Special "advisor" of the village

From the main road leading to Hamlet 6, Khe Sanh town, Huong Hoa district, we asked Hamlet Chief and Deputy Secretary of the Hamlet Party Cell Ho Van Hieu to take us by motorbike to Mr. Ho Xuan Pay's house, located quite isolated in a concave hamlet about a kilometer away. Wearing an old, light-colored shirt and formal trousers, Mr. Pay was waiting at home, his manner still neat and tidy like the days when he was a "state official" working at the Huong Hoa District Party Committee.

The fish pond brings in a significant source of income for Mr. Ho Xuan Pay's family - Photo: TT

The reason why when I came to work at Group 6, I suddenly remembered the person I had the chance to meet in 2013 at the conference summarizing 5 years of implementing Directive 06 of the Prime Minister on promoting the role of prestigious people among ethnic minorities in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland, because at that time, Mr. Pay was the only person in Quang Tri province who was honored to receive a certificate of merit from the Minister, Chairman of the Government's Ethnic Minorities Committee.

When I happened to mention the name Ho Xuan Pay, Hamlet Chief Ho Van Hieu said: “He just attended the 4th Congress of Ethnic Minorities in 2024 of Huong Hoa District. Now that you meet Mr. Pay again, there will certainly be many more good stories to write. Because, despite his old age, he still maintains the fire of enthusiasm and responsibility in his role as a member of the Party cell of Hamlet 6, a member of the reconciliation team - loved by the villagers as someone who specializes in untying the "knots" to resolve problems and conflicts that occur in the locality, educating children to stay away from social evils, keeping the hamlet and village peaceful”.

Recalling old stories, Mr. Pay recalled his years of dedication, working in many different positions. Before retiring in 2005, he was the Head of the Organizing Committee of the Huong Hoa District Party Committee. After completing his professional duties, he continued to participate in association work as Chairman of the Association for the Protection of People with Disabilities and Orphans, Chairman of the Association of the Elderly in Huong Hoa District until 2022. Many profound memories during the years of working with the Huong Hoa District Party Committee marked Mr. Ho Xuan Pay's mark in his work.

“Around the 1990s, many villagers went to Laos to do business and settle illegally. At that time, as the Head of the Huong Hoa Mountain Settlement Committee, I actively went to Laos to persuade people to return to the village to do business and live. Persuading and persuading was not simple, it took months, living together, and coordinating with Lao officials to analyze so that people could understand thoroughly before they agreed to return,” Mr. Pay confided.

As the head of the residential area mediation team, Mr. Pay (in white shirt) always closely studies the thoughts and aspirations of the people in Hamlet 6 - Photo: TT

His experience in mobilizing the people through events like this has helped him a lot to get closer to the people, understand them, and from there, speak so that the people understand, make them believe, and listen.

The Party Cell of Hamlet 6 currently has 22 party members, including many elderly party members. Although he is 79 years old this year, Mr. Pay is still trusted by the Party Cell to be elected to the Party Committee, because he is experienced, knowledgeable about Party work, has prestige and a voice in the Party Cell and residential area.

“Mr. Pay often reminds us that if we want party members to be imbued with the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's policies and laws, first of all, the Party Committee must have a firm grasp of the regulations on the Party Charter, the functions and tasks of Party members, the guidelines and policies to thoroughly disseminate to Party members participating in activities. In the activities, the experience he shared was to prepare concise, focused content, not spread out so that Party members can easily understand, absorb and follow. In the year-end review, it must be clear and transparent, promote the spirit of self-criticism and criticism in each Party member, and increase constructive comments to progress together. Especially in Party development, Mr. Pay's valuable experiences have helped the Party Committee select candidates to admit to the Party, ensuring the standards of political qualities, ethics, lifestyle... In the Party Cell, Mr. Pay is like a special "advisor", working with the Party Committee to successfully complete the tasks of the Party organization at the grassroots level. With the people of Hamlet 6, Mr. Pay is a shining example, always encouraging his children and grandchildren to stay away from social evils, helping families in difficult circumstances, managing 11 harmonious and peaceful clans, contributing to building the village's covenant. Actively promoting the role of a prestigious person, he coordinated well in preventing, fighting, and denouncing all kinds of crimes and social evils in residential areas and especially in border areas," Mr. Hieu shared with satisfaction.

