Moon’s second chance
Opposition should allow prime minister confirmation
Finally, President Moon Jae-in spoke Monday about the controversies surrounding his nominees for key posts. It was not a mea culpa.
“I nominated the prime minister on my first day in office,” he told a meeting of senior advisors. “I wanted to start working as soon as possible. But the process has been mired in politics, making my effort in vain.” It sounded like an accusation against the opposition’s rejection in confirming Prime Minister nominee Lee Nak-yon.
Moon’s remarks followed a survey that showed nearly three quarters of people want Moon to get his way in senior appointments. The People’s Party was the first among the opposition parties to drop its objection and back Lee’s confirmation.
True, it may fall short of the opposition’s call for an apology but as shown by the survey the opposition should give Moon a chance to form his Cabinet and start work as soon as possible.
It should be borne in mind that the President promised not to let go of tough criteria on personnel selection, offering to make a more concrete set of rules.
Nominee Lee admitted that his wife, when she was working as a teacher, falsely registered her residence to get an assignment in the district of her choice.
The prime minister confirmation is important because he holds the right to recommend Cabinet members.
But it remains to be seen whether the other nominees can get out of trouble.
Kang Kyung-wha, the first female foreign minister nominee, admitted to having her daughter registered under a false address to attend a good high school, and is found to have belatedly paid gift taxes for her children.
Tax avoidance and false residence registration are included among five vices that Moon declared would disqualify senior appointees. The other three are real estate speculation, plagiarism and dodging military service.
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea and Cheong Wa Dae have been going all-out to persuade the opposition to look the other way this time. The DPK has made a proposal to draw up a set of criteria about qualifications for the appointment of high-ranking officials, while the presidential chief of staff did apologize. This failed to make the opposition budge.
Moon is riding high on the public’s good will and expectations after the six-month power vacuum left by the impeachment and removal from office of his predecessor, Park Geun-hye. As with some of her predecessors, Park also had her first prime minister appointees disapproved of by the National Assembly, which deprived her government of a strong start.
Obviously, the public as shown in the survey doesn’t want any further vacuum in leadership. Rather, it wants the Moon administration to start immediately and prefers to judge it by its governance.
The opposition is in no position to drag its feet on the confirmation process indefinitely. It must know how impatient the public is about this scheme to tame the new government.