A ceremony was held in Ho Chi Minh City on August 23 to welcome and honour 91 religious volunteers who have completed their tasks of supporting COVID-19 prevention and control at COVID-19 treatment hospitals in the city.

To Thi Bich Chau, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Committee in Ho Chi Minh City, thanked the volunteers for voluntarily joining frontliners in the fight against the pandemic.

Chau emphasised that the pioneering and voluntary spirit of the volunteers has spread widely and there have been many other dignitaries and followers of different religions volunteering to support frontliners in the fight.

The 91 religious volunteers were among the first volunteers who started supporting the frontliners on July 22, serving at the COVID-19 Intensive Care Hospital, and temporary COVID-19 treatment hospitals No.10 and No.12.

To date, a total of 500 volunteers of different religious groups have taken part in COVID-19 prevention and control on the frontline of the fight against the pandemic./.

 

 

Since the U.S. invasion in 2001, Washington and its partners in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on Afghanistan’s reconstruction. They aimed to develop the country’s democracy, train security forces, build roads and hospitals, and expand rights for women and minority communities.

The results have been mixed. Afghans achieved greater political and media freedoms, a higher standard of living, and expanded educational opportunities for women and girls. Yet, they also suffered the disastrous consequences of a war that didn’t end: the fighting killed thousands of people and spurred a new exodus of Afghans, who by 2001 already constituted the world’s largest refugee population. 

Now, the Taliban—which gained control over significant territory in recent years—has returned to power on the heels of the United States’ withdrawal, threatening hard-won gains and increasing the likelihood of further conflict and displacement.

These graphics show how the situation in Afghanistan has improved in some ways and deteriorated in others over the past twenty years.

The Taliban—an Islamic fundamentalist group that first ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001—is stronger now than at any point in the past two decades. In the months after U.S. President Joe Biden confirmed that all U.S. troops would be removed from Afghanistan, the Taliban rapidly expanded its control. Taliban fighters captured major cities and, in August, took over Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital and seat of government. The group also allegedly negotiated surrenders with Afghan security forces and seized critical border posts. It is now poised to return to power, pledging to engage in talks with Afghan officials to form an “open, inclusive Islamic government.”

The US rushing to withdraw from Afghanistan has left a "mess for the region." The US is eager to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan and leave the mess to the Afghan people and regional countries. This exposed Washington's "hypocrisy behind its guise of defending democracy and human rights."

As the US and allied forces are in the process of exiting Afghanistan following 20 years of occupation that started in 2001 against the Taliban, accused of harboring the al-Qaeda terror group.

Under a deal signed between the US and Taliban in the Qatari capital Doha in February 2020, foreign forces were supposed to have made a complete withdrawal by a May 1 deadline which was later unilaterally extended by the Joe Biden administration until Sept. 11 this year. Around 90% of US forces have left the war-torn country, leaving a on-going humanitarian crisis for the world now. What a hypocrisy of American-style of democracy!./.

          Giving relief aid to poor workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Ho Chi Minh city

The People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City has proposed the Government provide the city with nearly 28 trillion VND (1.2 billion USD) and 142,000 tonnes of rice to assist poor people and labourers during the period of social distancing under the Prime Minister’s Directive No. 16.

The assistance aims to assure that poor residents and labourers, who are facing difficulties due to COVID-19, comply with pandemic prevention and control regulations and do not leave the city or return to their homelands.

According to the municipal People's Committee, the number of poor households that will get support is 1,580,110 and the number of poor labourers is 4,740,330. The food expense allowance is 50,000 VND per household a day, and rental assistance is 1.5 million VND per household a month and 15kg of rice are allocated to each person.

HCM City is the centre of the fourth wave of COVID-19 infections with the number of patients and deaths increasing rapidly. The pandemic imposed a big influence on activities of agencies, organisations and businesses and left a negative impact on the city’s socio-economic development and budget collection.

The city's budget revenue decreased gradually from May and June and might not meet the target assigned by the government for this year.

In particular, the pandemic has seriously affected the lives of people and poor labourers, forcing many of them to leave the city to other provinces and cities or return to their hometowns. It is estimated that the city has 1,580,110 poor households facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To cope with the situation, the city has implemented many measures, including the application of social distancing measures since May 31. The city went into lockdown under the Prime Minister’s Directive No. 16 starting July 9 and has extended its strict social distancing measures until mid-September.

