W.Minh Tuan
Recently, the domestic press has been reporting loudly on the opinion of General Secretary To Lam, that we Viet Nam must reduce the Party and State apparatus in order to develop the country.
General Secretary To Lam said very correctly, showing that although he has been a police officer for almost his entire life, now, with the new position of General Secretary, the leader, with the highest position in the country, Comrade To Lam has seen the urgent need for innovation of the country, to bring the country to continue to develop rapidly, strongly – Sustainable development.
That’s right, we must reduce the Party and State apparatus to increase salaries, and to make the apparatus not cumbersome, not bureaucratic, ineffective, to be able to fight corruption, to build trust among the people, and to be able to continue to develop the country in line with the progress of the world.
The salary of the General Secretary, the President, the Prime Minister, the Chairman of the National Assembly – the four pillars of the court, the highest positions in Vietnam, is only 30 million VND/ 1 month-1.500 USD, not equal to the income of a sidewalk café bar.
The salary of a Minister is only 20 million VND/ 1 month-1.000 USD, not equal to the income of a sidewalk bicycle shop on Ba Trieu Ha Hoi street.
The salary of the Chairman of the province, city, Secretary of the province, city is also only 20 million VND/ 1 month, not equal to the salary of employees of FPT company in Vietnam.
But the leaders of the Vietnamese disinfectant manufacturing company received year-end bonuses of several billion VND each, hundreds of times the income of the Ministers.
With such a small salary and so much power, how can one not be corrupt? How can one not accept envelopes? How can one not be servants to the tycoons?
That’s right, many leaders of the Vietnamese Party and State are serving the tycoons to receive a few small bribes.
Several veteran revolutionaries were surprised and their eyes were squinting when they saw that Hanoi Chairman Chu Ngoc Anh had more than 200,000 USD in bribe envelopes in his office cabinet, which were discovered and confiscated by the police.
That amount of money is nothing compared to the thousands of billions of dong in income that the tycoons earn, thanks to being granted licenses to carry out State projects, and thanks to being granted licenses to buy State land at dirt cheap prices, so that the tycoons can build apartments and sell them at market prices, making billions of dollars in profit.
After the tycoons earn thousands of billions of dong in profits from those State projects, the tycoons share a little bit with the leaders, just a few billion, a few tens of billions of dong, so that the leaders are discovered, arrested, imprisoned, and bankrupt, it is truly pitiful.
It is truly pitiful for the leaders with low salaries and much power, how can they not be servants of the tycoons?
President Ho Chi Minh said, “Cadres are servants of the people.”
But with such a meager salary regime, “cadres are real servants of the tycoons.”
Therefore, to increase salaries to match the power, position, and responsibility of Party and State officials, we must reduce the Party and State apparatus.
The Vietnamese budget for salaries accounts for 70% of the budget, only 30% of the budget is spent on development investment.
Development investment accounts for only 30% of the budget, so how can we develop sustainably?
The ratio of 70% of the budget for salaries in Vietnam is really too much, too large, larger than any other country in the world.
However, because the Party and State apparatus in Vietnam is too large and cumbersome, the result is that the salary for each official becomes too little, giving rise to corruption, giving rise to lobbying, giving rise to project running, giving rise to running for positions, running for power, giving rise to “officials as servants of the tycoons“.
So how can we reduce the Party and State apparatus?
It is not easy at all, it must be done step by step, and done intelligently, methodically, it cannot be done only by “revolutionary enthusiasm“, it cannot be called for by mouth only.
During the Nguyen Dynasty, and the French period, before 1954, our whole country of Vietnam only had 32 provinces and cities. Now our country of Vietnam has expanded to 63 provinces and cities, which means it has expanded to 63 leadership and administrative apparatuses, twice as much as during the French-Nguyen Dynasty.
China has more than 1 billion people, an area 30 times larger than our country of Vietnam, but they only have 27 provinces and cities, 1 of their provinces is larger than our whole country of Vietnam.
The United States has 50 states, each state has about 7 million people. And our Vietnam is tiny, with 63 provinces and cities, except for Hanoi and Saigon, which have large populations, the remaining provinces and cities, on average, only have approximately 2 million people per province.
Why doesn’t Vietnam merge, return to the structure of 32 provinces and cities like the French-Nguyen Dynasty, each province has a population of about 3 to 5 million people, to make the administrative apparatus more compact, to increase salaries?
But because of the competition for leadership positions, if you are the provincial governor, then I am also the provincial governor, if you are the secretary, then I am also the secretary, so localities compete to separate provinces, separate districts, to have seats to show off, therefore, the administrative apparatus is increasingly bloated.
Before 1975, Hanoi did not have a ward level, only a district level, called a zone. After 1975, the Vietnamese government learned from the Saigon government’s way of organizing the administrative apparatus, which is to have a ward level, so the whole country now naturally has an additional level of government, the ward and commune levels, the whole country has more than 10,000 wards and communes, the administrative apparatus suddenly swelled terribly, consuming an unknown amount of state budget money.
