Former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan spoke to Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper about the need to elevate more young people into Party leadership positions. Former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan spoke to Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper about the need to elevate more young people into Party leadership positions

In the Party leadership, the absence of young people is obvious. What are the reasons for this?

There are various reasons. Often junior people have not tried hard enough to exhibit their competence to handle leadership positions.

And some senior people, particularly those in leadership, don’t feel comfortable assigning management jobs to young people. They argue that they don’t have the experience and so on so forth. However, in some cases, senior people want to give up their positions to the younger generations.

So far, not much progress has been made transferring some power to the young. Why?

To make positive changes, the first thing to do is to change our thinking. Young people don’t have inferiority complexes, but older people often think they are not mature and fit to be leaders. And some old leaders are convinced they themselves are still the best.

During the 1945 August Revolution, among senior government leaders, only President Ho Chi Minh was of senior age, while the others were about 30 to 40 years old. Yet they were all successful in leading the country from one victory to another.

There is no reason to say young people nowadays do not have the requirements to be leaders. It is high time to change the old thinking about climbing the ladder or rising up through rank and file.

Some people have complained there are some barriers in Government policy regarding the promotion of young people in important positions. What do you think?

The Government should make some changes in policies to encourage the promotion of young people to leadership management. With existing policies, it is very difficult for young people to jump the queue.

It is a matter of fact that in Viet Nam, certain rights and benefits often go hand in hand with leadership positions. With the existing salary system, it is hard for civil servants or public employees to cover their daily expenses, let alone have savings for rainy days.

Another thing is that Viet Nam has not established a system to train future leaders. I still remember when I was the Minister of the Foreign Affairs, we offered special training courses for talented people to become department and ministerial leaders. But those candidates were selected by their peers with approval from relevant authorities. Of course, they had to meet certain criteria and got training for two years.

I think that was a good way to screen people to become future leaders.

Did you do something to change the personnel policy during your years of service?

Before retirement, I served in various senior positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Trade, and in the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee. In all those positions, I did my best to revise personnel work. But I have to concede that not much progress has been made.

I did advise some people to become professional experts rather than follow the leadership path, but I was not successful.

At one time, I came up with the idea of giving salary bonuses to anyone who could fluently use a foreign language. But my proposal faded when it was realised there was no money to pay them extra.

What should we do to make the best use of talented people?

I still remember an inscription on stele in the Van Mieu Temple. It says: “Talented and righteous people are the nation’s life-sustaining element.”

In addition, at many forums, people have spoken about using talented people. This is the concern of many people, not only you or me.

I think we should start with detecting those who are talented. In my opinion, there are two ways. These are through practical experiences at schools or in the working place and through assessment by peers or colleagues.

When we have found those we need, we must train them and test them through practical work. Academic degrees are important, yet they are not the most important criteria for promotion.

In real life, many talented people are not Party members. Should we nominate them as leaders?

In this field, we have to learn from President Ho’s experience. The national revolutionary cause belongs to the people. It is led by the Party and the Party can’t do the job of the Government or the National Assembly or the people. Our party is a ruling party, yet it does not mean the party should assume every post.

Following the 1945 August Revolution and during the anti-French resistance, many non-party member intellectuals were appointed in cabinet. President Ho’s policy was to use talented and righteous people while consolidating the great national unity.

In Viet Nam, everyone knows by heart the quote: “The State is of the people, for the people and by the people”; “The people are the roots and they are the strength of the great national unity.”

Source: VNS