Public indignation is growing over the special committee tasked with investigating the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking for its incompetence and waste.
The Special Investigation Commission on the April 16 Sewol Ferry Disaster was set up as an independent government organization for an 18-month probe pursuant to the Sewol Special Act that took effect on Jan. 1, 2015. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced that June 30 was the final day of the committee's investigation. Most of the government officials who had been seconded to the committee have returned to their home ministries. The remaining staffers are only allowed to make reports on their activities for the next three months.
It is incomprehensible why the government has spent so much on a committee that has not properly delivered its mission to “investigate the truth” behind the sinking of the ferry, which capsized off Korea’s southwest coast on April 16, 2014, taking more than 300 lives. According to the Sewol Special Act, the committee was supposed to investigate 231 items, but it managed to conclude its probe on just one. Its only finding, announced earlier this week, is that the ferry carried more than double the amount of cargo it was permitted to transport.
The committee’s pathetic performance is because it wasted its energy on the wrong priorities. The committee focused more on political issues to embarrass Cheong Wa Dae, the police, the National Intelligence Service and other government organizations rather than conduct meticulous and scientific research on why the Sewol tragedy happened and the reasons behind the government's failed rescue operation. The committee, however, has blamed the government’s lack of cooperation for its lackluster probe.
Many Koreans collectively mourned the Sewol tragedy, but more people are feeling that some Sewol activists and families of the victims are making excessive accusations and demands against the government. The controversy over the extension of the Sewol committee is a case in point.
In protest at the official closure of the committee, some civic groups and families of the Sewol victims held a demonstration at Cheong Wa Dae, urging President Park Geun-hye's decision on the extension of the committee. Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul has already been turned into a Mecca of illegal protests largely owing to the prolonged Sewol demonstrations. Two years after the accident, the public no longer wants to see more Sewol-related issues cause more division and unrest in Korean society.
Despite its visible incompetence, the committee is refusing to uphold the Sewol Special Act by closing its probe on the designated date. Instead, Lee Seok-tae, who heads the committee, vowed to continue its operation. It has even requested 10.4 billion won in budgetary assistance from the government. The budget includes fees for the overseas trips of 15 staff members who are planning to visit Italy, the U.K., Japan, Norway and the U.S. to collect information about how these countries dealt with maritime disasters. Such information is readily available from the ministry and media reports. It is absurd that the committee plans such wasteful trips with the taxpayers' money.
The government has already had to spend so much on Sewol-related issues, such as compensation for the victims’ families and the salvaging of the sunken ferry. Based on its idle way of working so far, it is uncertain whether the committee has the capacity or determination to conduct an unbiased and professional probe. It should stop demanding an extension and close its operation after completing the reports on its activities.