Presidential staff should be strictly disciplined

President Park Geun-hye apologized Monday over allegations of sexual harassment by former presidential spokesperson Yoon Chang-jung. It was the president’s first apology to the people, which means that the president takes the incident seriously. President Park said it was an unsavory incident in which a government official should not have been involved and a serious mistake toward the people and the country. The president has pledged that the incident will serve as an opportunity to discipline presidential staff by thoroughly investigating the case and punishing related people.

The presidential office must go beyond firing Yoon and unveil the truth before the nation in order to heal the wounds that the victim, her family, and Korean-Americans and to restore the country’s honor.

Presidential staff did not handle the incident properly by reporting to the president about the incident one day later, which can be described as a dereliction of duty. There is a need for the government to inspect if any systematic problem of the presidential office exists. A source from the presidential office said that only a few people have direct access to the president. If this caused the belated report to the president, reporting and communicating practice surrounding the president must be re-established.

Public servants are the ones who serve the people, not the ones who abuse power. More than a few staff of the presidential office are said to have lacked the sense of responsibility as public officials. These people are more likely to be involved in unsavory incidents, including those who used to be a journalist and a professor or an aide who will be laid off when the government changes. If a person thinks of an official visit to a foreign country as a trip for refreshment, that person has a higher possibility to be involved in an unwanted incident.

It is unfortunate that the fruit of the president’s visit to the U.S. has been overshadowed by this shameful incident. Certain people, however, view firing Yoon as one of the products earned from the visit. It is said that the former spokesman did not get along with other staff and had no tasks to perform, and that was why Yoon could drink into early morning of the day of a joint session of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, which led to the unfortunate incident. Taking this opportunity, presidential staff of the Public Affairs Office and the Secretariat need to be verified.

As Yoon was let go, the issues surrounding him, such as drinking habits and character uneasy to get along with others, began to be revealed. How could someone who would be drunk during a summit meeting period made it to the trip? Yoon is said to have treated staff of the Korean Embassy irritably as if they were servants. But this had been expected as President Park insisted him in spite of opposite opinions.

History says that if presidential staff fails to be disciplined in the early stage of the administration, inadvisable incidents, big or small, would continue throughout the term. It is not an exaggeration to say that the make or break of the government depends on the discipline of the public servants.