in the socialist regime. Many of his writings and speeches, particularly in the period of economic restoration and construction after the return of peace, clearly showed his attitude to individualism. He pointed out that individualism ran counter to collectivisation and socialism, and was the worst and most dangerous vestige of the old society. Individualism was contradictory to revolutionary virtues. He said that if it remained in our thinking, even slightly, it would await an opportunity to develop and overwhelm revolutionary virtues. He said, "Individualism is very wicked and shrewd, which can soothe us into decay," ¹ and maintained, "the success of socialism cannot be separated from that of the struggle against individualism". ²

He repeated that individualism was the root cause of declines in morality and lifestyle. It also generated all negative practices including corruption, laziness, envy, vainglory, cowardice, and wastefulness. It was a wicked enemy of revolutionary virtues and socialism. In "Correcting Work-style", he warned that "Individualism is a poisonous bacteria which causes numerous life-threatening diseases." By saying life-threatening diseases, he meant red tape and corruption which were demonstrated in the form of greediness, laziness, vainglory, fame-seeking, undisciplined action, narrow-mindedness, localism, power abuse, empty fame, factionalism, and shortsightedness.

In his 1969 work, "Improving Revolutionary Virtues to Wipe out Individualism", he again pointed out, "Individualism will make people evade their difficulties and become bogged down in corruption, degeneration, wastefulness and luxury. They will pursue fame and become self-interested, and seek position and power. They will feel self-important, think little of the collective, look down upon others, and be arbitrary and autocratic. They will become deflected from the masses and reality and have a bureaucratic and commanding work-style."

Second, enriching revolutionary virtues is a key task in the prevention and control of red tape and corruption.

President Ho Chi Minh held that a lack of education about revolutionary virtues and moral decline would lead to corruption and wastefulness. Because of this, strengthening revolutionary virtues was a major method to prevent and control red tape and corruption. On relations between Government officials and Party members, Ho Chi Minh said, "we should exert our utmost to do what is beneficial to the people and avoid what is harmful to them", and "we should share prosperity and woe with the people, trust the people and listen to the people." Government officials and Party members should avoid illegal acts and negative behaviours such as power abuse, bribery, factionalism, corruption, division, looking down upon the people and mandarin-like work-style.

In the current development of a socialist-oriented market economy, our Party has focused on economic development and not paid enough attention to improve the revolutionary virtues of Party members and Government officials. As a result, the political ideology, morality and lifestyle of some of them have declined. This situation was raised and analysed in the resolutions of the 6^th plenum of the 8^th Party Central Committee, and the 4^th and 9^th plenums of the 9^th Party Central Committee. This is a threat to the national renewal process, the Party leadership and the existence of our regime.

Third, corruption, wastefulness and red tape must be eliminated.

In his lifetime President Ho Chi Minh, always worried about corruption, wastefulness and red tape within the Party and the State apparatus. In 1952, when the country mobilised national resources to prepare for a general offensive against the French colonialists, in the spirit of "long-term resistance, based on ourselves", he paid particular attention to practicing thrift and preventing corruption, wastefulness and red tape, and considered these activities "as important and pressing as fighting the enemies on the battlefront". He pointed out serious examples of wastefulness such as wastefulness of human resources, time and public property. According to him, corruption and wastefulness was the result of a bureaucratic work-style. He said, "Officials and managers do not fully understand their actual jobs, fail to monitor and educate their staff members, and are not connected to the people. They fail to grasp the entire situation and only know about holding meetings, writing directives and reading reports. They fail to monitor and supervise all activities." As a result, "they cannot not see all things although they are sighted, cannot hear although they have good hearing. They cannot obey regulations and keep discipline, allowing bad officials to become corrupt and waste public property."

Ho Chi Minh regarded corruption as "thievery and robbery" and a social evil which could not be accepted as coexisting, but must be eliminated. For him, corruption and wastefulness was the enemy of the people and the Government, "It is a rather dangerous enemy as it does take a sword or a gun but lies within our organisation to undermine our tasks. It is a kind of an "internal aggressor." In "Building Socialist People" written in March 1961, he reiterated an idea which had been raised 10 years before, "Corruption and wasting property of the State, the collectives and the people are robbery acts, which all people hate and want to eliminate". He said it was a must to fight against bureaucratic and commanding work-styles as they were the root of corruption and wastefulness.

Over the last six years, our Party and State have made many efforts to realise the resolutions of the 6^th plenum of the 8^th Party Central Committee, Ho Chi Minh Thought in the fight against corruption, wastefulness and red tape. However, in its report to the Political Bureau, the Steering Committee for the realisation of the 6^th plenum’s resolutions said, "despite positive changes, red tape, corruption, wastefulness and other negative practices in many fields, even in key fields under the Party Central Committee focus guidance, have not reduced, but become more severe and new negative manifestations have emerged." This is the most urgent problem currently facing our Party and our society. More than ever before, this situation must be overcome.

Fourth, building a socialist people is the basic strategy to prevent and control red tape and corruption.

