Fighting against distortions of Vietnam’s law-governed socialist state

The Resolution defines the vision and strategic orientation for building a strategy for building and perfecting the law-governed socialist State of Vietnam until 2030 with orientation to 2045.”

Hostile forces have put forward many views and arguments to criticize, refute and deny the role of the Vietnamese law-governed socialist State. The profound and radical democratic values that the Vietnamese law-governed socialist State is aiming for are practical evidence smashing false claims of these hostile forces.

According to the hostile forces, building a law-governed state has been done by capitalist countries for a long time. Vietnam raising the issue again means it is pursuing capitalism. They falsely claim that the law-governed socialist state of Vietnam does not embrace freedom, democracy and human rights.

They also affirm that there is only a capitalist rule-of-law state and no such thing as a socialist rule-of-law state in order to undermine the Vietnamese Communist Party’s leadership of the State. They argue that in order to exclude the Party’s leadership, the state must be built on the model of a "separated three-power" state, so that the progressive values of basic human rights will be recognized, respected and implemented in Vietnam.

By making those false statements and attacking the nature and role of the law-governed socialist State of Vietnam, the hostile forces completely ignore statements in the Vietnamese Constitution which say a law-governed socialist State is a State of the people, by the people, and for the people. President Ho Chi Minh once declared: "Vietnam is a democratic country, where the people hold the highest position and are the masters" and "Our regime is a democratic regime meaning that the people are the masters". All state power is from the people and by the people and serves the interests of the people. In the socialist rule-of-law state of Vietnam, the law is not meant to punish people, but is rather, a tool to protect and realize human interests.

Hostile forces seem to have forgotten that since the success of the August Revolution (August 19, 1945) and the birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which was the first worker-peasant state in Southeast Asia, the Communist Party of Vietnam has absorbed and inherited the progressive ideas of mankind and developed and perfected theory, views and guidelines on building a Vietnamese law-governed socialist State. Those views and guidelines were concretized by the State in the Constitutions of 1946, 1959, 1980, 1992, and 2013.

In the 1991 Platform on national building in transition to socialism, revised in 2011, and the 2013 Constitution, the Vietnamese Party and State affirmed that one of the tenets of the regime is "building a law-governed socialist state of the people, by the people, and for the people."

The Platform clearly states: “The Vietnamese State is a law-governed socialist State of the people, by the people, and for the people. All State power belongs to the people and is based on the foundation of the alliance of workers, farmers, and intellectuals and led by the Communist Party of Vietnam” and that “The State ensures and promotes the people's right to mastery; recognizes, respects, protects and guarantees human and citizen rights; realizes the goal of rich people, strong country, democracy, equality and civilization and ensures that everyone has a prosperous, free and happy life and has conditions for comprehensive development.”

The law-governed socialist State aims for progressive and humane values based on the common interests of the whole society in harmony with the legitimate interests of people, which is much different from societies where individuals and groups compete strongly for their interests. It is important to build a society with consensus instead of opposition. In the socialist political system, the relationship between the Party, the State, and the people is the relationship of consensus of goals and interests where all Party guidelines and State policies, laws, and regulations are aimed at the benefit and happiness of the people.

The political model and operating mechanism of the socialist regime embrace the leadership of the Party, the management of the State, and the mastery of the people. Democracy is the essence of the socialist regime and also the goal and the driving force of socialist building. Building a socialist democracy and ensuring that power truly belongs to the people is an important and long-term task of the Vietnamese revolution.

Since the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was founded on September 2, 1945, building a law-governed socialist state has been a new, unprecedented theoretical and practical issue that requires scientific and revolutionary theoretical awareness.

The Vietnamese Party and State have always been consistent with the socialist orientation in building and perfecting a law-governed socialist State of the people, by the people, and for the people. Arguing that "building a state ruled by law is to follow the capitalist path", or "the socialist law-governed state of Vietnam is not a progressive model of freedom, democracy and human rights" is a distortion of the nature of the law-governed socialist state of Vietnam.

Vietnam’s achievements in building a socialist rule-of-law state in Vietnam since the country was founded in 1945 has been the evidence that smashes all distortions and misrepresentation. At any time and with any tone, these statements can neither distort the nature and superiority of the social system nor reduce the prestige and position of the law-governed socialist state of Vietnam.