Stop thinking of “Your own bowl of rice” and start running the country

By Eugene Lee

You don't need to know much to realize that South Korea has a governance problem. If you open a newspaper or turn on your TV, you'll see a number of news articles showing the current administration is in a deep legitimacy crisis or a state of cognitive dissonance. And it all begins and technically ends with the first family. Instead of the much-desired shroud of mystery, the first family is being followed by a swirl of conspiracy theories. This administration has become self-serving and self-consumed.

Today relations between the administration and the public have simply gone badly on every level. The local administrations started by opening the floor to suggestions from citizens, but now they are cherry-picking and stealing those ideas while presenting them as their own. All "achievements" are being plundered by shoddy politicians without any credit to those citizens who suggested it in the first place.

And we don't even need to mention the immature drama that is currently happening between President Yoon Suk-yeol and the media. Essentially, the president is simply "chickening out" of any communication with the media. Add to that a bunch of "doctored" photographs of the first lady released to the media by the presidential office from recent trips and you will realize that we are all in trouble.

Speaking of recent big summits, such as the G-20 and COP27, I am still trying to figure out what the country has achieved. A spectacle of complete absurdity was visible at the summit, with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman portraying investment in Saudi Arabia, as a boon for the country.

Maybe it is, but only to some construction companies and a few conglomerates. What relevance does it have for the average Korean citizen? While seeing these idyllic commercials I was hearing "Become dependent on the Saudis even more!" But is it what we should be doing? It would have been better to promote similar future technologies projects here, in Korea. Let's say somewhere in Changwon, Yeosu or Dangjin, where people drastically need investment.

The government must tend to the current issues through cooperation and not only between the government but also in academia, specialists, the media, businesses and even the public. The absence of cooperation between government agencies has resulted in the Itaewon tragedy. Though the systems were in place and manuals were written, the administrators were busy with completely different things. They were complacent! If you are complacent, you become complicit. The responsibility, therefore, is on the Minister of Safety and partially on the President himself.

A disastrous response (or rather no response) by the Yoon administration to the issue of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the U.S. resulted in South Korean automakers being excluded from the list of subsidized electric vehicles. The issue requires the government to respond, but no one is eager to take action as it requires an orchestrated reaction from several branches working together.

Back in 2013, the Park Geun-hye administration split the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, where these types of issues were dealt with swiftly. The outcome of that division was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs became in charge of crafting national foreign policy and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Trade focused mostly on issues from a domestic and regional perspective.

In the past, the issues of trade and foreign policy were driven by one body, but as the economy grew and became more complex, the imperative was for the two to work in their spheres separately. However, in a time of need, these ministries should have cooperated but that didn't happen. As it was in the case of the Itaewon tragedy, there were victims. In the case of the response to the Inflation Reduction Act, the victims are all of us, as our businesses are set to lose due to unfair economic practices. The problem is also that the IRA was big and detectable, but many issues go unnoticed as they simply fall beyond the interests and analyses of existing government agencies.

Among many, there is one beautiful tradition in Korea, called "doorae," a practice of a community coming together in a time of need. Knowing that they wouldn't be able to deal with any big tasks individually, members of a community would come and help, at times in a rotating manner and for any member of the community. So did the leading government branches in the past. For example, some said that the Roh Moo-hyun administration was not doing much and that was precisely the case.

The presidential office let the government organize itself and they did, as a number of ministries, like welfare and healthcare came together and introduced effective administrative reforms and policies back in the day. One thing though is, that you can't force such cooperation but rather you should create a spirit of unity and an atmosphere of trust and help for doorae to happen.

The same applies to the government. Just telling various branches to work together and follow manuals won't work, instead, it will create suspicion and competition between the branches, where everyone will be pulling the blanket toward themselves, taking credit for the achievements and trying to appease the leader for favors. Unfortunately, it is already happening in the current administration.

Becoming more and more reclusive this administration is moving further away from the people day by day. Such disarray is the last thing everyone needs today. In Korea, there's a saying "if you think only of your own bowl of rice, you are bound to fail." I understand, everyone has their own limitations and shortcomings, but when you reach the status of a head of a country, those concerns need to be left behind. There are bigger things to worry about other than oneself. Mister President, let us save the country. Or, let somebody else do the job.

Eugene Lee (mreulee@gmail.com) is a lecturing professor at the Graduate School of Governance at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. Specializing in international relations and governance, his research and teaching focus on national and regional security, international development, government policies and Northeast and Central Asia.