80 years of journey of "People are the masters"

People of Hoang Thanh commune (old) voted on the termination of the district-level administrative unit and the merger of commune-level administrative units.

People's sovereignty is guaranteed

According to Marx's theory, the People are the decisive basis and the reason for the existence of a democratic state. Democracy is a state of the People. That ideological core was received, developed and realized by President Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Party of Vietnam in the context of our country. The Party's viewpoints and guidelines on promoting the role of the People as masters and promoting socialist democracy are expressed in many documents: from Directive No. 30-CT/TW of the 8th Politburo and Conclusion No. 20-KL/TW 2016 on building and implementing the Grassroots Democracy Regulations; to Decision No. 217-QD/TW and Decision No. 218-QD/TW of the 11th Politburo on the Regulations on supervision, social criticism and participation in giving opinions on Party building and government building. The People's mastery is institutionalized in the Constitution and many legal documents on grassroots democracy.

All Vietnamese constitutions from 1946 to 2013 affirmed the people's mastery in the Vietnamese state regime, in which all state power belongs to the people and the state is owned by the people. The 2013 Constitution stipulates: "The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a socialist rule-of-law state of the people, by the people, and for the people". The principle of people's mastery is consistently affirmed in the basic guidelines of the Communist Party of Vietnam. The Platform for National Construction in the Transitional Period to Socialism (Supplemented and Developed in 2011) clearly states that our State is a socialist rule-of-law state of the people, by the people, and for the people. All state power belongs to the people, the foundation of which is the alliance between the working class, the peasantry, and the intelligentsia led by the Communist Party of Vietnam. Ensuring democratic principles is implemented through the following mechanisms: Party leadership, State management, People mastery.

In fact, over the past 80 years, since the first general election, the Vietnamese State has been elected by the people through their representatives. The people have also enjoyed and had their rights to freedom, democracy, human rights, and equality before the law respected and protected by the legal system to ensure that those rights are fairly implemented. The people have been given favorable conditions to constantly improve their living conditions, both materially and spiritually. During those 80 years, there were times when people were hungry, had few crops, and were in poverty all year round. Now, the people have food and savings; our country has become one of the main agricultural exporting countries; the people's lives have gradually improved, gradually surpassing the low-middle income, moving towards being well-off and rich in the future. Not only that, the people's status and mastery capacity through participating in the management of the country have also been clearly demonstrated. The activities of law-making, policy-making, and decision-making on national and people's livelihood issues have demonstrated the people's role as the subject. The State creates conditions and gradually legalizes forms and requirements to ensure that the people exercise their right to directly participate in state activities through measures such as: participating in discussions and giving opinions, giving opinions on draft laws; giving opinions and recommendations in the development of socio -economic policies; exercising the right to decide in referendums. The people are guaranteed freedom and democracy in both economic rights and interests and production and business activities. The democratic freedoms in the socio-cultural fields increasingly better meet the diverse needs of the people. The State and all powers in society are under the inspection and supervision of the people according to the motto "people know, people discuss, people do, people inspect".

In addition, the People also exercise their mastery through the Fatherland Front and mass organizations, professional socio-political organizations. This is the channel for power supervision and social criticism that clearly demonstrates the power of the People. The system of fronts at all levels and mass organizations not only organizes and creates favorable conditions for the People to exercise their right to supervise the State and social powers, but also performs the function of representing and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the People.

Continue to perfect democratic institutions in the socialist rule of law state.

During his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh affirmed: People can only exercise their right to mastery when there is a mechanism to ensure their right to mastery. However, he also emphasized and noted: Democracy is the precious property of the People, dictatorship is the lock, the door to prevent saboteurs... With democracy, there must also be dictatorship to preserve democracy. For that reason, building a socialist rule of law state will ensure the long-term, fundamental power of the People, the good nature of our State.

Reflecting on the words of the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in the article “Some theoretical and practical issues on socialism and the path to socialism in Vietnam”, there is a passage: “We need a society in which development is truly for the people, not for profit that exploits and tramples on human dignity... And we need a political system in which power truly belongs to the people, by the people and serves the interests of the people, not just for a wealthy minority”. That goal is also the true value that needs to be achieved on the journey to socialism - the values ​​that President Ho Chi Minh, our Party and the People have chosen and steadfastly pursued.

Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW dated November 9, 2022 of the 6th Conference of the 13th Party Central Committee on continuing to build and perfect the socialist rule-of-law state of Vietnam in the new period stated: The process of building the socialist rule-of-law state of Vietnam still has limitations and shortcomings, and in some aspects does not meet the requirements of development, management and protection of the country in the new situation. Among the many reasons pointed out, one reason is that the work of summarizing practices, researching and perfecting theories has not received due attention.

In order to initially make some suggestions, I would like to present a few issues that need attention. Obviously, in the current context, continuing to build and perfect democratic institutions is the most important to support the socialist rule of law state. The legal basis for implementing this strategic viewpoint is the 2013 Constitution's provision on forms of democracy implementation. According to Article 6 of the 2013 Constitution, "The people exercise state power through direct democracy, through representative democracy through the National Assembly, People's Councils and through other State agencies". Strongly innovating the electoral system, implementing forms and levels of referendums are two strategic solutions related to direct democracy. Strengthening the representative function, capacity and representative responsibility of National Assembly and People's Council deputies is the key solution of representative democracy. With a non-hasty mindset, gradually create elements of the rule of law regime, persistently based on socio-economic development, political awareness and capacity, and care to promote law enforcement activities of the people and the people's mastery. In addition, continue to innovate the working methods of the Fatherland Front at all levels; in order to further promote the role of building and strengthening the great national unity bloc, widely rallying all classes of people, ensuring consensus and high unity in ideology and action in implementing democracy at the grassroots level; especially the role of social supervision and criticism.

The 80-year journey of “People as masters” has left many valuable lessons on building and practicing socialist democracy in our country. Ultimately, the healthy, open and progressive development of democracy depends on the level of socio-economic development, the leadership role of the Party, the management of the State, and the active coordination of the entire political system unified under the leadership of the Party.

Article and photos: Nguyen Huong

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/80-nam-hanh-trinh-dan-lam-chu-258677.htm