ed Campaign pledges

Voters are wiser than politicians

Voters need to read the lips of candidates before going to the polls this year. Sugar-coated campaign pledges parties churn out every day have become topics of recent comedy programs and gossip of the town.

The governing Grand National Party aired the possibility of raising the salary for military conscripts by 4.5 times. It also leaked the possibility of constructing two additional mega airports in the east and west of the country. It committed itself to providing free schooling before students go to colleges. The party changed its name to ``Saenuri’’ (new world) to shed its negative public image.

The opposition Democratic United Party vowed to implement three free programs ― free meals, free school education and free medical services. It has promised to build 5,000 one-room studios for college students, halve university tuition and obligate large enterprises to honor a quota of college-graduate recruits.

Worse is their competition to copy each other’s campaign promises.

No party says how much their pork-barrel pledges will cost. No party projects in what way they will keep fiscal health. None vow to slash the number of lawmakers and their pay.

Parties must study the case of Japan. Japanese leaders first slashed their salary and reduced the number of government employees before raising taxes. In Korea, political leaders want others to change without changing themselves.

The current fiscal woes in the EU are the making of politicians who used state coffers to please voters for winning the election.

The parties have pre-election strategies only, not post-election strategies. They seem to believe that voters will forget every pledge after the elections. They do not have any sense of responsibility. They also lack in philosophy in running the country.

Parties might know well that President Lee Myung-bak has been undergoing serious post-election hangovers. During his campaign trail, Lee outrivaled his rivals in campaign pledges. He espoused the 747 program featuring a 7 percent economic growth, with per capita income of $40,000 and becoming a G-7 economy. This had packaged him as the head of state best fit for powering the nation well. Under his presidency, economic polarization reached the most serious point. Lee falsely raised public expectations before winning the presidency. Now he has become a victim of his own pledges. Now his 747 promises have become a subject of public mockery.

The government has limits in expanding welfare programs.

Voters are sick and tired of the populist approaches of parties and candidates. The parties should adopt strategies to differentiate themselves from each other.

Parties need to filter out pledges before making them public. What voters want to know is that candidates and parties are honest, responsible and different.

Whichever party takes power, the post-election Korea will experience national division and tension over pork-barrel pledges. A tax hike is inevitable to put part of their pledges into action.

The more they unveil unrealistic commitments, the more distrust voters come to have in politicians and their parties. Voters are wiser than candidates.