W.Minh Tuan

For a long time people have said that “it is necessary to improve the intellectual level of the normal people” so that the country can develop.

That is very true.

But perhaps the most urgent thing is to first raise the intellectual level of party members, and then raise the intellectual level of the normal people later.

Because the Party in our country Vietnam is the leading Party, the ruling Party. If a leader is not highly qualified, it will be very difficult to lead, people will not listen when they say, what they say, and sometimes what they say is wrong, because their qualifications are limited.

In the old days, when there was no Party, our ancestors used the examination and recommendation system to select talented people to be appointed as officials, mandarins to lead the country.

The first exam to train mandarins was in 1075, during the reign of King Ly Nhan Ton, the last exam in the North was in 1915, and in the Central region was in 1918, lasting nearly 1,000 years in Vietnam.

Although the examination system of our ancestors’ time had many limitations, but in general, those who passed the exam were people who were more intelligent than others, capable of being officials, mandarins, leading the country’s affairs, and also having the ability to write poetry, literature, research, and writing books to leave behind for future life.

Mandarins who passed the exam include Le Van Huu (1230-1322), Mac Dinh Chi (1280-1350), Chu Van An (unknown year of birth – 1370), Nguyen Trai (1380-1442), Le Quy Don (1726). -1784), Nguyen Du (1765-1820), Phan Huy Chu (1782-1840)… were all people who were both talented and honest mandarins and famous intellectuals, leaving behind many influential works, value for society.

Compared to today’s Party leadership, there are not many leaders who are also famous intellectuals, and the works, books left behind for posterity are mainly memoirs.

Some theoretical works written mainly about Marxism and Leninism are just additional comments and talk about the application of that theory to our country, without any great ideological creativity.

The way party members are selected today does not place much emphasis on level of knowledge, or moral qualities of integrity and virtue, but is primarily based on background and class composition.

After that, those who was gentle and quiet, no much have their own opinions.

Those who often discuss, argue, or have different opinions will find it difficult to be admitted to the Party.

Once you become a party member, if you are selected to become a leader later, you will be sent to be trained at the Party school system, which mainly teaches Marxist, Leninist theory, and about the Party’s history.

The training system at the National Academy of Public Administration to train administrative managers also learns heavily about Marxism, Leninism, and the “socialist-oriented market economy”.

Both the Party and administrative school systems do not teach much about the world’s social management knowledge and the history of human civilization.

That is also true, because few of the teachers themselves are trained at famous universities in the world.

If someone is trained at famous schools around the world, when they return Vietnam home, they will also be imbued with more about the Party’s history and Marxism-Leninism to have enough political qualities to stand on the podium to lecture.

It can be said that that training system does not provide much valuable knowledge for Vietnam party members.

In our country Vietnam, people still pass on jokes by word of mouth that there is a leader with a medium-sized position who memorizes Party resolutions, Marxist and Leninist theories, but does not know who Nguyen Du is.

Because there is a joke that when a Platoon Commander in the Vietnam People’s Army went to check the orders, he saw a few young soldiers talking loudly about something. The Platoon Commander came and asked:

“-What are you guys making so much noise?”.

The young soldiers said:

“-Yes, comrade Platoon Leader, we are reading Nguyen Du’s poetry.”

-“Huh, who is Nguyen Du? Which unit he belongs to?” – The ignorant platoon leader asked in amazement.

There are quite a few of those average medium leaders who don’t know who Nguyen Du is, there’s no shortage of these kind of medium ignorant leades, we’re not surprised.

Or there is a medium leader, when giving a lecture on the Iraq war, he says the war is “one ran-one raq war”, because he considers himself knowledgeable, thinking the letter “I” is the number 1 La- tin language.

Or there are party leaders standing on the forum talking about politics, but words​ “l” and “n” are confused. Something like: “One dai I will thell you about the shining toruth of Marxism and Neninism to my comrades”, is not uncommon nowadays.

Those party members and leaders cannot lead anyone.

If we want to raise the Party’s intellectual level, we must first reform the teaching content at Party schools and at the National Academy of Public Administration, allow boldly debate outdated doctrines, and not label them as “lost of political quality”.

At the same time, we must learn the most modern knowledge that humans are learning, and that societies more civilized and more developed than ours are learning.

We must send teachers to retrain in advanced countries to learn their best skills, and return home Vietnam to teach the world’s advanced knowledge to Vietnam party members.

And most importantly, English is now a common language worldwide. Vietnamese people, from ordinary people to party members and leaders, knowing how to speak English fluently is nothing special.

But let’s see how many of our leaders in Vietnam are fluent in English?

The Party must also open the door wide to admit talented and virtuous people into the Party, without being tied to outdated backgroundism, without having to go through the steps of introduction, then training, then challenges… like now.

In the world, political parties do not admit party members in a difficult way like the Party in our country Vietnam today.

When the Vietnam Party had not yet won power, the Party did not admit party members as strictly as it does today.

Anyone who agrees with the Party’s principles and goals, wants to become a party member, has good moral qualities, is trusted by colleagues, friends, and neighbors, can be admitted to the Party, without any background ties, unless that person is being investigated for some crime.

Only then can the Party attract talented and virtuous people to join the Party. Thanks to that, the Party’s intellectual level will fundamentally improve.

In 1921, Uncle Ho was in France. He joined the French Communist Party, even though he was a foreigner.

So now, does the Vietnam Party agree to admit foreigners and overseas Vietnamese who want to join the Party to participate in building a prosperous, fair, and charitable Vietnam?

Imagine if more than half of the Party Central Committee members in our country had been trained at Harvard in the US, or Leeds University  in England, or Charles de Gaulle University in France, or Tokyo University in Japan. …then the Party’s intelligence would be much different than it is today.

Look at the great intellectuals in our country in the 20th century, like lawyer Phan Anh, like doctor Ton That Tung, like major general – scientist Tran Dai Nghia, like agronomist Luong Dinh Cua… all studied at France, or even Japan.

And if it’s even more precious, there are a few Politburo members who also studied abroad at prestigious universities around the world, speaking English and French. When meeting foreign guests, confidently talk to them in English, without needing a translator.

Then it is truly a blessing and pride for the Vietnam Party, and also a blessing and pride for our Vietnamese people and our country.

Studying in capitalist countries does not mean losing the qualities of a communist person.

Learning their best knowledges to apply to the Vietnam country’s development is a communist who knows how to innovate, has knowledge, and has a high intellectual level, for Vietnam of more than 4000 years history.///