Still a half-baked revamp of the presidential office

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Still a half-baked revamp of the presidential office

Published: 30 Nov. 2023, 20:13 Updated: 01 Dec. 2023, 12:39

President Yoon Suk Yeol has reshuffled the presidential office. On Thursday, he appointed Lee Kwan-sup, his senior secretary for policy planning, as head of the new Office of Policy. Yoon also replaced his senior secretaries for political affairs, civil society, public communication, economy and social affairs with new faces.

The president decided to relaunch the policy office given all the confusion over his labor, pension and education reforms. It was the president that shuttered the policy office to slim down the presidential office after his inauguration. The president also needed to strengthen his grip on power after his People Power Party (PPP)’s crushing defeat in a recent by-election in Seoul and ahead of the next parliamentary election in April.

But his revamp of the presidential office fell short of our expectations. First of all, the president did not hold his chief of staff Kim Dae-ki accountable for all the chaos of the past 18 months. The presidential office led by Kim failed to screen about 20 nominees for ministerial posts properly, which forced the president to appoint them even without legislative approval. The vertical relationship between the president and the Cabinet — apparently led by the chief of staff — and a critical lack of his political sense made the government look nearly lethargic. The chief of staff remaining in office cannot convince the people of Yoon’s determination to revitalize his government.

The president repeatedly committed appointment fiascoes. His government has been controlled by the precious few who occupy the presidential office — namely, secretaries in their 50s, former prosecutors, and former economic bureaucrats under the Lee Myung-bak administration. Nevertheless, the presidential office is still packed with bureaucrats accustomed to a vertical command system.

However, presidential aides who would scrutinize the weaknesses of the conservative government cannot be seen. If a policy judgment totally detached from reality continues to be delivered to the commander in chief, he cannot make wise decisions. The landslide election defeat in October and the overwhelming loss in Busan’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo on Wednesday resulted from the president’s misguided judgment on the situation.

President Yoon must overhaul national governance by recruiting fresh and competent people from a broad talent pool. He must demonstrate flexibility to hire qualified aides and government ministers even if they are from the opposite side, as long as they are capable. The president must humbly listen to criticism inside and outside — and respect them rather than brushing them off. The president himself stressed that he is loyal to systems, not his seniors, didn’t he?