The Standing Board of the HCM City Party Committee August 15 asked authorities of Thu Duc city and all districts to quickly provide support, including cash and free food, to needy people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city said it would help the poor, students, and migrant workers who have to stay in the city during the lockdown period.

During an online conference on August 15 hosted by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said the city has been making more effort to ensure an uninterrupted supply of food and essential goods to meet residents’ demand.

The city has piloted the opening of centres to receive and provide essential goods for residents in districts 5, 7 and 12. It is also opening more centres, support groups and relief teams to support people in need./.

                                                                  A class in Vietnam

All Vietnamese people will have equal opportunities to access an open, diverse, flexible and modern education system by 2030, thus contributing to promoting the development of human resources, especially high-quality ones, to meet the requirements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and international integration.

The goal is set in the project “Building a society of learning in the 2021-2030 period” recently approved by the Prime Minister.

The project sets targets of 90 percent of provinces to achieve the literacy standards at Level 2, 100 percent to complete preschool education universalisation for preschool children, and 70 percent to meet the standard of universal primary education at Level 3 by 2030.

It also strives for 70 percent of people in the working age to be equipped with information capacity and living skills, 60 percent aged from 15 trained in technical and professional qualifications, and 15 percent having a university degree or higher.

In order to achieve the above goals, the project offers a number of tasks and solutions such as disseminating and raising awareness about building a learning society, completing relevant mechanisms and policies, promoting the implementation of digital transformation and application of information technology in the organisation of lifelong learning activities.

It is necessary to promote activities of the community learning centre, launch movements and campaigns to promote life-long learning, and strengthen international cooperation in the field of life-long learning, build a society of learning and developing open and distance learning technology, according to the scheme./.

 

Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính on Saturday launched a special emulation movement that appeals to people nationwide to stay united and join in efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The campaign was launched at the first meeting of the Central Emulation and Rewards Council in the 2021- 26 tenure in Hà Nội.

PM Chính, who is also Chairman of the council, said the COVID-19 pandemic, with the emergence of new variants that are more contagious and dangerous, has been developing in many localities, causing serious impacts on society, the economy, and people’s lives. It may last a long time and is posing major challenges to the pandemic fight and socio-economic recovery efforts.

He asked authorities at all levels, organisations, agencies, localities, and people across the country to focus on the key tasks of encouraging all people to actively join the COVID-19 fight so as to successfully contain the virus and protect people’s health and lives, while promoting production and business activities to help boost economic recovery and development, create resources for the combat, and guarantee social security, especially for the disadvantaged.

At the same time, he emphasised the importance of the implementation of the motto “speedy tracing, fast zoning, reasonable testing, effective treatment, stopping the spread of infections”.

Chính said the entire political system would continue to focus on pandemic prevention and control. Party committees and authorities at all levels must uphold their responsibility in the spirit of creativity, daring to think, daring to do, and daring to take responsibility. They must create consensus among people, be proactive, flexible, apply pandemic prevention and control solutions, and have plans and scenarios to promptly respond in all situations.

Frontline forces, including officials, medical staff, army, police and volunteer teams, should continue to show they're willing to stand strong in difficult times with enthusiasm and dedication to the community, Chính said.  

Enterprises and entrepreneurs of all economic sectors are encouraged to promote patriotism, consensus, solidarity, and efforts to overcome difficulties and challenges, maintaining and stabilising production to ensure labourers’ incomes. 

The Government leader expressed his belief that with the common efforts and the unanimity of the entire Party, people, and army, along with support from overseas Vietnamese and the international community, the country will defeat the pandemic and soon return to the new normal.

At the meeting, the PM’s decision on appointments of officials to the Central Emulation and Rewards Council was announced.

Accordingly, the council comprises 19 members. Its vice chairpersons are President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Đỗ Văn Chiến, Vice President Võ Thị Anh Xuân, Minister of Home Affairs Phạm Thị Thanh Trà, and President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour Nguyễn Đình Khang.

Participants also discussed draft working regulations of the council, task outcomes in the first seven months of 2021, and the key duties for the remaining months of this year./.

 

We have made efforts but the results are still not as expected. The proportion of asset recovery in corruption and economic cases is low compared to the total amount of appropriated or lost property.

This results from many causes, but mainly because the amount of distrained assets is much smaller than the recoverable value. For example, in the case of Huỳnh Thị Huyền Như, the amount of money to be executed was up to VNĐ15 trillion but the distrained assets (after being handled) were very modest.

