[Editorial] Hard to change

Two recent events gave clues as to what is on President Park Geun-hye’s mind. The first one is her latest Cabinet appointments and the second one is her Liberation Day address.

On Tuesday, Park replaced three Cabinet ministers and four vice minister-level officials, which, as opposition parties pointed out, fell far short of public expectations.

It is true that unlike most of her predecessors, Park refrained from using appointments of senior officials for political purposes -- like defusing a crisis faced by the administration.

But this time, Park should have had a larger-scale reshuffle of her administration, considering, among other things, her ruling party’s humiliating defeat in the April 13 parliamentary election and the need to boost her administration which many say lacks vigor with 18 months remaining in its term. 

All the three Cabinet portfolios affected by the latest appointment -- culture, agriculture and environment -- are not key posts, and more disappointingly, the nominations represented -- yet again -- Park’s self-righteous style.

Culture Minister-nominee Cho Yoon-sun is a typical case of Park’s excessive reliance on members of her inner circle. Cho has a relatively good reputation in political circles, but she lacks expertise and experience in cultural affairs.

Installing Cho, who had already served as the gender equality minister and the top Blue House political aide, in a post she is not familiar with reaffirmed that Park would not look beyond the her pool of loyalists.

Park’s aides highlighted that both the nominees for the agriculture and environment posts are career bureaucrats and that it reflected the president’s confidence in the civil service and her wish to boost the morale of public officials.      

What they did not say, however, is that both Kim Jae-soo and Cho Kyeung-kyu hail from the southeastern Gyeongsang provinces, Park’s home region. This again defied the consistent public call to fill senior administration posts with people from across the board.

Park also defied the call to sack Woo Byung-woo, the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs who has been embroiled in a series of allegations of corruption and other misdeeds.

This is yet more evidence that Park would not listen to and yield to her critics.

It makes a little sense that Park insists that none should be held responsible unless there are convincing proof of wrongdoings. But it makes a lot of sense that the allegations raised so far against Woo -- including the suspicious real estate deal between the wealthy relatives of his wife and Nexon and several counts of lies he made about it -- were at least enough to forfeit his authority to vet the ethical standards of candidates for senior public offices, like the latest Cabinet nominees.

But Park turned a deaf ear to the call and retained a man entangled in a high-profile corruption scandal as her point man on corruption and discipline in the civil service.

Park heralded her all too familiar “everything-I-do-and-say-is-right” attitude in her Liberation Day address, which, in a departure from the past, she focused on domestic issues, instead of Japan and North Korea.      

She particularly criticized those who have a negative attitude toward the country and who she said are trapped by “self-deprecation, pessimism, distrust and hatred.”

She said Koreans need to have confidence and pride in what they have achieved and continue to cherish the “can-do spirit.” In other words, Park was saying that the country under her tutelage is doing well and we should appreciate it and not complain about minor problems.

It is good our leader has unflagging trust and confidence in her country and her people. The problem is that Park doesn’t seem to realize that people’s confidence in the country is one thing and confidence in her administration is another.