'23 Ministers with Unadopted Hearing Reports' but Moon Says "Difficult to Recruit Talent"
Civilians Say "No Personal Attacks in Hearings" vs "Governance According to Preferences"
People Power Party Calls "Sudden Request Absurd..."
Jin Joong-kwon Criticizes "Seems Hard to Find Uncorrupted People"
President Moon Jae-in is delivering the 2021 budget address at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the morning of the 28th. Photo by Yonhap News
[Asia Economy reporters Han Seung-gon and Kang Joo-hee] As President Moon Jae-in emphasized the need to improve the personal background investigation-style confirmation hearing system, criticism has arisen that it would make moral verification impossible. The intention is to prevent excessive personal background investigations from infringing on individuals' privacy, but some argue that the public's right to know is not guaranteed.
Kang Min-seok, the Blue House spokesperson, introduced part of the content of a private meeting held on the 28th between President Moon and National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seok and others before Moon’s policy speech to the National Assembly during a briefing at the Chuncheon Press Center on the 29th. According to Kang, President Moon strongly insisted on the need to improve the existing personal background investigation-style confirmation hearing system during the meeting.
President Moon lamented the difficulty of recruiting talent, saying, "There is actually a phenomenon of avoiding confirmation hearings. Even if the person wants to, sometimes good candidates cannot be brought in because their families oppose it," and "It is really not easy to recruit good talent."
When National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seok said that "The National Assembly is also trying to revise the confirmation hearing system so that moral verification of candidates is conducted privately, while policy and qualification verification is done publicly," President Moon responded, "I hope that part is definitely improved."
President Moon also emphasized the need to improve the confirmation hearing culture again, saying, "Even if our government continues as before, the next government must break away from this. I hope the path will definitely be opened in the next government."
A confirmation hearing is underway at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@
The Democratic Party proposed an amendment to the confirmation hearing law in June to make moral verification of high-ranking public office candidates during National Assembly confirmation hearings private.
Representative Hong Young-pyo, who proposed the bill, explained the reason for the proposal, saying, "Confirmation hearings have been distorted into tools for political strife, and there are significant side effects such as parliamentary deadlock, avoidance of public office, and fostering political distrust. Normalizing confirmation hearings is the top political reform task and the first step toward a working National Assembly."
As this fact became known, opinions among citizens are divided. Some support the need to improve the personal background investigation-style confirmation hearing culture, but others point out that if candidates are confident, there is no reason to avoid hearings.
Office worker Kim (27) said, "When looking at confirmation hearings, they often become overheated with indiscriminate personal attacks and background investigations rather than verifying whether the candidate can perform the job well," and added, "The hearing method that tries to belittle candidates based on factional logic needs to disappear."
On the other hand, another office worker in his 20s, Choi, argued, "Confirmation hearings are held because at least minimal verification is necessary for high-ranking officials such as ministers appointed by presidential authority rather than elected positions," and "Since these positions involve important national duties, moral verification of candidates is absolutely necessary, and if there are problems, the public needs to know."
Choi continued, "Holding hearings privately ultimately means appointing people favorable to oneself and running the government as one pleases," and "In fact, the government has done so until now. Despite opposition from the National Assembly and public opinion, appointments were pushed through several times. I hope the Moon Jae-in administration reflects on whether it has appointed minister-level officials based on reasonable and valid standards."
Previously, President Moon pushed through minister-level appointments without the adoption of confirmation hearing reports. Under the Moon Jae-in administration, a total of 23 minister-level officials were appointed without confirmation hearing report adoption, which is more than under the Park Geun-hye administration (10) or the Lee Myung-bak administration (17).
In a situation where unilateral appointments without opposition party consent have already been pushed through, leading to criticism that confirmation hearings are useless, proposing private hearings is seen as unreasonable. The People Power Party also expressed a critical stance.
Lee Jong-bae, the policy chief of the People Power Party, said at a floor strategy meeting on the 30th, "I am baffled by the president’s sudden request ignoring the non-adoption opinions of the National Assembly confirmation hearing reports," and criticized, "It has always been the Blue House and government’s habit to blame others, but now they even blame the law. The claim that talents cannot be recruited because of confirmation hearings is absurd."
Former Dongyang University professor Jin Joong-kwon also criticized President Moon’s forceful appointments on Facebook in June, saying, "Even though the public is watching clearly, they recklessly appoint people; is there really a need to hide or conceal? Didn’t they shamelessly appoint Cho Kuk and Yoon Mi-hyang?" and said, "(The government) seems to have difficulty finding uncorrupted people."
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