“The people supervise, the people enjoy”, reinforcing and ensuring the implementation of the people's right to mastery

ASSOC., PROF., DR. LUU NGOC TO TAM
Academy of Politics Region II

1. Introduction

At the 13th National Party Congress, our Party affirmed the effective implementation of the motto “the people know, the people discuss, the people do, the people check, the people supervise, the people enjoy” in order to promote socialist democracy and ensure the mastery of the people. Compared to previous Congresses, the 13th National Party Congress has supplemented two new elements: “the people supervise, the people enjoy” to the Party’s operating motto, meeting theoretical requirements and in accordance with the practical situation.

The issue of “the people supervise” was supplemented to clarify the scope of “the people inspect” activities. “The people supervise” is not limited to people directly checking the activities of local and central state management agencies, but must synchronously monitor and check the activities of socio-political system. “The people inspect” activities are carried out in the form of direct democracy and representative democracy, “the people enjoy” as the owners of the country, the people are entitled to their legitimate and legal rights with material and spiritual benefits. That is first of all the rights to life, the right to freedom, and the right to pursue happiness. Recognizing and ensuring the implementation of legitimate rights and interests for the people is an important basis for recognizing the people’s achievements and contributions to the cause of building the country, strengthening the people’s trust in the Party’s leadership, and creating motivation for the people to strive for national progress.

2. Practical implementation of “the people monitor, the people enjoy”

Advantages

Supplementing the motto “the people supervise, the people enjoy” is a clearer expression of the viewpoint and policy of promoting the people’s right to mastery

As the owners of the country, the Vietnamese people enjoy the achievements of the revolution, the construction and development of the country. Throughout the development process, our Party and State always pay attention to the legitimate interests of the people, demonstrating the superiority of the socialist regime; Thereby, the people can fully “enjoy” the achievements derived from the process of building and developing the country.

By the 13th National Party Congress, this issue was directly affirmed in the Party’s operating motto, thereby affirming the issue of “people’s beneficiaries” - through ensuring the people’s legitimate rights and interests is the goal of democracy, and at the same time an important driving force in building democracy in the socialist law-ruled state. Because only when their legal rights and interests are guaranteed, will the people be proactive and positive in implementing the guidelines and policies of the Party and State, united and determined in implementing policy decisions on socio-economic development according to the socialist orientation. This is an important renovation in the Party’s understanding of democracy and ensuring the implementation of democracy in Vietnam; it is an important basis to organize unified and effective implementation in practice.

To ensure the implementation of people’s democracy and the right to “enjoy”, the 13th National Party Congress clearly stated: “all guidelines and policies shall originate from the lives, aspirations, legitimate rights and interests of the people”, taking the people’s happiness and prosperity as the goal to strive for”(1). Therefore, all guidelines and policies shall associate socio-economic development goals with the issue of ensuring social justice and promoting the people’s right to mastery, ensuring that the people increasingly enjoy the achievements of national renovation and development; so that the people are truly the driving force and the great goal of the development process.

Consistency and strengthening of the Party’s policies on promoting the people’s right to mastery have been institutionalized into legal regulations and relatively unified, complete, and effective enforcement organization.

The Party’s policy of promoting the people’s right to mastery, ensuring that the people know, the people discuss, the people do, and the people check is an important basis for the State to institutionalize through the construction and implementation of the system. The legal system on this issue is expressed through the provisions of the Constitution and specialized laws.

The Vietnamese Constitutions, from the 1946, 1959, 1980, 1992 Constitutions, directly or indirectly affirm the democratic regime and the nature of the Socialist State of Vietnam as a state of the people, by the people and for the people. By the 2013 Constitution, the idea of building a democratic regime and a socialist law-ruled state of the people, by the people, for the people was expressed clearly and consistently. Article 2 of the 2013 Constitution stipulates: “1. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a socialist law-governed state of the People, by the People, for the People. 2. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is owned by the People; All state powers belong to the People, whose foundation is the alliance between the working class, the peasantry and the intellectuals” has clearly expressed the Party’s viewpoint on building a democratic regime, implementing “The people know, the people discuss, the people do, the people check, the people supervise, the people enjoy” in all policy decisions and activities of the political system.

