A presidential committee has unveiled a package of proposals to reform local autonomy, some of which will shake it up at a fundamental level.
The panel, headed by former governor of South Chungcheong Province, Sim Dae-pyung, proposed, among other things, that the local councils at the county and gu (district) levels be abolished in Seoul and five other metropolitan cities.
It also suggested that in all but Seoul of the six major municipalities, chief district administrators be appointed by the mayor, instead of being elected in a direct popular vote.
The proposals, which will be sent to the National Assembly soon, also call for a ban on political parties’ nomination of candidates for chief administrators at the smallest administrative districts ― si, gun and gu.
Some of these proposals make good sense, given that the nation’s local autonomy has been swayed too much by partisan politics, ideological polarizations and been tainted by corruption and inefficiency.
One good case is the rival parties’ clash before the June 4 local elections over the ruling party’s decision to break its promise on candidate nominations. The Saenuri Party had said that it would not nominate candidates for local councils at the lowest-level districts. Direct party nominations are often blamed for fostering corruption, since some candidates try to buy their way in.
Given the political sensitivity of the proposals made by Sim’s panel and different positions of the conservative ruling party and the liberal opposition, it would be a tall order for the government to push ahead with the reform plans.
Some proposals ― like the one to change how to choose education superintendents ― have already led to accusations that the government and the ruling party are seeking to turn around the situation in which more liberal educators were elected than conservatives in the June 4 local elections.
This calls upon the government and the parliament to take a cautious approach in pursuing the reform plans, which will overhaul the mainstay of the current local autonomy system that has been in place since 1995.
The main principle should be addressing problems and negative aspects ― domination by partisan politics, corruption and inefficiency ― while not impeding the basic tenet of grassroots democracy. We need social consensus on an issue like this.
