From April 1977 to November 1981, comrade Nguyen Van Linh was assigned by the Party to hold the following positions: Head of the Central Socialist Reform Committee; Head of the Central Front - Mass Mobilization Committee; Chairman of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor until 1980. In 1980-1981, he was assigned to monitor the implementation of resolutions and directives of the Party and Government in the southern provinces.

As the Head of the Central Committee for Socialist Reform, Comrade Nguyen Van Linh pondered and thought a lot about the reality of agriculture and farmers in the South after liberation. Realizing the haste in applying socialist production methods like in the North to farmers in the South, Comrade Nguyen Van Linh proposed to the Central Committee "to slow down for a while, not to be hasty". According to him, it is necessary to think about the form, steps, and methods to make them suitable, not to follow a pattern or be mechanical because the characteristics of the South and the North are different. His profound way of thinking about the revolutionary laws with scientific and revolutionary content about economic reform is "to develop production, promote production to move forward, if reform causes production to stagnate, workers to lose their jobs, and people's lives to be difficult, then we need to reconsider".

General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh visits and works at Saigon Shipping Company. Photo: Archive

With that positive thinking, combining revolutionary enthusiasm with scientific knowledge, in the issue of reforming private capitalist industry and commerce, comrade Nguyen Van Linh said: “The socialist reform of capitalist economic sectors is a rule of the transition period to socialism, but the way of doing it is not the same for different sectors and subjects. For the economic sectors of the comprador capitalists whose interests are closely linked to the war machine of the US-puppet regime, we must confiscate and nationalize them. The production facilities, plantations, rubber, tea... of the puppet generals, who got rich on the blood of the people, must also do the same. As for the small and medium-sized production facilities of small traders, small owners, national bourgeoisie,... who have made certain contributions to the cause of national liberation, and are currently still meeting the needs of the people's lives, we must help them maintain production, contribute to stabilizing the life of the city, making the economic face of the city more prosperous. of the city increasingly prosperous" (2) .

But at that time, his opinion was not accepted by the Central Committee. In his position as Head of the Central Front's Mass Mobilization Committee, Comrade Nguyen Van Linh continued to uphold the ideology and example of a true communist, always having an innovative and creative mindset, daring to propose many things that are beneficial to the revolution. At the conference summarizing 10 years of religious work in Ho Chi Minh City, he affirmed: "Catholics are also descendants of Lac Hong, and Vietnamese citizens. Catholics have a spirit of patriotism, against oppression and exploitation, and are increasingly oriented towards the revolution. I always thought that if Catholics followed the teachings of Jesus, they would be very close to the ideals of communists."

As Chairman of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, Comrade Nguyen Van Linh initiated the cause of trade union reform in many aspects, from name to activities, objects, organization, and mobilization. The name - according to him is the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor. He pointed out: "The trade union is a large organization of workers, it is necessary to innovate its organization and activities so that it can truly be an "economic school, a school of management and a school of socialism", contributing to the building of a working class in our country that is constantly growing, bringing our country out of poverty and backwardness".

Since December 1981, returning to the position of Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, going through a period of "three sinks and seven floats", with the steadfastness and spirit of innovation and creativity of a communist, comrade Nguyen Van Linh continued to put forward thoughts and proposals to solve difficulties for the city. A consistent thought is how to make people aware of the "change of life", from being employees to being city owners. It is necessary to correctly assess and promote the positive aspects and clearly see the limitations of the masses to come up with effective methods and ways of implementation. When hearing the city's intellectuals say that the city "has too much enthusiasm but lacks knowledge", comrade Nguyen Van Linh considered that to be a correct assessment and when talking about weaknesses.

He boldly said that these were "violations" and not "weaknesses" in general. These were violations of:

1. Not calm enough to see that the city, once liberated, obviously becomes our own property.

2. Not aware of the city's socio-economic situation.

3. Insufficient understanding of the history of the formation process and the role of urban industry in the industrial-agricultural structure of the region.

4. Not closely assessing the problems that the new regime must solve such as social evils, unemployment, and internal negativity.

5. The most serious violation is not clearly defining the two goals of the city's economic activities: expanding and increasing production and improving people's lives. Comrade Nguyen Van Linh said that this is related to the perception of the city's role that has changed from wartime to peacetime. This is an attitude of looking straight at the truth, finding methods, ways out, and appropriate steps for the City.

Memorial house of General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh in Yen Phu village, Giai Pham commune, Yen My district, Hung Yen province. Photo: BINH AN

With the support of the City Party Committee, Comrade Nguyen Van Linh organized the consolidation of the government system, promoted democracy and the people's mastery; focused on restoring and developing economic sectors; combined renovation with construction, considering construction as the main thing. One of the outstanding things that Comrade Nguyen Van Linh dared to think, dared to speak, dared to do was to research and innovate the economic management mechanism. For a long time, he was concerned and thought about how to develop production in Ho Chi Minh City. Knowing about the "underground" product contracting in Do So, Hung Yen; seeing the city's people lining up to buy rice, realizing many inadequacies and outdated things, he proposed new ways of doing things that were in accordance with the law and the people's wishes.

