[Editorial] Simply incompetent

President Park Geun-hye, who was humiliated when some of her nominees for ministerial and other top posts quit for ethical problems, is accused this time of nominating incompetent and unprepared persons for public office. They are under mounting pressure to withdraw from the nominations.

First among them is Yoon Jin-sook, who was selected for the post of minister of oceans and fisheries. President Park reportedly referred to her as a “pearl I have found in the sand” when she selected her as a minister nominee on Feb. 17. Few raised questions about the compliment because she appeared qualified for the job, given her background as a director for marine policy research at the Korea Maritime Institute.

But she proved simply incompetent when she failed to answer such a simple question about fisheries’ share of the nation’s gross domestic product at her confirmation hearing held at the National Assembly on Tuesday. She continued to say she didn’t know or give wrong answers when one question after another was hurled at her by members of the standing committee on agriculture, food, rural affairs, oceans and fisheries.

Even more troublesome was her failure to give a clear answer to a written question she had received well ahead of the confirmation hearing. She said, “I’m not well aware of it (the question) because I didn’t take much care when I read it.” What did she do during the 44 days from her nomination to her appearance at the confirmation hearing?

No wonder it was not just committee members affiliated with the main opposition Democratic United Party but also those from the ruling Saenuri Party that raised questions about her qualifications, expertise, administrative skills and leadership. One was blunt in asking a question: “Why did you come here?” When cornered, she acknowledged she had initially declined the president’s offer, calling on her to select a “person with political skills” to head the ministry, which was resurrected five years after the previous administration shut it down.

No wonder the confirmation hearing turned into a circus, instead of a forum in which to verify the nominee’s background and debate her policy outlook, as has usually been the case in the past. Yet, this is not to say she was above suspicion of ethical lapses. She failed to clarify her suspected property speculation.

The new ministry has much to do under the leadership of its head. It needs to prepare the nation for a rapidly changing maritime order, improve the quality of life for fishermen and develop the fisheries into a viable industry. That is no easy job

Now President Park will have to ponder if it would be wise of her to put the ministry in the hands of her nominee, who promised to study hard when she was appointed a minister. A desirable solution would be for the nominee to quit on her own, paving the way for the president to select a competent person this time.

Another controversial nominee is the one selected to head the new Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, Choi Mun-kee. Not many would be more qualified for the job than Choi, a professor of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, who once headed the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute. Yet, he failed to explain in clear terms what constituted the “creative economy,” a professed key pillar of Park’s governing philosophy, whose promotion the ministry was given the mandate to spearhead.

When asked to define it at his confirmation hearing, he said it was to transform the nation, which is now a technology follower, into a technology leader, develop a new growth engine and, by doing so, create jobs. When he was lashed for failing to enlighten any more, he babbled again, “I will create a blue ocean for the creative economy in the fields of services and solutions and in the fields of content and applications.”

A better explanation came from Kim Kwang-doo, president of the Institute for the Future of State, a think tank created in 2010 to help elect Park as president. He said, “It is to develop businesses out of new ideas that have never existed in the past after their feasibility studies are conducted and graft existing or new technologies to the established industries. Key players here are ventures.” Before making any attempt to launch a creative economy, the Park administration will have to flesh out its concept and share it with Choi and all other stakeholders.