Although the property has been distrained by authorities, the legality of the property is complicated, leading to delays in handling. In order to handle it, we need the involvement of many agencies and departments. The civil judgment enforcement agency alone cannot handle it.

In addition, the co-ordination between agencies in some cases is not good. For example, the transfer of judgments and documents from the proceeding agencies to the civil judgment enforcement agencies is slow in some cases.

Delays in handing over the judgments result in delays in transferring decisions and orders, leading to the delay in the execution of the judgments.

At some agencies, the Party committees and government leaders have not closely supervised the seizure of assets, leading to a delay in asset handling and reducing the process’ efficiency.

There are still some shortcomings in the laws and policies, which is a barrier for the authorities to recover the assets.

Following the Directive of the Party Central Committee Secretariat, there will be many solutions to improve the efficiency of asset recovery in criminal cases related to corruption and economic cases.

We will review and make amendments to the laws on inspection, audit, criminal proceedings, civil judgment enforcement and related legal provisions.

Authorities at all levels must raise awareness about recovering corrupt assets and consider this an important task in the fight against corruption./.

 After 20 years of the “global war on terror” in Afghanistan, the U.S. and NATO will have withdrawn all of their troops from this country by the 11^th of September, 2021. However, the public is wondering whether the withdrawal will bring peace and stability to Afghanistan or not.

A look back on the “global war on terror” in Afghanistan

Since the Soviet Union as one pole in the bipolar world order during the Cold War collapsed in 1991, the U.S. has devoted effort to realising its global strategy to build a unipolar world order under the control of Washington. To that end, the U.S. has implemented a global plan in various directions, particularly the two ones as follows. First, contrary to the pledge not to expand NATO after reaching an agreement with the Soviet Union on demolishing the Berlin Wall and reunifying Germany in 1989, the U.S. has continued expanding and using this alliance as the vanguard force to execute its global strategy after the end of the Cold War. To make excuse for the policy on the continued expansion of NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Treaty Organisation - a military alliance of Eastern Europe socialist states, the U.S. must create an “worthy opponent” that has been called “international terrorism” by Washington. Second, the U.S. has tapped its military superiority over all other countries to establish “democratic regimes” in Washington’s “orbit” within the Third World. It is worth noting that countries in the political belt, which is named as Great Middle East by Washington, stretching from Afghanistan to Central Asia, South Asia, the Balkan Peninsula, North Africa, and the Middle East, play an important role in the Third World. The event on September 11^th, 2001 commenced the U.S. realisation of those two strategic directions after the Cold War.

Only one day after completely surprising and horrible attacks at the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11^th, 2001, the then U.S. President George Walker Bush announced to the entire world that Osama bin Laden, founder of the terrorist network Al-Qaeda sheltered and supported by the Taliban government in Afghanistan, was the “instigator.” Instead of using the special and intelligence forces to hunt and annihilate Osama bin Laden, President George Walker Bush launched a “global war on terror” in Afghanistan. Since then, Washington has considered terrorism as a global threat to national security of the U.S. and its allies as well as the whole world. Also since that moment, NATO has been provided with a reason for its long-term existence as the front-line force in the fight against international terrorism. The U.S. has been in need of creating global enemies so as to make excuse for the NATO’s existence and gather other countries under Washington’s “security umbrella.” More specifically, when waging the war in Afghanistan, President George Walker Bush issued a call for other states around the globe to engage in the U.S. fight against “international terrorism.” In addition, since launching the war in Afghanistan with the motto of bringing “sustainable peace” to this country, the U.S. has started using its military power to establish “democratic regimes” within countries of the Great Middle East geo-political belt.

Nevertheless, the goal set by the U.S. in the 20-year “global war on terror” in Afghanistan has not been fulfilled. Not being destroyed, the Taliban has regained the control of a large rural area of Afghanistan and threatened the survival of the political regime established by the U.S. in Kabul. In the past, the Taliban had been seen as an opponent that must be destroyed by Washington; however, the U.S. had to allow the Taliban as a partner to join negotiations for the Peace Agreement signed on February 29^th, 2020. Moreover, not being destroyed by Washington, many international terrorist organisations have now spread to various regions in the world, such as Middle East - North Africa, Southeast Asia, and even Europe. Therefore, the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan means an indirect recognition of failure of the 20-year war in this country. On July 8^th, 2021, at the White House, the U.S. President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. Military had “reached its goals” of killing the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, undermining the terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda, and preventing many terrorist attacks against the U.S. after 20 years of war in Afghanistan. “We did not go to Afghanistan to nation build. And it's the right and the responsibility of the Afghan people alone to decide their future and how they want to run their country,” said the U.S. President. That announcement by the U.S. President Joe Biden proves that Washington’s strategy of using military strength to “promote democracy” has also failed.

