In order to convene the Police Directors of 63 provinces and cities nationwide to Hanoi in a “legitimate” manner, without causing suspicion to the Central Government, a conference titled “Conference to summarize 10 years of implementing the Decree No. Directive No. 39-CT/TW of the Politburo on strengthening internal political protection in the current situation” was organized by the Central Public Security Party Committee on the morning of May 28 in Hanoi.
On the side of the organizing committee (Central Public Security Party Committee), there are Senior Lieutenant General Luong Tam Quang and Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Duy Ngoc who are two Deputy Ministers of Public Security.
Senior Lieutenant General Tran Quoc To, Deputy Minister responsible for operations of the Ministry of Public Security, chaired the conference.
Three Standing Members of the Central Public Security Party Committee were not present at the conference, namely Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and State President To Lam.
Also attending the conference were two guests from the Central Committee: Hoang Dang Quang, Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Head of the Central Committee’s Commission for Organization and Nguyen Van Dinh, Deputy Director of the Department of Internal Political Protection of the same commission.
Actually, the above conference has the main purpose:
“Conference of key officials to collect opinions and introduce candidate for Minister of Public Security for the 2021-2026 term.” It was organized by the Central Public Security Party Committee on the same afternoon of May 28 at the same location.
During this conference, key police officers, including 63 Police Directors of provinces and cities nationwide, voted to nominate Senior Lieutenant General Luong Tam Quang – Deputy Minister of Public Security – for the position of Minister of Public Security to succeed To Lam.
The conference sent this result (ie nominating Luong Tam Quang to hold the position of Minister of Public Security) to the Politburo for consideration. In addition, the conference also sent a proposal to elect Luong Tam Quang to the Politburo.
Most likely, two guests Hoang Dang Quang and Nguyen Van Dinh also attended this afternoon’s conference.
To Lam organized it systematically as above, so it is difficult to accuse To Lam of rebellion, although the use of lower-level establishments (Police Directors of 63 provinces and cities) put pressure on the Politburo is something that happened for the first time in 79 years of power of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Up to now, for any ministerial position, there has never been a situation where lower-level establishments proposed personnel and submitted them to the Politburo for consideration.
Whether the Politburo will agree with the personnel proposals of the Police Directors of 63 provinces and cities is still a big question. This currently also means that Luu Tam Quang is unlikely to become Minister of Public Security.
Hieu Ba Linh
