[Editorial] Hearing for Minister Nominees

Some lawmakers at the ruling Millennium Democratic Party began to suggest that the Roh government go without the hearing process in appointing heads of the four government agencies – intelligence, police, tax and financial supervision chiefs. They cite that time is too short to go through the hearing, which sounds hardly convincing. They must have known of the limited time during election campaigns.

MDP appears to fear that president`s nominees might be rejected easily at the hearing where MDP will be outnumbered by the opposition Grand National Party, which holds majority of the parliament. They need to put more effort to finding right men for the position, however, instead of worrying about the risk. The ruling party might bring a problem upon themselves by trying to skip the due process. GNP already began to making an issue – whether MDP and its president elect are willing to fulfill their campaign pledges. Unless they make their position clear about the issue, therefore, it will spark yet another clash between the two parties.

It`s not that a new government is obliged to carry out all the pledges it made. Having a hearing, however, is key to reform politics, importance of which people already realized. The ruling and opposition parties, in fact, agreed twice before to hold a hearing to select right men to lead government agencies.

We have learned through the earlier hearings, which rejected two prime minister nominees, if they are unfit for the jobs either morally or competently they must be let go. The four posts, in particular, require a process of thorough verification given the neutrality required for the jobs.

The chiefs of the four government agencies appointed by the incumbent government shows how important to go through a due process. The head of the National Intelligence Agency has been suspected repeatedly about his link to the corruption of president Kim`s sons. The police and the tax chiefs also invited criticism about their involvement in influence peddling and speculation. The head of the Financial Supervisory Commission was under watchful eyes for his alleged arrangement of easy loans.

Of all the failures of the current government, the failure to hire qualified men was the most fatal. A hearing is a prerequisite, therefore to find right men for the key jobs. There must be no more wastes of energy on contention about integrity of high-ranking officials with the new government.