Ho Chi Minh considered the building of a socialist people a long-term strategy to overcome corruption, wastefulness and red tape. He said, "To build socialism, first of all, socialist people are required." He mentioned the building of new people immediately at the time he went abroad to find the way for national salvation. In the work, "The Revolutionary Path" written in 1927, he wrote, "For ourselves, we should be industrious and thrifty, amiable but not biased, and determined to correct our mistakes. We should be cautious, but not timid, and always questioning and hardworking. We should consider and study things, be public-spirited and selfless. We should not seek fame and vainglory. Our words should meet our deeds. We must strictly follow our communism, be sacrificing, not seeking for wealth and keep our Party’s activities secret." He also wrote, "We should forgive other people, be serious in our organization, give advice and recommendations to others, and be straightforward, but not reckless." Ho Chi Minh said that "during our work, we should examine the situation carefully, be determined, courageous and listen to the collective."

Proceeding from traditional and oriental cultures, Ho Chi Minh developed standards for a socialist people to be "industrious, thrifty, honest, righteous, public-spirited and selfless". According to him, a person with socialist ideology and manners should be "conscious of being master of the country, having a sense of the socialist collective and believe in the "one for all and all for one" principle." A true socialist should always take care of other peoples and be public-spirited and selfless. They should focus on work ahead of others and enjoy their happiness after others have." It means that in any situation, the socialist people will act, first of all, in the interest of the society and the collective. Ho Chi Minh paid particular attention to educating and training socialist people. He reminded Party committees and authorities at all levels to focus on education and training younger generations to continue the great revolutionary cause of our Party and people. ³

However, many negative phenomena have recently emerged in the building of socialist people in our country. The ideology of "one for all" before the consequence of "all for one" is no longer applied by many Party members and Government officials. In relation to this, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said at the 5^th session of the 11^th National Assembly on June 12, 2004, "Prolonged social evils and social decline in many aspects have tortured and worried our people and revolutionary veterans. The people’s fine qualities tempered in history and resistance wars have faded, social values have overturned, many depraved lifestyles have emerged, particularly the greed for power, position, fame and gain, running after money regardless of laws and morals, untruthfulness, deceit and fraud in diverse forms. We should frankly admit that these negative practices originate from some Government officials and managers of State-owned enterprises who are tied to red-tape, corrupt, hungry for power, position, fame and gain, and are deceitful and divisive. Their bad examples have impacted on society, particularly the younger generations."

Obviously, it is a pressing issue, which requires both the Party and State to take strong counter measures. In the immediate future, we should review strategies for education and training, and healthcare development. Currently, the trend of commercialisation and marketisation is prevailing in these sectors, directly impacting on human resources development and leaving negative consequences for the building of socialism in our country.

Fifth, self-criticism and criticism should further be promoted.

Self-criticism and criticism are Party building principles and Ho Chi Minh always laid emphasis on them in the construction of revolutionary virtues. He attributed popular and severe mistakes in Party committees at all levels such as subjectivity, bureaucracy, command, narrow-mindedness and relying vaingloriously on former records to the fact that "democracy within the Party is not promoted and criticism and self-criticism are not regularly done." He required Party Committees, State agencies, social and mass organizations, the mass media and the people to accelerate the criticism and self-criticism process, "criticism and self-criticism should be done in a regular, practical and democratic manner from top down and bottom up." ⁴ In the article "Revolutionary Virtues", he wrote that criticism and self-criticism helped our Party obtained many victories in the revolutionary process. He reminded us to detect and commend good people and good deeds, and making them examples for others. In this Testament, Ho Chi Minh wrote, "Serious self-criticism and criticism are the best methods to consolidate and develop unity within the Party."

In this spirit and realizing the resolutions of the 6^th plenum of the 8^th Party Central Committee, our Party held a campaign on Party building and rectification from May 19, 1999 to May 19, 2001, which encouraged regular self-criticism and criticism practices. However, six years have passed since then, and that campaign is still yet to meet its requirements. Self-criticism and criticism are overtly formal, and people are careful not to hurt each other’s feeling. As a result, these efforts are not effective, educational, warning and deterrent. In the current market economy, self-criticism and criticism should be renewed in conception, guidance, implementation and supervision.

Sixth, we should rely on the people to fight against corruption, wastefulness and red tape.

Ho Chi Minh Thought and morality on red tape and corruption prevention and control clearly showed the stand of Party Rules, "the Party is under the people’s supervision and relies on the people to build itself." Ho Chi Minh considered the people a magic wand to help the Party overcome any obstacles. According to him, the people were the Party’s invincible strength and are indispensable in the struggle against red tape, corruption and wastefulness.

The recent 4^th plenum of the 9^th Party Central Committee attributed one of the six reasons, which made the struggle against corruption and waste of public property less effective to the fact that "many Party committees and cells failed to rely on the people and listen to their criticism." So, we are certain that a deep understanding and strict implementation of Ho Chi Minh Thought will create a new motivation to help us overcome that situation.

To further realise Ho Chi Minh’s idea, the 8^th Party Political Bureau issued Directive No. 30-CT/TW on building Democratic Regulations at the grassroots level on February 18, 1998. They assigned this to Party organizations in the Government and National Assembly for implementation. On March 28, 2002, the Party Secretariat reviewed its implementation and issued Directive No. 10-CT/TW to further implement the Democratic Regulations at the grassroots level. To make the Directive more workable in the current situation, we should pay more attention to promoting the people’s role in Party building and rectification and the fight against corruption, wastefulness, red tape, and other negative practices.