On the morning of June 20, while explaining to the National Assembly about the draft Law on Forces Participating in the Protection of Security and Order at the Grassroots Level, Minister of Public Security To Lam said that the Resolution of the 13th Party Congress sets the goal of building a society of order, discipline, and safety, where all people enjoy happiness and safety, and no one is threatened. If each commune and ward ensures good security at the grassroots level, security in the district, province, and the whole country will be good.

However, in reality, many people are still bullied and threatened. The recent increase in regular police in communes only partially ensures security at the grassroots level because this force also participates in mobilizing people, reforming administrative procedures, and serving people on the spot. Previously, people who needed to do transactions often had to go to the district or province, but now they can carry out basic transactions right at the commune.

"We are calculating that in the Central Highlands, each commune needs a security officer to grasp and resolve all security issues. Communes with complex drug problems need officers who are drug prevention experts, and administrative procedures also need people," said Minister To Lam.

In the coming time, communes need to have primary investigators because the law allows for the settlement of crime reports from people in the commune. Therefore, each commune police officer has to do a lot of work. Legally, there are many issues related to the democratic freedom of people at the grassroots level. If there is no law to regulate it, it will not be in accordance with the Constitution.

According to the General, there was previously a Commune Police Ordinance, which was later approved by the National Assembly to be upgraded to the Commune Police Law. However, since the regular police were brought to the communes, the National Assembly agreed that after amending the People's Police Law, the Commune Police Law would be amended. Therefore, the force ensuring order and security at the grassroots level has not yet had any laws to regulate it.

Regarding funding, Minister To Lam affirmed that there are no obstacles or difficulties. He explained that many places want stability to develop. Because if the security and order situation is unstable, there is no time to discuss socio-economic development. For example, when the Formosa marine environmental incident occurred in Nghe An - Ha Tinh, the Standing Committee of the Ministry of Public Security had to spend a whole year discussing this issue, so there was no time to discuss socio-economic development.

Major General Nguyen Thi Xuan, Standing Member of the National Defense and Security Committee, agreed to unify 300,000 people from various forces into security and order protection teams. Currently, 100% of regular commune police are deployed nationwide, but the number is still quite small, with some communes in the Central Highlands having only five people.

"The five comrades, with all the requirements of state management tasks on security and order, must be deployed to the commune-level police to do a lot of work, very heavy, especially handling initial denunciations," said Ms. Xuan, believing that without this force, the regular police would also have a hard time and find it difficult to complete their tasks.

Referring to the recent incident in the Central Highlands, General Xuan said that if the grassroots security forces were given specific instructions, they would be "eyes and ears when this group of subjects went to buy camouflage clothing and prepare tools and vehicles". Along with that, one of the urgent requirements to ensure security and order at the grassroots level is to have a permanent force to grasp the incident early at the grassroots level, which are villages, hamlets, residential groups, and residential communities.

She believes that this is a force that comes from the people, understands customs, habits, language, writing, and has a better grasp of the situation among the people. "If this force is a bridge, an extension of the regular communal police force, I think it is extremely necessary, as required by reality," the delegate concluded.

Mr. Ha Sy Dong, Standing Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Tri province, said that since the Ministry of Public Security brought regular police to the commune level, it has overcome the previous limitations when the commune police were not regular forces. However, the current situation of security and order at the grassroots level is complicated. Crime, accidents, and social evils in many localities pose potential risks of becoming complicated.

"The recent incident in the Central Highlands is a very expensive lesson, showing that the force ensuring security and order at the grassroots level is still lacking and weak, and has not been mobilized in a timely manner," he said, agreeing with the drafting of the law, but it is necessary to clearly explain whether the force ensuring security at the grassroots level is a burden on the budget.

Vice Chairman of the Law Committee Ngo Trung Thanh agreed with the necessity of the draft law. However, he suggested that the drafting committee consider it because "not every area or locality necessarily has to establish a security and order protection team" and the conditions and criteria must be strictly established.

Son Ha - Viet Tuan