Solidarity, unity, great unity - Success, success, great success - The immortal words of President Ho Chi Minh from the mid-20th century to the present are still timeless. The power of solidarity is not only a lesson summarized from the experience of thousands of years of humanity, but also the origin of the great achievements of human society. This is especially true in the history of the Vietnamese revolution for nearly a century. In the current period, when the whole country has been implementing the policy of arranging and streamlining the organizational apparatus of the political system; merging administrative units, "rearranging the mountain goose", organizing a space for sustainable development for the country, the spirit of solidarity must be promoted more strongly than ever. With the strategic vision and leadership of the Party, we are determined to maintain and promote the strength of national solidarity, considering it a "source", a "red thread" throughout, ensuring that all guidelines and policies of the Party and State are thoroughly implemented, consistently and effectively, best meeting all legitimate aspirations of the People.
Solidarity - the truth of all ages
Since the dawn of humanity, the spirit of community and solidarity has been the vital factor for human society to survive and develop. Our ancestors concluded in the saying: "A tree cannot be made to grow, three trees together make a high mountain". Collective strength is always greater than the total strength of each individual; the "pstick" is always more solid than the "double chopsticks". When people know how to unite, unite, and join hands, strength is calculated on a multiplier scale to overcome all difficulties and dangers. The history of peoples around the world shows that a strongly connected community will be strong enough to defeat natural disasters, while dividing into only a few groups will bring about defeat. For that reason, the message "unity is strength" has become a universal truth, passed down in all social regimes for thousands of years.
In the history of building and defending the country of the Vietnamese people, the spirit of solidarity has been further demonstrated and become a precious tradition. From the Van Lang and Au Lac dynasties to the Dinh-Le-Ly-Tran dynasties to the present day, the strength of national unity has always been promoted. Society develops, the riverbank is sustainable and opens up thanks to the strength of solidarity. Nguyen Trai once summarized: "Pushing a boat is the people, turning a boat is also the people", "When the boat capsizes, I believe that the people are like water", "General, one heartbroken/ Blending the river water in a cup of sweet wine". That historical lesson is deeply imbued with the ancestors' thought: "easy times but the people can endure, the hard times are enough". When the people's hearts agree, above and below, no foreign force can conquer our nation.
In particular, since the Communist Party took the lead, the tradition of great national unity has been further elevated. President Ho Chi Minh is an outstanding successor to the spirit of "water for the people as the root" of the nation, at the same time applying the creativity of Marxism-Leninism, building a widely unified socio-agricultural-educational alliance and the National Front. The person affirmed: "Solidarity is our strength. If we unite closely, we can certainly overcome all difficulties, develop all advantages and fulfill all tasks assigned to us by the people[1]. The history of the Vietnamese revolution has proven that teaching: When our people are united as one, our country will be independent and free; on the contrary, when our people are not united, they will be encroached. From the August Revolution of 1945 to the Dien Bien Phu Victory in 1954, then the Great Spring Victory in 1975 until now, all those brilliant milestones have been the crystallization of the strength of great national unity - from the strong patriotism to the will to "prefer to sacrifice everything but definitely not lose the country, not be enslaved". It is the strength of the people and the unity of millions of patriotic Vietnamese people that have made the miracle of defeating the most powerful empire in the world in the 20th century. We have the foundation, potential, position and international prestige as we have today, largely thanks to the strength of the great national unity bloc.
On the contrary, history is not without painful lessons about the loss of unity leading to failure. The people's struggle against colonialism at the end of the 19th century failed due to the deep reason that the whole country could not unite into a unified bloc. Many heroic utifles were eventually extinguished due to the lack of coordination and consensus between forces and leaders of the time. The lesson of "dividing is death" is always money- strewn: just one conflict, internal disruption is enough to weaken the common strength, creating gaps for the enemy to "divid to rule". The collapse of some party groups and regimes in the world also shows: when solidarity within the Party and in society is broken, when group interests or local ideology overwhelm the common goal, failure is inevitable. On the contrary, close solidarity is the "champion force" that creates endless strength to help us overcome all difficulties and achieve glorious victories.
From historical failures, it can be drawn the truth: solidarity is a matter of survival, deciding the success or failure of the revolution. Thanks to solidarity, we turn danger into security, dismantling all "division and sabotage" plots of the enemy. On the contrary, a loss of solidarity, even locally, weakens the power, even destroys the fruits of the revolution. Therefore, building and maintaining solidarity must always be the top concern of all true revolutionary organizations.
