Dismissal of Minister Ahn

President Kim Kim Dae-Jung dismissed Minister of Justice Ahn Dong-Su over the Ahn’s controversial inaugural speech draft which pledged `loyalty` to the President. Despite Ahn`s speedy departure, the critics point out that an overall reexamination of the government administration and the system of ruling party’s personnel appointment is inevitable.

- Unreasonable appointment: The political circles pointed out that the problem with this appointment was that the Minister of Justice was selected in order to match the appointment of Shin Seung-Nam as prosecutor general, which took place prior to the appointment of Minister Justice.

The Grand National Party (GNP) stated that, ``This kind of appointment is derived from the political consideration to chose a prosecutor general that the ruling party can trust in the advent of the presidential election.``

Lee Suk-Yeon, the general secretary of Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice, said, ``The government-ruling party officials seems to be on the verge of crisis due to the policy failures and the breakdown of the public welfare. That’s why they are adhering to the recreation of political power, making unreasonable appointments.``

- Absence of the personnel management system: The absence of the personnel management system has been pointed out as one of the problems since the inauguration of this government. In response to the appointment of Minister Ahn, not only prosecutor’s office, but also the ruling party pointed out that Ahn’s ability and qualification for the post was not examined. Among members of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), there is a strong call for a reprimand of whoever recommended the former Minister Ahn. A high-ranking official of the party said that ``The problem is that personnel appointments are performed unofficially. Those who kept the President away from making a sound judgment should be reprimanded.``

- Problem in the handling of the situation by the government: The morale of the government-ruling party was damaged by the handling of this situation through the helter-skelter method and deception. Both officials of Cheong Wa Dae and the core members of the ruling party were busy trying to minimize the situation, by saying that ``Ahn did not draw up the draft by himself`` or ``It was just an incident.`` Through its official letter of explanation, Ministry of Justice announced that ``Minister Ahn did not even see that controversial speech note.``

- Comprehensive reexamination and the management of the system: Civic organizations and experts pointed out that the government-ruling party should have reexamined not only the personnel management, but also the whole government administration. They emphasized that the government-ruling party should not manage the personnel policy in order to match it with the desire to hold on to the political power.

Huh Young, professor at Yonsei University, said that ``the government should abandon its desire to hold on to the political power by controlling over the prosecutorial power.`` Through its official statement, People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy requested for the introduction of the public hearing system with regard to the government officials, by saying that ``the problem is that there is no system that can examine the qualification and work experience of the high-ranking government officials for their posts.``

Yun Seung-Mo ysmo@donga.com