New look for Korea
By Kim Jong-chan
No work, no pay? No. This time, no pay for work. The Dong-gu district in Daejeon had failed to set aside 1.3 billion won for salaries for its employees in December.
Larger districts enjoy more financial self-reliance. According to the Ministry Government Administration and Security, the district’s financial self-reliance stands at merely 12.2 percent. The figure compares with an average 68.3 percent of large cities such as Seoul, Busan, Incheon, Daegu, Gwangju, Daejeon and Ulsan, 31.7 percent of provinces, 40 percent of small cities, 18 percent of counties (gun) and 35.4 percent of districts in big cities.
President Lee Myung-bak, who will enter the fourth year of his five-year term next year, has yet to push through one of his reform agendas ― redrawing administrative districts, thus making them larger. The new map is a prerequisite to overhauling the National Assembly electoral districts, another reform Lee has pledged to do to help develop Korean politics. The current parliamentary electoral districts were drawn decades ago based on the administrative district map.
The government has invisibly worked to draw up new maps, with ruling party officials promising to create an administrative redistricting panel under the presidential office within a year.
Lee took advantage of an interview with a local daily during his trip to Japan last month to address the issue again.
He emphasized the need for larger administrative units to replace the current ones which were incepted a century ago when agriculture made up the lion’s share of the nation's gross domestic products.
Rep. Hur Tae-yeol, chairman of the ruling Grand National Party’s (GNP) ad hoc panel on rezoning administrative districts, forecast that full-fledged discussions on the issue will begin sooner or later.
Lee believes that revamping the electoral system could help resolve the long-standing issue of easing regionalism-based politics. There have been few ruling GNP lawmakers in the southwestern Jeolla provinces and few opposition legislators in the southeastern Gyeongsang region.
A solution could be the replacement of the election of one lawmaker from each district with the selection of two legislators or more from a larger constituency.
The new scheme might enable candidates of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) to have a better chance of being elected in the Gyeongsang provinces, stronghold of the conservative GNP, and vice versa for GNP candidates in the Jeolla region, home turf of the liberal DP.
Another solution might be picking lawmakers through a regional parliamentary representation system. But critics say politicians will try to use it, in addition to the current national representation system, to buy parliamentary seats with money.
The redistricting will almost certainly be challenged by those who feel aggrieved, particularly a number of incumbent lawmakers and people who are eager to keep their vested interest.
Those who oppose the redrawing of administrative districts have contended that a merger of districts will not only deepen regional conflicts but also erode the foundation of the preservation of culture. They also argue that a coalition of urban and rural areas will create economic problems, including real estate bubbles.
But Korea, a member of the Group of 20 developed and developing countries, needs a new look ― rezoning the century-old administrative units around the country to boost efficiency.
The current districts, introduced to meet the needs of Korea's farming communities about 100 years ago, do not fit contemporary Korea and this modern, 21st-century digital era, notably characterized by improvements in transportation and communication networks.
Larger local governments in a country that is smaller than a U.S. state will help strengthen competitiveness in the international market.
Making districts bigger will also help ease corruption in every walk of life.
A merger of government offices will help not only streamline local policies, projects and events, thus saving taxpayers' money, but simplify administrative procedures for a better business environment and ease ordinary citizens' inconveniences.