Individualism and self-interest

Updated date: 04/02/2024 05:23:54

DTO - Teaching us to distinguish between individualism and personal interests, Uncle Ho wrote: “Individualism is thinking about one's own interests in everything, not caring about the interests of the collective, "as long as one is fat, let the world be thin". It is the mother of all bad habits such as: laziness, comparison, arrogance, rivalry, timidity, waste, embezzlement... It is the cruel enemy of revolutionary morality and socialism”. Regarding personal interests, Uncle Ho wrote: “Fighting against individualism is not “trampling on personal interests”. Each person has his or her own personality, strengths, and those of his or her family. If those personal interests do not contradict the interests of the collective, then they are not bad... It must be seen that only in a socialist regime does each person have the conditions to improve his or her own life, to develop his or her own personality and strengths. No regime respects people, pays attention to considering their right interests, and ensures that they are satisfied like the socialist and communist regimes.”

Model new rural road in Phu Dien commune (Thap Muoi district) (Photo: Hoang Kha)

Uncle Ho's teachings above show us that individualism and personal interests are completely different and opposite. Individualism only cares about one's own interests. Personal interests are the legitimate demands of every human being " who is born with the right to enjoy freedom, to pursue happiness, to be happy ". Simply put, everyone must have the right to eat, wear, live, travel, study, play, and entertain themselves...

In feudal times, anything precious, delicious, beautiful... had to be offered to the king and the mandarins. People were not allowed to study, were hungry, wore ragged clothes, were despised and oppressed. In the capitalist regime, while the boss was a billionaire, the workers were exploited, many people did not have a house, did not have enough food and clothes. In our country, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam regime, although it has gone through 30 years of war, the country is still poor, the economy is still backward, but the Communist Party of Vietnam still considers bringing personal benefits to each person as the highest goal, meaning that all activities are only for the benefit of each person.

Over the past decades until now and in the future, all policies of our Party and State are aimed at the poor, from urban areas to the plains, mountains, islands... all have jobs, have housing, are fully clothed, healthy, receive medical care, have education, enjoy culture, art, have entertainment...

In our province, the "stone houses and pedal houses" that were once common are no longer there. Many urban areas, towns, and cities have been established with many high-rise buildings. In rural communes, wall houses have replaced rickety thatched houses everywhere. Every time I go back, I see new wall houses appearing. Of course, inside those wall houses are bright with living amenities: fans, air conditioners, refrigerators, televisions, gas stoves, electric stoves, mobile phones, compact lamps, salons, cupboards... Many villas have appeared in the "remote" areas of the past, due to prosperous business.

Regarding food and clothing, policies and measures to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, up to now in our province, hunger has ended, poverty has decreased every year. Production has developed, economic income has increased, food has gradually changed from enough to delicious, clothing has changed from ragged to beautiful. Now, we no longer see people wearing ragged clothes walking on the street, but at home every day or attending parties, everyone is dressed beautifully...

In the past, people mainly traveled by boat. Now, paved roads and paved roads border the countryside. Two-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles travel back and forth on the roads, and boats are gradually disappearing. Children go to school, people go to the market, visit the fields... all use vehicles.

The national grid is increasingly extended to the rural hamlets, even to the islands and islets on the river. Electricity lights up homes and “lights up the country roads”. The flickering duck egg lamps and banh u lamps now only exist in museums. Electricity makes factories, mills, etc. spring up all over the countryside.

In the past, the entire Cao Lanh district had a primary school that taught up to the first grade (now the fifth grade). Now the entire province is covered with schools from nurseries, kindergartens, to all levels of general education. Remote districts such as Tan Hong, Tam Nong, Thap Muoi all have 2-3 high schools, the province has colleges and universities. The activities "Good examples of studiousness", "Overcoming difficulties to study well", "Helping children go to school", "Nguyen Sinh Sac Scholarship Fund" ... are truly a lifeline to help thousands of poor children go to school and become successful. The entire political and social system cares about education, not only for the youth but also for adults who must study for life.

