In his article in tribute to the passing of former Party chief Do Muoi, Pham The Duyet, who is also former Secretary of the Hanoi city Party Committee, stressed that during the process of national construction, comrade Do Muoi was assigned to work in major economic areas such as industry, trade and construction.
Therefore, he contributed to a majority of key projects across cities and provinces, including the Pha Lai, Uong Bi and Ninh Binh thermal power plants; Song Da, Yaly, Son La and Tri An hydropower plants; and Bach Ho, Nam Con Son, and Dai Hung oil fields.
Over the course of years serving as Vice Chairman of the Council of Ministers, comrade Do Muoi made significant contributions to the construction of Mao Khe coal mine and Thang Long bridge.
Duyet, who worked with Do Muoi for decades, said that the former Party leader had strong determination to frame practice with theory. Even upon retirement, Do Muoi continued to call on his successors to pay attention to the global situation, particularly the valuable lessons to be learnt from the Colour Revolution in the Middle East and North Africa, in order to remain alert.
Comrade Do Muoi was not only a resilient communist soldier but also a leader who attached great enthusiasm towards reforming the country.
Duyet recalled a time when he was serving as the Secretary of Hanoi Party Committee, when Ton That Bach was nominated to serve as the Rector of Hanoi Medical University but received different opinions since Bach was not a Party member. However, the proposal gained instant support from comrade Do Muoi.
This proved that comrade Do Muoi had thoroughly grasped President Ho Chi Minh’s ideas on respecting talented people, regardless of whether they were Party or non-Party members.
In the early 1990s of the last century, the Hanoi city authorities mapped out the planning project for Hoa Lo prison, under which a part of the area was dedicated to historical relics, while the rest was used to host the construction of a complex of offices, hotels, and a trade centre.
Initially, the project encountered strong opposition from many senior war revolutionary veterans, especially from those who had been detained at the prison by the French colonialists. The city Party Committee held a number of meetings and tried in vain to convince the former Hoa Lo prisoners. It wasn’t until former Party General Secretary Do Muoi, who was also a former political prisoner at Hoa Lo, explained to his comrades, that the war veterans finally gave their approval for the project.
Duyet reminisced that, in 1997, when Pham The Duyet was currently Head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Mass Mobilisation, he had paid a working trip to Thai Binh to quench the political instability in the province. During that time, he received detailed directions and instructions from comrade Do Muoi with many discussions taking place until 2am.
After the situation was resolved, the Politburo promulgated the Directive 30-CT/TW on building and implementing regulations on grassroots democracy in March 1998 in order to bring into play the people’s right to mastery.
