Nowadays, the dark side of the market economy and the rapid development of information and social networks, together with sabotage efforts by hostile forces via their “peaceful evolution” strategy and plots to “depoliticise” our Vietnam People’s Army (VPA), are directly affecting the ideology, awareness, and lifestyle of a section of cadres and soldiers. This imposes an urgent requirement to strengthen political and ideological education in general, legal dissemination and education in particular, in order to foster awareness of observance of law and discipline among troops and contribute to building a politically strong VPA and laying a foundation for improving the VPA’s overall quality and combat strength.

With the aim of building a healthy legal cultural environment and creating positive changes in regularity building, discipline management, and absolute safety assurance within the unit, in recent years, the Party Committee and Command of Division 10 (Army Corps 34) have consistently focused on promoting legal dissemination and education through many synchronous and effective solutions.

Legal education session within a unit of the Division

There is a fact that Division 10 is a main unit with a large number of troops, affiliates, unit types, and stationed areas; its soldiers come from many regions with different levels of awareness and socio-economic conditions. Hence, the Division faces certain difficulties in legal dissemination and education. In order to make this work increasingly systematic and effective, the Division’s Party Committee and Command, together with all-level Party committees and commands, have concentrated on thoroughly grasping and strictly implementing directives, resolutions, circulars, plans, and guiding documents on legal dissemination and education. In regular monthly and quarterly resolutions, all-level Party committees and Party organisations have made assessments and set out guidelines and measures to raise the quality of legal dissemination and education in line with the characteristics and task requirements of their offices and units. The Division has closely directed the development of plans for legal dissemination and education at each level, strictly implementing the annual legal dissemination and education plans, monthly Legal Study Days, and “Daily Legal Question” tailored to each target group and task requirements, all of which have been specifically incorporated into weekly working schedules of heads of offices and units.

The Division has held specialised conferences on discipline education and management and safety assurance, routinely developing contingency plans against violations of law and discipline and safety incidents. It has required its staff members to write commitments not to violate laws, discipline, or traffic safety regulations, closely working with local authorities and soldiers’ families to resolve arising incidents.

Competent offices and commands at all levels have actively strengthened inspection of legal dissemination and education as well as observance of law and discipline within the Division’s affiliates, conducting reviews, drawing lessons, proposing guidelines and measures to settle shortcomings in the process of leadership, direction, and implementation.

In order to improve the quality of legal dissemination and education, it is vital to enhance the capacity of cadres at all levels, especially those directly engaged in legal propagation and education. Accordingly, at the beginning of each year, the Division has proactively consolidated all-level legal dissemination and education councils, ensuring a proper organisational structure, effectively promoting their role in giving advice to Party Committees and Commands on guiding, inspecting, and urging units’ implementation of legal dissemination and education plans in a scientific, close, unified manner. Great value has been attached to selecting cadres with sufficient qualities, qualifications, and aptitude to serve as legal rapporteurs and communicators at all levels and proactively recommending the Army Corps to recognise the title of legal rapporteur/communicator at Divisional level under regulations.

Legal education is a demanding field, with many documents newly promulgated, amended, or supplemented, requiring timely, accurate updates. Therefore, the Division has regularly organised refresher courses to improve the capacity of legal rapporteurs at all levels. In addition to sending its staff members to higher-level training, it has proactively held its own refresher courses. Emphasis has been placed on providing in-depth legal knowledge, new legal documents, pedagogical skills, and methods of handling legal situations related to unit activities. Importance has been attached to training legal rapporteurs through practical exercises for each legal topic, requiring them to uphold responsibility and thoroughness in every stage, from collecting materials and preparing lesson plans to approving lectures, practising teaching, and handling classroom situations. Via these activities, lessons have been drawn, while confidence and methods for conveying each topic among legal rapporteurs have been improved. As a result, the quality of legal rapporteurs and communicators has been raised to basically meet their task requirements.

A discussion aimed at raising soldiers’ law-abiding awareness

The Division has actively renewed content and diversified forms and methods of legal dissemination and education in an easy-to-remember, easy-to-understand, easy-to-implement manner, suitable to the characteristics, task requirements, and operational nature of each office and unit. Each year, in addition to prescribed topics, offices and units have selected one or two optional themes appropriate to their target groups and mission situations. Study time has been evenly distributed across all months, while durations for political education and monthly Legal Study Day have been properly used. Early study, repeated study, visits to model units, and extra-curricular activities have been encouraged. For regularly disseminated content, offices and units have selected from the list identified by the Division’s Legal Dissemination and Education Council and newly issued documents, ensuring practical relevance and suitability to each target group.