The domestic press once reported that there was a commune with up to 500 employees, and that the labor department of Hai Duong province had up to 9 deputy heads of departments, but only 1 employee!!!.
During the Nguyen Dynasty and the French period, a commune had only 1 commune chief and a few patrol soldiers. But now, under the wise leadership of our party, a commune has up to 500 employees sitting around reading newspapers, chatting, playing cards, then receiving state salaries, spending people’s tax money.
This is the most famous joke in the world, only in Vietnam.
And then recently, the Ministry of Public Security has also established para-police forces, it is said that more than 200,000 para-police employees have been included in the structure of the Ministry of Public Security, so the apparatus of the Ministry of Public Security is even more bloated than the Ministry of National Defense, so where does the money come from to increase salaries?
Looking at the photos in the press, and watching YouTube, I see these half-police officers, wearing half-police uniforms, sitting around picking lice for each other, and receiving state salaries!!!.
General Secretary To Lam, former Minister of Public Security, please review the bloated apparatus of the Ministry of Public Security, see how it is.
Maintaining order and security is best to make the people feel at peace, to make the people trust the government. But when the people have rebelled, have made a revolution to overthrow the corrupt government, even if there are 1 million police officers, police force cannot do anything.
In the US, there is only 1 President, in Japan, there is only 1 Prime Minister, but in Vietnam, there are 3 positions: General Secretary, State President, Prime Minister. If we merged these 3 positions into one, we could increase the salary of the General Secretary, President, and Prime Minister by 3 times, to 100 million VND/month, without having to increase the budget for salary.
In Japan, 1 Prime Minister has only 1 Deputy Prime Minister. In Vietnam, 1 Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has 6 Deputy Prime Ministers. How can we increase salaries? How can the apparatus not be bureaucratic, cumbersome, and ineffective?
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh is also brave enough to take on the additional position of Commander-in-Chief of the Da Nang Open Economic Zone Program, so who will be left to run the whole country affairs?
An effective government is one in which the Prime Minister can play golf on Saturdays and Sundays, and the work of the government will still run smoothly.
But if the Prime Minister has to directly manage projects in the locality, that is not good either.
In the Ministries in Japan and the US, 1 Minister has only 1 Deputy Minister, at most 2 Deputy Ministers.
But our Ministry of Public Security, 1 Minister, has 6 Deputy Ministers, so how can salaries be increased?
The same goes for other Ministries in Vietnam, 1 Minister has several Deputy Ministers, so salaries cannot be increased.
Then in Vietnam we have public organizations, such as the Country Front, the Youth Union, the General Confederation of Labor, the Women’s Union, the Youth Union, the Farmers’ Union, the Elderly Association, etc.
All of them receive salaries from the State Budget.
In Japan and the US, there are no such Associations, and their State apparatus still runs smoothly, without any Associations.
Then in the localities of Vietnam, there are always 2 apparatuses, the Party apparatus and the Committee, there is 1 Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, City Party Committee, and 1 Chairman of the Province or City.
And following these 2 leaders are 2 apparatuses, 2 headquarters, 2 cars, and all kinds of other equipment, all of which receive State salaries.
In the past, our ancestors had only “six ministries”, which were 1-Ministry of Binh-Military-Defense, 2-Ministry of Cong-Industry-Economy, 3-Ministry of Ho-Household-population, labor, health, 4-Ministry of Lai-Personnel-training, education, organization of cadres, 5-Ministry of Le-Rites-foreign affairs, state ceremonies, 6-Ministry of Hinh-Criminal Justice, courts, prosecutors, police.
There were only 6 ministries, but the State apparatus ran smoothly, and the money was really worthy, enough to preserve morality and maintain integrity.
A high-ranking mandarin in the Nguyen Dynasty-French period, had up to 50 employees serving, guards, secretaries, cooks, cleaners,,,,The salary calculated in today’s money was up to several billion VND/month. Therefore, the mandarins in the Nguyen Dynasty did not see corruption, accepting bribes like the communist party’s leadership today.
Therefore, streamlining the current apparatus of the Party and State of Vietnam, as General Secretary To Lam said, is correct and necessary, but not easy.
Perhaps, first, the easiest way to do it is 2 out – 1 in: that is, every year, for every 2 people who retire or quit, only 1 is recruited, and the salary of those who are working is increased by 10%.
Second, the positions of Head should only have 1 Deputy, not 5 or 6 as at present.
Third, the ward and commune levels should be abolished.
Fourth, localities should be merged to be larger, to have enough resources for development. The scale of localities should have about 5 million people, then there will be enough resources for development.
Fifth, the number of National Assembly deputies should return to the number of the 1st National Assembly in 1946, which is only approximately 100 deputies, and the salaries of deputies he salary of a member of the National Assembly should be equal to that of a minister, as the Japanese National Assembly is doing. A minister in Japan has a salary of 16,000 USD/month, and the salary of a member of the Japanese National Assembly is also equal to that of a minister.
Sixth, the number of members of the Central Committee of the Party should also be reduced, only about 100, and the salary of a member of the Central Committee of the Party should be equal to that of a minister.
Seventh, please give your opinions and suggestions.///