Despite their old age, Mr. Pay and his wife still work hard to grow rice to proactively provide food for their family - Photo: TT

The story became more and more imbued with the love of the village and neighborhood when Mr. Hieu mentioned the fire that happened to Mr. Ho Van Luu's family at the end of April 2024.

Due to a little carelessness in not completely extinguishing the stove after cooking, the fire burned down the entire house and the more than 100 million VND that the couple had saved for many years to prepare to renovate the old house. Immediately after the incident, Mr. Pay stood up and called on everyone to contribute their labor and money, "the whole leaves cover the torn leaves, the less torn leaves cover the more torn leaves" to join hands to help Mr. Luu's family build a temporary house and buy necessary household items to start a new life.

Mr. Luu shared with us: “I am grateful for the help of the government, the donors, especially Mr. Pay who stood up to call for support and help my family in this difficult time. Listening to Mr. Pay's encouragement that "as long as there are people, there is property", my wife and I worked hard to soon have enough money to rebuild a new, more solid house."

Hamlet 6, Khe Sanh town currently has 226 households with 1,014 people, the people mainly work in slash-and-burn farming. Previously, people were used to the tradition of cultivating one crop, which means that after harvesting the rice crop, they would leave the land uncultivated, waiting for the next year to do it again, or leave the land uncultivated for many years. That is why in the hamlet there have been many "half-crying, half-laughing" stories related to land disputes, causing conflicts between many families, even filing complaints to the district.

“Also due to the custom of cultivating one crop and then leaving the land fallow for a long time, many years ago, the families of Mrs. Dinh Thi N. and Ho Thi C. had a conflict, leading to a land dispute, and filed a petition to the district. I discussed with the village chief, invited the village elder, a prestigious person in the village, to preside over a mediation between the two families. Before inviting the two families to the mediation, we researched and re-identified the origin of the land from the district's management records, on the basis of legal documents, combined with applying customs and practices, and analyzing the situation and reason, and finally the two families reconciled. Not only this case, in recent years, I and the mediation team have resolved many cases, resolved the difficulties of households with land conflicts, cases related to customs and family lines, with the viewpoint of turning big problems into small ones, resolving difficulties into friendships so that everyone can understand and live closer together,” Mr. Pay shared.

As the afternoon sun gradually set, we followed Mr. Pay and his wife to the lake to feed the fish. At the age of grandparents, he and his wife still work hard. He has a fish pond raising all kinds of grass carp, silver carp, tilapia, and a flock of more than 30 chickens for eggs and meat. He also planted 1 hectare of cajuput trees, a lush fruit garden with bananas, longans, mangoes, lychees, and upland rice, ensuring a food supply for the family and a significant source of income.

Following the steep path, the feet of the person in front almost touching the chest of the person behind, visiting the rice fields planted on the hill right behind the house, Mr. Pay humorously joked, even rice plants can grow on sloping land and produce golden grains, so why can't people be patient and overcome difficulties. It's interesting, even though planted on less fertile hill soil, the rice seedlings still grow green and lush, waiting for the right months and days to bring golden grains for a prosperous life.

Suddenly, we thought about what Mr. Pay simply shared: “If you want people to listen and follow to develop the economy, you yourself must set an example first. The happiest thing is that your voice and actions are trusted, listened to and followed by the people. Whatever you can do and help the people, you must try your best to make the lives of the villagers more and more prosperous.”

Thanh Truc

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/co-van-dac-biet-cua-ban-lang-187838.htm