The 2013 Constitution has a new awareness of human rights and civil rights, recognizing and ensuring the implementation of the people’s legitimate rights and interests: “In the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the human rights, political, civil, economic, cultural and social rights are recognized, respected, protected and guaranteed according to the Constitution and laws”.

To be consistent with the spirit and content of the Constitution through the development periods, a system of specialized laws has been promulgated and implemented in a complete and consistent manner. Specifically, to build a basis for implementing the Party’s policy on democracy at the grassroots, on February 18, 1998, the Politburo issued Directive No. 30/CT-TW on the formulation and implementation of regulations on democracy at the grassroots level.

Institutionalizing the content of Directive No. 30-CT/TW of the Politburo, the Standing Committee of the 10th National Assembly issued Resolution No. 45/1998/NQ-UBTVQH 10 dated February 26, 1998 “on promulgating Regulations on implementing democracy in communes, wards and towns”; The Government issued Decree No. 29/1998/ND-CP dated May 11, 1998 “On Regulations on implementing democracy at the commune level” (later superseded by Decree No. 79/2003/ND-CP dated July 7, 2003 on Regulations on implementing democracy at the commune level).

Next, the National Assembly Standing Committee issued Ordinance No. 34/2007/PL-UBTVQH11 dated April 20, 2007 on implementing democracy in communes, wards and towns (superseding Decree No.79/2003/ND-CP). Upgrading the regulations into ordinances to implement democracy in communes, wards and towns is an objective necessity to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of the people.

Resolution of the 12th National Party Congress and Conclusion No. 120-KL/TW dated January 7, 2016, of the Politburo on “continuing to promote and improve the quality and efficiency of building and implementing democratic regulations at the grassroots” all affirmed the need to continue promoting the promotion of people’s right to mastery with many different forms of democracy.

On November 10, 2022, the 15th National Assembly voted to pass the Law on Implementing Democracy at the Grassroots (Law No. 10/2022/QH15), effective from July 1, 2023. The Law on Implementing Democracy at Grassroots includes 6 Chapters and 91 Articles, regulating the content and methods of implementing democracy at the grassroots level, the rights and obligations of citizens in implementing democracy at the grassroots level, and the responsibilities of citizens, agencies, units, organizations and individuals in ensuring the implementation of democracy at the grassroots level. Thus, specialized laws are clearly stipulated in order to ensure the people’s right to mastery and affirm democratic values in the socialist law-ruled state, ensuring consistency and alignment with the Constitution.

In direct relation to the issue of “the people’s supervision”, the law has a system of specific regulations on the people’s supervision function for state administrative agencies in particular and the political system in general. As the owners of the country, the people directly elect people to participate, on their behalf, in the activities of the political system; they also, officially delegate political power to these individuals to carry out the tasks and goals of national development.

In other words, power in the socialist rule-of-law state is centralized and unified because it belongs only to the people and is checked and supervised by the people themselves through the power control mechanism recognized in Article 6, Article 8 of 2013 Constitution. This has been institutionalized and further affirmed in the Law on Vietnam Fatherland Front in 2015, the Law on Government Organization in 2015, the Law on Local Government Organization in 2015 (amended, supplemented in 2019), Trade Union Law 2012, and so on. Meanwhile, the issue of “the people enjoy” has been concretized in the system of specialized legal documents, ensuring human rights and civil rights for the people with legitimate rights and interests recognized and protected by international law as well as the Constitution and national legal system.

“”The people supervise, the people enjoy” is an important guarantee for building democracy in the socialist law-ruled state.

