hankyoreh

In the past, there have been some presidents who become more controversial the closer they came to the end of their term. This is said to occur because they developed greater confidence in their governance over the years, as well as increasing tension about how their accomplishments would be evaluated. Accordingly, some presidents proceeded inflexibly with their own fixations rather than carefully checking for any cracks in their governance tasks. This sort of problem was on display yesterday in President Lee Myung-bak’s New Year’s address.
In particular, his remark about the percentage and scale of the welfare budget out of the entire budget for this year being “the largest in history” already has observers accusing him of lying. The 2011 budget is riddled with flaws due to its railroading through the National Assembly without being submitted to normal review. Problems in the welfare area are also rife, including the complete omission of the childcare allowance, which the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) had pushed as one of its priority efforts. President Lee has placed emphasis on the total amount of welfare expenditures, but what actually matters, namely the rate of increase in the welfare budget, has been on the decline. His statement verges on a deception that distorts the reality.
If President Lee truly values welfare, he should be proposing discussions on plans to supplement the welfare budget with ruling and opposition party politicians. Instead, he has been on the attack against the opposition, characterizing its demands for things like free school lunches as “welfare populism.” It is always possible to have a debate over the policy efficiency of universal and selective welfare. But no honest policy debate is likely to come from someone like President Lee who twists the very reality of the budget. This is why it is so hard to find any hope in this long-awaited emphasis on welfare.
The national security situation on the Korean Peninsula is also a serious concern. It is time for both North Korea and South Korea to find an active means of eliminating potential crisis triggers and reaching a breakthrough in the situation. But with President Lee going back and forth between hot and cold in the area of national security, it is difficult to get a handle on his true intentions. In a talk with overseas Koreans in Malaysia not too long ago, he broached the possibility of a North Korean collapse, saying that “reunification is not far away.” Then, at the end of 2010, he made reference to the need to resume the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue in the New Year. Yesterday, he did not offer any concrete message of dialogue toward North Korea. The farthest he went was to say that “the door of dialogue is not yet closed.” With such an approach, his remarks are unlikely to gain any credence, let alone have an influence inside and outside the country.
Once again, President Lee skipped the long-customary New Year’s press conference. Merely presenting arguments without any active effort to satisfy citizen curiosities through their right to pose questions is not the approach of someone who is trying to communicate.
　　
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]