[Insight & Opinion] The Strange Rightward Shift of Local Governments

Changing Slogans and Banning Progressive Language
Erasing the Past Instead of Building the Future

[Asia Economy] Strange information keeps coming in under the new government. A local government in Seoul suddenly canceled a festival just before it was to take place, citing concerns over the spread of COVID-19. There was no discussion of compensation for the private organizations that had prepared up to that point. A local government in Gyeonggi Province dismantled the Cultural City Support Center, which had been designated as a cultural city after years of difficult preparation. The new mayor’s reasoning was weak. Daegu City changed its slogan from ‘Colorful’ to ‘Powerful.’ While ‘Colorful’ embodied Daegu’s identity and aspirations, ‘Powerful’ seems to be an ordinary word reflecting only the personal will of the local government head. And that’s not all.

A local government head in Chungnam reportedly instructed not to use words like ‘citizen,’ ‘participation,’ and ‘innovation’ in festival planning documents, saying they are uncomfortable because they are progressive terms. Are these words of democracy not just progressive language? Gwacheon City abolished its car-free street festival and announced it would hold events gathered in specific spaces instead. This is also strange. Even though car-free streets are a trend for people-centered living, quality of life, and net-zero goals, do they not understand the significance?

In Seoul, the term ‘social innovation’ has become taboo, and there are plans to replace Seoul’s slogan ‘I, SEOUL. U.’ Rumors are also circulating that Seoul Innovation Park, a mecca of social innovation that can be proudly showcased worldwide, will soon be converted into commercial facilities. Instead, there are plans to build a giant Ferris wheel on the Han River, which is a foolish regression focused on hardware, environmental destruction, and imitation.

Seoul Innovation Park is a highly influential asset, with more than five similar spaces nationwide and three benchmark spaces in Taiwan. This is a strange Seoul. It is also a strange sign of regression that several representative facilities in Seoul, previously outsourced to the private sector, are being converted to direct management by public officials. They are purely rightward shifts without any basis or direction.

It seems like they want to disgrace previous local government heads and oppose progressives, but let’s not be mistaken. Conservative opposition is not progressivism, and local governments are not the property of local heads with a few years’ term. They have no right to recklessly disparage the accumulated collective intelligence and participation. If they only oppose for the sake of opposition and destroy assets, the power of accumulation in local governments disappears. History is a work of accumulation. Are we to deny that Korea became an advanced country through the two-winged accumulation of progressivism and conservatism?

Currently, the government and local governments seem obsessed with erasing past legacies rather than building the future. Future issues such as climate crisis, quality of life, personal liberation, and redesigning cities and regions are hardly heard. The Seoul mayor, Gyeonggi governor, and Incheon mayor are meeting to discuss the metropolitan area express railroad (GTX), but this is also worrisome. While it may seem like a fast connection project for the 25 million metropolitan citizens, recent history shows that it ultimately leads to urban sprawl, community destruction, rising housing prices, influx into local areas, and local decline. Alternatives such as regional regeneration, expansion of telecommuting, activation of shared offices and workations, and good artificial intelligence (AI) under ESG (environment, social, governance) should be sought, but instead, they follow outdated speed and hardware-centered approaches.

The strange rightward shift of local governments, whether read forwards or backwards, destroys past achievements and pursues only selfish fandom and showing off their own colors?this is foolish administration. It is hoped that they will now create a ‘Department for Regional Vitality Creation’ to awaken the intelligence of the people and learn the lessons of history’s accumulation.

Hwang In-seon, Marketer and Writer