Promote the right of mastery, arouse the strength of the People

The document of the 13^th National Party Congress emphasized: “In all work of the Party and State, we must always consider people as the root”. Implementing this point of view, over the past time, Party committees and authorities at all levels in the province have always consider the motto “People know, people discuss, people do, people inspect, people supervise, people benefit” as the goal. Thereby, it contributes to arousing the strength of the people to perform political tasks in accordance with the resolutions of the Party congresses at all levels.

The supervision delegation of the leaders of Provincial People’s Council surveys the economic model in Quang Hoa village, Cuong Loi commune, Dinh Lap district – Photo: Ngoc Hieu

In order to promote the People’s mastery right and serve the People, the Party Committees, authorities at all levels, agencies and units in the province have focused on innovating and improving the quality and efficiency of management, administration and implementation of democracy regulation at the grassroots in association with the province’s political objectives and tasks.

Emphasis on promoting democracy

Member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Commission for Mass Mobilization of the Provincial Party Committee Giap Thi Bac, said: “In order to promote the people’s mastery right, to realize the goal of “the People master” in the implementation of the mechanism “the Party leads, the State manages, the People master”, over the years, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee has always paid attention to leading and directing the popularization of the Party’s guidelines, the State’s laws on promoting democracy; focusing on renovating the leadership method of the Party committee at all levels, improving the management and administration capacity and efficiency of the authorities at all levels; directing the renovation and improvement of the quality of the political system’s mass mobilization, renovating the contents and ways of operation of the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations, creating favorable conditions for the implementation and promotion of the people’s right of mastery.

All guidelines of the Party, policies and laws of the State are related to the life and serve the interests of the People, therefore, Party committees and authorities at all levels in the province have different ways and models in order to promote the people’s right of mastery.

For instance the model “friendly government” (FG), implementing Project No. 01-DA/BDVTU-UBND dated April 24, 2019 of the Commission for Mass Mobilization of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial People’s Committee on building a model FG at grassroots  level in Lang Son province, the Standing Committees of District Party Committees  and Lang Son City Party Committee directed the establishment of a steering committee to build the model of FG at all levels, assigned specific tasks to each of its member. Accordingly, authorities and specialized agencies have advised to develop plans with specific solutions, focusing on improving the quality of officials and equipping facilities to serve People, strengthening the reform of administrative procedures, promoting the people’s right to mastery in government building.

After a period of implementation, up to now, there are 166/200 communes, wards and towns in the province that have been building models (in 2019 only 17 models were built). Through the implementation, it has been found that there have been positive changes in construction units, officials and civil servants have enthusiastically supported and guided people to handle administrative procedures to ensure the right process and progress. For example, in 2022, the satisfaction rate of citizens coming to have their administrative procedures settled reached 97.6% (up 0.76% compared to 2019); Communities building FG held 215 dialogues with the People (up 161 compared to 2019), sent 867 letters of thanks to organizations and individuals (up 818 letters compared to 2019).

De Tham commune, Trang Dinh district has built FG from 2019 to present. The model has brought practical benefits to the People. Ms. Ly Thi Kim Huyen, Ban Quyen village, De Tham commune said: “Whenever I come for administrative procedures, I am guided by the officials, the work is solved more quickly and efficiently compared to previous years, therefor I am very satisfied. We are promptly and publicly informed about all the guidelines, policies and plans by the commune, which are widely consulted by the people. Therefore, we also strongly agree to do it.”

Additionally, Party committees and authorities at all levels focus on dialogue with the People. On average, each year, the district and commune levels meet and exceeds the demand of organizing dialogue (at least 1 dialogue at the district and commune levels per year). According to statistics of specialized agencies, at each dialogue, Party committees and government at all levels have directly resolved over 80% of people’s complaints. Thereby, it promptly solved many problems and promoted the people’s mastery in the spirit of “people know, people discuss, people do, people inspect”, creating consensus from the grassroots.

