However, in the face of complicated developments in the world situation, a number of cadres and party members appear indifferent and wavering about socialist ideology. This is a sign of serious degradation in political ideology that needs to be fought, criticized, and eliminated.

Progressive and humane ideas are still ignored and doubted.

Socialist ideology is a system of concepts reflecting the needs, dreams, and aspirations of the working classes for a society without oppression and exploitation, where everyone is equal and has a prosperous and happy life; it is the achievements of people in the process of fighting for class liberation; it is a social regime without oppression and exploitation, where everyone is free, equal, and has conditions for comprehensive development.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Vietnamese nation and people have chosen the path of socialism and built the country in a socialist orientation so that "our country has never had the foundation, potential, position and international prestige as it does today" as affirmed by the 13th National Party Congress.

However, after the collapse of the socialist regime in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, many people, including cadres and party members, expressed doubts about our Party's choice of the path to socialism; there even appeared opportunistic ideas demanding a revision of Marxism-Leninism, denying the Communist Party of Vietnam's choice of the revolutionary path.

It can be affirmed that the indifferent and wavering attitude of some cadres and party members about socialist ideology is a very dangerous "disease", manifested in various ways such as: indifference, ignoring, not caring about events and happenings of the country, locality, agency, unit as well as the country's difficulties, while there are words of criticism and condemnation of the leadership of the Party, the management of the State and authorities at all levels.

The most obvious manifestation of indifference and wavering about socialist ideology is the vague statements about socialism. Their tone is to praise capitalism as a model of modern development and consider the recent crisis of socialism as "objective evidence" of a failed experiment. Some wavering attitudes are more condemnable than criticizing the Party and Uncle Ho for not choosing the path of capitalist development so that Vietnam could soon "transform into a dragon" or "transform into a tiger" like some Northeast Asian countries. They deliberately forget that, during the long period from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, Vietnamese patriots had experimented with different paths to national liberation and national development, including the capitalist path, but all were unsuccessful. Faced with that situation, the country and people demanded another path, a path leading the Vietnamese people to true independence, freedom, and happiness, which leader Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh and our Party opened up in the spring of 1930.

Another manifestation of the indifferent and wavering attitude towards socialist ideology is the denial of the lasting value of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought in the new context of the country and the world. Some people argue that the doctrine founded by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin is the result of summarizing European history in the 19th and early 20th centuries, so it no longer has vitality in the new era. That doctrine is only a product of the industrial age, no longer suitable in the era of globalization, digital transformation, artificial intelligence... In essence, this is a denial of the entire value of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought - a manifestation of serious degradation in political ideology, "self-evolution", "self-transformation" within the Party as pointed out in the Resolution of the 4th Central Committee (12th tenure).

“The law of historical evolution” is vividly present in Vietnam.

The condition to ensure the success of the revolution and the successful construction of socialism in our country is first of all to have a Party. The Communist Party is the decisive factor for the success of the revolutionary cause and the construction of socialism in our country; the Party must take Marxism-Leninism as its ideological foundation. Therefore, during his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh paid great attention to the work of Party building; required the Party to improve its political, ideological, and intellectual capacity, and creatively apply the principles of Marxism-Leninism on the construction of socialism to the practical situation of Vietnam.

Since the 6th National Congress of the Party (1986) up to now, there have been many heated discussions on the possibilities and prospects of socialism; unfortunately, there have been some opinions from cadres and party members who expressed skepticism about the future of the socialist regime. In the late 80s and early 90s of the 20th century, before the collapse of the realistic socialist model in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, with a strong political stance, always steadfast in Marxism-Leninism, steadfast in the goal of national independence and socialism, the Communist Party of Vietnam affirmed: "World history is going through twists and turns; however, mankind will eventually definitely move towards socialism because that is the evolutionary law of history".

