Political Favoritism

Appointment of Cronies Cannot Reform Public Sector

In early April, Cheong Wa Dae said it would not name unsuccessful candidates in general elections to heads of state enterprises. Many gave their nod in approval to the Lee Myung-bak administration's will for public sector reform. The same people are now shaking their heads in frustration.

President Lee's favoritism in personnel selection reached an all time high last week, with the government's informal designation of Ahn Taek-soo, former Grand National Party lawmaker and regional campaign manager of Lee, as chairman of the board of directors at Korea Credit Guarantee Fund.

Presidential aides have said the reform of public sector should be made by injecting private experts into inefficient state-run firms. Anyone can see Ahn fits neither of the criteria ― ``private" and ``expert" ― as he was not a financial expert but a politician and a key officeholder of the governing party until quite recently.

More ironical was the ex-parliamentarian was the most vehement critic of the former President Roh Moo-hyun for the latter's appointment of cronies to public corporations. The journalist-turned-three-term-lawmaker cites his years of experience as a member of the National Assembly's financial committee as qualification to take up the job. This may qualify him as an outside director of the financial institution but not the head of the board of directors, particularly in an administration, one of whose major goals is the advancement of financial industries.

Successive administrations have tried to prevent the state-run banks and other financial institutions from turning into the ``silver town" of the so-called Mofia ― retired bureaucrats from the Ministry of Finance (MOF). If the President's personnel appointments are like this, he'd better name former financial bureaucrats, who have at least higher levels of expertise and experience than politicians.

Lee reportedly is planning to name another former GNP lawmaker and former Korean CIA official, Chung Hyung-geun, to the head of National Health Insurance Corp., because ``Chung was a member of the Assembly's health-welfare committee." Little wonder people are saying as far as political favoritism is concerned, Roh may be no match for Lee.

The phrase on actress ``Ko So-yeong's S-Line" has long been on everyone's lips when talking about Lee's personnel management, based on school (Korea University), church (Somang Church), region (Yeongnam, or southeastern, provinces) and former aides in Seoul City government.

Much of the current difficulties facing the Lee administration could be ascribed to his cronyism and favoritism in appointing Cabinet ministers and Cheong Wa Dae aides. The President doesn't seem to even mind this in naming the heads of public corporations, meaning he is a very slow, or a hopeless, learner.

President Lee might need to take care of his followers who are now in trouble or remain idle in part because of their loyalty to their boss. There were similar problems with Lee's predecessors. If so, however, the President should have not stressed public sector reform through injecting new blood.

Lee also might refute that politicians with careers in related parliamentary panels can handle the complicated job of credit guarantee or medical insurance. If so, however, he should not have emphasized the importance of upgrading the nation's financial sector or reforming the loss-stricken health insurance administration.