[Editorial] Public Officials Should Remain Neutral

Cheong Wa Dae lamented on its official web site, saying, “Isn’t it odd that nowadays public officials are wary of the National Election Commission (NEC) when they submit information to the National Assembly?”

What Cheong Wa Dae is talking about is the NEC warning the president because he violated election laws, and the Grand National Party taking issue with a 37-page report critical of an ambitious canal project that presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak of the GNP is promoting.

What they said is partly true. Public servants should be confused because the president, who should be the epitome of neutrality and fair elections, not only disregards election laws but also ordered the government to ignore the NEC and verify the pledges proposed by candidates.

The media is tired of saying the president doesn’t honor the Constitution, but it cannot keep silent. Article 7, Clause 1 of the Constitution stipulates that public officials serve the general public and bears responsibility for the public. Clause 2 states that law guarantees status and political neutrality of public officials. However, the president, who is at the top of the ladder, encourages government officials to break these laws. Under these circumstances, how can civil servants in their right mind not be confused?

The public and public officials do not find what the president said objective when he is bent on defeating the GNP in the upcoming election, even though he said government agencies should give the National Assembly whatever information it demands. Now, government officials are in a situation where they have no other choice but to review all the election pledges put forward by a candidate from a certain political party whenever a rival party wants them to review those election pledges. And the whole administration is in danger of being engulfed by such political maneuvering.

Korea has established a system where public officials keep absolute neutrality in elections since the government change in 1988. If this system is undermined, the whole government system will be subordinate to the president and his cronies. This newspaper has always argued in its editorials whenever the system was in jeopardy that the neutrality of the civil servants is a prerequisite of the system.

This newspaper calls on public officials to remain neutral in elections, fulfilling their duties to the public, even though the president is going astray.