In defense of president's choice

By Choi Yearn-hong

The Korean people and media are critical of presidential appointments to Cheong Wa Dae staff and the Cabinet. Why? President Park Geun-hye needs her own men and women to carry out her presidential missions and duties. Critics seemingly want new political faces from outside her faction and party. Their wants are unreasonable in real politics. If Park’s men and women cannot perform their work in accordance with the presidential mission, then criticism must follow her appointments.

However, when the President previously recommended Ahn Dae-hee and Moon Chang-geuk for the office of prime minister, the media ran a furious campaign to find their “dirty linen” in collaboration with the opposition party and before National Assembly confirmation hearings. Ahn was a respectable Supreme Court justice and Moon was a good editorial writer for the Joongang Ilbo. “Killing the president’s men” seems to be fun for some people in my eyes. This kind of political culture may have discouraged many decent men and women from standing for the National Assembly hearing procedure.

Korea’s political culture must now be critically reviewed so as to attract decent men and women to accept presidential appointments. I don’t like the old spoils system of “all the government jobs belong to the victors.” This was when presidents appointed men and women without considering their qualifications for the posts. They thought all the government jobs were at their discretion. Some presidents picked their “house servants” or blind followers for high-level posts, including the presidential chief of staff and for the Cabinet. Loyalty to the boss, not necessarily to the nation, was the most important qualification. I don’t think President Park uses loyalty as the most important qualification. It is certainly important, but qualification must accompany this. Her government requires able men and women to manage state affairs. Blind loyalty cannot carry out presidential duties.

I remember that former President Kim Dae-jung appointed Kim Jong-pil and Park Tae-joon from the conservative political wing to important positions. There was a necessity for Kim to appoint his political opponents who strangely made an alliance with him in the presidential campaign. He won the presidential election in alliance with some opposition parties. President Park is different from Kim. Without political alliances with her opponents, she won the office in a relatively easy victory. U.S. President Obama appointed a secretary of defense from the Republican Party. Former President Bill Clinton did the same. The U.S. office of defense is supposed to be conservative, so the Democratic presidents appointed secretaries from the opposition party. That has become an American tradition.

The Korean Constitution stipulates that the president has the power to appoint his or her own men and women, but this requires National Assembly approval. That is supposed to be a testing ground for the qualifications of the political appointees. However, the fact that the Assembly hearing procedure has brought out all the “dirty linens” of many decent candidates has made a travesty of the process. New Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo became unpopular when all his moral lapses were exposed at his parliamentary confirmation hearing. But he was popular as a majority leader of the ruling party in the Assembly, where he did a good job. Before this role, he was also known as a decent governor of South Chungcheong Province.

His informal talks with newspaper reporters were secretly recorded and became a detriment to him during his confirmation hearing. That secret taping was illegal. Some reporters in the informal gathering said his words were more or less a joke, not a serious threat to the so-called anti-graft “Kim Young-ran bill.” The reporter should have asked him to permit the recording of the dialogue over meals and drinks.

I cannot judge the nature of the dialogue between Lee and the reporters, but the secret recording must be critically viewed. Lee could have been boasting of his power or authority as the majority leader of the ruling party to the reporters. If he was, then he was acting like a small child or adolescent, whose behavior could perhaps be pardonable. Additionally, his investments in real estate in Korea may have been speculative. If someone is trying to trip up Lee with this kind of accusation, he is a resident of the Moon or Venus. No one could be free from such speculative investments in the past. If you are trying to find a clean-cut politician with leadership to lead the nation, then you may never find one.

It is a very high wall for the prime ministerial candidate to jump. No one can go over the wall. Politics is not that sacred but that secular. Korean people’s expectation toward politicians may be high, but their expectation cannot be unreasonable. This seems to me to be a “mission impossible.”

Lee has become prime minister. We hope he performs his job well. All Korean people hope the best from him. As he performed well as the majority leader of the Assembly, so I expect that he will perform well in the job of prime minister. He may think that this job could be his last public service. Let him handle the new and highest job he has reached. That is all we can expect and hope.

Choi Yearn-hong is a poet, an environmentalist and a political scientist retired.