Regarding the choice of Vietnam's revolutionary path, the Documents of the 7th National Congress of the Party (1991) clearly stated: This is "the choice of history itself"; closely linked to the creative, logical and consistent thinking of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh. At the 11th National Congress of the Party, in the "Platform for national construction in the transitional period to socialism" (supplemented and developed in 2011), our Party continued to affirm: "Going forward to socialism is the aspiration of our people, is the correct choice of the Communist Party of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh, in line with the development trend of history". The identification of the basic characteristics in the "Platform for national construction in the transitional period to socialism" has generally and comprehensively reflected our Party's concept of socialism, and is the steadfastness and realization of President Ho Chi Minh's thought on socialism in the new conditions of the country.

Criticize and push back the indifferent and wavering attitude towards socialist ideology

From an essential perspective, the belief in socialism is a scientific belief, developed on the basis of a dialectical materialist worldview, closely linked to the activities of communists. In the struggle to carry out the historical mission of the working class, communists always strive for the happiness of all humanity, the working people, for the interests of the class and the nation. Therefore, in the end, the belief in socialism has a profound working class nature, is the unity and dialectic of knowledge-belief-emotion-will-action. The most basic characteristic of the belief in socialism is the correct perception of the universal laws and specific laws in the development of nature and society. Having faith in socialism, cadres and party members always have absolute trust in the leadership of the Party, in the path that the Party, Uncle Ho and our people have chosen.

Currently, there is still a situation where some cadres and party members are indifferent and wavering towards many social issues, including indifference and wavering towards the ideology of socialism and the path to socialism in Vietnam. This is the loophole that hostile forces take advantage of to sabotage. Because hostile forces always vigorously promote activities to sabotage socialist countries, including Vietnam. They carry out the strategy of "peaceful evolution" with many extremely sophisticated and insidious tricks in all areas of social life, including the field of ideology and theory, with the goal of denying the scientific nature, revolutionary ideological foundation of the Party, eliminating the leadership role of the Party and the achievements of the cause of building socialism in Vietnam. The insidious nature of the tricks and sabotage activities of hostile forces against our country in recent years is to thoroughly exploit information technology and social networks with tricks of "turning black into white", providing mixed information and building "flags" of sabotage from within, inciting "self-evolution" and "self-transformation" within. If cadres and party members are indifferent and wavering, they will easily fall into the false and reactionary arguments of hostile forces.

In the above situation, clarifying the path to socialism in Vietnam is the basis for convincingly and firmly refuting erroneous and hostile arguments; strengthening the trust of cadres, party members and people in the Party's leadership of the socialist-oriented renovation process to realize the aspiration to develop a prosperous and happy country.

Currently, the majority of cadres and party members are knowledgeable people who have studied, worked and labored in favorable conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to be extremely alert to false and distorted arguments about socialism and the path to socialism in different forms, on different forums, especially the internet and social networks. When seeing information on social networks, it is necessary to be alert to identify the source of information and avoid commenting and sharing arbitrarily. This inadvertently propagates false and hostile arguments. In addition, cadres and party members also need to know how to take advantage of the strengths of the internet and social networks to propagate and spread good information about the superiority of socialism and the correctness of the path to socialism in Vietnam according to the motto "using beauty to eliminate ugliness". For cadres and party members with high professional qualifications and political theory, it is necessary to promote the spirit of direct struggle against erroneous and hostile viewpoints through writing articles in books, newspapers, magazines or participating in press forums, radio, television, social networks... Those direct struggle products often have a strong influence on cadres and party members, directly impacting the psychology, ideology and orientation of public opinion among cadres, party members and the masses.

The indifferent and wavering attitude of a number of cadres and party members regarding socialist ideology is worthy of criticism and requires timely corrective measures. If not dealt with thoroughly, it can easily lead to "self-evolution" and "self-transformation" within the Party. Eliminating the indifferent and wavering attitude of a number of cadres and party members regarding socialist ideology is a contribution to protecting the Party's ideological foundation, a vital task in protecting the Party, the State, the people and the socialist regime in the current situation.

Associate Professor, Dr. NGUYEN DANH TIEN, Director of the Institute of Party History, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics

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