Commune health stations, district and provincial hospitals, both public and private, with a team of trained doctors and nurses, are a hundred times larger than at the time of liberation. People in the province and all of Cambodia are provided with primary health care, from unmarried people to pregnancy, childbirth, newborns, school children...

It is difficult to recount all the great deeds and achievements of our Party, State and People in fulfilling Uncle Ho's wish: " I have a desire, an utmost desire, that all our people be free, have food to eat, clothes to wear, and education ." Even if the enemy deliberately distorts, the truth proves that the personal interests of each person in our country are improved and enhanced. And those personal interests are constantly improving...

In particular, the new rural development program has brought rural people's lives closer to urban ones. Besides these achievements, there are still many things that make us concerned and worried.

During the war of national liberation, everyone sacrificed themselves to follow Uncle Ho's words: " Put the interests of the Party and the working people above and beyond your own personal interests. Serve the people with all your heart and soul. Fight selflessly for the Party and the people, be exemplary in everything." Generations of people joined the resistance, leaving their families behind to let their parents, wives and children take care of their own lives, their hearts and minds devoted to fighting against the invading enemy, sacrificing their own blood and bones. If you want to embezzle, there is nothing to embezzle. If you want to corrupt, the conditions are not allowed to be corrupt. People's hearts are pure despite hardship, deprivation, and difficulty. The image of the resistance fighters is extremely beautiful.

Now that peace has come, especially since the renovation, the economy and society have stabilized and developed in the direction of opening the market economy and exchanging goods with the international community. Besides the positive aspects that have brought the country forward, negative phenomena have occurred.

When the Party was not in power, the whole country focused on the resistance war, every cadre and party member, from high-ranking officials to employees, devoted all their hearts and minds to fighting and winning, few thought about their own interests. Now the times have changed, the lives of each person have improved, those in positions have the power to govern, so the market economy, although determined to follow socialism, collided with goods, gold, dollars, and higher material interests, causing many people to let individualism flourish, the greed for material wealth overwhelms the moral qualities in people. Taking advantage of their positions, half worried about the common good according to their duties, half worried about their own interests. They fell into corruption to get more money, more land, more big houses, completely forgetting Uncle Ho's teachings, forgetting the qualifications of cadres and party members, distancing themselves from the people's lives, forgetting that they are servants of the people.

Our Party allows Party members to do private business, which is correct and beneficial to the national economy, within the framework of Party regulations and State laws. Many Party members have promoted their positivity, thinking, and initiatives in doing business, which are both beneficial to the country and their families, setting bright examples and being commended. However, many officials with positions and powers have taken advantage of their positions, taken advantage of loopholes in the law, established relationships with businesses to gain reciprocity, exploited public land to appropriate and illegally enrich themselves, and it can be said that there have been countless developments in using the umbrella of authority to gain personal gain, to enrich their families, to promote relatives in their families and clans...

Those actions cannot be hidden from the eyes of the People and our Party, which considers them one of the dangers. We have been and are resolutely fighting against a series of violations by officials with positions and power, which have led to Party discipline and State laws, loss of office and imprisonment. Corruption now is not only land and money, but also corruption of positions and policies. Our Party is resolutely fighting against corruption and against the practice of seeking positions, power, and positions, and eliminating unworthy people in the selection of personnel to be included in the Party Executive Committee at all levels in the upcoming Party Congress.

The Party is determined, the people are happy, and they believe more in the Party's leadership. It can be said that the fight against individualism and taking care of personal interests in this period is more fierce than ever. The victory of the cause of building socialism in our country has contributed greatly to fighting individualism and further enhancing personal interests for each person from urban areas to factories, companies, plains, mountains, islands, and ethnic minorities, to satisfy Uncle Ho's wish to make the people rich, the country strong, fair, democratic, and civilized.

NGUYEN DAC HIEN

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