Slipping into individualism: Deleterious degradation of cadres and party members

 In the process of educating, training, and building the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV), President Ho Chi Minh soon warned that individualism was one of the most harmful diseases, especially when our Party became a ruling party. According to him, cadres and party members were prone to many wrongdoings and did damage to the Party, State, nation, people, and revolution due to individualism. Therefore, it is an absolute must to eradicate individualism completely, raise revolutionary morality, and foster collective thought, the spirit of solidarity, sense of organisation and discipline.

Being deeply imbued with President Ho Chi Minh’s teaching, our Party pays regular attention to Party building in terms of ideology, politics, morality, organisation, and cadres with a view to cultivating a corps of cadres and party members, who possess both talents and good virtues and are wholeheartedly dedicated to and sacrifice for noble ideals and glorious revolutionary cause of the entire Party, people, and military. In fact, victory of Vietnamese revolution is greatly attributed to contribution of the Party’s excellent cadres and party members. Nevertheless, given the spirit of looking at the situation realistically, our Party has clearly specified that part of cadres and party members, including the high-ranking ones, are degraded in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle, have manifestations of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation,” keep themselves aloof from the Party’s goals and ideals, degenerate, and violate state law and Party’s discipline. Slipping into individualism is one of manifestations and root causes of corrupting the corps of cadres and party members and undermining the Party’s revolutionary nature, leadership capacity, and combat strength.

Slipping into individualism is associated with pragmatic lifestyle and absolutisation of private interests. Whatever thoughts or deeds, they only think about their individual interests without regard to collective interests. Individualism goes against collectivism and revolutionary ethics. Slipping into individualism is the process that cadres and party members gradually deteriorate in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle; think and act against revolutionary ethics; keep aloof from revolutionary ideals; and have no desire for self-training, thus failing to accomplish missions of cadres and party members. Some even betray national interests. In other words, slipping into individualism symbolises corruption of cadres’ and party members’ morality and dignity. It not only does harm to each individual but also seriously affects today’s Party building. Slipping into individualism can be viewed from following angles:

Individualism is an inner enemy or the enemy inside each cadre and party member. It’s obvious that, to become cadres and party members and to bring into play their leadership role over the masses, everyone has to undergo a process of careful training in every aspect, including dignity and capacity. To firmly uphold nature of revolutionaries, cadres and party members must train themselves all their life. However, if they do not preserve revolutionary morality, they are prone to individualism. If this happens, cadres and party members have been infected with one kind of very dangerous virus, which may cause hundreds of diseases ranging from greed, laziness to factionalism, localism, violation of the principle of democratic centralism, degradation in revolutionary ideals, and so on. Thus, those cadres and party members are no longer qualified to be leaders and loyal servants of people. In fact, part of cadres and party members fail to heighten their sense of responsibility, are less imbued with revolutionary ideals, decrease in willpower, slip into individualism, fail to match words with deeds, violate Party discipline and law.

Slipping into individualism weakens our Party from the inside both in political ideology, morality, organisation, and cadre. This occurs as an inevitability since our Party is likened to a living organism, in which each party member represents a cell of this organism. If each cell is healthy, the Party will be healthy, or, conversely, if each cell carries germs, i.e., individualism, the Party will become weak and incompetent. If there are many bad cells in the Party’s organism, sooner or later the Party will become rotten to the core and lose its leadership role.

Slipping into individualism places major obstacles to our people’s revolutionary cause, socialist building, and protection of the Fatherland. The Party leads the revolution by means of guidelines, policies, and vanguard, exemplary role of the corps of cadres and party members. People’s confidence in the Party is associated with their confidence in the corps of cadres and party members. Therefore, when slipping into individualism, cadres and party members are no longer trusted and supported by people. Their prestige and leadership effectiveness decrease, which can be used as a pretext for hostile forces and reactionaries to do deliberate damage to our Party.

It can be asserted that slipping into individualism is one of the most serious manifestations of degradation of cadres and party members, which has profound influence on Party building and rectification. To struggle against, get rid of, and eradicate individualism among cadres and party members require implementing the following solutions successfully.

