Principle or compromise?

By Cho Jae-hyon

Nothing is clear regarding President Park Geun-hye’s administration ― at least for now. The first act was announced over a week ago, but the curtain remains up with no actors yet to walk onto the stage. Moreover, the director is yet to finish casting the production. Left in the dark inside the theater, the people have no idea when the show will start.

It’s been nearly two weeks since the president was inaugurated to become the nation’s first female leader.

But she has never chaired a Cabinet meeting because she has not finished filling her Cabinet appointments, while North Korea is ratcheting up its provocations every day. Following its third nuclear test on Feb. 12, the hostile neighbor is now threatening to cancel the 1953 cease-fire and carry out surgical strikes.

When President Park made a nationally-televised address to the people on Monday, her gestures and looks were far more eloquent than her words.

She looked so stern and firm. She clenched her fist when she explained why she wanted to establish the new Ministry of Future Planning and Science.

Park wants this, a core piece of her government reorganization, to be the main driver of her plan to nurture a job-oriented, trend-setting “creative economy.”

But Kim Jeong-hoon, her pick to head the ministry, abruptly gave up his nomination and left for the United States, making a severe dent in the president’s plan to make the ministry a vehicle for realizing “a second miracle on the Han River.”

The 52-year-old entrepreneur, the chairman of America’s Alcatel Lucent Bell Labs, said he grew tired of partisan squabbling over the jurisdiction of the new ministry.

He said the parliamentary impasse over the government restructuring bill shattered his dream of devoting himself to the development of the nation.

His explanation sounds far from persuasive. The Korean-American left Korea Tuesday, just several weeks after he gained Korean citizenship, leaving many unanswered questions behind him. The fate of the ministry is precarious because it is likely to remain without a leader for some time to come.

President Park’s clenched fist and her stern voice tone, seen and heard vividly on TV, reflects her frustration with the main opposition Democratic United Party that vehemently opposes Park’s restructuring bill.

She is both pleading and pressing in pursuit of cooperation from the opposition to make a breakthrough in the current gridlock at the National Assembly.

To create more jobs and boost welfare, she needs to spur her ministers to hammer out detailed action plans. She has made a lot of campaign promises aimed at boosting social welfare programs.

The new government needs to come forward with practical methods to raise funds for healthcare and other welfare projects that will cost tens of trillions of won.

The Park government has mountains of tasks to tackle. However, it is in a vegetative state because it can do nothing, hamstrung by conflicts between the ruling and opposition parties over her proposal to transfer some broadcasting policy-setting functions from the independent Korea Communications Commission to the new science ministry.

It’s hard to understand why they are so adamantly sticking to their positions about this seemingly not-so-important issue. President Park has set herself a tall order to make the people happier.

But even before her government is launched, many people are already disappointed with the failure to reach a compromise.

It’s necessary for a leader to stick to principles. But politics is all about the art of making deals done with a little give and take.

What the opposition party is good at by nature is opposing ideas proposed by its counterpart. Still, it also needs to scrap taking a standpoint of opposition just for the sake of it.

It seems Park, known as a politician of principles, is determined not to fall into a pattern of dueling with the opposition.

But there should not be a make-or-break power game. Taken hostage by the political wrangling is the smooth operation of the new government. Making a compromise does not necessarily mean bending principles ― it’s one step back for two steps forward. Getting the new administration on track is the priority, so each party needs to be ready to take a step back for a compromise. People want to enjoy the show orchestrated by the nation’s first female leader. Let the show begin.