W.Minh Tuan
Comrade General Secretary To Lam, who has just taken office as General Secretary in August 2024, has correctly predicted the disease of the Vietnamese Party and State apparatus, correctly predicted the root cause of corruption in Vietnam, correctly predicted the hindrance of Vietnam’s Doi Moi process, which is:
“The Party and State apparatus is too cumbersome, bloated, consuming too much of the State budget, consuming too much of the people’s tax money, but the efficiency is not high, corruption is rampant, salaries are low, social morality is degraded, Party and State leaders have to work as servants for the tycoons, to be given a few small envelopes by the tycoons, then be disciplined, dismissed, ridiculed, arrested, tried, imprisoned, truly pitiful.”
To increase salaries to preserve integrity, to pay talented people a decent salary, to retain talented people, to make those responsible for managing the country feel secure in their work, work peacefully, and contribute to society, there is only one way: to “REDUCE THE APPARATUS” of the Party and State, to both save people’s tax money and increase salaries.
Currently, up to 70% of Vietnam’s budget is spent on salaries, but salaries are still very low, and only 30% of the budget is spent on development investment.
No country has such absurdity and strangeness as of Vietnam.
Vietnamese leaders who have dirt-cheap salaries, and then have to work as servants for tycoons to receive a few small envelopes, are victims of their own leader’s ignorance.
Why do Vietnamese leaders not dare to pay themselves a decent salary, from the legitimate budget of the Vietnamese State, but have to pay themselves a meager salary, then have to accept envelope money from the rich tycoons, then after that, only to be disciplined and arrested?
Why is the salary system so important, that the Politburo of Vietnam, the Central Executive Committee of the Party of Vietnam, the Central Conference of the Party of Vietnam do not discuss and decide on their own, but let the ignorant Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs draft and advise on the most important salary regime of the country?
Comrade General Secretary To Lam has proposed the good direction of “Streamlining the apparatus”.
Comrade Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said “.“no matter how difficult it is, we must streamline the apparatus
At the end of the year 2024, in all of Viet Nam, in all of Ministries and sectors of Vietnam have enthusiastically discussed and proposed many plans to merge Ministries, Boards, Branches, Departments, Offices, Institutes, etc. to reduce the number of units.
Doing, then gets mistakes, then fix it at the same time is the right direction.
Don’t hesitate to do streamline party and state apparatuses.
When Comrade Nong Duc Manh was General Secretary, Comrade Nong Duc Manh abolished the Secretariat, the Internal Affairs Committee, the Economic Committee, the Mass Mobilization Committee, etc. But when it came to General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, he re-established these Committees.
Should General Secretary To Lam now follow Comrade Nong Duc Manh’s example and abolish these redundant Committees, and the Party should streamline the Party apparatus first, to set an example for the Government, for the Office of the President, and for the localities to follow.
Regarding the Ministry of Justice, perhaps we should also follow President Ho Chi Minh’s example and abolish the Ministry of Justice, because in Vietnam we already have the Ministry of Public Security.
Looking at the current work of the Ministry of Justice, it does not have much meaning, it only does the work of transferring applications for changes in nationality, registering births, deaths, marriages, etc. The work of changing nationality is done by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the President, the Ministry of Justice only does the task of transferring official documents and papers.
As for marriage registration, births, and deaths, the People’s Committees at all levels have done it. Adding the Department of Justice and the office of Justice is just an additional step of paperwork only.
Previously, President Ho Chi Minh abolished the Ministry of Justice in 1960, it was not until 1980 that the Party re-established the Ministry of Justice.
Vietnam already has the Ministry of Public Security, so there is no need for the Ministry of Justice anymore.
The US and other countries have the Ministry of Justice, because they do not have the Ministry of Public Security like Vietnam. If Vietnam abolishes the Ministry of Public Security, then there needs to be a Ministry of Justice.
In localities, the Party should boldly merge the two positions of Secretary and Chairman to reduce the apparatus, confine offices, reduce headquarters, reduce cars, reduce staff, reduce arguments-internal fighting, and save the budget.
The merger of the two positions of Secretary and Chairman has been piloted by the Party for many years, but now it seems to be at a standstill, not being continued, and not being summarized or drawing conclusions.
