“What Is He Going to Say?” - Mayor Lee’s Impromptu Remarks

Lee Myung-bak, newly sworn-in Mayor of Seoul City, is under fire for his impromptu remarks and policy announcements. Less than a month since his inauguration, he has exhibited some extent of inconsistency in policy stance. And the concern has been raised if the mayor continues to improvise the municipal governance to gain public support instead of seeking consistency through an organized system, he will only end up doing harm the public.

* Impromptu Policies Abound

“Now that the 5 working days system is in place, we are considering exempting the toll imposed on cars passing through No.1 and 3 Mountain Nam Tunnels for Saturday drivers,” Lee recently said at an interview with cable news network YTN on July 26. “We have also decided to delay raising subway fees initially due in September this year.”

Working-level officials in the metropolitan government, however, were apparently upset hearing the remarks from their new head.

“Seoul City is seeking a way to extend the hours set for the Mountain Nam toll from three in the afternoon to six in the evening on Saturday as a part of effort to curb the increase of passenger cars,” the government earlier made an announcement on the 19th only to recant the plan after five days to maintain the current hours.

And it was only 10 days ago that the metropolitan authorities unveiled its plan to raise the subway fees by 100 won beginning September. The plan was a part of a large scheme introduced by Lee’s predecessor Goh Gun, who aimed to lower the rising deficit from subway operations by raising the fees every two years. Lee, however, overturned the policy in his latest remark.

In addition, the mayor also pledged to “create a public park of 9500㎡ scale in front of the City Hall building by the Oct. 28th citizens’ day” on the eve of his inauguration. But he lately backed down from the ambitious plan. “We will delay the construction to accommodate more opinions from people,” he said recently.

The metropolitan government under the new head further made a promise not to raise the cremation, burial and water service fees despite rising costs, saying it will either face deficit or improve efficiency of operations to make up for losses.

* Responses from Working-level Officials

“We have nothing to say on those matters,” said officials in departments in charge. Some remained mum on the issues citing “an gag order.” Confusion on the working level is evident as a manager and staff officers in a single team made contradicting remarks.

“The transportation-related policy, in particular, can cause confusion among the 10 million people of Seoul heavily depending on the transit system of the city everyday,” an official pointed out. “What is worse is if these things repeatedly happen, every department will care only about what Lee is going to say.”

Concerning the promise not to raise the cremation and water service fees, they say the government needs to take into consideration financial aspects of the matter although it is welcoming in that it will ease the burden on the public.

Some even fear that the City of Seoul, which has worked so hard to improve its hierarchical system, will be thrown back to the old days. “The CEO (chief executive officer) political leadership is about increasing efficiency of an organization, not about forcing people to follow a leader’s decisions for everything, which is the 1960s to 1970s’ leadership,” pointed out an official.

Young-A Soh sya@donga.com