Civil disobedience?
Balanced regional development has been a key objective in national administration for decades. But each time the government makes a decision on the location of any major state project, competition among candidate cities and provinces become so severe that it looks like the nation is just falling apart.
As the central city of Daejeon has been selected as the location for a “science-business belt,” a complex of basic science institutes and related business facilities, a tsunami of protests is sweeping the nation. Some local administration chiefs went on hunger strike, others shaved their heads and angry National Assemblymen threatened a “civil disobedience” movement.
Only last month, the government withheld its plan to build a new international airport in a southeastern location after Busan and an alliance of Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province mounted fierce contests to bring it to Gadeok Island and Miryang, respectively. Miryang is part of South Gyeongsang Province but the northerners favored it for its easy access from Daegu.
The duel between Jinju in South Gyeongsang and Jeonju in North Jeolla over the relocation of the state-run LH Corp. ended with the victory of the former. Before their merger, the Korea Land Corp. had planned to move to Jeonju and the Korea Housing Corp. to Jinju under the government’s scheme to redistribute state functions for “balanced regional development.” Their merger into LH Corp. naturally ignited the cut-throat contest between the two cities and their provinces. The government offered to move the National Pension Service to Jeonju but enraged officials and residents would not listen.
These rather pathetic scenes have several causes, but local administrators and politicians are the first to blame, while the waning authority of the central government under a presidency in an apparent lame-duck phase is worsening the situation. For elected mayors, governors and Assemblymen, a successful bid to house major state facilities to their constituencies means everything for their political ambitions.
With little objective consideration of natural conditions and economic feasibilities, they make bids for state projects financed almost entirely by the state and drive residents into heated invitation campaigns. It sharply contrasts the cases of such unwelcome projects as nuclear waste storage facilities. Whenever their bidding is turned down and other location in another province is chosen, they instantly claim a “political decision.” Hunger strikes follow, along with the bizarre ritual of shaving heads.
The science-business belt is a relatively big project envisaging overall investment of around 3.5 trillion won for a heavy ion linear accelerator and a cluster of basic science institutes. Daejeon was chosen, as we understand, primarily because of the existence of the Daedeok Science Town nearby. Daedeok, started in the 1970s, currently houses numerous public and private research facilities assuring synergy effects with the projected science complex.
However, officials of rival cities including Gwangju, Daegu and Ulsan suspect that the government picked Daejeon to secure Chungcheong votes for the elections next year. The conspiracy theory has flimsy grounds, but President Lee Myung-bak is partly responsible for the confusion.
An opponent of the controversial Sejong administrative city project, he had proposed to establish a science-business town there instead. As the legislation to change the Sejong City project was foiled, the president withdrew his offer and asked a group of scientists to start searching for the right location for the science complex.
The president should now push the science-business belt project with enthusiasm and sincerity, and without an iota of political consideration ― it is unnecessary as he is constitutionally barred from seeking a second term. The demonstrating mayors, governors and Assemblymen should please go back to their original duties.
As the central city of Daejeon has been selected as the location for a “science-business belt,” a complex of basic science institutes and related business facilities, a tsunami of protests is sweeping the nation. Some local administration chiefs went on hunger strike, others shaved their heads and angry National Assemblymen threatened a “civil disobedience” movement.
Only last month, the government withheld its plan to build a new international airport in a southeastern location after Busan and an alliance of Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province mounted fierce contests to bring it to Gadeok Island and Miryang, respectively. Miryang is part of South Gyeongsang Province but the northerners favored it for its easy access from Daegu.
The duel between Jinju in South Gyeongsang and Jeonju in North Jeolla over the relocation of the state-run LH Corp. ended with the victory of the former. Before their merger, the Korea Land Corp. had planned to move to Jeonju and the Korea Housing Corp. to Jinju under the government’s scheme to redistribute state functions for “balanced regional development.” Their merger into LH Corp. naturally ignited the cut-throat contest between the two cities and their provinces. The government offered to move the National Pension Service to Jeonju but enraged officials and residents would not listen.
These rather pathetic scenes have several causes, but local administrators and politicians are the first to blame, while the waning authority of the central government under a presidency in an apparent lame-duck phase is worsening the situation. For elected mayors, governors and Assemblymen, a successful bid to house major state facilities to their constituencies means everything for their political ambitions.
With little objective consideration of natural conditions and economic feasibilities, they make bids for state projects financed almost entirely by the state and drive residents into heated invitation campaigns. It sharply contrasts the cases of such unwelcome projects as nuclear waste storage facilities. Whenever their bidding is turned down and other location in another province is chosen, they instantly claim a “political decision.” Hunger strikes follow, along with the bizarre ritual of shaving heads.
The science-business belt is a relatively big project envisaging overall investment of around 3.5 trillion won for a heavy ion linear accelerator and a cluster of basic science institutes. Daejeon was chosen, as we understand, primarily because of the existence of the Daedeok Science Town nearby. Daedeok, started in the 1970s, currently houses numerous public and private research facilities assuring synergy effects with the projected science complex.
However, officials of rival cities including Gwangju, Daegu and Ulsan suspect that the government picked Daejeon to secure Chungcheong votes for the elections next year. The conspiracy theory has flimsy grounds, but President Lee Myung-bak is partly responsible for the confusion.
An opponent of the controversial Sejong administrative city project, he had proposed to establish a science-business town there instead. As the legislation to change the Sejong City project was foiled, the president withdrew his offer and asked a group of scientists to start searching for the right location for the science complex.
The president should now push the science-business belt project with enthusiasm and sincerity, and without an iota of political consideration ― it is unnecessary as he is constitutionally barred from seeking a second term. The demonstrating mayors, governors and Assemblymen should please go back to their original duties.
