Ahn Cheol-soo: "Disaster Relief Payment Recipients Must Be Reinvestigated... Typical Desk Administration"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Wondara] Ahn Cheol-soo, leader of the People’s Party, argued that the government’s decision to provide emergency disaster relief funds in response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) should be reconsidered in terms of the recipients and the method of distribution. He also emphasized that the timing of the payment should be right after the general election, within April.

On the morning of the 6th, Ahn stated this in a post on his Facebook, saying, "Today is the 6th day of my cross-country journey."

Regarding the government’s plan to provide emergency disaster relief funds to the bottom 70% of the population based on health insurance premiums, Ahn criticized it as "a typical example of desk-bound administration."

He pointed out, "Support should be given to self-employed people whose sales have sharply declined since the beginning of this year, so how can they base it on income from two years ago?" He also questioned, "Where did the idea come from to provide emergency disaster relief funds to public officials whose salaries remain the same even after COVID-19?"

He added, "We need to decide which citizens should receive what kind of support and how to allocate the limited budget more efficiently," and urged, "We must start the investigation quickly."

However, he stressed, "Even if overpayments are later recovered through year-end tax adjustments or other means, we must first save the citizens who are on the brink of starvation," emphasizing, "The timing for providing the emergency disaster relief funds should be moved up to within April, right after the general election."

Ahn said, "In the lives of the citizens I met during my cross-country journey, there is a mixture of hardship from difficult daily life, skepticism about whether this reality can be overcome, and a desperate will to survive no matter what."

He continued, "If you only sit at a desk in a secluded palace, can you properly hear the cries of the people?" and added, "Proper policies must be based on correct recognition of reality and accurate understanding of the field."

He also said, "A public-private joint COVID-19 damage survey team must be formed," and added, "The government’s representative economic error policies such as income-led growth, the 52-hour workweek, and nuclear phase-out must also be thoroughly revised."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.