For the past 10 days, you must have felt frustrated and angry because of the ‘Saemangeum World Scout Jamboree’. It was the definitive edition of the government’s failures of ‘incompetence and blame’.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Jamboree was an ‘event of President Yoon Seok-yeol’. The fact that President Yoon was a boy scout in elementary school has been known since the presidential election. In March, he was appointed honorary president of the Korea Scout Federation. At the ceremony, President Yoon said, “As president, I promised to fully support this Jamboree to be held in Saemangeum.” And on the 2nd, I entered the Jamboree Opening Ceremony with Ms. Kim Gun-hee while receiving the ‘Jangmunrye’, which expresses the highest courtesy at the scouting event. It would not be such shamelessness if President Yoon, who was a scout and was even appointed as an honorary president and enjoyed the spotlight at the opening ceremony, shirks responsibility for this event.
But things are going that way. ‘Incompetence and inaction’ in which the government causes problems by not doing basic tasks, ‘irresponsibility and blame’ in which the government does not think of taking responsibility when a problem arises and is busy passing it on to others, and ‘authoritarian behavior’ in which it tries to avoid problems with an oath. The Jamboree has become a stage where these three things, which have become chronic diseases of the current regime, are revealed in a stark and compressed way.
Incompetence and inaction
at the Jamboree were a situation that could have been prevented if the government acted normally even a little. There were several beeps. This is the scene of the government audit on October 25 last year.The opposition lawmaker made an accurate point as if he had foreseen the current situation, but the minister was listening with his ears. Urgent voices came out at the plenary session of the National Assembly last May.But the government didn’t move on. A more speculative scene is the on-site inspection by Minister of Public Administration and Security Lee Sang-min on July 28, four days before the start of the event. When Minister Lee touched the water coming out of the faucet at the drinking fountain and asked, “Is it hot or cold water?” an employee explained, “Only plain water comes out here.” Kim Gwan-yeong, governor of Jeonbuk who accompanied them, said, “Cool water is coming out slowly.” I don’t know what I checked even though I directly saw the situation where the water pipe was heated and hot water came out.Although the preparations for the main event were hurried, there was a part where we made every effort. It is an opening ceremony attended by the presidential couple. The opening ceremony was held from 8:00 pm on the 2nd, and about 80 patients such as headaches, stomach pains, dizziness, and skin diseases occurred. However, the event continued for another 20 minutes. On the 1st when the Jamboree started, there were already 400 thermal patients, but it seems that the end of the event was more important than safety. Since it was an event attended by the president, security-related preparations were thorough. It is said that some students were unable to attend the opening ceremony after waiting for more than three hours because they were delayed due to checking students’ belongings.
It is an iconic scene. The Itaewon disaster comes to mind. A large-scale disaster occurred as a result of the police focusing only on responding to rallies and protests around the Yongsan presidential office and ignoring warnings about the danger of crushing death. This Jamboree also needs to look back to see if the attention of public officials was focused only on the president, ignoring the safety and health of the participating students. It seems that there is nothing for public officials to do except to notice the president.
The government did not move in advance even during large-scale floods last year and this year. Prime Minister Han Deok-soo, ahead of the extreme downpour last month, announced that he would “make sure that evacuation and control are carried out in advance to the extent that it is unreasonable,” but he could not prevent the Osong underground road disaster in North Chungcheong Province and landslide disaster in North Gyeongsang Province. And after the damage occurs, instead of feeling responsible, they focus only on how to direct the arrow elsewhere. Like the Itaewon disaster and the massive flood, the same landscape of ‘absence of responsibility’ followed by ‘absence of the state’ is replayed. It was like that this time too.
As soon as Kim Ki-hyun, representative of the People’s Power, returned from vacation on the 7th, he blamed the former regime. Now it’s a boring ‘blame the former government’ repertoire.
Are you saying that the current government does not have to take responsibility for the international events that the previous government attracted? International events are decided to attract several years ago, and most of the actual events are held after the government has changed. However, the success of all international events, such as the Olympics and the World Cup, has never been attributed to the government that hosted them. A change of government does not make a country different. If you are in power, you should be responsible for state affairs, but blaming the former government is the height of irresponsibility.
Moreover, the current government has given meaning to the Jamboree itself and has been confident in holding it successfully.
The fact that President and Mrs. Yoon attended the opening ceremony and received the spotlight was the end of such confidence, and it was an announcement both internally and externally that the current government was in charge of the event. Even so, now I am talking about the responsibility of the former government. It is a very convenient and irresponsible way of thinking that if the event succeeds, you take credit for it, and if it fails, it’s all your fault.
Of course, it cannot be said that the previous government was also responsible. The inappropriateness of the Saemangeum development project, which began with President Roh Tae-woo’s presidential campaign pledge in 1987, has been controversial, and the attempt to use the Jamboree as a driving force for this project is also something to look back on. However, the cause of this Jamboree failure itself does not have to go back very long. British scouting representatives who decided to withdraw early identified four key problems.
All four did not require years of preparation. These problems were caused by the fact that the final preparation process leading up to the event was too lax. In fact, about half of the total Jamboree project cost of 117.1 billion won, which was organized for three years from 2021, 61.7 billion won was executed this year.
It was also a problem that the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which actually leads the Jamboree Organizing Committee, had no experience in holding large-scale international events, but it can be said that the current government’s decision to abolish the Ministry of Leisure and Leisure as a fait accompli had an adverse effect on the Jamboree preparations.
