Standing for election and campaigning for election are political activities that are familiar to people in almost every country in the world. However, this does not happen in communist countries.
Politicians have to convince people to vote for themselves and thanks to the votes of the people, their political party can run the government and the parliament is also formed from elected representatives.
In Vietnam, the tradition of “robbing the government” then using power to protect and maintain the government has been around since the beginning of the nation’s founding.
With the one-party policy, in Vietnam, there is only the Party-elect mechanism, not the concept of free elections or free elections like other countries.
Proposal for direct voting and election mechanism is currently an idea in the Vietnam National Assembly and a pilot in Da Nang is expected to be supported by some people.
Facing the situation of an vacancy in the position of Chairman of Hanoi City after the arrest of Nguyen Duc Chung, attorney Ngo Ngoc Trai gave the idea in an article that Vietnam needs to study in the US and create a mechanism for the people to participate in selecting the leaders for their locality. The content of the article is as follows:
Do Vietnamese leaders need to boldly run for election like in the US?
The US presidential election has long attracted the attention of many Vietnamese people. Many people argued fiercely with each other about the election path to see who deserves more between candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Currently, public opinion is also interested in the appointment of the chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee, Minister of Science and Technology Chu Ngoc Anh is expected to be appointed.
American leadership style
Competition is the main line of American politics. Candidates always have to come up with a campaign project, build up a style image to persuade voters to vote for themselves.
In the past, when Mr. Obama was president, in his speeches he always conveyed valuable messages about the noble leadership qualities, America as the person chosen by God to bring good things to the world.
Mr. Trump, with a style of agitation, is the one who awakens America, he warns of the dangers. In which the United States is adversely affected by the current world order that the previous generations of American presidents have worked hard to build.
He said that the current world context is different, requiring the re-establishment of new rules and new agreements.
Accordingly, Mr. Trump’s style is in line with the visionary goal he identifies as accepted by the US voters, that style is suitable for the challenging mission that he must overcome.
Many people in the world, including the Vietnamese, are tied to the old leadership model, do not change in time with the situation, making them feel like a splash of cold water in Mr. Trump’s style.
Many people are angry about why Americans still vote for a man like Trump with hateful language, they feel betrayed by the values of the traditional leadership style to which they are loyal.
They do not realize that the problem America faces will determine the right leader, and the personality that the leader needs.
If the problem of the United States is really the danger from the rise of China has been raised by the candidates in the election line, and if it is true that China has taken advantage of the current world order system to to rise up, take advantage of the very approvals of the United States that have long ago, what needs to be done is to change that situation.
Obama’s mild-tempered leadership would not be able to undertake such a task.
A leader capable of bringing America decisively out of the old state, out of old constraints, must be a revolutionary person who dares to surpass the old values of leadership style. religion.
One-party system
The difference is that in Vietnam the political system is set up under a one-party totalitarian system, so leading positions like the chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee will be a designated person, appoint instead of running for office.
After Mr. Nguyen Duc Chung was suspended from his position in early August, then arrested for 4 months, from August 28, 2020, the chairmanship of Hanoi is currently vacant.
A single candidate for the chairmanship of the capital and only a few information about a character’s biography, with a few short lines about previous positions, it is difficult for people to evaluate the actual capacity of the appointed person.
Citizens of the capital city can hardly argue with each other seriously about the merits of candidates and do not have the opportunity to compare assessments between people with similar potentials.
If in the US, the selection of the head of the capital city will be through election. Voters will be required to know what a candidate’s past achievements are, what position he has done, what resources he has promoted to create the merit under which People see him worthy of the position?
They also asked to know which projects he would apply to the city, what vision and direction for the capital, what specific jobs he planned to do for the capital, how he would use resources like.
Not only that, there must be a few candidates who have come up with a plan to run for each other and then to be elected the most deserving person, not appointed.
For example, Mr. Bill Clinton in the old days, before being elected president of the United States, he was the governor of a state, equivalent to the chairman of a province in Vietnam.
Mr. Clinton had to create a campaign proposal, that is, what he plans to do when he becomes governor, and the resources he plans to use that are judged to be knowledgeable. His work and plans were viable, and then elected among several such candidates.
Civilization and human intelligence have come up with the best human resource options, that is democracy in elections, and in Vietnam the system does in a different way.
Consequences are slow to progress
The only positive point of the one-party totalitarian system is the creation of a powerful centralized apparatus, thereby creating a relative unity of regions across the country.
In Vietnam, there is no regional fragmentation or conflict, which is a good advantage for development.
But the same apparatus will cause great harm when the erroneous policy is not controlled, due to the lack of counterbalance control mechanism.
There is an opinion that everything is fine no matter what, as if the country is still developing for a long time.
And if the selection process does not help find the best, being satisfied with medium-talented people will only make the country develop a little slower.
But once it is accepted that the economy will slow down a bit, the investment resources will decrease a bit.
Accordingly, the infrastructure will be less invested to improve a bit, poor roads and bridges are repaired and renewed, the school hospital is also slow to resolve the overload situation, the children work hard but follow the way in the above opinion, it is easy to say that young children will not be aware of anything.
The number of people dying in traffic accidents has also decreased a bit slowly, now about one thousand people a year. The number of people dying of cancer, heart disease and other infectious diseases due to pollution of living environment, each year a few hundred thousand people, maybe the number will only be a little different, but the dead will know nothing.
Because they are not accountable to voters because they did not run, state officials cannot see the pressure to take responsibility. The harm caused by backwardness and delay has not been properly aware of the importance and cause of the leadership election mechanism.
And if not only the seat of the capital’s chairman but every other leader of the political system fails to find the best, then things are not a bit more.
With real dangers of lag behind the world and sovereignty and national interests affected by current Chinese policies, will Vietnamese leaders dare to break themselves off the old traditional perception, act bravely as Mr. Trump did in America, boldly apply the campaign mechanism to the political system in Vietnam?” lawyer Ngo Ngoc Trai made a comment.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
