ED Hypocritical behavior
Listen carefully to people's growing discontent
President Moon Jae-in urgently needs to reshuffle the lineup of his aides after his chief of staff Noh Young-min and five senior presidential secretaries proffered their resignations Friday. A Cheong Wa Dae official said they made the offer to take responsibility over their shortcomings in managing state affairs.
It is rare for as many as six presidential aides to tender their resignation en masse. Yet it should not come as a surprise, given the present political situation which is turning against the Moon administration and the governing party. Rather their offers to resign have come belatedly. President Moon and his staff have turned a deaf ear to mounting public discontent over their policy blunders, especially their failure to keep in check skyrocketing home prices. They have told ranking officials to sell multiple homes they own except for their primary residence in what amounts to nothing more than a PR stunt.
Noh set a June 30 deadline for presidential secretaries, who possessed two or more houses, to dispose of homes they do not live in. But he had to push back the deadline twice, first to July 31 and then Aug. 31, as many have so far failed to sell their real estate assets. Noh, also in possession of two homes, caused a controversy over his initial plan to sell an apartment in Cheongju which is much cheaper than another one in southern Seoul. Then he changed the plan in the face of strong public criticism. In the end, he sold both, but damaged his reputation for his hypocritical attitude.
Senior civil affairs secretary Kim Jo-won, who also owns two apartments in affluent southern Seoul, has invited people's rage because he requested a real estate agent to sell his apartment in Jamsil at a price 200 million won ($168,200) higher than the current value. More disappointing is that he even tried to find a lame excuse for his greedy behavior.
Half of the six secretaries still own two or more houses. This has put them under fire for choosing to quit their jobs instead of putting their multiple homes up for sale. More serious is that they are not the only ones to blame. Many ranking government officials and lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) are multiple home owners.
According to a report by the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice, one of the country's major civic groups, 36 percent of 107 high-ranking officials in charge of real estate, finance and tax policies possess two or more houses. Nearly 30 percent of both ruling and opposition lawmakers are also multiple property owners. This raises a question about whether the liberal government has any real intention of stabilizing the runaway housing prices and stemming property speculation.
President Moon should have sacked his secretaries who still own multiple homes, instead of letting them submit their resignation. He can never win a fight on property speculation as long as multiple home owners remain in office. That is why he needs a large-scale reshuffle of not only his secretaries but also Cabinet members. Equally important is to pay heed to the people's voices humbly and bring about significant policy changes to address many pending issues.