ed Transition in trouble

Takeover process cannot continue as it is

About 50 days of presidential transition team operations may not determine the next five years of the incoming administration. But it foretells how the new leader and his or her government will make important decisions and implement them during their tenure.

The performance by President-elect Park Geun-hye’s team in the first week is not just disappointing but worrisome in that regard.

As this page pointed out repeatedly, the foremost problem is its undue secretiveness in every aspect, ranging from personnel appointments to the daily operations of the takeover team.

A case in point is the ``mysterious” resignation of Choi Dae-seok, one of the three key players in the team’s diplomacy-security division. Neither Park nor her spokespersons have explained why she named him to the post of shadow unification minister and why she let him step down later, leading to rampant guessing games among journalists.

All transition workers are also extremely tight-lipped about what they hear during administrative briefings and are busy avoiding reporters. The ``no-briefing” principle eased somewhat amid the barrage of media attacks, but explanations still remain sketchy at best. ``The transition team does not make policies but plays the role of a bridge between the two governments,” said its chairman, Kim Yong-jun.

He may be right. Such reticence also helps to prevent half-baked policies and premature decisions from confusing the public. But that’s an argument not for keeping everything in secret but for more cautiously selecting what to make public and what not, as well as sufficient refining of the contents of briefings and announcements. What matters in a democratic government is not just final outcome but the process of decision-making. People have the right to know how as well as what.

One of the transition team’s main tasks is to have a cooling-off period in which it sorts out campaign pledges not implementable immediately for financial and other reasons. It is for this reason we can’t understand the reported ``expression of displeasure” by Park over what she saw as the less than positive attitude of government agencies to make good on her election promises. The President-elect told her transition team to work in a low-key, businesslike way, but she seems to be going ``too active” in asserting leadership even before she takes office.

What’s needed for a more smooth transition is a candid debate between outgoing and incoming officials, not quarreling over the feasibility of specific projects and undermining the departing government.

Since the launch of her transition team, President-elect Park has largely been out of public sight, probably composing her first Cabinet at home. She must show herself to the people more often, and have her workers contact the outside ― the government, political parties, both ruling and opposition, and media outlets. Daily media briefings are not an option but an obligation.

People are already saying they smell an authoritarian leadership. Park must know Korean voters have long ceased to be those her father governed decades ago.