Removing cronyism from the presidency

By Lee Chang-sup

President Lee has apologized to the public several times, not for policy mistakes, but for his cronies’ bribe taking. Prominent among his apologies is that over the arrest of his elder brother and former lawmaker Lee Sang-deuk for bribery.

In a Confucian society, the young often do not challenge the elder, and this may be why the President was unable to keep his elder brother from selling government posts. According to cynics, the current administration had been run under the collective leadership of the Lee brothers. Until the elder Lee was recently jailed, he evidently and purportedly played a decisive role in installing his cronies at government agencies and even private companies, including commercial banks. Like cronyism, nepotism is poisonous.

In fact, like many Korean leaders, the President is a victim of his subconscious reliance on cronyism and nepotism. He has appointed longstanding friends to positions of authority, regardless of their abilities. Consequently, dozens of his staffers and loyalists, including former Korea Telecommunications Commission Chairman Choi See-joong, have been jailed for bribe taking, for which the President has had to apologize to the nation.

Overall, the President scored low in terms of meritocracy, which involves picking public post-holders based on competency, ability and achievements. His presidency might be shining now had he adopted meritocracy.

President Lee has adhered to flawed principles in personnel management: (1) he seldom appointed professionals he did not know; (2) he screened out potential appointees from specific regions and the liberal party; (3) he centralized the appointment of government employees, thus weakening the power of ministers and strengthening the influence of his Blue House staff; and (4) he destroyed the credibility of the committees in charge of selecting heads of state and public organizations. These screening committees have been the rubber-stamp bodies that nominated the people handpicked by the presidential office.

In response to the public’s criticism of the rampant cronyism, Presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo vowed Sunday to limit the number of political appointees to 1,000 during his administration. The other two candidates, Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in, would undoubtedly vow to do the same.

Indeed, whoever wins the presidency should uproot cronyism and introduce meritocracy. The next national leader should decentralize the appointment process, so that his or her office would not be able to select an inordinate number of appointees. The presidential office should have minimal influence so that the screening committees are able to pick heads for government and public agencies in a fair manner.

The presidential office should not meddle in appointments at private companies. For example, Korea’s two leading banks, Woori and KB, are headed by Lee’s long-time loyalists and his elder jailed brother’s sycophants. The presidential office should only set guidelines for naming political appointees, with competency, internal promotion and regional balance as key criteria.

Professors are another group benefitting from the President’s cronyism. In Korea, there are too many professors jockeying for public posts. This year, for instance, more than 500 professors are reportedly working for the presidential candidates. During election year, these so-called political professors, often called “polifessors,” work for the presidential candidates, not for the students. These polifessors secured their PhDs in order to fulfil their secular dream to work in the government, not to teach students. Once their candidate wins, they peddle their influence in order to head public and government organizations, secure lucrative research funds and be promoted in their colleges.

Thus, the National Assembly needs to institute a law mandating professors to resign from their colleges before joining political parties. Further, each university should have the discretion to rehire them once they finished serving their public posts.

As a former U.S. ambassador to Korea, Donald Gregg, has put it, “South Korea has been very tough on its presidents: One was forced from office by a popular uprising and another by a military coup; one was assassinated; two were arrested and jailed; another two were disgraced by family corruption; and Lee’s immediate predecessor was first impeached and once out of office was so harried that he committed suicide.”

Indeed, President Lee has wasted much of his presidency on naming his cronies and former classmates to key public posts. Like his predecessors, including Chun Doo-hwan, Roh Tae-woo, Kim Young-sam, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, the president was victimized by cronyism and nepotism. Their corrupt ties have made former presidents’ postretirement life unhappy and inglorious, having disillusioned the public, fanned regional antagonism and deepened the feud between conservatives and liberals. Likewise, President Lee may also face a tough postretirement life for his thoughtless abuse of cronyism in running the government.

In Korea, the presidential race is a war between cronies for their post-election glory. Although political appointees are necessary for the president to run the government effectively, many of Korea’s political appointees are cronies who want to glorify their life and achieve fame. Further, amateur cronies have often destroyed the credibility and professionalism of key government agencies. These unprofessional appointees have often driven out otherwise professional technocrats, thus demoralizing the employees and sapping the organizations’ vitality. This vicious cycle should end now.

Government and public organizations should improve transparency in order to eliminate any room for corrupt political appointees, whose bribe taking, including selling posts for a price the equivalent of a year’s salary, is no longer a secret. Corrupt political appointees often spoil the credibility of public organizations by secretly selling posts to their trusted deputies. This political food chain, which is lucrative to both the sellers and buyers, is seldom revealed.

Cronyism and nepotism breed kleptocracy and crony capitalism. The current presidential candidates should ponder about how he or she can best break this pattern and serve the five-year term with dignity intact. His or her first job as the new president would be ending the pervasive cronyism and introducing meritocracy. Winning the presidency should no longer be a trophy for power-hungry cronies and old-boy networks.

Lee Chang-sup is the executive managing director of The Korea Times. Contact him at editorial@koreatimes.co.kr.