'Republic of Regulation'

By Park Moo-jong

What are public servants for? A servant is one that serves others or the home of a master or personal employer. A public servant especially performs duties for the people, namely tax payers.

For instance, a new governor elected in the June 13 local elections vowed: "I will always remember why I am called a public servant and not the people's master."

The motto of all public servants or officials is to "to protect and serve" as the words mean literally.

They are supposed to do right by and make happy the persons or people, namely "masters" who employ them. They are appointed by the government or elected by the people like lawmakers among others.

Unfortunately, however, they are increasingly losing public confidence these days due to their frequent "gapjil" behavior, the arrogant and authoritarian attitude or lording over actions of those who have positions of power over others.

What's going on in our society shows how the situation has reversed; the public servants are now the masters, and the people who pay them are the servants.

The people should be "water," while public servants should be "fish." Without water, fish can't survive.

The signature weapon of public servants for their gapjil is regulations, official rules or acts controlling something, which has earned the nation the nickname, "The Republic of Regulation."

The role of public servants seems to make something "possible." But what they are doing seems to make something "impossible."

Every administration, including the incumbent one of President Moon Jae-in, used to set deregulation as one of its top policy goals, to no avail.

Upon taking office in May last year, Moon promised to "lift regulations boldly." During a meeting on "innovation-driven growth strategy" on July 17, he said that "we should step on reforming regulations, the singular obstacle to growth driven by innovation."

Every government had declared a war against regulations. Little has changed. Regulatory measures have rather been strengthened.

A typical case of the Lee Myung-bak administration's (2008-2013) failure "to root out" unnecessary rules was the so-called "utility pole regulation" following a controversy over a pole blocking the passage of trailers in an industrial complex.

The Park Geun-hye administration followed suit and the incumbent Moon government is apparently repeating the mistakes of its predecessors, proving the common truth that empty vessels make the most sound.

Regulatory measures are widely spread in our society, adversely affecting business activities, in particular.

When it comes to government regulations "invented" by public servants, they are second to none in the world. Research has shown that out of 100 foreign startups asked to do business in this country, only 28 could do so and the remaining 72 couldn't due to various regulatory measures.

A recent Korea Times report proves the seriousness of government regulations: "Korea has the world's largest game development industry after the U.S., China, Japan and the United Kingdom. However, the country's regulation-stricken companies may lose their competitiveness," the head of a domestic mobile game industry lobby group said recently.

There "was" a gorgeous Italian restaurant next to Gilsang-sa (Buddhist) Temple in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul, with around 40 foreign ambassadors' residences. Soon after its opening in 2012, it became the talk of the town and an attraction in the area, especially for diplomats, businessmen and epicures, for its fine food and atmosphere.

The restaurant, which had the "finest" restrooms ever I saw," however, had to close voluntarily after three years of prosperity due to a regulation that no alcoholic beverages, including wine, could be served because it was located in a residential area.

For three years before the shutdown, there was no problem with it serving wine. All of a sudden, the district office banned the wine, citing the regulation. Many customers, including ambassadors and leading businessmen, appealed numerous times to the office, to no avail.

This is the tip of sad stories about how regulations affect business activities. Public servants today seem to think that their duty is not to serve the people, their masters, but to be armed with various regulatory measures to control the public livelihood and industrial activities.

Foreign countries are offering various incentives to attract foreign investment in such ways as to allow foreign companies to use land free for a fixed period of time and to drastically cut corporate taxes.

Yet in this country, suffering from worsening youth unemployment, many corporations are attempting to move their factories abroad due to the complex regulatory measures.

Public servants should change themselves and reform these regulations, keeping in mind that they live on the people's money and their masters are not the government but the people.

Their role is not to restrict the people but to assist them. They should restrain themselves from intervening in what taxpayers do to the possible maximum degree to make this country "The Republic of Deregulation."

Park Moo-jong (emjei29@gmail.com) is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974.