Fragile peace and stability in Afghanistan

On February 29^th, 2020, after long negotiations, the U.S. and the Taliban signed the historic Peace Agreement in the capital city of Doha (Qatar), opening the hope of ending the U.S. 20-year war in Afghanistan. The deal includes commitments from the two sides. The Taliban is committed to breaking off its relations with the international terrorist network Al-Qaeda and other global terrorist organisations, working with the U.S. in the war on terror, ending attacks on the U.S. force and the Afghan Government’s security force, joining dialogues and discussions with the Afghan Government and other forces about a long-term ceasefire and a political process to resolve the conflict, and releasing 1,000  government prisoners in exchange for 5,000 Taliban ones.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is committed to reducing the number of its troops in Afghanistan from 12,000 to 8,600 within 135 days, closing 5 military bases in this country, and recommending the United Nations Security Council to lift sanctions against members of the Taliban by May 2020, maintaining a certain force in Afghanistan to conduct intelligence operations, and continuing to provide support and training for this country’s security force. Needless to say, within 20 years, together with NATO and the strongest military apparatus in the world, the U.S. has failed to remove the Taliban and had to negotiate with this force for a peace agreement to end the war. The U.S. has also failed to gain the control of Afghanistan in order to implement its Great Middle East Strategy.

After the withdrawal of the U.S. and NATO by the 11^th of September, 2021, the prospect for peace and stability in Afghanistan is still dependent upon many factors. The external factors include the U.S. and NATO’s continued economic and security support to maintain the Kabul regime’s existence, the mediator role of Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, and some other Persian Gulf countries, and the spread of terrorist organisations to Afghanistan. Amongst those factors, it is worth mentioning the weapons left by the U.S. and NATO after their withdrawal and the construction of new bases in Afghanistan by the self-proclaimed Islamic State and several other terrorist organisations in preparation for their intrusions into neighbouring countries and new attacks. According to proposals by Zamir Kabulov, Russian presidential envoy to Afghanistan and United Nations Adviser for Afghanistan, Russia could deploy forces to Kabul to fight terrorism once being officially requested by the government of Kabul like it did to assist Syria in combating terrorist groups at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Above all other, Russia will devote effort to providing support for Afghanistan to build a new government of sustainable development in peace and national harmony. Besides, China hopes that Afghanistan will develop stably to realise its “Road and Belt” Initiative in Central Asia and South Asia.

Furthermore, internal factors will greatly impact on the prospect for peace and stability in Afghanistan. First, since the presidential election in September 2019, there has been a serious political crisis in Afghanistan. To be more specific, after the election, candidate Ashraf Ghani (the incumbent President of Afghanistan) from the Pashtun ethnic group and candidate Abdullah Abdullah from the Northern Alliance (a coalition of non-Pashtun groups) both claimed victory. Therefore, Abdullah Abdullah announced that he would form another government, extend its influence in Afghanistan, and at the same time deny the legitimacy of the current government of Kabul. This will be a potential obstacle to the upcoming negotiation between the Taliban and the Government of Kabul. Second, Islamist extremist forces within the Taliban would not accept the ceasefire order as part of the deal with the U.S. on February 29^th, 2020. Third, the Taliban stated that it would not admit the current political system in Kabul and advocate the building of an Afghan Islamic Emirate. Fourth, while the U.S. wants to maintain a certain force to combat terrorism in Afghanistan in a long time, the Taliban resolutely requires Washington to withdraw all troops from this country. Fifth, since the military presence of the U.S. and NATO in Afghanistan, this country has become the largest drug manufacturer and exporter accounting for about 80% of global production. Drug trafficking has been a horrible obsession in Afghanistan and other regional countries. However, there has been still a positive move. On July 8^th, 2021, during a negotiation held in the capital city of Tehran (Iran), delegations of the Afghan Government and the Taliban agreed to take actions towards a political and peaceful solution to the crisis. In that direction, the two sides also agreed to maintain negotiations about a specific mechanism for building peace and an Islamic State. Nevertheless, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani believes that political transition in this country is extremely complicated.

