Controversy is flaring up over whether President-elect Park Geun-hye reneged on her election pledges while unveiling a road map for her administration’s agenda Thursday.
Conspicuously missing in the blueprint were follow-up measures for "economic democratization," which the incoming President prioritized most when she declared her presidential bid last July. More surprising is that the term was not even used in the road map consisting of five major policy goals, 21 strategies and 140 tasks.
Officials at the presidential transition team that ended its 48-day operation Friday say Park’s "creative economy" is a superordinate concept that includes economic justice, dismissing speculation that Park’s commitment to democratizing the economy has weakened. "Economic democratization is intended to stop large companies’ abuse of power and protect small companies and self-employed business owners. These core intentions are reflected in various support measures for small companies in the blueprint," a transition team member said.
However, the nation’s first female president can’t avoid criticism that she ditched one of her key campaign promises without any explanation after using it to attract votes. Many center-left voters who supported Park because of her economic democratization pledge may well feel betrayed.
Given that the No. 1 policy goal featured in the road map was "a creative economy centered on jobs," it appears that Park has opted to give top priority to creating more jobs by nurturing new growth engines amid North Korea’s looming nuclear threat and the deepening global downturn. This notion has already been reflected in her nominee for deputy prime minister for the economy and senior presidential secretary for economic affairs, both of whom are known to be strong advocates of growth.
Park also backed down from her commitments to welfare programs. A case in point is the tentatively-named "People’s Happiness Pension," which is supposed to be created by integrating the national pension and the basic pension by July next year. The pension envisions providing between 40,000 and 200,000 won per month to those aged 65 or over, depending on income. But this formula is a regression from her campaign promise to pay 200,000 won to all senior citizens.
The transition team also revised a pledge to provide free medical care for patients of four serious illness types, including cancer. The initial scheme was to let the government shoulder all medical bills for these patients, but given the huge cost to keep the scheme afloat, some fees such as higher-grade hospital room charges have been excluded from the new plan and patients have to pay part of the medical expenses.
Campaign pledges can be altered according to circumstances and sometimes it might be better for a leader to drop their promise rather than exhaust the national coffers. But Park needs to admit to her blunders, if any, and seek people’s understanding before revising her plan.