Ho Chi Minh's thought illuminates the patriotic emulation movement

(LĐ online) - President Ho Chi Minh was not only the first person to initiate the patriotic emulation movement, but he also regularly paid attention to leading, directing and organizing the implementation of the movement. Ho Chi Minh's patriotic emulation ideology was profound, comprehensive and systematic, practical, easy to understand, and easy to penetrate into life, thus having great gathering and attraction power.

Chairman of Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee Tran Van Hiep presented Certificates of Merit to collectives with many achievements in the patriotic emulation movement in the period of 2018 - 2023. Photo: Chinh Thanh

HO CHI MINH'S THOUGHT ON PATRIOTISM HAS GREAT SIGNIFICANCE
75 years ago (June 11, 1948), President Ho Chi Minh issued a call for patriotic emulation, laying the foundation for the Patriotic Emulation Movement. The call for patriotic emulation clearly stated the purpose, method, and object of emulation, which is all Vietnamese people, "any scholar, farmer, worker, merchant, soldier; whatever they do, they need to compete with each other". The requirement for emulation is to "Do quickly, do a lot" and in emulation, it is necessary to "both resist and build the country". The slogan of emulation: "All people resist, all-round resistance". The result of emulation is "All people have enough to eat and wear, all people know how to read and write, the entire army has enough food and weapons, to destroy foreign invaders; the whole country will be unified and completely independent".
From the content of the "Call for Patriotic Emulation" and President Ho Chi Minh's speeches and writings on patriotic emulation, we can draw some basic points, which are:
The viewpoint of patriotic emulation is not only to awaken human creative potential, but more importantly to improve human beings themselves; to promote patriotism and international spirit; to make the old, the young, men, women and all classes of people, regardless of ethnicity, religion, or social status, all work towards a common goal.
The purpose of emulation is to fulfill well the main tasks of each revolutionary period in specific historical situations and conditions in order to quickly gain independence and freedom; build a rich and prosperous country; and make people's lives prosperous and happy.
The content of the emulation must be comprehensive and practical; stemming from political tasks and serving the political tasks of each revolutionary stage; linked to the specific tasks of each sector, each level and to the daily work of each person; aiming at reforming, building new people and solving the basic practical problems of the People...
The method of organization is "Must rely on the people's strength and spirit"; rich, diverse, arousing patriotism, self-awareness, creativity and strength of all classes of people in each revolutionary stage.
The motto of emulation is “compete, not compete”, so we need to unite, be friendly and help each other to achieve high results; emulation is a place where everyone can explore and develop their talents and initiatives, learn good things, help each other correct shortcomings and progress together. Emulation must be associated with the work of commendation; rewarding the right people, the right work, and in a timely manner will motivate,educate and promote the emulation movement to develop continuously.
According to President Ho Chi Minh, emulation is a very good and practical way for each person to enhance patriotism and love for socialism, the sense of collective mastery, thrift in building the country; at the same time, overcome all difficulties and hardships to successfully complete tasks.
Imbued with Ho Chi Minh's ideology, over the past 75 years, the patriotic emulation movement has become an important goal and driving force for the Vietnamese revolution to constantly develop. It is the patriotic emulation movement that has stimulated and motivated everyone to put all their talents and efforts into achieving the best results in combat, production, work, study, etc. The great achievements in the cause of national liberation as well as the cause of building and defending the Fatherland have always been closely linked to and have important contributions from the patriotic emulation movement. As President Ho Chi Minh once said: "Emulation and rewards are the driving force for development and an important measure to build new people. Patriotic emulation must be carried out regularly and continuously every day".
Entering the period of promoting industrialization, modernization and international integration with the goal of building our country to be increasingly strong, prosperous and happy, President Ho Chi Minh's patriotic emulation ideology has great and profound significance in both theory and practice, continuing to illuminate the emulation movement.
CONTINUING TO PROMOTE THE PATRIOTISM EMULATION MOVEMENT IN THE NEW PERIOD
Applying Ho Chi Minh's thought on patriotic emulation, our Party and State have promptly built and promulgated guidelines, policies, and laws on patriotic emulation to meet the requirements and tasks in each revolutionary stage.
Especially in more than 35 years of implementing the country's renovation policy, many policies, laws on emulation and rewards, and on organizing patriotic emulation movements have been issued and constantly supplemented and improved to meet the country's requirements in the new situation, in accordance with the needs and aspirations of all classes of people.