There is a sensitive issue here, that is, the position of local Secretary is directly appointed by the Politburo, while the position of local Chairman must be elected by the local People’s Council.
In fact, although the position of local Chairman is elected by the People’s Council, it is also arranged and assigned by the Party’s Politburo.
Therefore, as long as the Politburo introduces two party candidates for the position of Chairman and Secretary, it is OK, no problem.
Similar to the election of the positions of General Secretary, President, Prime Minister, and Chairman of the National Assembly, from now on the party should introduce two candidates to avoid electing a single candidate. The elimination of the single candidate election has been approved by the party, were widely discussed in the party, and publicly discussed in the press since more than 15 years ago when comrade Nong Duc Manh was still the General Secretary.
Now, comrade General Secretary To Lam should boldly propose so that the party can discuss and have conclusions for implementation of 2 candidates election system in party, and in people councils of all levels of country.
If we want the country to innovate further, the party must innovate itself further first, then the country can continue to innovate follow suits of party.
The Politburo does not need to have 18 members like now, only 9 members are enough.
And the Politburo should include the Ministers of Government as Politburo members, then the Politburo will not discuss things that are far-fetched, so that the Politburo can discuss specific management and administration of the country.
There is no political party in the world as ignorant as Vietnam, not including the Ministers in the highest leadership apparatus of the party, the Politburo.
The Politburo includes the Head of the Internal Affairs Committee, the Head of the Mass Mobilization Committee, the Head of the Economic Committee, the Head of the Organization Committee, etc., for what purpose?
The Politburo must directly carry out the work of organizing cadres, and cannot delegate the work of choosing cadres to the Central Organization Committee.
The work of training, recruiting, fostering, and appointing cadres must be directly carried out by the Politburo, with the administrative assistance of the Central Party Office being sufficient.
Mrs. Thatcher, the British Prime Minister, once said that she only needed 6 good ministers to run the country smoothly. Mrs. Thatcher did not need the Internal Affairs Committee, the Mass Mobilization Committee, the Organization Committee, etc.
Regarding the 63 provinces and cities, the Party should boldly narrow and shorten them to 32 provinces and cities as was done during the Nguyen Dynasty. A tiny country like Vietnam, with an area of only 330,000 km2 and a population of 100 million people, has 63 provinces and cities, while China has an area of 9 million km2, 30 times larger than Vietnam, a population 13 times larger than Vietnam, but they only have 27 provinces and cities, each province has an area of 2 or 3 times larger than Vietnam, the population of each province is equal to the population of the whole country of Vietnam, and they are achieving truly admirable socio-economic development achievements.
Regarding recruitment and appointment of cadres, the Party should implement the formula of 3 out, 1 in – 3 people quit – out, only recruit 1 person – in, until the party and government apparatus is as compact as 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 of the current one, then it is just right.
If the Party successfully implements the Streamlining of the Party and State apparatus, the salaries of Ministers and Provincial Governors can reach 200 million VND/month, which is not difficult.
The salaries of the President, General Secretary, Chairman of the National Assembly, and Prime Minister can reach 300 million VND/month, which is not difficult.
With such high salaries of the leaders of the Party and State of Vietnam, the Vietnamese people will feel proud, honored, knowing that when working with foreign Ministers, Vietnamese Ministers have a salary as high as, or even higher than foreign Ministers, have a standard of living as high as, or even higher than foreign partners, proving that a civilized and prosperous Vietnam is not inferior to international friends, or even better than international friends.
Singapore is small, with an area only half that of Hanoi, and a population approximately equal to that of Hanoi, but they dare to pay the Minister a salary of about 70,000 USD/month – approximately 2 billion VND/month, the Prime Minister and President’s salary is about 120,000 USD/month – approximately 3 billion VND/month. And thanks to that, the level of corruption in Singapore is among the lowest in the world – there is still corruption, but very little.
If the Vietnam Party dares to follow Singapore’s example, it will certainly receive the support of the majority of the people and Party members, for a strong, clean, less corrupt Vietnam, so that Vietnam can be able to “standing shoulder to shoulder with the world powers of 5 Continents”, as President Ho Chi Minh wished.///