Solidarity is a consistent strategy of the Party
Right from its inception, the Communist Party of Vietnam has been steadfast in the direction of great national unity, considering it both a goal and a source of decisive power to defeat the revolutionary cause. The Party always identifies maintaining internal solidarity as the vital principle in Party building work. Throughout the revolution, our Party has issued many resolutions and directives to strengthen and promote the strength of solidarity. Since 2006, the Party has proposed the Vietnamese Cultural Outline with three guiding principles, including "maxization" - that is, everything must be for the benefit of the masses, gathering the masses to participate. On February 3, 1969, President Ho Chi Minh in his article "Enhancing revolutionary ethics, sweeping away individualism"[2] warned against the habit of communism and localism as the enemy of solidarity, and to resolutely sweep away. Before going far, in the will (1969), the person earnestly urged our Party to maintain solidarity and unity as if protecting the children of our own eyes. Implementing that teaching, the Party determined to maintain internal solidarity as a vital principle, a top requirement in Party building work. The strength of a nation is the solidarity and unity between the government and the people.
Our Party has issued thematic resolutions on promoting the strength of great solidarity. Resolution of the 7th Central Committee, term IX No. 23-NQ/TW (2003) for the first time sets out the task of " promouring the strength of great national unity for a rich people, strong country, fair society, democracy, and civilization". After 20 years, at the 8th Central Conference of the 13th tenure (2023), the Party continued to issue Resolution 43-NQ/TW (2023) on strengthening the tradition and strength of great solidarity in the new period. Resolution 43 once again affirms: Great national unity is a precious tradition, a continuous strategic guideline of the Party; a great source of strength, a decisive factor in all victories of the cause of building and defending the Fatherland. The Resolution also shows that solidarity within the Party is the core to build solidarity in the entire political system and society: first of all within the Party, from the Central to the grassroots level, it is necessary to truly unify the will and action; each cadre and party member must put the common interest first, strictly comply with discipline, prevent all manifestations of the Party's factions, "group interests" that damage solidarity.
The inevitable requirement of innovation
Our country is resolutely implementing the innovation policy that our Party has set out since the 6th Congress, strongly reforming the organization of the political system; rearranging administrative units at all levels and implementing the operation of the two-level local government model. The goal is to streamline the apparatus, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management and administration, and at the same time implement stronger decentralization and delegation of power to localities. This model not only cuts off unnecessary intermediaries, but is more organized in terms of reorganizing space for sustainable development, so that the government is closer to the people, closer to the people, for the people, and better serves the people; The Central Government also clearly defines its authority and gives local governments more proactive authority to be proactive, creative, and develop in accordance with reality.
From the central to local levels are taking drastic measures, synchronizing with the dual goal: both streamlining the apparatus and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of management, serving the people better, so that people's lives are constantly improved. However, streamlining the organization of the political system; rearranging administrative units also affects and affects a number of cadres, party members, civil servants... that requires fairness, consensus and high political determination and especially the sacrifice of personal interests. If there is a lack of unity from top to bottom, the implementation process will easily encounter problems and inadequacies. Therefore, solidarity in the entire political system is the key to the success of this reform. There needs to be close coordination between central agencies and local authorities to promptly remove difficulties; the consensus of cadres, civil servants and people will create a stable foundation for effective implementation of the new model. The requirement of "up and down the heart, along the smooth path" in the apparatus of the political system has never been as important as it is now.
In the process of reorganizing and reorganizing the apparatus, the lack of solidarity can create many challenges and the risk of division. First of all, there are concerns among the staff, because when merging, some people will lose their positions or have to change jobs. Without clear and reasonable policies for the number of cadres affected by the reorganization process, it is easy to develop negative psychology, a state of "facial dissatisfaction", causing internal disunity. In addition, local psychology is also a matter to note, because each individual has a special affection and pride in their hometown, hometown or place they have been attached to. When merging localities, concerns about the new name, headquarters location, or personnel allocation can easily create a more realistic comparison mentality, hindering the merger process. In addition, differences in culture, practices and development level between administrative units also pose great challenges. The merger between the mountainous province and the plain province, or between the "old" province and the "old" province requires a truly impartial and visionary leadership team, to ensure resource balance and harmonious development benefits. Lack of fairness in resource allocation can easily lead to regional inequality, causing cracks in the common solidarity bloc. Meanwhile, hostile forces are always ready to take advantage of these difficulties to spread distorted information, causing division between the Party, government and people. If cadres, party members and people lack vigilance, they will fall into those sabotage plots, greatly affecting the goal of restructuring the apparatus and stabilizing and developing the country.
