President-elect Lee might like his waterway projects grandiose, but he likes his government small. And to prove it, Lee’s transition team is going through government ministries like a bulldozer through an elevated highway, axing five ministries along with three sub-organizations and — best of all, perhaps — a ton of presidential committees.
The Chosun Ilbo headline captures it best — “The ‘Committee Republic’ Being Disassembled”
Among the victims — get out the champagne now — is the Unification Ministry, which will have its functions folded into the Foreign Ministry, the new Ministry of Knowledge and Economy, regional governments and the NIS.
Ding, dong, the ministry is dead.
Also getting the ax is the Ministry of Gender Equality, the ministry that brought you the — in the humble opinion of this blogger — highly ill-advised Special Law on Prostitution.
Oh, and five presidential commissions will — sad to report — NOT have their mandate extended: the Presidential Committee for the Inspection of Collaborations with Japanese Imperialism, the Truth Commission on Forced Mobilization under Japanese Imperialism, the Presidential Commission on Suspicious Deaths in the Military, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Investigative Commission on Pro-Japanese Collaborators’ Property.
The news gets better — said transition committee Chairwoman Lee Kyung-sook:
As part of our aim to move toward a smaller government, we plan to lay off around 7,000 civil servants, including 11 ministers, eight vice ministers and 93 director generals.
Keep in mind, however, that perhaps my gloating over the stinking, rotting corpse of the Unification Ministry is premature. Opposition to Lee’s plan is going to be fierce — both from opposition parties and bureaucrats — so we’ll have to see where negotiations lead before sticking a fork in some of these ministries and committees for good.
20 Comments
Ah, bureaucracy, much like our Philippine government, except that at least Korea’s new president is now doing what a president is supposed to be doing: keeping his team lean and mean.
More power to LMB, and here’s looking forward to a better Korea!
The government that governs least governs best.
This is only a start I hope.
LMB for US President 2008!
Seriously I get the impression that Koreans have this democracy stuff down better than the Americans…
Well, the real test, and real urgency, is for Korea’s new President to get the public officials who remain on-the-job to actually enforce the laws that are already on the books… Enforced on the punks on the sidewalks and in the highest corporate offices, and on all in-between. If that is not done, it won’t matter much that he is reducing the number of ministries, agencies and committees. And if the reduction in Government personnel results in even LESS enforcement of laws and standards, we won’t be celebrating this for very long…
You mean, will these measures get the civil servants to do their jobs better? Doubt it.
Actually, there is no personnel reduction, at least not yet. LMB has announced plans to streamline the organizational structure, but not to reduce staff levels. That still leaves the extra - what was it at last count? 30,000 civil servants Roh added? - on the payroll. Thus, LMB has fired his first shots. The civil service is preparing its counterattack.
Naturally, many now fear for their jobs. Their counterattack will have nothing to do with improving their work performance. They’ll be too busy protesting publicly and scheming privately how to keep their iron ricebowls intact.
The civil service has always attracted the dregs of the educated class, IMO.
Oops, missed that part about laying off 7,000 civil servants. This dude ain’t wasting time, is he?
Great!
Going by this current trend, by the next election the next president pimps the people out to work cheap for the chaebol, and the following president sends the troops as cannon fodder for an imperialist US war (oops, done that under Noh), and the following president sends the troops out to shoot those fighting for human rights, whilst the next guy sends the troops out to fight those fighting for independence from a foreign power.
lee myoungbak cant do that bad, can he?
A new frontrunner for dumbass commenter of 2008:
Great!
Going by this current trend, by the next election the next president pimps the people out to work cheap for the chaebol, and the following president sends the troops as cannon fodder for an imperialist US war (oops, done that under Noh), and the following president sends the troops out to shoot those fighting for human rights, whilst the next guy sends the troops out to fight those fighting for independence from a foreign power.
lee myoungbak cant do that bad, can he?
I was wondering if someone switched swlee’s meds.
sanshinseon, I hope your job is safe. I can’t recall if you have mentioned on this blog where you work but I believe it is for the federal government.
And what will happen to the South Korean national security spy chief who went to North Korea to report back to his boss in Pyongyang? Will there be an investigation as there should be?
I’m fine, thanks, kwandongbrian — i quit my various jobs as tourism consultant for the national government (actually, by that end-point, the U.N.WTO ST-EP Foundation) after 5 years, and for 2.5 years now have more-happily been a tourism prof at a big univ… Safe as most any job, 95% autonomy and some good fun.
They will be desperate to keep those jobs, having gone thru Hell and great expense to get them!
Actually, Nat Gov jobs are ever more popular with the college kids now, for their percieved stability / security and decent social-status. More & more are studying-for and taking those exams, and thus the quality of those ultimately selected keeps going up. The best students are no longer only focused on Jaebol gigs…
…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.
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.
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 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.
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/
i like the dude more and more. He’s my kind of guy.
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!
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