The motto “the people supervise, the people enjoy” has clarified and strengthened the issue of democracy in the socialist law-ruled State to better ensure the legitimate rights and interests of the people. In the process of implementing the law on democracy, the people are guaranteed to directly participate in the inspection and supervision process, fully, and transparently; Legal rights and interests are guaranteed – the people will have a fuller and deeper awareness of their rights and responsibilities according to the law. Thereby, the people will proactively participate in activities to build and organize the implementation of the Party’s policies and laws in a more effective and unified manner; making an important contribution to building a clean, strong Party and political system that operates effectively and efficiently; Eliminating bureaucracy, commandism, and authoritarianism, and enhancing the sense of serving the people among officials and civil servants in general and at the commune, ward, and township level in particular.

3. Some difficulties, limitations. and solutions to effectively implement the motto “the people supervise, the people enjoy”, promoting the people’s right to mastery

Firstly, the supervisory function of the people through the Vietnam Fatherland Front is still ineffective and lacking unity

In the 1992 Constitution (amended and supplemented in 2001), the people’s supervisory role through the Vietnam Fatherland Front was recognized and affirmed, demonstrating the rights and responsibilities of the Vietnam Fatherland Front in participating in the construction and ensuring the effective and efficient operation of the political system. According to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 25 of the 2015 Law on the Vietnam Fatherland Front, supervision is carried out by this agency: “The Vietnam Fatherland Front Committees at all levels directly or request that their member organizations to supervise, review, evaluate and make recommendations on the activities of agencies, organizations, elected representatives, officials, civil servants and public employees in implementing policies, laws”. Clause 5, Article 3 of the 2015 Law on the Vietnam Fatherland Front affirms that one of the basic rights and responsibilities of this agency is to “perform social supervision and criticism”. This is an important activity of the Fatherland Front and mass organizations in participating in building the Party and building the government.

Recognizing the importance of this work, Resolution 4 of the 12th Central Committee on building and rectifying the Party proposed solutions to promote the supervisory role of the Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations, the people, the press, and public opinion in the struggle to prevent and reverse recession, “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” among cadres and party members. However, the supervision activities of the Vietnam Fatherland Front in recent times still has certain limitations, specifically:

Lack of proactivity in developing supervision plans. Although the law includes specific regulations on this issue, in the process of organizing supervision activities of the Vietnam Fatherland Front for commune-level authorities, the development of programs, plans, and the supervising activities of the government at the same level are carried out under the direction of the Party Committee at the same level and the Fatherland Front at the superior level, so most of the supervision cases are not actually supervised and do not focus on outstanding and pressing issues in localities. In addition, the activities of the People’s Inspection Board are mainly to participate with functional agencies in resolving disputes and complaints arising at the grassroots level. Coordination between departments and branches is not tight, leading to passivity in developing supervising plans for each investment project in the area.

The Front’s supervision activities in some specific cases are still formalistic. Some localities have not paid enough attention to the activities of the Community Investment Supervision Board and have not created the most favourable conditions for the Board to carry out supervision work. In some localities, local party committees and authorities do not seriously handle the recommendations of the People’s Inspection Board, and even cover them up, fearing that it will affect local achievements. Some front officials avoid confrontation and lack courage when performing supervisory tasks.

The quality of supervision by the Fatherland Front is still not high. According to the provisions of Articles 25 and 26 of the Law on the Vietnam Fatherland Front in 2015, the scope of supervision by the Vietnam Fatherland Front is currently very intensively regulated, while the staff working at the front has not been trained in professional qualifications and skills, but they must perform tasks that require such professionalism such as supervising legal documents, infrastructure construction, and implementation of land use and planning in localities, etc. Therefore, it is difficult to avoid negligence and the quality of supervision is sometimes not high.

These limitations are due to the wide scope of supervising activities and high requirements while the human resources and material conditions of the Vietnam Fatherland Front are limited; the understanding of this task among front officials and supervised subjects, party committees and authorities is still insufficient.

