PANO – Military Zone 4 recently held a meeting for outstanding village patriarchs and chiefs on the occasion of its 70th founding anniversary (October 15th 1945 - October 15th 2015). At the meeting, the MZ commander highly appreciated the role of village patriarchs and chiefs in its area of responsibility.

Village patriarchs and chiefs have been promoting the revolutionary tradition and their high sense of responsibility, contributing to building strong villages and new-styled rural areas while firmly preserving and promoting the cultural identities of ethnic groups and strengthening defence and security dispositions in the border areas.

Village Patriarch Lau Xay Phia in Nam Then village, Nam Can commune, Ky Son district (Nghe An province), worked as the commune Party Secretary for 29 years (1976-2005). There are 6 Party members and five children holding bachelor degrees in his family. In Nam Can, he is the most prestigious person whose words are agreed with and followed by everyone.

Leaders of Military Zone 4 and local outstanding village patriarchs and chiefs

Turning 70, Village Patriarch Lay Xay Phia still looks healthy and lucid. Previously, he was the one to persuade his own father to quit smoking opium and local people to quit planting opium trees, revitalizing Nam Can from a place with rampant drug trafficking, weapon use, and illegal border-crossing. Already retired, he still regularly visits families in the localities to provide people with the right information, encouraging people to follow the guidelines and law of the Party and State. Thanks to Phia’s tireless efforts, Nam Can is now covered with green paddy fields and forest.

Ho Van Do has been working as the chief of La Hot village, A Bung commune, Dakrong district (Quang Tri province), for 10 years now. With his contribution to the village, Ho Van Do has always been respected by villagers. To build unity among villagers, Do always takes the lead in every activity of the locality, being the first to contribute to the “For the poor” foundation, natural disaster mitigation fund, the first to protect the environment, and to actively play the mediation role. Especially, Ho proposed the idea and helped set up self-management teams to monitor situations in the village so as to devise timely solutions.

The above aforementioned examples are just two among the 70 outstanding village patriarchs and chiefs. Deeply understanding their important role, the Command of Military Zone 4 has been strengthening and promoting the strength of the great national unity via village patriarchs and chiefs. These are people with prestige and high responsibility in ethnic minority communities. Relying on these prominent people has helped the command better perform the mass mobilization work in the cause of national construction and defence.

Translated by Huu Duong