First, education is to be regularly carried out to improve cadres’ and party members’ ideological awareness and political steadfastness. Slipping into individualism is a process of degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle. This process is attributed to many causes, most notably incorrect, insufficient perception of revolutionary morality and harmful nature of individualism as well as inconsistent political steadfastness. In fact, there are cadres and party members excellently performing their tasks and being appointed to high positions within the Party, State, and political system. However, slipping into individualism leads to degradation, breach of Party discipline and State law, and punishment. Consequently, regular education and propagation to raise ideological awareness and political steadfastness is the leading solution to facilitate cadres’ and party members’ deeper understanding of the role of revolutionary morality as the root of their training and task performance. Accordingly, cadres and party members must enhance self-study to raise their awareness of political theory and revolutionary morality; clearly realise manifestations and harmful nature of individualism towards cadres’ and party members’ training process and Party building.  Education and training of organisations are closely associated with each cadre’s and party member’s self-education and self-training. Moreover, they are requested to actively study and follow Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and style by means of daily concrete, practical deeds, thus upholding their political steadfastness and revolutionary ideals without slipping into individualism.

Second, it is necessary to intensify self-criticism and criticism and resolve to struggle against manifestations of individualism. Individualism is an inner enemy or one kind of very inimical germ inside each cadre’s and party member’s thought. Thus, only by adopting a resolute attitude can they get rid of it. Meanwhile, self-criticism and criticism are potent weapons to combat individualism and a matter of law in Party building and rectification, in which self-criticism is key to getting the stain out of each cadre and party member. Consequently, each of them has to heighten their sense of self-criticism and criticism; regard regular self-criticism as face washing every day; make time for self-reflection and correcting themselves from thinking, taking actions, words to deeds; resolutely struggle against manifestations of individualism in individuals, organisations, and comrades themselves. Thus, it is necessary to heighten sense of combat in self-criticism and criticism; overcome indulgence, avoidance, and fear of causing disagreement; resolutely struggle to remove manifestations of slipping into individualism, improving revolutionary morality of cadres and party members. Additionally, it is important to strengthen inspection and supervision of party organisation to strictly enforce Party discipline and resolutely struggle to defeat hostile forces’ plot to exploit shortcomings and weaknesses of the corps of cadres and party members to do damage to the Party.

Third, attention must be paid to raising cadres’ and party members’ responsibility to set an example and promote revolutionary morality. This is a vital solution, which serves directly to deal with cadres’ and party members’ manifestations of slipping into individualism, because setting example is one of the most important measures to cultivate revolutionary morality. President Ho Chi Minh used to tell cadres and party members that a living example was more valuable than hundreds of propaganda speeches. Cadres and party members wishing to set an example of morality must create internal momentum, refrain from slipping into individualism, and set an example of morality, lifestyle, and work accomplishment. To do so requires cadres and party members to heighten their sense of self-training of revolutionary morality anytime, anywhere, and in all their life. Therefore, each cadre and party member, especially the leading ones at all levels, must take the lead in following the Party’s regulations on setting example, most notably the Regulation No. 08-QĐi/TW, dated October 25th, 2018 of the Party Central Committee (12^th tenure) on cadres’ and party members’ responsibility to set an example and the Regulation No. 37-QĐ/TW dated October 25th, 2021 of the Party Central Committee (13^th tenure) on things that party members are not allowed to do. As for cadres and party members in Viet Nam People’s Army, they are requested to grasp and successfully implement the Resolution No. 847-NQ/QUTW, dated December 28^th, 2021 of the Party Central Committee on “Bringing into play fine dignity of Uncle Ho’s Soldiers, resolutely opposing individualism in the new situation.” Accordingly, it is necessary to realise the motto: “The higher echelons set example for the lower ones to follow” and the higher positions cadres may hold, the more vanguard role they must take.

Slipping into individualism is a manifestation of degradation, which is occurring among part of cadres and party members and making adverse impact on today’s Party building and rectification. Although it is easy to identify manifestations of individualism, the struggle to address it is extremely difficult and complex because it is deep-rooted in the corps of cadres and party members. To effectively combat this manifestation requires adopting many synchronous, drastic measures relating to both ideology, organisation, and cadre, in which strengthening of self-criticism, criticism, and responsibility to set an example and improve revolutionary morality among cadres and party members are core, enduring issues, contributing to the building of a truly pure Party, capable of successfully leading the construction and protection of the Fatherland in the new situation.