Secondly, the understanding of the issue of “the people enjoy” has not been thoroughly grasped

In recent times, the issue of ensuring the implementation of democracy and ensuring the people’s right to “enjoy” has been implemented in a relatively unified, synchronous, and effective manner from the central to local levels. However, the understanding and practice of democracy at the grassroots level during this period still shows some limitations in practicing and promoting democracy, supervision, and social criticism. Specifically, the work of propagandizing and thoroughly grasping the Party’s guidelines and policies as well as the State’s policies and laws on the issue of grassroots democracy in some localities and units is still not prompt and still in formalistic. In addition, due to the lack of uniform legal regulations, the implementation of the people’s supervision mechanism is not very effective. At the same time, the bureaucratic and negative situation of some local public agencies has reduced people’s confidence in the Party’s leadership and the State’s management activities. A part of the population, being gullible, has been taken advantage of by reactionary and hostile forces, manipulating them and making unjustified and illegal demands that go against the Party’s policies and the state laws.

Therefore, in building and organizing the implementation of the motto “the people enjoy”, it is necessary to thoroughly grasp and clarify the relationship between the right to “enjoy” and the obligation to ensure the fulfillment of civic obligations towards the Party and the State in national construction and development.

The people’s “right to enjoy” shall therefore be legal rights and interests, recognized and guaranteed by the Constitution and specialized legal systems.

To promote the people’s right to mastery and ensure effective implementation of “the people supervise, the people enjoy”, it is necessary to focus on the following solutions:

Firstly, raise awareness of party committees and authorities about the position and role of the Vietnam Fatherland Front in exercising its supervisory rights. Respect for the independent position of the Vietnam Fatherland Front needs to be clearly demonstrated through the Party’s leadership method towards the Front, such as: through propaganda, mobilization, persuasion, inspection and by the example of each individual, party members; through the Front party union and party union of member organizations; through party committees participation in the Front. The Party does not make decisions on behalf of the Front nor intervene too deeply in the Front’s professional activities, ensuring that the Front is proactive in building programs and plans to supervise the government. Accordingly, it is necessary to be fully and deeply aware of the role of the Front in the context of a ruling Party with the requirement to build a State of the people, by the people, for the people. Direct, coordinate and create conditions for the Front and local organizations to effectively carry out their supervisory functions.

Secondly, enhance the quality of supervisory activities in the direction of openness, transparency, and efficiency. The Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations continue to promote their active, proactive, and positive role in building and organizing the implementation of annual social supervising and criticism plans; propagate and raise awareness of all levels, sectors and people about social supervision and criticism. Properly make proposal to institutionalize regulations on topics that need social supervision and criticism; Complete the coordination mechanism among forces during the implementation process. At the same time, strengthen the implementation of supervision, criticism and suggestion for building the Party and government; supervise and resolve complaints, denunciations, and petitions from voters; publicize inspection conclusions and objectivity of satisfaction indicators; improve the investment environment, enhance competitiveness; concentrate on issues of public opinion that are of concern and interest, contributing to preventing and combating corruption and wastefulness, preventing signs of recession, “self-evolution”, “self-transformation”, and strengthening social consensus in carrying out goals and tasks.

Thirdly, for social supervision and criticism to be of high quality and effectiveness, the subject of supervision and criticism shall be strong, courageous, professionally qualified, and have the ability of perceiving, analyzing, and evaluating issues. Therefore, party committees at all levels need to pay attention to doing a good job of planning, training, and assigning dedicated and capable officials to work at the Vietnam Fatherland Front and mass organizations. Emphasis should be placed on young, capable, and qualified officials in both expertise, profession, and political theory. Only when properly identifying staff needs can we proactively create staff resources, avoiding patchwork, subjectiveness, or voluntarism in mobilizing staff.

