Party chief of Ho Chi Minh City and National Assembly candidate Dinh La Thang met with voters from two communes in the city’s suburban district of Hoc Mon on Sunday, reminding the crowd of conscious patriotism among other issues.

Thang, who is running for a seat in the country’s legislative body in the upcoming election, attended a meeting with constituents of Xuan Thoi Son and Xuan Thoi Dong Communes on the city’s outskirts on Sunday morning.

Every five years, Vietnam holds a general election to fill its 500-member law-making National Assembly as well as People’s Councils at the local-level. This year’s election will be held nationalwide on Sunday.

The Party chief placed emphasis on the recent mass fish deaths along the country’s central coast during April, saying the stance of the Party and the government is to take legal action against those who damaged the environment.

“The government is making every effort to investigate the cause of these deaths,” Thang said. “In the meantime, what we can do to help fishermen in the central region is go on with production instead of complicating the political security situation.”

“I hope you stay alert and don’t let your patriotism be taken advantage of,” the Party chief stressed.

Assemblies of people, who were said by the municipal police on Saturday to have been manipulated by a foreign-based terrorist group called ‘Viet Tan’ (Viet Reform), took to the streets of Ho Chi Minh City on May 1 and 8 in the name of environmental protection.

The actions, police officers said, were aimed at causing public disorder, sabotaging the upcoming national election and subsequently overthrowing the current regime.

Addressing complications in the East Vietnam Sea in response to a voter’s question, Thang reaffirmed Vietnam’s inalienable sovereignty over Hoang Sa (Paracels) and Truong Sa (Spratlys), adding however that measures must be taken with caution, and on the basis of adhering to international law and maintaining peace and order for development.

“The stance of the Vietnamese government and people on this issue has always been consistent, which is that Hoang Sa and Truong Sa belong to Vietnam,” Thang said.

The Party chief admitted that the government’s reluctance to provide people with timely updates on the situation at sea had been made use of by certain subjects in convincing people to carry out unlawful actions.

In his closing remarks, Secretary Thang said he would strive to turn Hoc Mon District into a rich district of Ho Chi Minh City within five years.

The Party chief asserted that the people’s happiness was what mattered the most, adding that Ho Chi Minh City could only be regarded as a city worth living in if all 24 of its districts were worth living in.

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