IMF chief’s case
An individual’s sexual misdeeds have never caused a greater shock and disappointment in living memory than the alleged sexual assault attributed to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French managing director of the International Monetary Fund who is under arrest in New York after a hotel maid reported to police a case of attempted rape Sunday.
Bill Clinton managed to survive the Monica Lewinsky scandal with a candid apology to Americans and Tiger Woods is back on the green after a costly divorce settlement. Gary Hart’s presidential ambition in the 1980s sank when his extramarital affair with a model was exposed. But unlike the allegations cited by the New York authorities against the IMF chief, these were not criminal sex acts. France is known for greater social tolerance of private lives, yet few doubt the incident at Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan spells an end to Strauss-Kahn’s public career.
Few at the moment would extend the generosity of assuming innocence until proven guilty and thousands of Internet users across the world wrote in their revulsion at the way financial elites do their surreptitious business through recurring global economic crises and enjoy the luxury of sleeping in a $3,000-per-night room, attacking a maid for sexual gratification.
The IMF will have to find a new leader and the French Socialist Party should search for a new torchbearer for the presidential election barely a year away. The shockwaves will go beyond the caf tables in Paris and the board rooms of Wall Street to the campaign centers of the seekers of high offices everywhere with fresh warnings for moral uprightness.
Here, we have seen some rising political figures facing disgrace over complaints of sexual harassment but the political arena has fortunately been saved from serious sexual scandals of late. We are afraid that, after all these years of corruption scandals and consumptive internal feuds, anything remotely akin to the misbehavior of the IMF chief would drag our political community’s social credibility as low as it can go.
Bill Clinton managed to survive the Monica Lewinsky scandal with a candid apology to Americans and Tiger Woods is back on the green after a costly divorce settlement. Gary Hart’s presidential ambition in the 1980s sank when his extramarital affair with a model was exposed. But unlike the allegations cited by the New York authorities against the IMF chief, these were not criminal sex acts. France is known for greater social tolerance of private lives, yet few doubt the incident at Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan spells an end to Strauss-Kahn’s public career.
Few at the moment would extend the generosity of assuming innocence until proven guilty and thousands of Internet users across the world wrote in their revulsion at the way financial elites do their surreptitious business through recurring global economic crises and enjoy the luxury of sleeping in a $3,000-per-night room, attacking a maid for sexual gratification.
The IMF will have to find a new leader and the French Socialist Party should search for a new torchbearer for the presidential election barely a year away. The shockwaves will go beyond the caf tables in Paris and the board rooms of Wall Street to the campaign centers of the seekers of high offices everywhere with fresh warnings for moral uprightness.
Here, we have seen some rising political figures facing disgrace over complaints of sexual harassment but the political arena has fortunately been saved from serious sexual scandals of late. We are afraid that, after all these years of corruption scandals and consumptive internal feuds, anything remotely akin to the misbehavior of the IMF chief would drag our political community’s social credibility as low as it can go.
New floor leaders
Rep. Kim Jin-pyo, new floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, vows to drub the ruling party in the parliamentary elections scheduled for next April. But he has much work to do with his counterpart from the ruling party before going on the stump together with Rep. Sohn Hak-kyu, the leader of his party.
On being elected floor leader on Friday, Kim, a second-term lawmaker from Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, said his party aims at winning more 50 of the 82 electoral districts that the ruling party is holding in Seoul’s metropolitan area. He was reiterating an ambitious election promise he had made as a candidate from the metropolitan area.
But what Kim needs to do as the opposition’s incoming floor leader is to establish working relations with his counterpart from the ruling Grand National Party, Rep. Hwang Woo-yea. The relationship must be based on mutual trust, which the two floor leaders will sorely need if they are to ensure a smooth, violence-free operation of the 18th National Assembly during its final year.
The public still vividly remembers the violence-ridden committee and plenary sessions the National Assembly has had in the past. Among them was a December plenary session in which some lawmakers were bloodied as the ruling party broke through the opposition’s human barricade to railroad the 2011 budget request.
During the final year of the four-year legislature, there are likely to be quite a few bills that could be as explosive as the 2011 budget request. Undoubtedly among them will be a motion for the ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, which opposition leader Sohn says is severely flawed.
In a post-election interview, Kim promised to seek dialogue and compromise on all pending political issues. He will certainly find a receptive ear in Hwang, who declared earlier that the National Assembly law does not condone any physical violence.
On being elected floor leader on Friday, Kim, a second-term lawmaker from Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, said his party aims at winning more 50 of the 82 electoral districts that the ruling party is holding in Seoul’s metropolitan area. He was reiterating an ambitious election promise he had made as a candidate from the metropolitan area.
But what Kim needs to do as the opposition’s incoming floor leader is to establish working relations with his counterpart from the ruling Grand National Party, Rep. Hwang Woo-yea. The relationship must be based on mutual trust, which the two floor leaders will sorely need if they are to ensure a smooth, violence-free operation of the 18th National Assembly during its final year.
The public still vividly remembers the violence-ridden committee and plenary sessions the National Assembly has had in the past. Among them was a December plenary session in which some lawmakers were bloodied as the ruling party broke through the opposition’s human barricade to railroad the 2011 budget request.
During the final year of the four-year legislature, there are likely to be quite a few bills that could be as explosive as the 2011 budget request. Undoubtedly among them will be a motion for the ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, which opposition leader Sohn says is severely flawed.
In a post-election interview, Kim promised to seek dialogue and compromise on all pending political issues. He will certainly find a receptive ear in Hwang, who declared earlier that the National Assembly law does not condone any physical violence.
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