President Park Geun-hye is expected to shake up the Cabinet and the Blue House as early as this weekend if her Prime Minister nominee Lee Wan-koo gets parliamentary approval in the vote scheduled for Thursday. Confirmation hearings for Lee began Tuesday.
Blue House spokesman Min Kyung-wook said that the impending reshuffle of top government posts would be “small-scale.” Regarding the possibility of replacing Park’s chief of staff, Kim Ki-choon, he only said, “You will know when the announcement is made.”
It has yet to be seen whether the spokesman’s remarks reflect exactly what the president has in mind or not. If they do, it’s a cause for concern.
The reshuffle comes at a time when Park is struggling with record-low approval ratings, which started to fall with the Blue House document leak scandal and allegations of influence peddling by her former and current aides. It was followed by public uproar over the year-end tax settlements for salaried workers.
Park’s handling of the Blue House scandal, especially her outright rejection of calls to replace Kim and three longtime assistants, added fuel to public criticism of her self-righteous, unilateral operation of the government and heavy reliance on members of a small inner circle.
Seeking a turnaround, Park nominated Lee, then ruling party floor leader, as the new prime minister and replaced three senior Blue House aides last month.
But contrary to Park’s expectations that her nominee would pass public scrutiny led by the opposition and the media and help the administration make a fresh start, Lee is under fire due to growing allegations about past misdeeds.
Many who had witnessed the disastrous fall of Park’s two previous nominees last year thought that Lee, a former career public servant who held senior police and government posts and who has many friends in the opposition, would not have serious problems during the vetting process.
But ethical questions about him have continued to grow since the announcement ― including allegations about his and his son’s military service exemptions, real estate transactions, omissions in the wealth report for public officials and plagiarism involving his doctoral thesis.
Then came the controversy over his comments about the media. Having lunch with a group of junior reporters, he boasted about his relationship with senior editors ― and even bragged that he could influence their personnel decisions.
The controversy gave the opposition the opportunity it needed, and it now officially demands that Lee withdraw his name voluntarily.
Even before the latest controversy, Lee’s reputation had been damaged, so that even if he passes the parliamentary confirmation process, he would hamper Park’s attempts to rejuvenate her administration and revive her popularity ratings.
Under these circumstances, Park has no choice but to approach the upcoming reshuffle of senior government posts differently. A small-scale shake-up, as indicated by her spokesman, and the selection of the wrong people would only accelerate the fall in public confidence in her presidency, rather than resuscitating it.
That would be the worst-case scenario for Park because now she has no one but the public to turn to. The ruling party is controlled by those who are often critical of her ― its new floor leader has already fired a salvo against Park’s welfare and tax policies and demanded that she make a sweeping change of the government. The main opposition has elected her former election rival, who declared an all-out, full-scale war against her.
In other words, Park is under political siege. It is obvious what she has to do to overcome it and save her presidency from the deepening crisis.
