In the middle of the road, the common people were discussing matters.

Even while leading the resistance against the French, President Ho Chi Minh devoted his efforts to writing the work "Correcting Working Methods" (completed in October 1947, signed XYZ, first published by Su That Publishing House in 1948, 100 pages thick).

Seventy-seven years have passed, and rereading that work still reveals many ailments within the Party that need to be constantly recognized and treated, such as: boastfulness, subjectivism, selfishness, lust for power, formalism, regionalism, alienation from the masses, lack of discipline, corruption, carelessness, laziness, etc.

Regarding the sense of responsibility, two types of ailments that President Ho Chi Minh pointed out can still be seen here and there in the political system today.

An example of laziness: "Thinking oneself to be good at everything, knowing everything. Being lazy to learn, lazy to think. Taking easy tasks for oneself. Pushing difficult tasks onto others. Finding ways to avoid dangerous situations."

Or consider the "superficiality" syndrome: "Work that is impractical, not rooted in the core principles, not starting from the bottom up. Doing things just for the sake of doing them, just to get it over with. Making a report look impressive for doing little, but upon closer examination, it's all empty."

Thus, manifestations of the disease of avoiding and shirking official responsibilities have appeared and been identified early on. The problem is that now, from the Central Party Committee to the localities, this disease has recurred and spread, so it is urgent to find ways to cure it.

The Quang Nam Provincial Party Committee also recently held a conference to disseminate information to all Party members, outlining 12 groups of phenomena/manifestations that need to be addressed (readers can find detailed information in the articles published in Quang Nam Newspaper).

The political terms and phrases related to the disease of shirking responsibility and passing the buck in the thematic reports of Party committees can all be compiled and studied.

The point here is that this ailment exists both within and outside the party, and it has been discussed among the people for a long time. Now, seeing this happening, the people have once again had the opportunity to bring it up for discussion, using rather sharp colloquialisms and idioms.

The expression "talking big but doing little" is a way of criticizing those who talk too much but do too little, who are boastful and arrogant, and whose words don't match their actions.

There are expressions like "nobody cares about what belongs to everyone," referring to those who are diligent in their own affairs but lazy in public duties, and irresponsible towards the community. Worse still, only those who act selfishly and opportunistically will do so if it benefits them personally.

There's the "avoiding the difficult and seeking the easy" mentality, meaning shirking responsibility and passing on tasks that one should be doing. And when there's no escaping responsibility, they become "easy to do, difficult to abandon," doing whatever they can without considering the outcome.

There are many problems, such as "starting something and then abandoning it," doing work half-heartedly, lacking responsibility, and leaving things unfinished. The consequence is that many tasks are left incomplete. Even without corruption or self-serving behavior, the waste of time itself causes considerable damage to the state and society.

The disease of shirking and passing on official responsibilities may have many more manifestations, but the government already has tools to measure its symptoms. For example, using the public satisfaction index can help to reverse-diagnose this disease.

For Quang Nam, the SIPAS index, a measure of public and organizational evaluation of the service provided by state administrative agencies through the provision of public administrative services, ranked 59th out of 63 provinces and cities in 2023, indicating a very high warning level regarding public service responsibility.

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