[Editorial] Secretive appointments

President-elect Park Geun-hye is grappling with a task that has been blown out of proportion in terms of importance ― appointing members of the presidential transition team.

By now she should have started to receive briefings from members of the transition committee on the conduct of the affairs of the central government. Yet she is still not ready to unveil the full lineup.

On New Year’s Eve, Kim Yong-joon, the former Constitutional Court chief who was named to lead the transition team, said his team would consist of nine subcommittees. But without disclosing any new members, he simply said it would take some time before the appointments were made.

The delay is the result of a strengthened vetting process for people recommended as committee members. Park felt the need to conduct thorough background checks on candidates as controversy arose over the qualifications of some of the members she has already appointed.

The most controversial figure may be Yoon Chang-jung, a foul-mouthed, conservative former columnist who was appointed the chief spokesperson of the transition team.

During the campaign period, he called former Prime Minister Chung Un-chan and other prominent supporters of Moon Jae-in, the presidential candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party, “political prostitutes.”

He also spewed venom against Ahn Cheol-soo, the independent candidate who bowed out of the presidential race after declaring support for Moon.

The DUP also notes that Park has run afoul of the law on presidential transition by appointing the spokespersons of the transition team, including Yoon, given that the law authorizes the team’s chief, not the president-elect, to name its spokespersons.

Another controversial figure is Ha Ji-won, a former Seoul city government councilor who was appointed as a member of the transition team’s special subcommittee on youth affairs. She was indicted in 2008 on charges of receiving bribes ahead of the general elections in April of that year.

The controversy over these and other members must be embarrassing to Park, who wanted to demonstrate her commitment to national unity by picking people in a fair and non-discriminatory way.

The root of the problem lies in Park’s style of making appointments. In selecting people for important posts, she tries to keep the list of candidates secret until she makes the final choices. Background checks of the candidates are usually made by her three loyal aides, who have served her for the past 15 years. As a result, most people around her are kept in the dark about the selection process.

In making appointments, some degree of secrecy may be necessary. But pursuing secrecy for secrecy’s sake is foolish at best and dangerous at worst as it hinders thorough scrutiny of the candidates’ qualifications.

Park needs to change her style. The controversy over the appointment of the transition team members should serve as a lesson in filling Cabinet posts and naming heads of such powerful institutions as the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office or the National Tax Service.

To select competent and qualified people for important offices, she needs to use the vast personnel files kept at Cheong Wa Dae and other government agencies and rely on personnel experts.