Comments on: I Guess He’s Serious About This Whole ‘Small Government’ Thing

By: OneFreeKorea » Good Riddance, Ministry of Silly Talks

OneFreeKorea » Good Riddance, Ministry of Silly Talks — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 05:16:58 +0000

[...] would add to what GI Korea and Robert Koehler have said, but they’ve already said almost all of it well enough. Mourning [...]

By: Are You NKay? | North Korean Human Rights Live - Oh No (and other links)

Are You NKay? | North Korean Human Rights Live - Oh No (and other links) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 07:37:00 +0000

[...] more serious news, I welcome President Lee’s slimming of the executive branch (Via. Marmot’s Hole). Not only it matches my views on small government, but the downsizing includes every NKHR [...]

By: Keyser Soze

Keyser Soze — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 06:50:53 +0000

Here’s an excellent piece on the subject from the Chosun Ilbo:

http://english.chosun.com/w21d.....80023.html

Here’s some reporting on the backlash from Joongang:

http://joongangdaily.joins.com.....id=2885263

Break out the candles, a bureaucrat might lose his job!

By: wjk

wjk — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 03:39:30 +0000

i like the dude more and more. He’s my kind of guy.

By: James Turnbull

James Turnbull — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 03:31:21 +0000

Regardless of what people think about LMB’s downsizing of the government as a whole, or of the soon to be lost Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF)itself, one little mentioned fact that only one English-language media source has mentioned so far is that it’s being merged with the Ministry of Health and Welfare despite LMB’s pre-election promise to sterengthen it.

Sure, MOGEF will be little missed by anyone other than politically-marginal women’s groups, and I too think that it’s stance on prostitution was naive and ineffective at best, but I find it ominious that LMB is reneging on his promises so quickly, a mere 4 weeks after being elected. What else will he backtrack on?

Please forgive the shameless plug for my blog, but if anyone’s interested I’ve been covering that issue for two weeks now, starting with this post:

http://thegrandnarrative.wordp.....-equality/

By: mjw

mjw — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 02:31:00 +0000

By the way, did anyone post earlier on Park Geun-hye being dispatched to China as a “special envoy”? Didn’t see it… Pretty slick move to give her something (symbolically) important to do… IMHO.

By: mjw

mjw — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 02:28:30 +0000

When it comes to smaller government, I don’t think there is any need to be dogmatic about it. Less isn’t always more in these cases. However…

In the Korean government context, less is MOST DEFINITELY MORE.

As linkd said above, this is just the opening salvo. LMB can’t just come in and do all this unilaterally.

By: Lee Recommends Huge Cuts in Federal Government at ROK Drop

Lee Recommends Huge Cuts in Federal Government at ROK Drop — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:35:28 +0000

[...] Of course you can read more over at the Marmot’s Hole. [...]

By: R. Elgin

R. Elgin — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:02:24 +0000

True enough Zonath. It may take some time to kill the largess of Konja in government. I guess death is a solution sometimes but it is considered bad taste to hasten it.

By: Zonath

Zonath — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:20:01 +0000

More & more are studying-for and taking those exams, and thus the quality of those ultimately selected keeps going up.

…and guess who’ll be first up on the block? Not the petty, incompetent bureaucrats who’ve been in their posts for 20-odd years… Sure, there’s a handful of ministers, vice ministers, and directors on the way out, but how much do you want to bet that those guys are a shade away from the mandatory retirement age anyhow? Maybe I’m just pessimistic.