In short, a lack of solidarity and consensus will lead to disorientation or hinder the effectiveness of the apparatus' operations. Therefore, maintaining solidarity is the top priority task - a prerequisite for all other reform work to go smoothly. To maintain and strengthen solidarity in the new development space, it is necessary to synchronously deploy a number of important solutions as follows:
First, strengthen unified leadership and direction. In the period of restructuring the apparatus of the political system, the role of centralized leadership from the central to local levels must be maintained and highly promoted. Party committees and authorities at all levels need to ensure unity in implementing the Resolutions, Conclusions, Directives and Guidelines of the Central Government, avoiding local situations, arbitrarily violating general regulations. At the same time, it is necessary to maximize the role of the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations in gathering, mobilizing the people, and creating extensive consensus. All policies and guidelines when developed and implemented must put the interests of the people at the center, closely link the relationship between the Party and the People, so that the people understand, trust, agree and actively support.
Second, promote the responsibility of setting an example for cadres and party members, especially leaders. Each cadre and party member must truly be an example of maintaining internal solidarity, always putting the common good above personal interests. The arrangement and assignment of cadres after the merger must be carried out publicly and transparently, ensuring fairness, meeting the criteria, resolutely fighting against manifestations of dispatch, "group interests", or local regional ideology. At the same time, administrative discipline needs to be strongly strengthened to prevent and promptly correct negative manifestations and stagnation in the transition period. In particular, it is necessary to regularly commend and reward individuals and groups that sacrifice their own interests for the headquarters, create motivation and spread the spirit of solidarity, for the common good in the entire system.
Third, continue to improve policies and laws to ensure harmony of interests and social justice, contributing to strengthening solidarity in the restructuring process. It is necessary to continue to develop, promulgate and implement reasonable and practical support policies for localities and cadres directly affected by the merger process, from financial support policies, allowances, incentives, rewards, incentives... to social security work, infrastructure investment for newly merged localities. In addition, it is necessary to review, revise and supplement relevant legal regulations promptly, ensuring consistency, clarity and ease of implementation, minimizing legal problems. The supervision and inspection of the implementation of legal regulations must be strengthened, violations must be strictly handled to maintain national discipline, and create trust and widespread consensus among the people.
Fourth, promote ideological work, widely disseminate to all cadres, party members and people of all walks of life about the meaning and benefits of streamlining the apparatus, helping people clearly understand that this is the right, necessary and beneficial policy for the long-term development of the country, thereby wholeheartedly and voluntarily implementing it. Propaganda needs to effectively combine historical education, the tradition of national unity with the clear explanation of specific policies, transparency of information on the roadmap and personnel and financial issues related to the merger. At the same time, it is necessary to proactively fight against and refute false and distorted arguments of hostile forces, promptly prevent rumors that cause social instability. In particular, it is necessary to strengthen direct dialogue between leaders and people, help relieve concerns and doubts, and firmly strengthen trust and solidarity in the whole society.
Fifth, strongly promote "partisancy" and political courage in each Party organization and each Party member. All cadres and party members need to resolutely put the common interests of the country and the Party above all, strictly comply with the principle of democratic centralism and Party discipline. Different opinions within the organization need to be discussed democratically, frankly and constructively; after reaching a consensus, it must be united and seriously implemented, absolutely not allowing the situation of local dispatch and locality to occur, causing internal cracks and solidarity. The head of the Party organization must be the center of solidarity, the exemplary core in harmoniously resolving arising conflicts, while always being highly vigilant and determined to fight to defeat all plans of division and sabotage by hostile forces. Only when there is unity in ideology and action from top to bottom, from the inside and outside, will the solidarity of the entire Party and the entire people be truly solid, creating the strength to successfully complete the task of restructuring the apparatus, bringing the country into a new stage of development.
Solidarity has been, is and will forever be the invincible strength of the Vietnamese revolution. In the current challenging period of restructuring the apparatus, that spirit must be thoroughly grasped and promoted. The history assigns us the extremely important task of creating a streamlined, efficient, and efficient apparatus to meet the requirements of rapid and sustainable development of the country in the new period. To fulfill that task, no "weapon" is more harmful and effective than the consensus of the entire political system and the support of the entire people. As President Ho Chi Minh concluded: "Solidarity, unity, great unity - Success, success, great success!".
Under the wise leadership of the Party, with the collective courage and intelligence along with the solid tradition of great national unity, the streamlining of the apparatus of the political system; the rearrangement of administrative units and the operation of local governments at two levels will certainly achieve good results, creating a premise to bring the country into a new stage of development as set out in the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress. The power of solidarity will once again help us overcome all obstacles, turn challenges into opportunities, and bring the country firmly into a new era, an era of prosperity, prosperity, integration and sustainable development for the prosperous and happy life of the people.
[1] Ho Chi Minh: Complete, p. 9, Nxb. National politics, Hanoi, 2011, p. 145
[2] Ho Chi Minh's entire collection, volumes 15, and 546.