Along with that, in order to promote democracy, the Fatherland Front Committee and provincial socio-political organizations promulgate programs and plans to implement democracy regulations at grassroots level, to ask member organizations to widely inform the People about democratic regulations; to regularly listen to the opinions and aspirations of the people from all walks of life, to create conditions for people to raise their opinions and suggestions on building the party and government, especially on  the draft Resolution of the People’s Council, local economic development project …

Mr. Nong Duong Son, Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee said: “The Provincial Fatherland Front Committee has directed the Fatherland Front at all levels and its member organizations to continue promoting propaganda on supervision regulations and social criticism. The activities of supervision and social criticism of the Fatherland Front and its members have created conditions for the People of all classes to promote their right of mastery while participating in the process of formulating policies, regulations and proposals, projects, projects and programs of the locality related to the rights and obligations of the People. For example, in the first quarter of 2023, the Standing Committee of Vietnam Fatherland Front Committees at all levels in the province, member organizations of the Fatherland Front, advisory councils and residential areas coordinated to organize 1,540 conferences with 98,768 participants, there were 2,316 comments on the draft revised Land Law. The conferences received great attention from the participants, contributing many profound, enthusiastic, relevant opinions, which were close to the actual situation.”

The People’s right to mastery is also demonstrated at the supervision through the activities of the People’s Councils at all levels, the role of the representative for the will, aspirations and mastery right of the People is promoted; the “representative democracy” has been well implemented, effective supervision of the leaders of the People’s Council and the committees of the Provincial People’s Council has been maintained. Activities of People’s Councils at all levels have been increasingly renewed and improved in terms of quality and efficiency. Q&A session at meetings and exposition sessions are truly democratic and adequate. Since 2020, deputies of the Provincial People’s Council have met with more than 36,000 turns of voters more than 500 times. Voters’ opinions and recommendations have been considered and answered by the Provincial People’s Committee and relevant State agencies at meetings of the People’s Council; 87.2% of them have been solved.

People look at the detail planning of block 8, Dong Kinh ward, Lang Son city at the block culture house – Photo: Gia Khanh

Practical activities

From the diversity of forms of democracy promotion, people understand and know about the guidelines and policies of the Party and the State, they participate, comment and supervise the implementation. Thereby, the People join hands with the Party Committee and government to effectively reach the socio-economic development goals of each locality and unit. In Tong Cut village, Bac Thuy commune, Chi Lang district, over the years, people have always supported the guidelines and policies of the Party and the State, agreed to donate money and working days to build public works. For example, a bridge for people in Tong Cut village was inaugurated and put into use in March 2023. The project has a total investment of 184 million VND, the funds are contributed by the people and the social sources called by Chi Lang District Youth Union.

Mr. Lang Van Thong, Party Secretary and Head of Tong Cut village, Bac Thuy commune said: “Seeing that the people of Na Keng village need a bridge to serve travel, trade, the Party cell, the village has approved the building of this bridge, and asked for people’s comments. People discussed and agreed to donate materials and working days equivalent to more than 100 million VND for a day to build the bridge.

Along with Tong Cut village, from 2021 to now, Chi Lang district has hardened 14 bridges and underground bridges with a total investment of nearly 3 billion VND. In which, the support from the people, businesses and organizations is 1.6 billion VND; the rest is from the State budget.

Not only in Chi Lang, in recent years, Party committees and authorities at all levels have always focused on promoting the People’s right to mastery through publicizing socio-economic development policies. Thanks to that, the People support and active make contributions to jointly implement the motto “The State and the People work together”. From 2021 up to now, the people in the province have donated more than 200,000 square meters of land, more than 200,000 working days to embellish and repair roads and public works… Up to now, there are 86 communes meeting the new rural standards, 17 communes meeting the advanced new rural standards and 2 communes meeting the standard model rural standards.

Mr. Hoang Van Bao, Tan Tien village, Thuy Hung commune, Cao Loc district said: “Being informed about the policy of new rural development, my family donated over 500 m2 of land to build roads. By the end of 2022, the commune has reached new rural standards. We are very happy to see wider and more beautiful roads and alleys, people’s lives are getting better.”

Especially recently, in response to the special campaign to support the construction of road to landmarks with the aim of protecting the border launched by the Provincial Party Committee – Provincial People’s Council – Provincial People’s Committee – Provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee from November 2022; Agencies, units, businesses and individuals inside and outside the province participated enthusiastically. As of June 8, 2023, the whole province has built 88 additional roads to landmarks of border protection with a total length of 12,000 m, with a cost of more than 8.5 billion VND.

It can be said that the promotion of the People’s mastery always receives the attention in leading, directing and implementing of the Party committees, authorities, Fatherland Front committees, socio-political organizations at all levels in the province. Thereby, it creates a democratic and open atmosphere in society, the motto “People know, people discuss, people do, people inspect, people monitor, people benefit” was institutionalized and put into life; contributing to strengthening the people’s confidence in the leadership of the Party, the management and administration of the State, creating more impetus to promote socio-economic development, ensuring political security, social order and safety, building an increasingly clean and strong political system.