[Analysis] Pres. Park’s Sewol address: apology and high-handed measures

Posted on : 2014-05-20 11:46 KST Modified on : 2014-05-20 11:46 KST
Response measures were announced without any consultation, in the President’s usual unilateral style
 during her public statement from the Blue House
during her public statement from the Blue House

By Seok Jin-hwan, Blue House correspondent and Kim Oi-hyun, staff reporter

The public statement that President Park Geun-hye made on May 19 can be roughly divided into two sections: an apology and response measures.

At the end of the statement - after apologizing, stating that “the ultimate responsibility for not responding properly to the accident lies with the president” - Park weeped as she intoned the names of those who sacrificed their lives for others in the Sewol accident. While her tears come 34 days after the Sewol went down, the statement represents a major improvement in terms of apology and consolation for the bereaved families.

In the statement, Park also laid out sweeping measures. In addition to the establishment of a national safety agency, which she had already promised on several occasions, she described plans to disband the Coast Guard, to decrease the authority of the Ministry of Security and Public Administration and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, to reform the civil service, and to crack down on the so-called government mafia.

 May 19. (by Lee Jeong-yong
May 19. (by Lee Jeong-yong

But the format of these reforms - which, in the words of President Park, seek to transform the entire country - remains problematic. The measures are undemocratic, being announced unilaterally by the president barely a month after the Sewol tragedy, and adopted through closed-door discussions. Nothing has changed about the Park administration’s governance style.

The reform measures that Park has set forward include controversial sections, and a substantial portion of the measures, such as revising the Government Organization Act, must be passed by the National Assembly, which will require the cooperation of the opposition. Despite this, President Park unilaterally decided to make a sudden announcement of the whole batch of measures, without first passing through any sort of deliberations, like some kind of shock therapy.

This raises the possibility that we will see a replay of Park’s denunciation of the opposition at the beginning of her presidency for not passing revisions to the Government Organization Act. Furthermore, the Blue House has not revealed by whom, or through what process, the measures that Park announced were devised.

Each time that observers asked the government to take responsibility for the Sewol disaster, the Blue House said that dealing with the tragedy had to come first. But the government’s decision to make a one-sided announcement of reform measures like a bolt from the blue without supporting any debate or establishing a consensus is creating chaos among people working with the sunken vessel.

After the announcement that the Coast Guard would be disbanded, the families of the missing immediately held a press conference at the scene of the accident, demanding that the rescue work not be interrupted. This is also why the government’s abrupt and unexpected announcement of highly populist measures such as disbanding the Coast Guard and cracking down on the government mafia is sure to raise suspicions that this is intended to help the Saenuri Party (NFP) in the upcoming municipal elections.

Furthermore, while Park spent 24 minutes reading a 58-page long statement, in which she announced large-scale reorganization of the government and major changes in public service, she did not allow reporters to ask a single question. She may have bowed her head in apology, but she only said what she wanted to say, without offering a chance for debate or rebuttal. This is the same pattern of uncommunicativeness that we have seen before.

If Park had fielded questions from reporters, she would have been placed in the awkward position of responding to allegations that the Blue House has its thumb on KBS, addressing the reasons for her recent appointment of former national security officials and close confidantes to key positions, and explaining mistakes made by the government in responding to the Sewol disaster. Park wanted to nip such questions in the bud.

This raises suspicions that the Blue House and President Park, instead of viewing the Sewol disaster as an opportunity to reflect on and to overhaul the way they have been running the country, are hoping that the emotional appeal of the president’s tears will give them a way out of the crisis. Such suspicions are reinforced by the fact that, since the Sewol tragedy, Park has been making appointments that strengthen the pro-government, national security regime, as well as taking a hard-line response to public protests and demonstrations related to the tragedy.

Park’s distinct brand of reprimands and punishment was also evident in the statement. She dished out plenty of criticism, saying that the Coast Guard failed to fulfill its duties, that the Ministry of Security and Public Administration had not done its job, and that the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries cannot escape blame either.

Even while acknowledging her own responsibility, Park in the end said nothing about the excuse made by a close aide that the “Blue House is not a control tower,” or about the chaotic early response by the Blue House, or about the failure of the disaster response system at the Ministry of Security and Public Administration that she herself had led. Another unsatisfactory aspect of the statement was that Park made no remarks about ways to improve her overall approach to handling personnel or running the government.

Saenuri Party floor leader Lee Wan-koo responded to the statement by promising to “eliminate government organizations that fail to protect the assets, safety, and lives of the people.”

“It is not right for the Blue House to use a national tragedy as an opportunity to unilaterally create a plan for reforming the government,” said Ahn Cheol-soo, co-leader of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy. “What we should be doing now is setting up a commission centered on the National Assembly and including a diverse range of experts as well as representatives from civic society and the bereaved families to come up with a plan to reform the government.”

 

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