Thanks to that, the emulation movement has closely followed the key political tasks of the country, sectors and localities and achieved many important results in all areas of social life. Many typical and advanced examples of collectives and individuals in labor, production, combat and study have appeared through emulation movements...
However, looking into President Ho Chi Minh's patriotic emulation ideology shows that besides achievements and advantages, the emulation movement sometimes and in some places still has many limitations and shortcomings; has not gone into substance, and is of low efficiency.
Awareness of emulation and rewards is still not really correct and profound; the form and content of emulation are still slow to innovate, lacking creativity, and often just formality; the evaluation and assessment of emulation are not really fair and accurate; rewards are still widespread and leveling, and there is even the phenomenon of "competition and reward racing"... These weaknesses and inadequacies have reduced the meaning, role and great motivation of emulation and reward work, causing negative reactions and indignation in public opinion...
To continue promoting the patriotic emulation movement in the new period, we need to focus on implementing well the following key tasks:
Firstly, further promote propaganda and mobilization work, raise awareness of cadres, party members and people about the position, role, importance and necessity of emulation and reward work in the new situation. Thereby, creating a clear change in the actions of each organization and individual when participating in patriotic emulation movements, especially for the team of leaders, managers, heads of agencies, localities and units.
Second, continue to innovate the content and methods of organizing patriotic emulation movements, attach emulation work to the daily work of each person and maintain it regularly and continuously as Uncle Ho taught; link emulation with the implementation of political tasks of localities, agencies and units; link emulation with "Promoting the study and following of Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and lifestyle" and implementing the Resolution of the 12th Central Committee, Session 4, on "Strengthening Party building and rectification; preventing and repelling the degradation of political ideology, morality, lifestyle, and manifestations of "self-evolution" and "self-transformation" within the Party". Emulation and reward work needs to have practical, specific and clear orientations; the more practical and specific, the higher the effectiveness; resolutely fight against the disease of sloganeering and formalism...
Third, discover and foster exemplary models, good, creative, effective and practical practices; examples of good people, good deeds, advanced typical examples, new factors in patriotic emulation movements to propagate, encourage, cheer and replicate, creating a spread in the community. Integrate and link patriotic emulation movements with training in revolutionary ethics, promoting initiatives, practicing thrift, fighting bureaucracy, embezzlement, corruption, waste; fight against formalism, chasing quantity, ignoring quality; emulation must go hand in hand with timely rewards, right people, right work and strict punishment of violating groups and individuals.
Fourth, create close, smooth and synchronous coordination and connection between functional agencies, departments, branches and organizations from the central to local levels in emulation and reward work; strengthen inspection and supervision of emulation and reward, ensuring accuracy, timeliness and fairness, and preventing negativity from occurring. Pay attention to the preliminary and final summaries to promptly commend and honor advanced models, and at the same time summarize experiences, disseminate and replicate them among the people.
Fifth, Party committees, authorities, the Fatherland Front and mass organizations at all levels need to pay attention to building the apparatus and cadres doing emulation and reward work to ensure that they have sufficient qualities, capacity, practical experience, enthusiasm, responsibility and the ability to organize movements. Accordingly, on the one hand, it is important to attach importance to training and fostering professional skills for cadres and civil servants specializing in emulation and reward; on the other hand, there must be mechanisms and policies for appropriate investment in this work, ensuring that emulation and reward are of high quality, effective and practical.
In order for emulation and rewards to truly be “a driving force for development and an important measure to build new people” as Uncle Ho once advised, emulation and rewards work must be constantly innovated and improved in quality; become a widespread revolutionary movement throughout the entire Party, people and army; mobilize, attract and encourage all individuals and collectives to promote their patriotic traditions, be proactive and creative, strive to fulfill assigned tasks well, and strive for the goal of developing a prosperous and happy country.
Over the past 75 years, President Ho Chi Minh's call for patriotic emulation has always been a torch to light the way for the patriotic emulation movement, contributing greatly to the victory of the Vietnamese revolution under the leadership of the Party. Today and forever, Ho Chi Minh's thought on patriotic emulation still retains its theoretical and practical value and is deeply topical, continuing to encourage and illuminate the patriotic emulation movement to improve forever.