[Editorial] Mobilized welcomers for Nobel prize laureate

In short, the government's mobilization of public officials at work for welcoming President Kim Dae-Jung's home-coming from his trip to receive Nobel Peace Prize is a deplorable incident, tantamount to turning the clock backward. For the officials who invested such an idea may have considered that this kind of welcoming would be most appropriate for the President who was returning home after receiving the world-renown prize. Or, it may be a manifestation of an intrinsic bureaucratic way of thinking.

However, this kind of over-loyalty will consequently put the President to shame and hurt the image of the laureate. A more serious question is that as long as the officials who have this kind of anachronistic way of thinking still exist in our officialdom, the government's reform campaign will be end up with a lip service.

Of course, it is more than natural for the general public to congratulate on the President's receiving the Nobel prize. Nonetheless, the congratulation must stem from their inner-hearts. But if there some coercive element is involved in it, the feelings for congratulation will cool down.

Yesterday, nevertheless, public servants with the Education Ministry and the Seoul Metropolitan Government were obliged to hit the streets with the national flags, Taekuk. And that it was their work hours. In particular, in case of the Seoul City Hall, the administration-autonomous affairs director convened an emergency meeting of the related ward office directors and ordered them to mobilize 200 officials from each ward. Moreover, the city authorities excused later that it attached a condition that only those officials who have no complaints about the direction join the welcoming function, and therefore, they were not forced to come out from the beginning.

But in the aftermath of the mobilization of as many as 15,000 officials for welcoming the home-coming President, leaving behind the event is mounting outcries from the public officials as well as ordinary citizens. Wasn't is an incident that disgraced the President?

It is more pity to learn that some lawmakers of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) slipped out of the Assembly standing committee while in session and rushed to the airport to receive the President. They also disgraced President Kim, as they infringed upon Kim's insistence that most important mission for the legislators is to faithfully carry out their proper legislative tasks.

Reform is not a gigantic undertaking. The basis of the ongoing reform drive is for every body to keep their own positions and carry out their prescribed tasks. The reason that the mood for welcoming the Nobel laureate was rather cool could be ascribed to the apathetic feelings prevailing among the general public. With the mobilization of the public servants, the disaffection of the people cannot be alleviated merely with the mobilized welcome but rather the popular feelings could rather become deteriorated. The reform in state affairs must be initiated with the rectification of the outmoded way of thinking.