If I was asked to describe the process of national development reform from 1986 up to now in just one sentence, the sentence I choose would be “Desire for economic development but less appreciation of the practice of justice.”
Looking back at the 35-year process since the renovation, it can be seen that, stemming from economic difficulties and hunger, the country has carried out reform policy of opening the country, to date the country has achieved certain achievements.
But while the food hunger has been eradicated, there still exists another hunger in the society. In the past, hunger was not paid much attention, today it is becoming more and more important- in the sense of justice.
Hunger is a matter of the body, and justice is a matter of spirit. Justice is tied to dignity. Without justice, only power will make people less dignified.
Justice is associated with rational perception, if a person has not fully realized the significance of reasoning, then he or she is not civilized.
While justice is always the leading value framework of many political institutions, in Vietnam, the word justice for the first time only appeared in the 2013 Constitution in the sentence “The People’s Court has the duty to protect justice protection.”
With the present reality, justice will help stabilize the social conscience, which after a long period of focusing all on economic development, with the negative side effects arising accordingly, now is when there is a need for justice to govern the nation and preserve social order.
Even so, the current economic problem is still very important and cannot be taken lightly.
So is there any solution, is there any policy, is there any way that can both economic development and satisfy the people’s sense of justice?
Which is more particularly feasible and acceptable to the circumstances of Vietnam?
Regarding the current situation of Vietnam’s socio-economic institution, the judiciary contains breakthrough solutions for economic development and improvement of social order and life.
Due to a long period of lack of respect, the judiciary has so far held a modest role in the political system as well as in the state apparatus.
For a long time, people also discussed the need to reform the judiciary. But one bad thing is that when it comes to judicial reform, many people just generalize that the judiciary needs to have independence.
This often brings all discussion to a dead end. Since the political institutions in Vietnam are wholly led by the Communist Party, it won’t let go of the leadership towards the judiciary?
Meanwhile, the problem of the judiciary is not only independence, but there are many other shortcomings. Although important, if the other issues are not resolved, the judicial independence, if any, does not solve the problem.
For example, if the salary of judges is kept as low as at present, even if the judiciary is independent, there will be corruption and justice will not be there.
Or many other issues that need to be resolved to bring a sense of justice to the people, which is not related to the independence of the judiciary, such as improving the living environment of detention for detainees.
If these people suffer from torture, they will lose their dignity, then ask them how they will behave when they return to social life? Do they become reckless and violent, disregarding everything that is orderly?
Then, the judiciary also needs to be adjusted to hold the exercise of judicial rights, so that judicial processes are an important process to help bring justice, in addition to the ability to perceive judgment of Judges at trial, which in progressive judicial countries they call procedural justice.
That is, through their long judicial experience, they have established judicial processes to ensure that they just do it that way so that the results will approach justice. But if you do otherwise, the unreasonable way results will not have justice.
For example, in most countries with progressive judiciary they mandate that they focus on the courts’ jurisdiction of detention, search and seizure of objects.
While in Vietnam, this empowerment is extended to both investigative agencies and procuracies, making the judiciary heavily specialized in friction manufacturing that damages civil rights, contributing to poor conditions. democracy in social life.
Or in countries where they place prisons under the jurisdiction of the judiciary, while in Vietnam the police have the power to investigate and detain suspects.
Or like progressive civilized legal institutions that protect human rights, such as placing surety money in place of arrest or deterrent measures, or giving the accused the right to silence to reduce persecution, are all are the institutions that help bring a case to justice.
Justice Congress
At this time, the Communist Party of Vietnam is preparing its13th National Congress, congress documents are being discussed publicly. From the fact that covers all issues of the country, I think the 13th Congress should focus on justice.
This is also consistent with the perception of the development law of social life, at each stage of development, there will be a number of major problems, which require to look out for solutions to solve.
Although Vietnam’s current socio-political life has many problems, weak justice is the cause of most of these problems, for example the moral decline. Individuals and public ethics, unrestrained crime, and corruption are all caused by weak judiciary.
Until today, the economy is still an important point, the desire for economic development is still not only the aspiration of the people but still the constant preoccupation of the leadership of the Communist Party.
But many people do not know that the judiciary really is capable of being the solution to economic development, especially when the economy has grown to the extent of its current complexity, no longer in its primitive stage. budding like when it opened its doors three decades ago.
I have recently published a book showing a stimulating relationship between the judiciary and the economy, hoping to bring a new perspective to policy making, suggestions for solutions to economic development and country construction in the next 5, 10 years.
If the 13th National Congress is a congress on justice, it will be the most wise choice in the current national development context.
In fact, the political regime of Vietnam in the past has never had a judicial position on par with the executive, legislative, party organ, police or military.
When the judiciary is weak, poor justice is enforced. And that’s the cause of a host of problems in the country.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
