Launch of transition team

President-elect needs to polish up vetting process

President-elect Park Geun-hye’s transition team was officially launched Sunday, setting in motion the full-fledged formation of the new administration and the solidification of major issues to be pursued over the next five years.

A signboard hanging ceremony took place in front of the team’s headquarters in central Seoul and Park conferred certificates of appointment on its members. The team ― comprised of nine subcommittees and two special committees ― held its first general meeting chaired by its chief Kim Yong-joon later in the day.

On Friday, Park announced the lineup of her transition team largely consisting of academics and policymakers. The lineup drew a positive response in general because Park excluded her confidants and bigwigs from the lineup, and included hands-on experts from across the board.

In particular, Park’s choice of Yoo Min-bong, a public administration professor at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, as head of the state affairs subcommittee for planning and coordination, came as a surprise, given that he was largely unknown. Kim Jang-soo, a former defense minister in the Roh Moo-hyun administration who worked as a security policy advisor during Park’s presidential campaign, was named to head the foreign, defense and unification affairs subcommittee. Park needs to pay heed to criticism that the inclusion of more academics could show problems in reality and implementation.

We can’t overemphasize the importance of the transition team because failures of previous administrations usually began with fiascos in the teams. Given that its primary purpose is to prepare for a smooth launch of the new government, the team should not go to excess.

This means that the transition team must be satisfied with only presenting main policy directions and combing through Park’s campaign pledges and ditching some of them to prevent possible confusion from the implementation of half-baked policies. Also, Park and her team need to show openness by adopting some realistic pledges made by the opposition Democratic United Party during the presidential election.

The immediate task of the team is to help the President-elect select her prime minister and form a Cabinet. Of course, Park’s secretariat will mainly help her in the selection process but the team should exercise its utmost carefulness so that the first Cabinet can be formed without a hitch.

Most worrisome is Park’s style of making appointments. She makes it a rule to keep the list of candidates secret until she makes final choices. The vetting process is undertaken largely by her unpublicized aides, leaving most people around her kept in the dark about the selection process.

This could create a big stir by letting unqualified and problematic figures be included in the first Cabinet whose successful formation will determine the success or failure of the Park administration to a large extent.

Park also needs to pay more attention to communication with the people. It makes no sense that even her spokespersons are unable to give a background briefing with respect to her personnel appointments. She must change her style. <The Korea Times>