&#91EDITORIALS&#93Blunt advice for transition

Representative Chough Soon-hyung of the Millennium Democratic Party gave candid advice to President-elect Roh Moo-hyun and his transition team. His blunt counsel is timely, in light of the controversy over the team's abuse of confidence. Its limping operation creates confusion in and out of the country.

"It is desirable for President-elect Roh to stay calm and contemplate his plan to run the government, instead of visiting the office of the transition team daily trying to cool down disputes between the team and the administration," Mr. Chough admonished. He tried to draw a parallel to former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who tried to keep his distance from Washington D.C. before inauguration. We sympathize with his words. "It was not nice to see Mr. Roh intervene directly in the cancellation of the penalty on newspapers," Mr. Chough also said. "Preventing government branches from making their voices heard is against Mr. Roh's desire to make Korea a republic of free discussion."

Mr. Chough is known for his honesty, straightforward manner and unvarnished advice. He told the transition team it had deviated from its purposes. "The team seems to have started without a common understanding on what to do," he said. "Its function stops at reporting what it has learned on the issues before government agencies. It should not try to make decisions on policies."

We applaud his courage and patriotism. As long as there are people like Mr. Chough who speak out at the risk of political repercussion, we can keep our hope in the new government. We can also expect that all the conflicts of interest, disputes and confusion aroused by the transition team in the past two weeks will be settled. We believe that the high-handed attitude and ridiculous behavior of some team members, who behaved as if they were a "government above government" or "occupying forces," will disappear.

We expect the team will listen to the words of Mr. Chough, who was a co-chairman of the MDP's presidential campaign headquarters, and reflect them in their work.