[Insight & Opinion] Pension Reform Must Succeed to Empower Education and Labor Reforms

[Asia Economy] The ruling party's share of seats in the National Assembly stands at 38.5%, marking the lowest minority structure in history. According to a recent public opinion poll by Korea Gallup, the approval rating for the president's administration is 37%, lower than President Yoon's 48.6% vote share in last year's presidential election, while negative evaluations stand at 54%, higher than the 51.4% during the election. Politically, the current government can only be described as a 'weak government.'

However, in matters such as the presidential residence relocation, the Cargo Solidarity strike response, the Itaewon incident handling, and the recent push for labor reform, the government has shown a strong stance. Meanwhile, Kim Dae-gi, Chief of Staff to the President, lamented the limitations of the weak government at the first high-level ruling party-government meeting of the new year, stating that out of 110 bills proposed since the Yoon administration began, 95 have failed to pass the National Assembly, and earnestly requested bipartisan cooperation from the opposition.

The current government seems to have already forgotten that 51.4% of the people did not choose it in last year's presidential election. Moreover, the fact that the recent approval rating is only 37% reflects that even the support base from the election is turning away. The reasons for negative evaluations of the administration include accusations of autocracy, unilateralism, or lack of communication. The public is aware of the arrogant politics of this weak government, but the government seems unaware. Furthermore, if a government that has lost public support pressures the people with a yardstick of right and wrong, such reforms will find it even harder to gain support.

The political momentum for reform policies comes from the empathy of the majority of the people or public sentiment. Before the dimension of right and wrong, public empathy for reform is a prerequisite. No matter how reasonable a reform policy is in the long term, if interest groups do not see visible short-term benefits, it is difficult to secure the political momentum necessary to implement the reform.

President Yoon's remarks that "there is no way for us to survive except reform" and "a country obsessed with maintaining vested interests and seeking rents has no future" are entirely valid. However, no matter how reasonable a policy is, gaining the support of the majority of the people politically and concretely implementing it through legal amendments is a different matter. In his New Year's address, President Yoon mentioned, "We must first lead our economy's growth through labor reform." The problem is that the target of reform, labeled as an 'abnormal evil,' is the vested interests of the progressive labor forces, which were the core foundation that brought about the previous Moon Jae-in administration and currently support the opposition party. Progressive labor organizations have already announced strong opposition struggles.

Moreover, the frozen economy is becoming a headwind against reform policies. If labor reform fails to overcome the National Assembly's barrier due to opposition from the opposition party and progressive labor forces, the overall momentum for reform policies will weaken, and even more urgent reforms such as pension reform and education reform risk falling into difficulties. In this regard, the government has made a wrong first step in the three major reforms.

For the three major reforms to succeed, the government must first win public sentiment by showing a humble attitude and compliance with the people across the entire administration. Next, it must demonstrate sincere efforts to persuade the public at their level to gain empathy for the reform policies.

In particular, it is reasonable to first push forward pension reform, which has no disagreement regarding its necessity, secure the momentum for reform policies through this, then proceed with education reform, and finally, based on the public support gained, push forward labor reform, which is expected to face the strongest opposition.

Kim Dong-won, Former Visiting Professor at Korea University

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.