Keeping the power under the control of mechanism

Editorial – Under the leadership of our Party, the renewal cause of the country has seen significant and historic achievements. However, there remain remarkable shortcomings in which the abuse of power of some collectives and individuals has spoiled the trust of people in the Party and the State and slowed down the development of the country. Therefore, controling the power in our country is not only a basic and strategic issue but an urgent task in order to repel the bad consequences caused by the abuse of power.

I. Power and the corruption of power

The source of power

Power has long appeared in human society which is defined as "The ability to make people follow you". In society, power is the right to decide all important political issues and the strength to exercise that right. In essence, power is the capacity, ability of an organization or individual to exert influence on other individuals and organizations to exercise their will through certain means and methods. There are many types of power: political, legislative, administrative, judicial, economic, information powers, etc., in which, political power is the most important, covering and dominating all activities of social life.

Power is not something taken as granted or something at will, but must be acquired through struggle. In the process of advocacy and development, since the time of class, human society was divided into the ruling class and the ruled class, power was concentrated in a group of people or even a person. Power is exercised through the orientation, management, social management, protection of interests of the ruling class, feudal and bourgeoisie. The state of the ruling class (slave state, feudal state, or bourgeois state), in any form, is essentially the exercise of power delegated and concentrated by the ruling class into the "minority of minorities", not the majority. Under the private ownership regime, the power of the people is deprived, the abuse of power happens regularly.

When the socialist revolution succeeded in a number of countries, social power was granted to the people. People gave the party of the working class (with different names, such as: communist party, worker party, labor party, etc) the right to lead the state and the society; establish the socialist state and authorised the State on behalf of the people to manage and administer the society. All power, then, belonged to the people. In the transition to socialism, power consists of three components: the Party, the State and the People, in which the Party leads, the State manages, and the People master. This is a matter of principle. How to organise the society so that power truly belongs to the people depends on the conditions and circumstances of each country.

In Vietnam, the Communist Party of Vietnam is the one of the working class, labouring people and the whole nation. It takes Marxism - Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought as the ideologial base. The only aim of Communist Party of Vietnam is to struggle to bring independence, freedom and happiness to Vietnamese people and nation, and independence, freedom, peace and development of mankind. With the sound credo and proper political guidelines, scientific revolutionary methods and appropriate forms of struggle, the Communist Party of Vietnam is trusted by the people, and empowered to lead the people to overthrow the dominance of feudalism, colonialism, and imperialism to gain independence for the nation, unification for the country, and build the country towards socialism. Since becoming the ruling party (in 1945), in order to exercise power and ensure that power belongs to the People, our Party has designed and implemented the mechanism of "Party’s leadership, State’s management, People’s mastery”. This is the creativity of the Party, consistent with the nature of socialist democracy in our country, both confirming the role and pointing out the objective dialectic of the above mentioned elements. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam or the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is the state of the people, by the people, for the people, and all the state powers belong to the People. President Ho Chi Minh affirmed: “Our country is a democratic country. All powers are of the people”. In order for the people's power to be exercised in real life, under the leadership of the Party, our State has established and promulgated the Constitution and laws; organized the National Assembly, the Government, the Court, the Procuracy and the ministries and functional branches at the central and local levels in a scientific manner, suitable to the country's development and international practices. The 1946 Vietnamese Constitution affirms: "All domestic authority belongs to the entire Vietnamese people, regardless of race, gender, class and religion." The 2013 Vietnam Constitution 2013 emphasizes: (1). The Socialist Republic of Vietnam State is the Socialist rule of law State of the People, by the People and for the People; (2). The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is owned by the People; all state power belongs to the People, the foundation of which is the alliance between the working class and the peasantry and the intellectuals, etc. In fact, the power of our People is manifested in all fields: politics, economy, culture, society, defence, security, foreign affairs, etc., to build and defend the Fatherland toward the goal of: rich people, strong, democratic, equal and civilised country. Each Vietnamese citizen directly demonstrates his power through the implementation of human and civil rights in: running for election and electing; the rights to life, freedom, democracy, education, travel, and monitor the power that has been given to the government, etc. For rights, such as management, administration, soco-economic development, security, national defence, etc., the People authorise to the agencies and organizations set up by the People, or even a group of individuals to perform. Agencies, organizations, groups of people and individuals empowered by the People must properly and effectively carry out the assigned tasks according to the provisions of the Constitution and law, ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of the people and the country. When a person holds power in hand but lack cultivation and training, he will easily fall into the corruption of power, then the consequences will be unpredictable.

The danger of the corruption of power

Having power is hard, but it is even harder to control it. Unattended power will very likely be corrupted. This is indispensable without exception, as always. In fact, when power is turned into someone’s private ownership, it is, then, corrupted. Corruption of power is the improper, incomplete, incomplete or excessive exercise of the power granted in the course of implementing responsibilities, duties and power. In practice, the more civilized the society becomes, the more sophisticated the corruption of power is. This distorts the nature and purpose of power and turns it into a tool to serve some individuals or "interest groups". There are many causes for the corruption of power, but directly from individualism, the interests of individuals, families and "interest groups." That people with power are spoiled, first of all, is due to their lack of cultivation, training, temptation, manipulation, bribery, even coercion, etc. They always put their interests above all and care for their own benefit in work.

The process of corrputing power can turn a good person into a bad one, from the humble one to the wild one, from the honest person to the greedy, luxurious one. Looking at the cases and the number of cadres at all levels who have been punnished over the past time, we can clearly see that many of them are people who have recorded many achievement during their career history. Yet when they were empowered, they commit mistakes and sins, even implicitly committed acts of crimes to serve the interests of themselves and their groups without hesitation. This is because both power and interest are enchanting. They make people “blurry”, despite the taboo, trample on the law, and disregard public opinion. At that time, power is turned into a mean for them to commit violations and crimes. Thus, it can be seen that the corruption of power not only harms the stakeholders, but also to their relatives, comrades, and society. And the consequences are extremely dangerous if he is a high-ranking official of the Party and the State - it is one of the risks to the security of the regime.