Jin Joong-kwon: "Government and Ruling Party Fall into Moral Nihilism... Unfounded Confidence Is the Problem"

Hong Young-pyo Proposes Private Morality Verification in Confirmation Hearings Act
"Regime Advocating Equality, Fairness, and Justice Ultimately Faces Moral Nihilism"

Former Dongyang University Professor Jin Joong-kwon. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] Former Dongyang University professor Jin Joong-kwon criticized the so-called 'Closed Personnel Hearing Act' proposed by Hong Young-pyo, a member of the Democratic Party, on the 24th, calling it "an attempt by the government and ruling party to institutionalize moral nihilism."

On the same day, Jin wrote on his Facebook, "The 586 generation (people in their 50s, who entered university in the 1980s, born in the 1960s) who entered the Blue House must have been confident that they were at least cleaner than the people from the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations. They must have believed that even if they played around with power in the Blue House, they were better than the previous two administrations," he said.

He pointed out, "That unfounded confidence was the problem," adding, "They only thought of themselves as the 'agents' of reform, but never considered that they had long ago become the 'subjects' of reform, the entrenched evils to be purged. So they got caught up in the 'form' of reform."

He continued, "Right after taking office, they proudly created the 'Five Major Criteria for Public Office Appointments.' At that time, they had some confidence that 'we are different from past governments. We are clean,'" he said. "The problem was that there was no one in their camp who met those criteria. So I remember they scrambled to loosen the standards and hurriedly created new ones," he criticized.

Earlier, President Moon Jae-in presented principles for high-ranking public official appointments during the last presidential election. President Moon pledged to apply a zero-tolerance policy toward five major offenses: ▲false address registration ▲military service evasion ▲tax evasion ▲real estate speculation ▲plagiarism. However, after taking office, when allegations such as false address registration surfaced during ministerial hearings, the criteria were expanded to seven by adding ▲drunk driving and ▲sexual crimes.

Regarding this, former professor Jin said, "But no matter how much they loosened the standards, they couldn't find suitable candidates, so they eventually gave up on the 'criteria' altogether. The first case was Cho Kuk, and the second was Yoon Mee-hyang," he sharply criticized.

He said, "The administration that advocated equality, fairness, and justice ultimately fell into moral nihilism in public office appointments. The attempt to institutionalize that moral nihilism is exactly the 'Closed Personnel Hearing' bill proposed by Representative Hong," adding, "While institutional improvements to personnel hearings are indeed necessary, the problem is that Korea is not the United States. In the U.S., investigative agencies including the FBI have independence and are trustworthy, but in Korea, the head of the police force receives nominations as a reward for election interference. The outcome is obvious without even looking."

On the 22nd, Representative Hong proposed an amendment to the Personnel Hearing Act to conduct the morality verification part of the National Assembly's personnel hearings for ministerial candidates and others in closed sessions. The bill's main point is to separate the current personnel hearings into 'Public Office Ethics Hearings' and 'Public Office Competency Hearings,' with the ethics hearings held privately.

Regarding this bill, former professor Jin said, "Look at the Cho Kuk incident. Even though the prosecution indicted him, the appointment was forced through. Which investigative agency in Korea would dare to submit a report that goes against the president's wishes?" He added, "In the end, the media remains, but if personnel hearings are closed, even media scrutiny will be impossible."

Finally, he concluded, "Since they have already embarked on the path of moral nihilism, just propose a bill to abolish personnel hearings. At least then, they might be called honest. I hope they at least understand the subject matter. I don't want to see those who should be the subjects of reform pretending to be the agents and acting clean. Just put a thick skin on your face. That would be a little less disgusting," he ended his post.

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