[Editorial] President’s Speech Rings Hollow

President Roh Moo-hyun said in his New Year’s speech, “That which needs to be done must be handled without delay. Strategy is important but no less so than the speed of reforms and implementing them. Don’t ask me to pass on what I can do now to the next president. One year is long enough to do many things.” What he said was quite right.

No one in this country has stopped the president from doing his job. However, what the president must do is to prioritize. The last thing the president should do is to start a war of attrition and divide the country by repeatedly proposing a constitutional amendment, which the public doesn’t seem to support and is unlikely to pass the National Assembly. A vast majority of Koreans are saying that the first thing President Roh should do is to streamline and even abolish some regulations and policies that have put a strain on the economy and burdened the people.

The market and businesses are overly regulated, causing companies to become reluctant to invest. In turn, this stifles job creation and stimulates capital flight. Priority should be given to tackling these problems. Absurdly, what the government has been doing is adding insult to injury – limiting the total amount of loans a company can take out, curbing the expansion of factories in the Seoul metropolitan area, and putting in place ambiguous environmental regulations. This is exactly the opposite of what the president has said, which is encouraging “speedy management,” He is actually blocking “speedy reforms.” In this global world, no rational government does this.

The president does not seem to have a sense of responsibility for his failed economic policies. He and his government have launched a number of projects on a national level, doling out an astronomical amount of money in compensation. The government has prompted real estate prices to skyrocket by disregarding market principles and by missing the right timing for counter measures for speculations.

The president said, “Economic policies are hard to differentiate.” But it seems like he is trying to pass the buck. If you look at history or countries around the world, it is clear that a country’s economic performance is linked to the people who run the country. The president insinuated that “whoever was at the helm, the results would have been the same,” an idea with which the general public finds hard to agree.

With respect to the Korea-U.S FTA talks, an issue high on the national agenda, the president seems to take lightly narrowing the differences among people and persuading the groups who will suffer from the trade pact. President Roh was trying to sound impartial when he said, “The government is neither on the farmers’ side nor on businesses’ side. However, what is really important is to have a sense of balance and to consider Korea’s national interests and push ahead with what is right for the country.

What the public wants is not the empty rhetoric from the president but a better economy.