After the Resolution of the 6th Central Committee, Session IV (September 1979), Ho Chi Minh City saw the emergence of a model of "exploding" to innovate production and business, applying the product-based wage system in the textile factories Thanh Cong, Phong Phu, Phuoc Long, Thang Loi... Comrade Nguyen Van Linh supported these advanced models and affirmed: "Returning production to its proper operation, the situation will change visibly". With the mindset of having to destroy the bureaucratic and subsidized management mechanism, comrade Nguyen Van Linh directed: "Only one Thanh Cong is not enough, but hundreds, thousands of city establishments must strongly advance towards the goal of fighting bureaucracy and subsidies, removing obstacles for production to explode".

He proposed the need to expand the autonomy mechanism in many enterprises and many different types of ownership. He agreed to the form of forum activities called the Director's Club and appointed the Head of the City Party Committee's Industry Department as the chairman. The innovative, dynamic and creative ways of thinking and doing "giving the green light" by Comrade Nguyen Van Linh not only ensured the production to flourish, but also complied with and thoroughly grasped the principles of state management.

General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh was the first person to initiate the renovation process at the 6th Congress in 1986. Photo: Chinhphu.vn

The achievements in 10 years of Ho Chi Minh City as well as the whole country (1975-1985) were later recalled by comrade Nguyen Van Linh as great lessons in the spirit of innovation, creativity, daring to think, daring to do; daring to look straight at the truth, correctly assessing the truth, and clearly stating the truth. Affirming that only through innovation can we see the truth correctly and completely, see new factors to promote, and mistakes to correct, he emphasized: "We must fight against the old, against conservatism, stagnation, against stereotyped dogma, against hasty subjectivity, against degeneration, against persistent outdated habits".

Comrade Nguyen Van Linh considered that in the 10 years (1975 - 1985) "we paid a high price to gain the knowledge and experience we have today". Today's knowledge and experience come from the "high price" of 10 years after liberation, that is "we must deeply and comprehensively renew our thinking and working methods in all areas of social activities"; "we must look straight at the truth, we must see that our subjective shortcomings are serious and long-lasting. We must have the spirit of strong self-criticism and thorough innovation. Otherwise, we will fall into a state of prolonged stagnation with real disasters - disasters not caused by the nature of our regime but by our shortcomings".

Saying "dare to think, dare to speak, dare to do" is a specific, simple, easy-to-understand way of speaking, but we must realize that "dare" is thinking, "do" is action, and most importantly, dare to speak, dare to do. Comrade Nguyen Van Linh stated: “Talking about thinking means talking about the level of grasping objective laws, talking about thinking according to the requirements of those laws and applying them appropriately to the specific conditions of the country, talking about the creative process of proposing new ideas, talking about finding effective measures for action... This requires fighting against superficial empiricism in perception, fighting against subjective, conservative, dogmatic thinking, fighting against the separation between theory and practice. To do this, we must combine words with actions, have high revolutionary enthusiasm united with solid scientific knowledge, dare to look straight at the truth. Publicize activities, go deep into practice, take the practical effectiveness of building socialism as the goal, know how to solve all tasks on the basis of promoting the mastery and initiative of the working people... In other words, innovation in thinking must go hand in hand with innovation in style, it is an inseparable unified process”.

Following Uncle Ho's ideology and example, comrade Nguyen Van Linh pointed out a number of mid- and high-ranking cadres who "have low theoretical knowledge, empirical understanding, each person is different, when directing practice, they arbitrarily control work according to old perceptions from the left or right, or fluctuate from one extreme to the other, losing the ability to distinguish right from wrong. There are wrong things that are defended as right, there are right things that are rejected and not accepted" (1) .

Only you can clearly state the truth that “many cases fall into the situation of appealing to trust and abstract morality without appealing to reason” (2) . Only you “dare” to point out that “many of us often focus on using power, giving orders from above, and neglecting the work of persuading, discussing, and motivating people to act.

Some people even consider that promoting democracy hinders the implementation of the principle of centralization and limits the role of power" (3) . And he quoted the people saying: "It is so difficult for a master to meet his "servant"!" (4) . Only he "dared" to point out frankly: "The Party must know how to listen to the people. How to listen? We must listen regularly, not wait for scheduled meetings; listen from the mouths of farmers in communes and hamlets, even in remote villages, listen from the working-class villages, from the lowest civil servants, officials, and soldiers... We must always ask why the masses have not said everything, why the masses do not dare to speak, why the masses speak not specifically or accurately" (5) .

Hung Yen provincial capital, hometown of late General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh.

From the legacy of President Ho Chi Minh to the spirit of General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh, the 13th National Party Congress talked about training cadres who "dare to think, dare to speak, dare to do, dare to take responsibility, dare to innovate, be creative...". The spirit and attitude of daring to think, dare to speak, dare to do, dare to take responsibility, dare to innovate for the common good of comrade Nguyen Van Linh is a valuable asset of the Party, of every cadre and party member. With a pure heart for the country, for the people, "dare" in thinking and acting on the basis of scientific theory, starting from practice with the right perception of the law, in accordance with the people's will, in line with the trend of the times is a breakthrough, an important driving force leading to the success of the revolution, of the renovation process.

Associate Professor, Dr. BUI DINH PHONG, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics

-------------------------------------------

(1),(2),(3),(4),(5). Program to write biographies of Party and State leaders: Nguyen Van Linh biography, op. cit., pp.236-238.

    Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/chinh-tri/tiep-lua-truyen-thong/tong-bi-thu-nguyen-van-linh-tam-guong-nguoi-can-bo-dam-nghi-dam-noi-dam-lam-vi-loi-ich-chung-834820