ED Appointment fiasco
More rigorous vetting system should be created
Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Governor Kim Ki-sik resigned Monday, two weeks after he was inaugurated as the top financial regulator. The reason is that his donation of political funds to an institute he headed was illegal.
The controversy over Kim's appointment seems to be over; however, in reality it is not. Rather it is the beginning of a new debate over who will lead the FSS. As the regulator's position requires a high level of integrity and expertise, President Moon Jae-in will find it more difficult to choose a new candidate.
In fact, Moon and his staff brought about the problem. They failed to go through a vigorous vetting process for Kim. In this sense, they should take the responsibility for the appointment failure.
More worrisome is the presidential office had not listened carefully to opposition lawmakers who questioned Kim's qualifications. The office just tried to dismiss the lawmakers' attack on him as only the usual political offensive against any presidential appointee.
The controversy had deepened over Kim's alleged overseas junkets and the political fund donation. However, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs Cho Kuk and other officials only repeated that Kim's appointment was proper.
Kim might have appeared to be the right person to lead the FSS. He was a civic activist-turned lawmaker serving from 2012 to 2016. He joined the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), one of Korea's leading nongovernmental organizations, as a founding member in 1994.
He had long been recognized as an activist advocating citizens' rights as well as opposing the concentration of economic power in the hands of family-run chaebol. During his four-year tenure as a lawmaker, he also worked hard to fight against the established political and economic order.
But now he was found to have followed the “old ways” of lawmakers by going on overseas business trips three times sponsored by the Korea Exchange, Woori Bank, and the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP).
How could Cheong Wa Dae keep on defending Kim before the National Election Commission concluded that he violated the Election Law by donating his remaining political funds to the Korea Institute for the Future, which he led? The presidential office deserves only blame for the poor screening job on Kim. It must have believed that he “strikes the same chord” with the liberal Moon administration.
Appointing the right person to the right place guarantees the success of any organization. This matters much more for naming Cabinet ministers and regulators. Any new government's policy failures usually start with its inability to pick qualified figures with expertise and integrity.
The Moon government has shown it is no different from previous administrations. Moon was elected president on the promise of rooting out accumulated evils after the impeachment of his predecessor Park Geun-hye. Now, he should go all-out to deliver on his promise. Don't forget the cries of the candlelit protesters for change.