The People's Public Security Forces play key role in protecting the Party's credibility and leadership

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The above statement was emphasized by General To Lam, Politburo member, Secretary of the Public Security Central Party Committee and Minister of Public Security in a recent article published on the Public Security Newspaper entitled "The People's Public Security Forces play key role in protecting the Party's credibility and leadership".

The People's Public Security Forces play key role in protecting the Party's credibility and leadership.

In his article, General To Lam wrote, the Communist Party of Vietnam is the nucleus of the great national unity bloc, and that the the Communist Party of Vietnam has been the sole political force in Vietnam that has been able to mobilize the strength of Vietnamese people from all walks of life to conduct the Vietnamese revolution, and led the nation to great victories in the past national liberation struggles as well as the current cause of renovation, socialism building and national defense.

According to General To Lam, inheriting the national glorious traditions and following Ho Chi Minh's thoughts: "Our Party is the ruling party. Every member and everycadre of the Party must truly be imbued with the revolutionary moral qualities: being hard-working, economical, clean-handed, righteous, public-spirited and selfless. It is a must to keep our Party clean and worthy of being the leader and the loyal servant of the people," the Platform for national construction in the transitional period to socialism (supplemented and amended in 2011) reads: “The Communist Party of Vietnam is the ruling Party, leading  the State and society of Vietnam. The Communist Party of Vietnam exercises its leadership by its platform, strategies, guidelines and major policies as well as through  information and communications services, mass mobilization, organization work, inspection, supervision and by exemplary actions of the Party members.

General To Lam also reveals that the documents of the 12th National Party Congress reconfirm: “The Party should continue to improve its ruling capacity, ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of its leadership, and maintain the political position of all Party organizations, Party cadres and Party members.

The Communist Party of Vietnam exercises leadership by the methods, measures and procedures built on the basis of the Party Charter, Party principles, resolutions and directives, and in accordance with provisions of the Constitution and the laws.

General To Lam stresses that, in the new revolutionary period, the leadership of the Party is the decisive factor for building a clean and strong political system, and a rule-of-law state belonging to the people, run by the people and serving the people, which is able to well perform internal and external functions, develop economy, culture and society, and ensure security and defense.

Under the leadership of the Party, the State will foster a great national unity bloc, successfully combine the national strength and international support to build a strong, democratic and prosperous Vietnam with equal and civilised society.

According to Minister To Lam, over the past 75 years of the force building and development, the People's Public Security Forces have always been fully aware of the leading role of the Party. In return, the forces have always been trusted by the Party and State so they have been assigned to assume very important responsibilities. The forces have always successfully completed their assigned tasks, including the key one of protecting the Party.

Even before the foundation of the People's Public Security Forces, their precursor organizations namely “Red Defense Team,” “Traitor Execution Team,” and “Scout Team,” undertook the tasks of fighting enemy spies, enemy’s informers and henchmen as well as protected internal security, kept revolutionary secrets, and prevented enemy espionage in the first days of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

After the August Revolution, the country faced numerous threats from both domestic reactionary forces and foreign enemies. Against the backdrop, the People's Public Security Forces smartly and promptly detected and annihialated many organizations, reactionary political parties, including spies of the Chiang Chung-cheng army and the French espionage network. The People's Public Security Forces’ successes in protecting the Party and the newly-built revolutionary government have become valuable lessons for the forces to perform their current tasks of protecting national security.

In the resistance wars against the foreign invaders for national liberation, the Party had a policy to build the People's Public Security Forces as an armed force absolutely loyal to the Party, closely attached to the people and relying on the people to fight the enemy and perform their functions and responsibilities.

During the national liberation wars, the People's Public Security Forces undertook more and more functions and responsibilities. The forces also improved their organizational structure and professional tactics. Following Uncle Ho's Six Teachings, the forces actively promoted and participated in patriotic emulation movements. The forces were entrusted to safeguard the Party Central Headquarters, revolutionary bases, Party organizations, socio-political organizations, military zones, liberation zones, as well as socio-economic development activities in the North.

In peacetime, building and defending the Socialist Fatherland following the slogan "As long as the Party survives, we survive", the People's Public Security Forces actively participated in building and defending  the revolutionary government and promoting the "All people protecting National security" movement, contributing to firmly protecting the revolutionary achievements of the Party and the nation.

In the first years of the "doi moi" (renewal) period, the country faced life-or-death challenges when the socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe collapsed, the People's Public Security Forces gave first and foremost priority to protecting the Party.

General To Lam writes, during the period, the People's Public Security Forces proactively advised the Party and the State to issue policies, decisions and strategies, and made many important contributions to the protection and maintenance of the ideological basis and policies of the Party.

The forces also promptly prevented and fought all plots and activities against the Party by hostile and reactionary forces, contributing to to protecting the Party as well as its unity, principles, discipline. The forces also played an important role in handling wrongdoings of Party cadres and Party members according to the Party’s regulations and State’s laws, contributing importantly to successfully fulfilling socio-economic development objectives as well as to enhancing the prestige and maintaining the leading role of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

In his article, General To Lam discusses that the world and region see rapid changes. Meanwhile, the country faces both opportunities and big challenges threatening the survival of the Party and socialism. In addition, many other problems and negative factors arising in the process of socio-economic development have still not been identified and solved thoroughly.

General To Lam points out that hostile, reactionary forces and political opportunists are still seeking to conduct activities against the leadership of the Party, trigger internal divisions and undermine the great national unity bloc with the aim of breaking the Party's ideological basis. These factors more or less challenge the Party's leadership efficiency and negatively affect people's awareness of, support for and belief in the Party's leadership.

Thus, General To Lam stresses that defending the Party’s leading position at any cost is a fundamental and long-term mission for the whole nation in general and the People's Public Security Forces in particular.

In order to fulfill the crucial mission of protecting the leading position of the Party, General To Lam points out seven key tasks for the People's Public Security Forces.

Firstly, the forces must be fully aware of the position and role of the Party in leading the entire political system and the whole society. In Vietnam, there is no other political force, but the Communist Party of Vietnam, that has enough ability, credibility, knowledge and experience, to lead the nation to overcome all difficulties, challenges, and lead the Vietnamese revolution from victory to victory. In fact, the Party’s leadship in building and protecting the country is also the aspiration and expectation of Vietnamese people from all walks of life, and recognized in the Constitution.

Secondly, the People's Public Security Forces should proactively grasp the situation, identify, foresee and defeat all malicious conspiracies, tricks and acts by hostile forces and political opportunists.

Thirdly, the forces must actively and proactively participate in protecting and supporting the implementation of the Party's views, guidelines and policies in the fields of politics, economy, culture, society, foreign affairs, national defense and security.

Fourthly, the forces should well act as a think-tank, advising the Party and the State on guidelines and solutions to defeat hostile forces’ conspiracies, "peaceful evolution" strategy to cause social riots and overthrow the government.