President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol has started the process of forming a new government by appointing Ahn Cheol-soo, head of the minor People's Party, as chairman of the presidential transition committee Sunday. The appointment was the first step toward a government of national unity as agreed upon with Ahn for fielding a single opposition presidential candidate.
Expectations are growing that Ahn, a doctor-turned-founder of an online security firm, coupled with a 10-year stint as lawmaker, will lead the committee smoothly and map out new visions and policies of the incoming administration, including measures to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic. Ahn needs to focus on exploring new growth engines for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and push for political reforms. Yet concerns remain over his lack of administrative experience. So the subcommittee posts should be filled with those with enough work experience to make up for Ahn's weakness.
Yoon made it clear that he would appoint top-quality experts with sufficient experience and capabilities in diverse sectors. “I believe we cannot achieve our goal of national unity should we attempt to take and distribute the positions among ourselves,” Yoon said during a press conference. His remarks were apparently mindful of criticism of the Moon Jae-in administration for nepotism.
Yoon also tapped People Power Party (PPP) Rep. Kwon Young-se and former Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong as the committee's vice chairman and planning chief, respectively. The committee has a major task of laying the groundwork for the next government that will be installed May 10. An effective and orderly power transition is necessary to ensure the success of Yoon's presidency.
Yoon is also facing the daunting task of extracting cooperation from the majority Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) which has 172 National Assembly seats. Given this, Yoon's appointment of Ahn as the committee head was appropriate. Now, Yoon and his transition team should scrutinize his campaign pledges as it is impossible to carry out all the promises he made during the presidential race. The transition committee should conduct a rigorous review to assess the feasibility of his pledges and decide which to prioritize.
It is not desirable to scrap all the policies of the outgoing administration only based on a simple logic of anything but President Moon. Yoon needs to exercise political caliber by candidly soliciting people's understanding over “infeasible populist” pledges, made only to garner votes. He also needs to have an open mindset to adopt his rival candidates' policy proposals if they are good for the nation's future.
What's worrisome is the fact that President-elect Yoon has now vowed to shut down the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family as he promised to address reverse discrimination against men, especially those in their 20s and 30s. Yoon may face a public backlash if he seeks to implement controversial policy proposals unilaterally without building a national consensus. In that case, the nation will be sharply divided over many sensitive issues, making it difficult to bring the people together. Furthermore, his administration could stand little chance of getting approval for his plan to reorganize government ministries and agencies from the DPK-controlled National Assembly. That's why he should respect the different voices of the people and make strenuous efforts to get bipartisan support for his policies.