Recurring human disasters
Government should take more responsibility for mishap
On Tuesday, the nine-member Constitutional Court unanimously rejected Interior Minister Lee Sang-min's impeachment.
"From the viewpoint of the Constitution and the law, it is difficult to see the minister failed to fulfill his constitutional duty to protect the public in violation of the Disaster Safety Act and the National Civil Service Act," it said.
So, the top tribunal concluded this society should not punish even the safety-related minister for the crowd crush that left 159 people dead in Seoul's Itaewon district last October.
The ruling might be legally indisputable, but it is totally incomprehensible based on common sense.
The decision comes after the judiciary branch released all lower-echelon officials responsible for the tragedy on parole. No one is in jail 269 days after the human disaster occurred. Contrary to Lee's brazen claims, the toll might have been reduced had he or municipal officials dispatched more personnel earlier and operated them better.
However, it took Lee 85 minutes to get to the scene in his "official car." "It wasn't a matter of police officers and rescuers," he later said. "I was not idling around," he told the victims' families. Faced with pressure to step down, he said, "I, too, want to resign with style." These might not be violations to deserve impeachment. One bereaved family member fell to the ground to hear the head of the court read the decision.
Opposition parties said the court's verdict did not free Lee and the government from ethical and political responsibility. Right but hollow. Instead, the manmade catastrophe and its aftermath raise a couple more fundamental questions; what are crime and punishment in Korea? Should law or common sense be prioritized? Especially so, as Korea has become a country of prosecutors. The incumbent administration governs through investigations ? only when and where it wants.
The government, which hurriedly wrapped up probes in the Itaewon tragedy, is lately dusting off every nook and cranny of another human disaster. About two weeks ago, 14 people died in an underpass some 150 km south of Seoul, as it was flooded when a nearby river overflowed after a dam was swept by rising water. It could have been prevented had the levee been built more solidly or had someone blocked the traffic in advance. This time, too, municipal and provincial officials are busy passing the buck. Police officers say they did their best.
Which lower officials will come forward when a Cabinet minister, mayor and governor emerge unscathed from manmade calamities taking dozens or hundreds of innocent lives? Pressured by people to sack his home minister last year, President Yoon Suk Yeol said, "Vaguely demanding responsibility for everything does not make sense in modern society."
Yoon might be right ? legally. However, if the president were eager to protect his minister, he should have issued at least a public apology ? ethically and politically. Yoon did not. He only paid condolence calls, saying "privately" he was sorry. Was he apolitical or too political?
The president and his office have not mentioned the underpass incident for nearly two weeks. It occurred during Yoon's unscheduled visit to Ukraine on his way home from a NATO summit. The silence also seems intentional, as the tragedy was partly a governmental disaster.
Former President Roh Moo-hyun, whom Yoon said he respects, made 10 public apologies in five years. In February 2003, President-elect Roh bowed his head as a "sinner" when 192 people were killed in an arson attack on the Daegu subway. It was considered a classic example of a presidential apology, full of sincerity and no rhetoric.
What most ordinary Koreans expect from Yoon are expressions of heartfelt sympathy and vows to fill administrative loopholes. People know when they see them. So far, they have not.
On Yoon's first anniversary in office more than two months ago, this paper called for him to be a president, not remain a prosecutor general.
We repeat that call. The top job is the most political post ? in positive ways ? whether an incumbent likes it or not.
Source: Yonhap News Agency