Commune Party Secretary Bui Tien Sy at the groundbreaking ceremony of a project to help Ngoc Chien overcome the consequences of the recent storm No. 3.

"If you want people to believe, you must be with the people"

As if afraid that we would not understand, he explained further: In Ngoc Chien, our commune cadres only meet in the early morning, have a quick work briefing, then we all go home with the villagers, except for conferences and resolutions when everyone is present, otherwise it is like that every day. Now let's go back to the village and discuss work, right? "Wow, this commune secretary seems interesting," we thought to ourselves as we followed Secretary Sy back to the village. "This is Phay village, the villagers are actively expanding the paths in the village, moving towards making it a tourist village, so the roads must be clean and spacious," Secretary Sy pointed forward. "There, the guy in the green shirt is Lo Van Thoa, the Vice Chairman of the commune, who is closely following the village cadres to monitor the construction work. If any difficulties arise, the Vice Chairman will directly resolve them. The specific assignments have been made like that."

That was the first time we met Sy two years ago. We went with the young, dynamic Secretary of the commune through many villages of Ngoc Chien commune and the young Secretary gave us one surprise after another.

When asked, Sy said: I used to be the Chief of Office of Muong La District Party Committee, then, when implementing the policy of transferring cadres to the grassroots, in 2019, Sy volunteered to come here, Ngoc Chien was then still a very difficult commune of the district because it was very far from the center. "So it's only been more than three years, why does the Secretary seem to understand this land very well?", we asked. Sy laughed: "If you count like that, it must be 20 years, guys". It turned out that since 2004, after graduating from the Faculty of Literature and History, Tay Bac University, Sy had returned to work as a teacher at Ngoc Chien Secondary School. This remote and difficult land of Ngoc Chien unexpectedly became an environment for the young teacher to train and demonstrate his ability and courage. After three years of returning to the school, in 2007, teacher Bui Tien Sy was honored to become a party member. The superiors also recognized the working capacity of this young teacher, so in 2009, Bui Tien Sy transferred to the District Labor Federation and in 2011 became Vice President of the District Labor Federation, after a while was appointed as Chief of the District Party Committee Office, until 2019 he "went to the grassroots". Although it was said to be a departure, in fact for Sy this was a return to Ngoc Chien, the land that when he was just 20 years old, he chose as his second hometown in the position of a teacher. Then, along the journey of dedication and striving, he again demonstrated the leading role of a Party Secretary of the commune.

Fairy tales from specific stories…

It would be difficult to tell everything that Secretary Sy has done for Ngoc Chien, but if he had to tell the biggest thing, it would be summed up in a few words: "devoted to the people". As soon as he took on the task of Commune Secretary, Sy immediately established 15 working groups, each group's members being party members in the Party Committee, government and mass organizations. Ngoc Chien has 15 villages, each group will be in charge of a village with a specific goal: "Returning to the people on Saturday". Every month, on the last Saturday of the month, members of the working group will go to the assigned village. Party members in the group will directly work, eat and live with the people. In the story of the village, the group members are the "propagandists" who popularize the Party and State's policies to the people. Returning to the people also means grasping the situation in each village, listening to the people's thoughts, aspirations and recommendations, then discussing with the people, finding reasonable solutions. Also based on the reality of each village and each household, the working group will work with village officials to develop a plan of tasks and implementation measures for the following month and each quarter.

Thanks to the specific, thorough and especially close-to-the-people approach, people in Ngoc Chien trust the officials very much, and are voluntary and active in village cleaning projects.

Like the story of widening the road through the village, from less than 2 meters of road surface to 6-8 meters, the land of the households must be affected. But this is a spontaneous project, so how can there be compensation funds? Then we have to rely on the people to voluntarily donate land. If we want people to donate land, party members and cadres must set an example. Then the roads are widened and beautiful, there are solar-powered electric lights that light up the whole village at night, social evils are reduced, order and security are stable, and the people feel secure. Just like that, step by step, when "the Party's will matches the people's will", the story of socio-economic development of Ngoc Chien is inevitable.

Every time I return to Ngoc Chien, I realize more and more that the Commune Secretary has an abundant source of creative energy. I am forever impressed with the local socio-economic report that Secretary Sy gave me. The pages do not have the usual administrative sentences, but rather specific bullet points down to every detail, for example, the policy on traffic, the report states: "Establish propaganda teams to mobilize people to donate land, clear traffic corridors, build concrete roads..." along with the number of kilometers of roads built. How to implement each route. As for the group's policy on the economic field: "One: Assign the Vietnam Fatherland Front of the commune to mobilize the removal of temporary houses, at least 5 houses are removed each year (but in reality, the number of temporary houses removed is up to nearly 20 households/year - PV). Two: Propaganda and mobilization for raising large livestock, to meet this requirement, the area of ​​elephant grass (for raising livestock) must have a specific increase each year...". Then the cultural and tourism indicators with 20 tasks, the environment with 5 tasks... Clear, coherent, detailed, when checking, just take the assigned data to compare with reality, specifically to each section of wall, fence with pebbles taken from the stream instead of walls built with dry, unsightly embankments. Specifically to each flower bush of what color to match the color of the stones on the flower beds, specifically to each small thing like when coming to offer condolences to the families, do not set out food and drink (a long-standing custom) which not only affects the economy but also wastes time and work.

Thanks to this specific and detailed way of doing things, Ngoc Chien's appearance has changed day by day.

The circulation of storm No. 3 (Yagi) caused damage to the entire Northwest region. Ngoc Chien also suffered heavy damage, but Ngoc Chien was also the locality that recovered the fastest after the storm thanks to the dynamism of the commune Secretary. On his personal page, Mr. Sy reported the local situation, updating the damage to each household. And instead of "asking for anything", he announced that the most needed was cement. In just a short time, thousands of tons of cement were sent to support Ngoc Chien. Most of the supporters were from Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and other provinces and cities. They were tourists who had been to Ngoc Chien, loved the scenery and people... so when Ngoc Chien encountered a natural disaster, those tourists could not ignore it.

When looking at the tons of cement he had collected from his friends and sent to Ngoc Chien, Secretary Sy did something that touched us: The cement donated by anyone, used to repair any project, had a sign printed with the name of the benefactor and a thank you. When giving, no one wanted to record their name. But the way the recipients thanked the benefactors made people trust and touched. And I understood that it was a very affectionate way of behaving of the head of the Ngoc Chien Commune Party Committee. Just like him more than 5 years ago, from the position of Chief of the District Party Committee Office, he volunteered to come here, a poor, remote and isolated locality, to make Ngoc Chien what it is today.

Ngoc Chien has now become a bright spot of Son La, of the Northwest. That is how Bui Tien Sy shows his gratitude to the land of youth, where 20 years ago, the bachelor of education from the rice fields of Thai Binh began his life journey and attached himself to the Northwest, to build with the Party Committee and the people here a "fairyland" called Ngoc Chien!

Thanks to his enthusiasm and dedication, the Commune Secretary Bui Tien Sy sought much support from the community for Ngoc Chien. In the photo: Inauguration of Nam Nghiep school (the highest village in Vietnam) sponsored by Nghia Dung Karate-do students.