Lieutenant-General Nguyen Quoc Thuoc, former commander of Military Zone 4 and former NA deputy for three terms
Lieutenant-General Nguyen Quoc Thuoc, former NA deputy of several NA terms, made the comment in an interview after NA deputy Hoang Huu Phuoc criticised fellow deputy Duong Trung Quoc in a recent blog entry.
It’s obviously much more common for people to make comments on online forums and social networks. What do you think about this?
I think that everyone has their right to speak out their opinions in real life or on social networks. Many people don’t have a chance to make a direct comment or their idea was turned down, so they seek an opportunity to express their opinions on social network or online forums.
However, comments that are positive get support, those who just criticise or are deliberately negative should be criticised.
What’s the distinction between these two?
Making a comment with the aim of outraging someone is really dangerous. I think in general those who are of inferior status often seek fame by toppling those on top. Those who try to run someone down will eventually reveal their own stupidity and their real purposes will be obviously exposed then.
A positive comment can help everyone progress.
Quality of parliamentarians
As a long standing NA deputy, could you please name some essential qualifications of a parliamentarian?
I acted as a NA deputy for 8th, 9th and 10th NA terms and have experienced both the subsidised economy and renewal periods. I realise that the status of NA deputy has been gradually recognised and improved. This means that NA deputies have adopted a greater role.
I do think that NA deputies need to possess courage and need greater devotion to the people.
Devotion means always thinking about the public’s interests, their happiness and difficulties. They should act on behalf of the people and the nation’s benefits.
If a NA deputy lacks courage they would be unable to take proposals from the public to the parliament or fight for their interests either.
Many people talk about the need to improve the status of NA deputies. In your opinion, how do you deal with this issue?
Actually, it’s not true that all NA deputies are of the same status. A NA deputy who represents a commune has lower status compared to those who represent a provincial party committee. The status of a prime minister is very different from a minister as well. However, the most important thing is that each NA deputy should do their tasks well in order to reflect people’s opinions and protect their interests.
A NA deputy should also be whole-hearted in their work regardless of their status. A doctor at a provincial hospital who does his best to fight for their patients is more highly appreciated compared to a minister who does nothing to protect the people.
Difficulties
In your point of view, what relationships does a NA deputy have to deal with?
A NA deputy not only works at parliament. They have to do different tasks including studying people’s ideas and expectations. They deal with some issues within their reach and propose bigger issues to the NA for a solution.
A NA deputy has various relationships but the one with the head and deputy head of their delegation is rather complicated and sometimes sensitive. This is because these delegation heads and deputy heads are often secretaries of provincial party committees or the chairmen of provincial people’s committees. In several cases, a parliament has to convey people’s complaints about the leadership failings of these people. A NA deputy who lacks devotion to the people won’t dare to propose the issue for discussion.
Sometimes a NA deputy is put in difficult situations. On one hand, they represent the people and have the task to fight for the people’s benefits. On the other, they work for their organisations, party, delegation and local governments. In some cases, the interests of the people contradict their organisations. This requires them to be wise enough to find out a way to harmonise such relationships.
Every action by parliament has an impact not only for the present but for the future. They should be brave enough to overcome those complicated relationships and fight for people’s real interests.
I do think that those who can’t do that should resign.