Fourthly, continue to review, amend and improve the legal system regulating citizen rights in the direction of ensuring the people’s legitimate rights and interests, and promoting democracy on an appropriate basis with the Party’s policies and guidelines and the State’s policies and laws. Accordingly, the system of legal regulations on the people’s legitimate rights and interests such as: the right to inspect and supervise state management activities; the right to access information; The right to vote in elections needs to be regulated in a way that ensures the feasibility and consistency of the legal system, thereby improving the effectiveness of applying the law in practice.

Fifthly, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the state apparatus in the process of applying and enforcing laws on democracy. Regarding this issue, the Party determined that “ Building a streamlined and effective political system organization. Continuing to promote the fight against bureaucracy, corruption, wastefulness, and negativity”(2) is one of the six key tasks determined during the 13th National Party Congress. Accordingly, the renovation and consolidation of the state apparatus must be consistent with the characteristics of our country’s political system, which operates under the mechanism of “Party leadership, State management, and people’s right to mastery” led by a single Party, consistent with the characteristics of a socialist-oriented market economy, international economic integration and building a socialist law-ruled state, while maintaining the Party’s leadership role.

Strengthening the organizational structure must aim to ensure that agencies in the political system operate effectively, efficiently, and in a streamlined manner, overcoming bureaucracy, duplication, and overlap in functions, tasks, and rights as well as inappropriate organization. At the same time, clearly define the specific functions, tasks, and responsibilities of each agency and organization to ensure the effective operation of the entire political system.

Strengthening the organizational apparatus of party agencies and state agencies must be ensured in a uniform and systematic manner, ensuring the Party’s leadership in our country’s political system. At the same time building strong Party agencies, capable of performing functions and tasks, while promoting the roles and responsibilities of party organizations and party members in State agencies, the Front, and socio-political organizations as advisors to the Party.

Renovating and perfecting the organization of the state administrative apparatus should inherit past achievements and experiences, both meeting the requirements of the country’s renovation process and proactively and enhancing international integration.

Sixthly, improve the capacity, qualifications, spirit, and responsibility of cadres, civil servants, and public employees in the process of performing their functions, tasks, and powers.

Stemming from the limitations in the capacity, qualifications, and responsibilities of the staff, civil servants, and public employees in the process of performing public duties, the immediate goal is to focus on improving the capacity and qualifications of the contingents, cadres, civil servants and public employees. Regular professional training and coaching courses should be organized to enhance working capacity, with in-depth courses to help officials, civil servants, and public employees get to know and clearly understand the policies and laws of the Party and the State in each period of development, thereby applying them effectively and appropriately to the situations of each locality.

Continue to promote building a truly honest state administrative apparatus. Every officer, civil servant, and employee working in state agencies must be a person of integrity and action, strictly complying with the provisions of law. Power holders must be controlled by law, responsible to the people, and accountable to the people.

Seventhly, promote propaganda activities and raise awareness of law enforcement on democracy in general and the issue of “the people supervise, the people enjoy” in particular. Accordingly, it is necessary to promote propaganda activities and deeply disseminate the Party’s guidelines and policies, the State’s policies, and laws on the issue of ensuring the building of democracy in the socialist law-ruled State to various social strata. At the same time, strengthen education on law observance for people from all walks of life, resolutely repel and prevent misleading ideas, false allegations, and denial of the Party’s leadership role in the cause of national construction, and development.

4. Conclusion

Democracy has always been the aspiration and goal of people throughout human history; It is also the foundation for the nation’s independence and prosperity. Therefore, ensuring and strengthening democracy is an inevitable development trend for the politics of every country, especially with the goal of building a socialist law-ruled state of the people, by the people, for the people. That is the essence and political goal that has been affirmed by the Party and the State, and continues to be maintained on the path to successfully building socialism, to promote the people’s right to mastery and creativity, and to mobilize the great material and spiritual strength of the people in the cause of national construction and development.

_________________

Received: January 18, 2024; Revised: February 23, 2024; Approved for publication: February 27, 2024.

Endnotes:

(1), (2) CPV: Documents of the 13th National Party Congress, vol.I, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2021, p. 28, 200.