What will happen to the political alliance of Ashraf Ghani is the most crucial factor in the future of Afghanistan. Besides, the political elite’s support for the incumbent government or their connection with other political groups, including the Taliban could be the most important indicator revealing the survival or collapse of Ashraf Ghani’s Government after the withdrawal of the U.S. and NATO.

 Thoroughly grasping and managing major relationships in the Party’s renewal policy represent a matter of urgency and importance. Notably, the relationship between “practice of democracy and consolidation of legislation - social discipline assurance”  has been supplemented by the 13^th National Party Congress in the national development period of 2021-2030.

1. Democracy and discipline are in a dialectical relationship without any conflict

The relationship between “practice of democracy and consolidation of legislation - social discipline assurance” supplemented by the 13^th National Party Congress originates from a clearer perception of the matter of principle in social management that "democracy" comes with "discipline," and "freedom" is inseparable from "responsibility." This lesson has been drawn from the research and review of social management in our country over the years. In the essence of the socialist regime in our country, democracy and discipline are the two unifying sides of a reasonable healthy social mechanism. In other words, a real democracy itself contains discipline and vice versa; discipline is to ensure a solid democracy. Therefore, conceptually, it is necessary to adhere to the dialectic of this relationship. On the one hand, the effective practice of democracy requires the rule of law to be strengthened and social discipline to be guaranteed; on the other hand, to consolidate legislation and ensure social discipline, it is essential to exercise a true broad and appropriate democracy. It is also important to fight against authoritarian, patriarchal, “anarchical” and excessive democracy.

On the basis of dialectical thinking of this relationship and preeminent features in the nature of our national political system, the Party’s guidelines and the State’s policy and law are realised by the people’s concrete actions. The Party’s willpower matches with the people’s hearts, which is a manifestation of democratic thinking and national discipline. Typically, when dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam is perhaps the only country where the Party, the State, and every citizen have shared the spirit of “fighting the pandemic is like fighting the enemy.” In social distancing, the people have promoted democracy to implement different measures for pandemic prevention and control. This proves that true democracy is associated with national discipline under the orientation of the Party and the State. Thanks to its success in pandemic prevention and control, in 2020 and during the early months of 2021, Vietnam was among the few which had experienced a positive growth rate. This highlights a complete contrast with the democratic approach of individual freedom in many countries including the developed ones with their modern healthcare system. When state regulations are overwhelmed by anarchical and individual freedom, the pandemic goes beyond control, leading to a serious socio-economic crisis.

2. Raising the quality of  practising democracy, consolidating legislation, and ensuring social discipline

Our Party clearly states that “the people’s right to mastery is sometimes violated, there are still manifestations of formal democracy and a separation between democracy and discipline and law,” “State’s law is sometimes overlooked.” Therefore, in order to well handle this relationship, it is vital to both practice democracy and strengthen discipline.

The practice of democracy requires a thorough grasp of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology: the people as the masters and the people’s right to mastery. In this regard, the former refers to the people’s social status while the latter mentions the people’s responsibility. “It is essential to continue concretising and perfecting the institution of democratic practice in the spirit of the 1991 Platform for national construction in the transitional period towards socialism (supplemented and developed in 2011) and the 2013 Constitution to ensure that all state powers belong to the people. It is also significant to effectively conduct various forms of representative and direct democracy, especially at grass-roots level.”

Democracy at grass-roots level, which guarantees the people’s mastery in the area where they live and work, is expressed in institutions, implemented or reflected in reality. Accordingly, it is necessary to thoroughly grasp and strictly execute the 8^th Politburo’s Directive 30-CT/TW, dated February 18^th, 1998 on formulating and implementing the Grass-Roots Level Democracy Regulations, the 11^th National Assembly Standing Committee’s  Ordinance 34/2007/PL-UBTVQH11, dated April 20^th, 2007 on exercising democracy at commune level. Emphasis should be placed on promoting the people’s mastery and encouraging the people’s participation in State management in order to tackle deterioration, bureaucracy, loss of democracy, corruption and wastefulness. Matters related to the people’s lives must be reported to the masses.  Moreover, all projects relating to mobilisation of the people’s strength must be discussed, decided, inspected, and supervised by the people. Due attention should be paid to fighting against violation of the Ordinance on Democracy, persecution of complainants and accusers, and exploitation of democracy to infringe on national security, social order and safety, the State’s interests as well as the legitimate rights and interests of organisations and individuals.