Even after massive flood damage last month, President Yoon Seok-yeol presented a novel idea, saying, “We must abolish all subsidies for concessional cartels and invest the funds for flood recovery and damage preservation.” Rather than concentrating on disaster recovery by concentrating national opinion, they used the disaster situation to ‘divide’ public sentiment by blaming civic groups as enemies. The government does not seem to know that the people are fed up with this kind of avoidance of responsibility and turning the arrow.
In addition to this, ‘out-of-body’ and ‘mental victory’ are also the organs of the current government. This is the remarks of Gender Equality and Family Minister Kim Hyun-sook on the 8th.
It would have been nice if they had shown such crisis response capabilities even in the process of handling the situation after the early withdrawal of the Jamboree. However, the result was a more serious fall in national status.
Authoritarian Behavior
The Presidential Office announced on the 7th that “President Seok-Yeol Yoon received a report and checked the Jamboree’Continency Plan’ (emergency replacement plan) in preparation for the typhoon,” but when the withdrawal of the territory began on the 8th, the situation became more speculative. . Confusion ensued as the participants’ accommodations were suddenly arranged. A university in Chungcheongnam-do was suddenly notified that 800 Jamboree participants would arrive without checking the dormitory situation, but there was no mention of cost processing or specific guidelines such as meal or room assignment. Another university was assigned 175 Yemeni participants and even prepared food for a business trip buffet, but they were notified late at night that they had not even entered the country because they had not participated in the Jamboree from the beginning. In some countries, student participants and support staff were assigned to accommodations in different cities and provinces and scattered.
It seems that the K-pop concert was what the government thought of as a card to make up for the overall failure from preparation to repair. There was a lot of irrationality surrounding the performance venue and casting cast. From here and there, even the story of ‘a dictatorship’ came out openly. The broadcaster’s music program scheduled for the day was canceled and the cast decided to appear in a K-pop concert, and then Rep. Seong Il-jong of People’s Power said, “The Ministry of National Defense will participate in the K-pop concert in Seoul on the 11th, with BTS, who
are currently soldiers, participating in the Republic of Korea. I hope you will take all measures to raise the national prestige of the country,” he insisted on “mobilizing BTS.” BTS fans issued a statement saying, “We resolutely reject the anti-democracy that pushes BTS into the pit in order to revive the national prestige of Korea, which was shattered by the ‘Jamboree Crisis’.”
Ive, a girl group who was known to be a member of the K-pop concert originally scheduled for the 6th, but canceled their concert on the 11th due to scheduling issues, suddenly decided to appear. Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Park Bo-kyun announced on the 10th, “We welcome Ive’s decision to voluntarily appear in a K-pop concert by adjusting other schedules in order to keep his promise to appear on the 6th.” However, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said, “The cast is supervised by KBS ,” and “The government did not request or ask for a specific cast.” Will it be so?
Criticism followed from soccer fans and the soccer world as the existing game schedule was canceled as the performance venue went back and forth from Saemangeum to Jeonju World Cup Stadium and Seoul World Cup Stadium. Jeonbuk Hyundai coach Dan Petrescu from Romania said on the 6th, “This is really bad news. He said, “It’s something I haven’t experienced since I was born,” and said, “I don’t understand it at all.” An official from the soccer world pointed out in an interview with the Seoul Economic Daily, “The way the government takes away the K-League ground, the home of Korean soccer, with a single word is reminiscent of the days of military dictatorship in the past.”
The same goes for the behavior of putting firefighters and police officers to manage scout lodgings in an emergency situation with an approaching typhoon. Dissatisfaction erupted as K-pop concert support personnel were hired from public institutions such as Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, Export-Import Bank of Korea, and Korea Electric Power Corporation. Nevertheless, Minister of Public Administration and Security Lee Sang-min said on the 9th안전놀이터, “I don’t know about the mobilization of public officials.”
It seems that the whole country is sharing the responsibility for the failure of the Jamboree event. I am worried that this appearance, which is reminiscent of the ‘general mobilization order’ issued in times of emergency, will be seen as backwardness of Korean society in foreign countries. Wouldn’t the authoritarian DNA inherent in the current government lead to incompetence and inaction in the public servants’ society, leading to irresponsibility and blame on others?
‘Government failure’ must be learned in detail by uncovering the causes.
As this Jamboree is the definitive version of the government’s failure, a thorough dissection is necessary. Otherwise, the failure is bound to continue.Even if there is no request from the opposition party, the government and the ruling party must clearly identify the cause of this failure even if they voluntarily request a parliamentary investigation. We need to find out the cause of why Korea, which successfully hosted the Olympics and World Cup, fell like this. Another failure cannot be prevented if the cause is blamed on others and the responsibility is shifted to the lower end. You have to get to the heart of the matter. Conservatives put it this way:
At the pinnacle of leaders who failed to make the country work is President Seok-Yeol Yoon. President Yoon said this in his welcome address at the opening ceremony. “The independence and responsibility cultivated through Scouting, the spirit of service to neighbors, and the attitude of devotion to the country will make you a great leader.”
Independence, responsibility, service, and commitment required of a good leader. These are the virtues that President Yoon Seok-yeol and the current administration lack right now. Looking back at the Jamboree painfully, I hope you learn these virtues one by one even now.
Planning and Cast Park Yong-hyun Editorial Writer piao @ hani.co.kr
Directing and Editing Cho So-young PD