Lee Jae-myung: "Because of constant information distortion and public opinion manipulation, 'People Power Party' is mocked as 'People's Burden'"

Gyeonggi-do's Promotion Cost per Capita 1,871 KRW... National Average 3,835 KRW
Promotion Cost Ratio to Total Budget 0.10%... National Average 0.11%
Gyeonggi-do's Promotion Budget 26.5 Billion KRW, Half of Seoul's 50.8 Billion KRW

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Lee Jae-myung, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, fired a direct shot at the claims by the 'People Power Party' and conservative media that he spent twice as much on provincial government publicity expenses compared to his predecessor, saying that the era of manipulating public opinion through information distortion and agitation is over, yet they still cannot abandon old habits, which seems to indicate that they still regard the people as insignificant beings.

On the 18th, Lee posted on Facebook an article titled 'Criticizing 10 people who ate a 50,000 won Japanese meal and then ate soybean paste stew as wasting money on food... This is why they are mocked as "Gukmin-ui-jim"' and said, "A certain member of the National Assembly from the People Power Party and conservative media criticized the excessive use of publicity expenses, saying 'Lee Jae-myung spent twice as much on publicity expenses as Nam Kyung-pil' and '43% of the publicity was for promoting the local currency basic income policy.'"

He continued, "It was former Governor Nam Kyung-pil who nearly doubled Gyeonggi Province's publicity expenses from 6.4 billion won in 2016 to 10.7 billion won in 2018 by setting the budget in 2017, and Lee Jae-myung only slightly increased it to 12.6 billion won in 2020," he claimed.

In particular, he explained, "Considering Gyeonggi Province's population, which is one-quarter of the entire population and 1.4 times that of Seoul, the provincial publicity budget is miserably low compared to other metropolitan cities and provinces," adding, "Looking at the total publicity budget, Gyeonggi Province has 26.5 billion won, which is higher than the metropolitan city and province average of 10.8 billion won, but only about half compared to Seoul's 50.8 billion won."

He added, "The per capita budget for Gyeonggi Province is 1,871 won, whereas Seoul's is 5,090 won, and the metropolitan city and province average is 3,835 won," and "The ratio of the budget to the total budget has remained unchanged at 0.1% since 2012 (0.09%). It is particularly one of the lowest among all metropolitan cities and provinces nationwide."

He then pointed out, "When criticizing budgets, it is basic to compare similar cases, but the People Power Party and conservative media have ignored comparisons with population or budget scale as well as other metropolitan cities and provinces, instead sticking to manipulation, agitation, and blind following at the level of Ilbe (Ilgan Best) comments."

Furthermore, he emphasized, "The publicity budget is spent on press management unrelated to residents, but Gyeonggi Province saved this and focused on promoting the basic income local currency policy directly linked to residents' lives, which should be praised," adding, "The public already knows through experience how effective the 'basic income type' disaster relief funds paid via local currency have been as an economic policy during crises."

Lee also criticized, "Even after being severely judged by the people's candlelight, a collective intelligence body, they still regard the people as passive beings manipulated by fabrication and are engrossed in slander and agitation, which is why they are mocked not as the People Power Party but as 'Gukmin-ui-jim' (a derogatory pun on the party's name)."