This is the consistent viewpoint in the Party's leadership and direction of the World War II throughout the 93 years of construction and growth of the propaganda sector (August 1, 1930 / August 1, 2023); it is also an urgent and necessary requirement from practice.

Thoroughly grasping the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, to continue improving the quality and effectiveness of the world war in the new situation, it is necessary to have the participation and promote the combined strength of the entire Party, the entire people and the entire army; especially paying attention to promptly solving and removing difficulties and obstacles regarding resources for the world war at the grassroots level.

Illustration photo: Cong Ly Newspaper

1. Many years ago, in the organization of the staff of communes, wards and towns (generally called commune level), there was always a fixed staff of propaganda officers (CBTG), and this position was even structured into the standing committee of the commune party committee... However, in recent years, facing the trend of promoting streamlining the staff, this position was only held concurrently, and was not structured to participate in the executive committee or standing committee of the Party committee. As a result, the effectiveness of implementing CTTG at the grassroots level was affected; the role and position of CBTG at the grassroots level were reduced and underestimated; raising many concerns and worries about the quality and effectiveness of an important aspect of the Party's work.

Theory clearly shows: World War II, especially ideological work, must be operated and done well from the grassroots. In which, propaganda, mobilization, promoting people's strength, building "people's hearts" are of special importance. However, to be fair, due to the thin force and the concurrent position, although the cadres in charge of World War II have made real efforts, in many places the effectiveness of operations has not been as expected. Issues related to grasping public opinion, community psychology, crowd mood, especially grasping, controlling, and handling false rumors at the grassroots level are often not timely and ineffective. This is one of the many causes leading to frustration among the people, forming hot spots at the grassroots level.

In reality, only grassroots cadres, including CBTG, are the direct force, with sufficient conditions, capabilities, and experience to grasp and promptly detect negative ideological manifestations and problems arising from the "embryonic" stage, proactively prevent, promptly correct, orient, and resolve; not allowing them to develop into "abnormalities" of ideological diseases and "igniters" for public opinion hotspots. However, due to many factors, the current CBTG team at the commune level is mainly part-time or semi-professional. Meanwhile, the implementation of the Central Committee's resolutions on streamlining the payroll at the commune level and affiliated levels has a significant impact on the quantity, quality, psychology, ideology, and feelings of the CBTG team at the grassroots level.

Because the human resources for propaganda at the grassroots level are thin, lacking and weak, the time, effort, intelligence and resources for this work are greatly affected. In other words, because of weak or lacking propaganda staff, it is easy to lead to laxity and disregard for propaganda right from the grassroots level. The consequence is that many people lack understanding of the Party's policies and guidelines, and the State's policies and laws.

In some places, due to the lack of official information, people easily fall into confusion, wavering, and are easily lured, bribed, or exploited by hostile and anti-government forces to carry out evil political schemes. From the handling of hot spots in the Central Highlands (2001, 2004), Binh Thuan (2018) and many other hot spots, the obvious lesson is that ideological work in these places sometimes falls into passivity and lacks flexibility, especially the failure to provide and orient official information in a timely manner... are the core causes of hot spots and political security complications in the area.

Not only that, because the CBTG at the commune level is mainly held concurrently, the recent CTTG at the grassroots level tends to focus on handling specific, trivial, and tail-smacking issues, with low predictability and confusion; the motto "going first to pave the way, going together to implement, going later to summarize" has not been well implemented; resources and forces have not been connected to create a combined strength for CTTG at the grassroots level. That leads to the advisory work of the propaganda sector at the grassroots level for Party committees and authorities on a number of tasks and fields being untimely, not sensitive, and ineffective; ideological work is sometimes lacking in sharpness, not very persuasive, and limited in combativeness...

In particular, the work of summarizing practices and researching theories at the grassroots level has not received due attention, is not synchronous, does not meet requirements, and is even neglected and forgotten. The work of combating and preventing bad and toxic information, wrong and hostile viewpoints at the grassroots level is still passive and not very effective... All of that directly affects the quality and effectiveness of the whole industry's international integration in the new conditions.

2. The grassroots cadres recommended that the care and investment of resources for the World War II in the new conditions must be consistent with the viewpoint that the World War II in general, and ideological work in particular, must take effectiveness from the grassroots as the focus, the foundation, the root. In that sense, if we want the World War II to be of quality, we must pay special attention and invest appropriate resources for the grassroots, especially in human resources to carry out the World War II. Along with promoting the role of Party committees, authorities, and social opinion collaborators, should we arrange specialized World War II cadres to be able to undertake and complete difficult and complicated tasks, especially ideological work, Party building, propaganda, mass mobilization, and the fight against " peaceful evolution" from the grassroots?

A survey of the team of officials concurrently holding CTTG at the commune level shows that this team has a fairly correct and sufficient understanding of the position and role of the commune-level CTTG, but most of them expressed concerns, difficulties, and obstacles in the process of performing their tasks. Many officials said that with a huge amount of work, diverse and complex tasks, strict and scientific processes and procedures for conducting CTTG, it is necessary to have specialized officials in this field. Not only that, the authorities need to research and set high requirements for the quality of personnel working on CTTG at the grassroots level; there should be a policy for the structure of commune-level CBTG to participate in the standing committee, the executive committee of the commune party committee, and planning as a source of successors at the grassroots level.

From the above-mentioned basic practices, it is required that Party committees, leaders and competent agencies need to have a more comprehensive view of the position and role of cadres working in the propaganda sector at the grassroots level. While consistently advocating streamlining the payroll and reorganizing the apparatus in a streamlined, effective and efficient manner, at the same time, it is necessary to combine and attach importance to the selection and rotation of cadres, prioritizing high-quality people for the propaganda sector at the grassroots level.

Along with that, competent authorities should soon research and supplement appropriate regimes and policies for this group of cadres, helping them love their jobs and wholeheartedly devote themselves to their assigned positions and responsibilities. Party committees and authorities at all levels need to continue to innovate training, fostering, and improving the qualities, political mettle, professional capacity, and expertise of the team of cadres doing CTTG; ensure that CBTG is trained systematically, regularly, loyally, and developed through practical activities; increase interaction, share experiences, and "pass on the passion of the profession" between generations of long-time cadres and young cadres; between CTTG cadres at the central level and CBTG cadres at the grassroots level...

When discussing the role of the World War II and the team of cadres doing the World War II, President Ho Chi Minh affirmed: The team of cadres and propaganda work are considered as an ideological front to fight against what is old, corrupt, backward and support the new, the good, the progressive, arouse the will and mobilize the whole people, organize and educate the whole people, rely on the great strength of the whole people, make "The whole Party must have unity of thought, unity of action, unity of solidarity to fulfill the Party's tasks".

With such importance, it requires Party committees, political systems and even those working in the field of ideological work to have a unified understanding of the position, role, function and tasks of the field of ideological work and the field of propaganda. It is necessary to resolutely identify, correct and thoroughly overcome the situation of entrusting and delegating ideological work in particular and the field of ideological work in general to the propaganda sector and the field of propaganda team at the grassroots level. It is necessary to raise awareness and renew the thinking of all levels about paying attention and investing resources, especially budget and human resources for field of ideological work at all levels, especially at the grassroots level, to match the role, position and requirements of the field of ideological work and the field of propaganda in the new situation.

NGUYEN TAN TUAN

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