To “soften” dry legal documents, the Division has actively renewed forms and methods of dissemination and education. Its affiliates have closely integrated this work with the study and implementation of superior resolutions and conclusions, political and ideological education, Legal Study Days, and Political and Cultural Days. In addition to maintaining the quality of “Daily Legal Question”, “Legal Bookcases”, and “Psychological - Legal Advisory Teams for Soldiers”, the Division has boosted communication through the Army Corps Bulletin, notice boards, and internal broadcasting within its affiliates.

Offices and units have actively held forums, seminars, and knowledge contests in theatrical formats to enhance visual appeal and vividness for the study of legal content. They have proactively coordinated with Regional Procuracy 52 to organise mock trials and participate in mobile court sessions in their areas. The Division has encouraged its offices and units to step up information technology application, produce video clips, and draft legal leaflets to create a diverse educational environment with multidimensional impacts, aligned with the awareness level of each target group.

The Division has always paid attention to improving the quality of monthly Legal Study Days and annually responding to the Law Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, integrating them with the dissemination of legal directives and regulations through diverse, rich forms and methods, turning them into broad political - legal activities under the rule of law spirit. “Legal Bookcases” have been effectively maintained at all levels. Every six months, offices and units have compiled legal book lists as the basis for supplementing new books and materials sufficiently and opportunely to meet troops’ needs for legal study. As a result, a vibrant movement of self-study, self-exploration, and exchange of legal knowledge has been built and helped create strong changes in the awareness of discipline and law observance among cadres and soldiers.

Moreover, the Division has proactively coordinated with local Party committees, authorities, and mass organisations in stationed areas to implement Project 1371 on “Promoting the VPA’s role in legal dissemination and education and encouraging the people to observe the law at grass-roots level”, combining field marches with mass mobilisation work, twinning activities, and cultural, artistic, sport, and physical training exchanges, contributing to preventing social evils and building safe units and localities.

Practice shows that legal dissemination and education only truly achieve substantive effectiveness when cadres and soldiers live and study in a good legal cultural environment and strive to improve their observance of law and discipline. Therefore, the Division has regularly linked legal dissemination and education content and measures with regularity building, discipline management, safety assurance, and the building of a regular, disciplined, democratic, united cultural environment within its affiliates. Emphasis has been placed on fostering awareness of law and discipline observance through tasks, such as training, combat readiness, implementation of prescribed routines, and maintenance of military etiquette. Offices and units have been required to thoroughly grasp and strictly observe discipline and safety regulations in all activities, enhance troop management, frequently conduct inspection, patrols, and guard duties, especially during rest days, off-duty hours, and sensitive periods prone to ideological or disciplinary issues, closely manage personnel and vehicles entering and leaving units, supervise troops performing tasks outside barracks, in order to proactively detect and prevent violations.

To turn awareness into lawful action, the Division has persistently guided behaviour and promoted legal assistance and consultation related to specific cases, encouraging cadres and soldiers to comply with discipline voluntarily, consolidate legal trust, and form habits of lawful and disciplined conduct within units. In the process, it has effectively promoted the roles of Youth Unions, soldiers’ councils, women’s associations, mass mobilisation groups, Party committee members, and protection soldiers at all levels to accompany troops in task execution. The pioneering and exemplary role of cadres at all levels in word and deed has been stressed; cadres have been required to provide assistance for soldiers at all times and places, and set good examples for troops to follow. At the same time, due regard has been paid to ensuring good material and spiritual living conditions for soldiers and raising the effectiveness of cultural and democratic institutions, especially at grass-roots level.

Amid the more demanding military and defence task requirements and multidimensional social impacts, the results achieved in legal dissemination and education by Division 10 constitute an important prerequisite for improving each staff member’s law-abiding awareness, attitude, and behaviour, laying a solid foundation for building an “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong Division capable of successfully fulfilling all assigned tasks.

Sr. Col. HO SY CHIEN
Political Commissar of the Division