Vietnam News, April 5

Party commissions detailed study of socialist

democracy
HA NOI — Party ideologues will carry out an in-depth study into the functioning of socialist
democracy and democracy in a one-party system.
The study, which will also include different forms of democracy, is being undertaken in response to a
directive issued by the Party Central Committee Secretariat last week.
The directive, carried out by the Party Central Committee’s Theoretical Council, aims to further
strengthen democratic rights at the grassroots level, an intiative first taken by the Politburo in 1998 via
Directive 30-CT/TW.
The Secretariat wants the Theoretical Council to clarify the conditions to observe citizens’ democratic
rights, already summed up in the slogan “people must know, discuss, execute and examine.”
Political and administrative management schools need to introduce democratic rights regulation into
their curricula, the Secretariat added.
Meanwhile the Secretariat has urged executives of Party organisations in Government bodies to work
harder to amend existing regulations governing observance of democratic rights at the grassroots level
so that these rules can be made into State laws and ordinances.
Last week’s directive followed a mid-term review of the strict observance of democratic rights at the
lowest levels of administrative and business entities: rural villages, district townships, inner city wards,
companies and public service offices.
The mid-term review, sponsored by the Secretariat early last month, reported that more than 90 per
cent of rural villages and district townships have devised their own regulations. However
approximately 70 per cent of the itemised work has been completed.
More than 80 per cent of State-owned administrative, public service offices and enterprises have
formed their own rules, but execution among these bodies was much lower than expected.
Politburo member and head of the Party CC’s Mass Mobilisation Commission Truong Quang Duoc
said that despite the shortcomings and mistakes in observing grassroots democratic rights, a better,
warmer atmosphere pervades rural communities and state-owned businesses, as relations between local
cadres and people, and between employers and employees, have been improved.
Duoc said that having more say in public and community affairs has made local people and workers
happier; as a result, they make greater financial and labour contributions to public projects.
The Secretariat says the issuance of last week’s directive came after taking into account the gains and
losses studied during the mid-term review.
Officials hope the directive will plug the remaining holes and expand the strict observance of rules to
many other grassroots entities, such as informal businesses including private companies, co-operatives,
foreign-invested ventures; offices managing socio-economic development programmes; development
project management boards that compensate condemned-property owners and research institutes.
Under the directive, the deadline for devising and executing democratic rules among grassroots entities
is fixed at the end of next year with the review of the five-year implementation of the Politburo’s
directive.
The Secretariat believes that strict observance of democratic rights at the grassroots level must be
taken into account as part of the qualifications for Party building.
It also holds that concerned bodies must collect public recommendations before forming any important
socio-economic policy, programmes or project. VNS