It is vital to ensure that “the people know, the people discuss, the people do, the people inspect, the people supervise, and the people enjoy benefits.” Supplemented by the 13^th Party Congress, “the people enjoy benefits” is a new important issue and aimed at ensuring the effective practice of democracy as the people are the subjects that reflect the nature of democracy. Supervision and enjoyment are arranged as the last elements with a view to encouraging the role of mastery and democracy in the society and creating a strong driving force for democratic development in the society. These elements also reflect the degree and nature of the most effective democracy, while helping maintain substantive democracy for building, consolidating and bringing into full play the great national unity block.

In terms of consolidation of legislation and social discipline assurance, discipline is the expression of literal freedom in a healthy society. Democracy does not go with dictatorship and does not mean absolute freedom. True freedom is the perception and action based on the inevitable, which means thinking and acting in accordance with the law of nature and society. If people go against the law, they not only adversely affect the freedom of the whole society but also lose their own freedom. Discipline must be associated with law, which is in the management of the socialist rule of law State of the people, by the people and for the people with law being the supreme in our society. Currently, the Communist Party of Vietnam is the ruling party; therefore, the legislation in the society is the institutionalisation of the Party's Platform, viewpoints and guidelines. The Party’s ruling is authorised by the people; more specifically, people trust and give the Party the right to lead the political system and the whole society. The birth, existence and operation of the Party does not serve its own sake but the interest of the revolution, the Fatherland and the people. Accordingly, law must guarantee the interests of the people. Hence, it is necessary to opportunely build a complete, stable, synchronous, uniformed, feasible legal system. Greater importance should be attached to ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of the people and businesses as the basis for innovation, creativity, and sustainable development as well. It is also vital to keep building a professional, modern, fair and integral Vietnamese judicial system to serve the Fatherland and the people. Law making must be closely linked with law enforcement. Due regard should be paid to effectively preventing and combating crime and violations of law, promptly, legally handling all kinds of disputes and complaints as well as enhancing the legal accessibility of citizens and enterprises.  

3. The practice of democracy must be in line with consolidation of legislation and social discipline assurance

The reality shows that many limitations, complicated problems, especially corruption, wastefulness and bureaucracy emerge from the administration of the State apparatus. Besides, social chaos is caused by contradictions and conflicts. All these issues result from a lack of synchronous practice between democracy and discipline. Therefore, "practice of democracy in line with consolidation of legislation and social discipline assurance" is to fully practise socialist democracy. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen social discipline and strictly comply with legal provisions as the basis for a balanced society, the people’s happiness and the country’s sustainable development.

The 13^th Party Congress has conveyed the thoughts and actions of the whole Party, the whole political system, cadres, party members, public servants, and the armed forces to set good examples of democracy practice, obey laws, and uphold social ethics. Democracy and social discipline go hand in hand to uphold the central role and position of the people in the strategy of national development, construction and defence and to promote the people's intelligence, rights and responsibilities in the construction of the Party and the political system. Therefore, democracy must be exercised inside the Party first, otherwise there will be no democracy in the society. Cadres, party members and members of the political system must be servants of the people. The State must serve the people and transform itself into public services. The Government as the ultimate state administrative body must encourage decentralisation, clearly define responsibilities between the central Government and ministries, branches and local authorities, avoid overlapping functions, tasks and powers, ensure uniformed State management, and promote the proactive, creative role of authorities and sectors associated with the power control mechanism.

Under the Party's  discipline and the State's law, organisations and individuals taking advantage of democracy to disrupt socio-political stability and violate democracy and the people’s right to mastery must be promptly, strictly punished. Consideration should be given to resolutely preventing and combating negative practices, "self-evolution," "self-transformation," and distortions of the essence of our democracy, social discipline, and socialist system selected by our Party, Uncle Ho and people.

Thoroughly grasping and properly handling the relationship between "practice of democracy and consolidation of legislation - social discipline assurance" require concerted efforts from the entire Party, the people and the Military in order to promote the strength of the great national unity block and realise the aspiration for a prosperous and happy country with the goals specified by the 13^th National Party Congress.