According to Vietnam’s law and the Chapter of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), the legislative body National Assembly and the party’s Central Committee can hold extraordinary meetings, with the purpose of solving urgent and important issues of the country, such as passing urgent bills, deciding on high-level personnel, or dealing with other unexpected issues.
General Secretary To Lam
However, in recent years, there have been too many “extraordinary” meetings of the Central Committee and the National Assembly. The number of extraordinary meetings is even larger than the number of official meetings according to regulations.
On February 12, 2024, at the National Assembly session discussing the amended Law on Organization of the National Assembly, legislator Ta Van Ha from Quang Nam suggested “Do not let extraordinary meetings of the National Assembly become normal!”
According to Ha, “Voters also hope that the number of extraordinary meetings will gradually decrease, so that the next term may no longer have extraordinary meetings like the current one.”
According to the Saigon Giai Phong newspaper, many members of the National Assembly also proposed to consider changing the name of “extraordinary meetings” to avoid offensiveness. Accordingly, “extraordinary meetings” can replace the names such as “non-regular meetings” or “special meetings.”
Notably, the trend of supporting the above opinion has been supported. According to Chairman of the National Assembly’s Law Committee Hoang Thanh Tung, the names “non-regular meetings” or special meetings will not be unconstitutional and will continue to be studied to report to the National Assembly for consideration.
Illustration of an extraordinary meeting
According to the Law on the Organization of the National Assembly, each year the National Assembly will have 2 regular meetings, and similarly, the Central Committee will also have 2 annual plenums. But in terms of quantity, the party’s Central Committee in the 11th tenure had recorded numbers of 15 plenums.
And depending on the actual situation, the National Assembly and the Central Committee can organize extraordinary sessions. Organizing extraordinary sessions, with the purpose of handling violations by senior leaders, has shown that the party has a strong determination to clean up the leadership apparatus.
Since the beginning of the 13th party tenure until now, the Central Committee has organized a total of 8 official plenums according to regulations. In addition, it has also held many “extraordinary” plenums to solve urgent and important issues.
However, the number of extraordinary meetings is “secret” and is not allowed to be announced in detail. The fact that the party holds extraordinary meetings, and keeps the number and content of these meetings secret, has demonstrated the ability of the Vietnamese political system to respond quickly to urgent issues, to ensure stability and continuity in leadership.
However, keeping the number and content of extraordinary meetings secret can also lead to a lack of transparency, making it difficult for public supervision and evaluation.
National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man
This can affect people’s trust in the political system and needs to be carefully considered to ensure a balance between confidentiality and transparency.
The continuous organization of extraordinary meetings in Vietnamese politics is leading to significant changes in the leadership apparatus and senior personnel. This is the result of a prolonged state of internal conflict and division, due to a serious lack of unity. If this situation does not end quickly, and is not well controlled, it could lead to serious divisions, at the same time, eroding public trust and possibly leading to the collapse of the party.
Tra My – Thoibao.de
