World War II ending in 1918. On June 28, 1919, the winning and defeated countries held a conference in Versailles, France to sign official peace treaties as well as distribute benefits to the winning countries.
The winning countries included England, France, Russia, Italy, and the United States. The defeated countries included Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Turkey.
At this Versailles Conference next to the delegations. Official delegates also included representatives of oppressed nationalities who attended the Conference to demand independence and freedom for their people, such as representatives of Icelanders, Indians, Koreans, Arabs… At that time, the young patriot Nguyen Ai Quoc was on duty. active in France, organized a group of Vietnamese patriots in Paris and in French provinces. Mr. Nguyen Ai Quoc came to the Versailles Conference as a representative of this organization.
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At the Versailles Conference, Nguyen Ai Quoc River distributed to delegates attending the Conference “The Vietnamese people’s petition sent to the Versailles Conference”. This “claim” includes 8 very peaceful points asking the French Government to return some minimum basic democratic freedoms to the Vietnamese people.
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The famous “demand statement” of the young patriot Nguyen Ai Quoc send the Versaillé Conference in 1919 which included 8 points:
1- Amnesty for all Vietnamese political criminals.
2- Reform Indochina legal system for Vietnamese people is also legally guaranteed like Europeans, completely eliminating the Special Court as a tool to terrorize the most honest Vietnamese people.
3- Freedom of press and freedom of thought.
4-Freedom of association and freedom of association meeting.
5-Freedom to reside abroad and freedom to go abroad.
6-Freedom of study and opening of technical and professional schools for indigenous people in all provinces.
7-Replace the decree regime with a legal regime.
8-There must be a permanent Vietnamese representative Nam was elected by the indigenous people next to the French Parliament to present the aspirations of the indigenous people.
After the “8-Point Request” sent to the Versailles Conference, for the first time public opinion in France and in Vietnam knew the name Nguyen Ai Quoc, a young Vietnamese man who fought fight for independence, freedom and democracy for the Vietnamese people.
And from then on, French secret police began to closely monitor all of Mr. Nguyen Ai Quoc’s activities. Because with the anti-democratic authoritarian colonial state, every voice demanding freedom and democracy for the Vietnamese people is considered dangerous to the colonial state.
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But all those peaceful demands of Mr. Nguyen Ai Quoc’s Vietnamese Patriotic Group were not accepted. The French government as well as the countries in the Versailles Conference paid attention. From there, Mr. Nguyen Ai Quoc drew the important conclusion that we cannot rely on other countries. “If we want to liberate peoples, we can only rely on ourselves and our own forces.”
Now look back at President Ho Chi Minh’s 8-point claim Minh sent the Versailles Conference in 1919, we see that Uncle Ho’s ideology of an institution respecting minimum democratic freedoms for the people was formed very early. At that time, Uncle Ho was only 29 years old and had only been in France for 8 years. Among our Party and State leaders, Uncle Ho is the only one who lived abroad for up to 30 years.
He left to find a way to save the country in 1911 at Nha Rong wharf in Saigon and only returned to the country in 1941 to lead the People’s Party to fight for power. Therefore, Uncle Ho was a person who understood very clearly the evil limitations of the colonial capitalist regime, but at the same time, he also understood very clearly the values of Western civilization and the Western liberal democratic regime.
That is why in 1946, Uncle Ho directed the drafting of the first Constitution. The 1946 Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam contained many progressive values of Western democracy. Uncle Ho led the Party and people of Vietnam to expel the colonialists, but the values of Western civilization need to be humbly learned. That is the dialectic in Ho Chi Minh’s thought.
Article 10 of the 1946 Constitution stipulates: “Vietnamese citizens have the right to: – Freedom of speech. – Freedom to publish. – Freedom to organize and assemble. – Freedom of belief. – Freedom to reside and travel within the country and abroad.” The content of Article 10 is very similar to part of the 8-point content that Uncle Ho sent to the Versailles Conference 27 years ago in 1946.
Currently, the whole country is raising a movement to “study the moral example of President Ho Chi Minh”. This is a very good and necessary movement, but in my opinion, it is not enough. Because Ho Chi Minh’s morality is just a content in Ho Chi Minh’s ideology.
A consistent and extremely important point in Ho Chi Minh’s Thought is about building a State that serves the people, putting the people’s interests first “whatever is beneficial.” For the people, we must do our best to do anything that is harmful to the people. In the letter “To the People’s Committees of provinces, districts and villages” in October 1945, Uncle Ho wrote “If the country is independent but the people do not enjoy the happiness of freedom, then independence has no meaning.” Thus, Uncle Ho understood very clearly that independence is just a means to achieve freedom and happiness for the people. Freedom and happiness for the people is the purpose of the Party and State’s mission.
As long as there are people gambling millions of dollars but millions of people are still lacking in many ways, as long as there are officials who are arrogant and cruel to the people and do not fulfill their responsibilities as servants of the people. People who are still unjustly wronged must file lawsuits and call for justice. As long as the administrative apparatus still acts on the people, Ho Chi Minh’s ideology has not yet been thoroughly grasped into action in practice.
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Now look back at Uncle Ho’s 8-point petition nearly 100 years ago and the In the first Constitution of 1946, we clearly see Uncle Ho’s thoughts on building an institution that respects the basic rights of the people.
From there, we clearly see that it is necessary to elevate the labor movement from learning to follow Ho Chi Minh’s moral example to become a movement. movement to study and implement Ho Chi Minh’s ideology on building a public servant state of the people.
Minh Tuan</p >
(From TokyoJapan< /i>)
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