For Vietnamese, President Ho Chi Minh has always been a shining symbol of revolutionary morality and an example of lifetime sacrifice and devotion to the glorious revolutionary cause of the Party and the nation, wholeheartedly serving the Fatherland and the people. He left the generations of today and tomorrow with valuable spiritual heritages, known as the “Ho Chi Minh Era”, “Ho Chi Minh Thoughts”, the “Ho Chi Minh Style”, and “Ho Chi Minh Morals”.
“Without revolutionary morals, no matter how talented you are, you cannot lead the people.”
President Ho – the founder and developer of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) – used to emphasise that “the Party is not an organisation for those who want to gain power and get rich. It must work to fulfil the task of national liberation, making the country rich and prosperous and its people happy.”
“Like a river must have water sources and a tree must have roots, revolutionary people must be truly imbued with revolutionary morals. If they are not, they cannot lead the people.”
To fulfil the task, revolutionaries in general and cadres, officials, and Party members in particular must always strive towards and regularly practice revolutionary morality.
According to Ho Chi Minh’s thoughts, revolutionary morality can be generalized as having four basic tenets: “Being loyal to the nation and practicing filial piety towards the people; loving the people; practicing diligence, thrift, integrity, honesty, public-spiritedness, and selflessness; and undertaking a spirit of pure international solidarity.” “Revolutionary morality is a lifelong determination to fight for the Party and for the revolution, putting the interests of the Party, workers, and people ahead of your own interests and wholeheartedly serving the people.” From the very first days of political and ideological preparations for the birth of the CPV, President Ho built clear requirements on morality and capacity of revolutionary cadres. He set out 23 requirements on morality for each revolutionary cadre, including those relating to the virtues of perseverance, public-spiritedness and selflessness, sacrifice, determination, and courage.
President Ho spoke a great deal about morals at different times but always emphasised revolutionary morality, which manifests itself in the qualities of being loyal to the nation and showing filial piety towards the people; loving the people; practicing diligence, thrift, integrity, honesty, public-spiritedness, and selflessness; and undertaking a spirit of pure international solidarity.
Along with morality, he also asked that revolutionaries exhibit talent.
A virtuous person without talent, he believed, was of little use. But without morals, no matter how talented they may be, Party members and cadres could not gather and lead the people.
Morality must therefore be associated with competence and the accumulation of professional skills, he said.He asked that each cadre and Party member regularly study and improve themselves, enabling them to lead the public and successfully fulfil assigned tasks.
Born and raised at a time when Vietnam had been invaded and the people subject to great misery, the young and patriotic Nguyen Tat Thanh (President Ho’s name at birth) decided to head abroad at the age of 21 to seek a way to salvage the country, having witnessed the pain of Vietnam experiencing colonial rule.
His 30 years of travel did not dent his will. He remained persistent and determined to overcome all of the difficulties he encountered along the way, with his sights set on a noble purpose: freedom for his people and independence for his Fatherland.
After returning home and founding the CPV, with wise and creative policies and decisions, President Ho and the Party led the Vietnamese revolution in overcoming numerous difficulties, building revolutionary organisations and forces, and successfully conducting the historic August Revolution. For decades afterwards, until the end of his days, President Ho spent his life fighting for the independence and reunification of the nation and the freedom and happiness of the people.
Not only devoting himself to the national cause of liberation, President Ho also struggled for the progress of humankind and for global peace and friendship among nations.
Therefore, not only Vietnamese people but also many people worldwide love him and have great respect for his words and deeds.
While patriotism was the driving force behind all of President Ho’s revolutionary activities, “diligence, thrift, integrity, and honesty” were the basic qualities behind his character.
He practiced all of the moral concepts he put forward, and even did more than he asked of others.
Regarding “diligence”, President Ho worked and studied tirelessly to seek a way to save the nation and together with the Party to build plans and organise and lead the people to a successful revolution.
As regards “thrift”, President Ho is a rare example of simplicity, as seen in his clothes, belongings or his residence. He also highlighted the need to practice thrift in work.
For “integrity”, he never possessed any sense of self-interest. He always thought about how to make the people have a better life and that when “everyone has food and clothing, everyone can study.”
When it came to “honesty”, President Ho remained a humble person who respected, loved, and cared for people from all walks of life, especially the poor. He always put the interests of the people first, and sacrificed his entire life to bringing independence and freedom to the Vietnamese people.
Throughout his life, he set a shining example of revolutionary morality, industriousness, thrift, and veraciousness for all cadres, Party members, and people to follow.
Fostering revolutionary morality according to Ho Chi Minh’s ideology
Imbued with Ho Chi Minh’s thoughts on revolutionary morality, over the past 90 years of building and developing the Communist Party of Vietnam, the majority of cadres and Party members have promoted the President’s revolutionary qualities and morality.
The majority of cadres and Party members have been cultivating and preserving revolutionary morality, patriotism, love for the people, justice, and a healthy lifestyle, and been eager to take the lead in the “Doi Moi” (renewal) process.
Many officials and Party members working in complicated environments and difficult conditions have been active and creative, dared to think, dared to act, and dared to take responsibility before the people and the Party, and explored new working methods to achieve the greatest efficiency possible. They also gained the trust and love of the public, contributing to bolstering the prestige and leading role of the Party in the new circumstances.
The majority of cadres and Party members have a high sense of organisation and discipline and strictly abide by Party rules and charters, State law, and local regulations.
Besides the exemplary cadres and Party members, however, there are some who lack ethics and revolutionary morality, exhibit moral degeneration and an unstable ideological stance, are easily affected by external influences, fall into selfishness, narrow-minded individualism, and are tempted by material interests and group interests. Such cadres and Party member do not fulfil their responsibilities and duties to the Party and the people.
Certain officials and Party members, including those holding top positions, have failed to show a pioneering and exemplary role, revelled in bureaucracy and authoritarianism, hindered the development of the Party, and created huge losses for the country’s revolutionary cause.
In order to help cadres and Party members become imbued with revolutionary ethics, over recent years committees at all levels have deployed Directive No. 05-CT/TW from the 12th Politburo on “promoting learning and following Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and style,” associated with the implementation of the Resolution adopted at the fourth plenum of the 12th Party Central Committee on building and regulating the Party and preventing political, ethical, and lifestyle degradation, “self-evolution”, and “self-transformation”.
Fostering revolutionary morality is a continuous, lifelong task, and one of the most important measures in preventing and combating individualism.
Every cadre and Party member should constantly cultivate their morality by specific actions in their daily lives and when performing their duties.
With the 13th National Party Congress approaching, Vietnam will be selecting people who are both talented and virtuous to take on the huge task of leading the nation. Now more than ever, each cadre and Party member must show diligence, thrift, integrity, honesty, public-spiritedness, and selflessness to be a loyal servant of the people./.
