After four long months of foot-dragging on personnel appointments, President Lee Myung-bak has filled almost all the key posts with his own men. It is hard to know whether the announcement, which came on the last day of 2010 with no prior notice, reflects Lee’s confidence in administrative control or his extreme sense of vulnerability. Our hearts may opt for the former but our heads worry the latter could be closer to the truth.
Most egregious of all was Lee’s naming of his former chief secretary for civil affairs to head the nation’s top auditing agency. Political scientists say the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) should be placed under parliament ― as is the case of its U.S. equivalent, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) ― not under the direct control of the President, for thorough and independent inspections of the executive branch.
Most previous presidents picked the BAI heads from among at least politically neutral figures. The incumbent one even defied that basic principle to have become the second chief executive to appoint his former aide to the all too important post since general-turned-President Park Chung-hee made a similar appointment in 1976.
Could anyone with an iota of common sense believe the new BAI head ― a former prosecutor who helped candidate Lee escape an illegal land purchase scandal in 2007 ― would conduct a fair, objective audit into the President’s pet project of artificially refurbishing the nation’s four largest rivers?
No less questionable is Lee’s rehiring of two former senior secretaries each responsible for media and social affairs as his special advisors. Lee sacked them in the wake of a local election defeat last June for reason of being poor mediators between the President and the people. Queries continue: Have they now honed up their abilities so sharply to make Lee a better communicator?; what about their overlapping roles and functions with the existing chief press secretary and spokesperson?; and does President Lee think beefing up media and communication staff is all he needs to prevent falling to a premature lame duck status?
Past experiences show the top leaders surrounding themselves with human walls of confidants end up further isolating themselves from voters.
The new Cheong Wa Dae line-up reminds people of President Lee’s campaign team more than three years ago. What leaders require to re-create power is not beefed-up royal guards but more open state administration that can embrace even political opponents.
President Lee needs to learn lessons from great conservative U.S. leader, Ronald Reagan, who named James Baker, who was the campaign chief of his nomination rival, George Bush, as his chief of staff after election victory. Also, behind the success of the outgoing leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was his all-embracing personnel appointment, including the bold pickup of right-wing figures.
The chief executive might lament a narrow pool of talent inside. Many people will be deploring his narrow vision that can’t see the vast pool of talent outside.