My dear

We have gone through thousands of New Year's Eves, some New Year's Eves just wishing to escape the life of slavery and suffering; some New Year's Eves filled with hatred, rushing to destroy foreign invaders, liberating ourselves; some New Year's Eves filled with sadness, longing for loved ones who left to follow the call of the country, never to return; some New Year's Eves filled with faith in the future and some New Year's Eves anxiously waiting. A question arises: Why is success not strong enough to sweep away obstacles? What is the root of the problem?

Looking back at the past, we see that in the past, our ancestors used a very simple method of examining people to employ them like using wood, but it hit the core of their personality. In addition to the level of education, the quality of filial piety towards parents, towards people, towards ancestors, were all good qualities, highly valued. In the past, after studying and passing exams, the court appointed them as mandarins, those with high scores were appointed to the prefecture and province levels, those with low scores were appointed to the district level, and those with the highest scores were appointed to the ministerial level in the court as lang trung, thi lang, and thuong thu. Basically, they were transferred to the base, then when "good wine naturally smells good", they were "rotated" to higher levels.

Now, we rotate cadres to the grassroots to gain practical experience. Recently, in order to plan cadres from the strategic level down to the local level, there have been classes of leaders and managers to proactively create resources. Although they are methodical and thoughtful, there are still many cases where they are elected to become officials, and then sent to school to accumulate specialized knowledge at different levels. However, the work of cadres is often "attractive", so there is not much time for studying. Free money and bribery money give rise to new consequences in the renovation period, which are the market for degrees and grades... Then, every time there is a "turning point", those who are targeted for the planning list are gathered for a few months to receive training to improve their knowledge and theory. However, through these training classes, are they able to "cleanse" the defects caused by their "dedication" that have become ingrained in their flesh and blood?

Looking abroad, there are many things that we are not as good as. For example, officials in other countries have very high self-esteem. In political activities, they have an admirable political culture. When leaders see that they have shortcomings, defects, and are no longer worthy of the assigned tasks, they will resign. When they cause material and spiritual damage to the people and the country but do not resign, they will be hammered by public opinion through media pressure or many other organizational pressures, and in the end, they will still have to resign. People say that the culture of resignation only exists when officials understand their duties and responsibilities with self-esteem.

Vietnam is considered to have a traditional culture that values ​​ethics and honor, so why is it so difficult to resign? Officials in our country consider resignation to be extremely serious. What will they do after resigning? Many officials only have leadership and management jobs, that is the difficulty. In addition, there is a great sense of inferiority. Originally a “heroic person”, would they resign to look for a new job? It is not easy because they feel inferior and there is no suitable job.While for foreign officials, resignation does not cause any consequences for their post-resignation life.

Resigning is difficult because a title is considered a “great” title, a source of pride for the family, clan, and village. In reality, a title is just a way to contribute to fulfilling one’s duty as a human being in this world, nothing more, nothing less. There is also a very real reality that makes no one want to resign, because a title always goes hand in hand with power, and power generates benefits. Even with just a transfer or rotation, if one goes to a place with a title but no benefits, one will find every way to avoid it with a myriad of seemingly reasonable reasons; if one cannot be picky, one will not be happy.

 Therefore, in our country, cadres who have serious shortcomings do not voluntarily resign. In the collective leadership mechanism, when it is too tense, the organization will transfer them to higher levels (not demote them to the grassroots level). Sometimes, they only seriously draw experience. Some people complain that the "string of experience" is not known how long it is. When mistakes are made, all levels, sectors, organizations, and officials seriously draw them back, but it is still not enough. Please do not draw anymore, but need to determine personal responsibility according to the assigned work. Where there is a mistake, strictly handle it.The world only knows personal responsibility before the law, but we have collective responsibility, legal responsibility, and political responsibility. It is rich in genre, but weak in effectiveness. Collective responsibility can easily lead to harmony in the whole village, while political responsibility is not specific and general, so it is not easy to attribute responsibility to the leader. In the category of leadership and management, only personal responsibility before the law is practical and effective for the benefit of the people.

The socio-political environment is also keeping the door of resignation locked, no one can open it and will not open it. Society should consider resignation as a normal thing, a culture, a personality and self-respect, not discriminated against or despised. The social environment needs to accept the culture of resignation as a positive factor, respecting personality and living with self-respect, promoting progress, fairness and social civilization.The culture of resignation is one of the most vivid, concrete and practical manifestations of a political culture based on the dignity, self-respect, intelligence and mettle of leaders who truly understand their duties and responsibilities and have full courage. This political culture is the opposite of the opportunistic political culture with people who are indifferent to their duties, ready to defend their positions at all costs, trampling on public opinion and their own conscience. When there is a lack of culture, how can there be light to guide the way? President Ho Chi Minh said, "Culture guides the way for the nation to go", but leaders must show that they have culture to contribute to making culture guide the way for the people to go, in a broader sense.

We develop through culture but the spiritual and social foundation is having problems, especially a part of people who have the conditions to control social development but their dignity is degraded. This defect hinders the development of education, science and technology as the leading national policy means to develop the country. Therefore, our labor productivity is too low, not meeting the requirements of practice and the desired policies.

The 30-year renovation period has passed, the achievements gained domestically and internationally are truly proud, but the defects arising from this period contain unpredictable dangers for the country's destiny. We realize that and are implementing solutions, but the results have not changed clearly, the reality is somewhat more complicated. We know that the defects are urgent problems, but have not yet been urgently overcome. Perhaps we have not yet recognized the root of the problem, the trend of the times and the people's hearts.

Exactly 70 years ago, He gave birth to the people's democratic republic in our country, and instructed: "We learn what is good from the West or the East to create a Vietnamese culture... with a purely Vietnamese spirit in harmony with the spirit of democracy" (newspaper National Salvation, 1946).This political view guided him to filter the best of the world to learn and absorb to enrich his own thoughts and benefit the nation. Even Marxism, a revolutionary doctrine born in his time with European practice, was only a scientific doctrine and had great contributions such as dialectics, a key to explore the natural world and society. Other theses could not be applied in all eras and in all countries. Each nation has different characteristics in history and culture. As the culture of the nation is, so is the path.

When exposed to the revolutionary doctrines of Marx, Engels, Lenin and based on the history and culture of the Vietnamese nation, Ho Chi Minh supplemented his views on the possibility of social revolution in a colonial country. The practice of the revolution to liberate the country has proven his creativity. That is Ho Chi Minh, a man who is different from other students of his predecessors, a student who does not lose his national identity, is not stereotyped or dogmatic, only does what is beneficial to the people, because the people are the root of the nation. He said I am a patriot, meaning that he starts from the interests of the nation to think and act for the nation.

We must know, must dare to recognize what defects we have in ourselves so that we can overcome them. That is what is necessary in life. Otherwise, we will think we are healthy and ignore them. The most dangerous thing in life is to deliberately consider ourselves to have no defects, everything is perfect. In this sacred moment of New Year's Eve, we have been honest with ourselves, so we are extremely peaceful, with boundless excitement entering the new Spring with a new mission.

Now, on the basis of the successes of innovation, perhaps we need to think of ways to change further to truly return to Ho Chi Minh's revolutionary ideology and methods, in which the goal is the nation. The reality of the country and the times has changed a lot, it is time to liberate intelligence to gather creative thinking, perfecting the path back to Ho Chi Minh's ideology. Returning to his revolutionary ideology and methods is returning to the vitality of the nation. Oh my! The new spring is coming, blending and exuding the faith and hope of the people. I hope that the country will have more spring with the spring of humanity!

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Article published in Hanoi Moi newspaper spring issue