[Opinion] Roh Mulroney

Early this year, this writer wrote an article comparing President Roh Moo-hyun and former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who is from the Progressive Conservative Party. It asked President Roh not to mention Mulroney in relation to a tax increase, for what helped Mulroney revive the economy cannot be said to have been Mulroney’s tax increase. The government policy news criticized this article for being too rash, and the president (on February 6), after a complete defeat in the local elections, said again that Mulroney’s consumption tax policy settled a crisis. The government policy news at that time was full of obstinacy and distortion.

The government policy news stated, “The fact that the succeeding Liberal Party withdrew its public pledge to abolish the Goods and Services Tax (GST) shows that the GST was helpful to the government’s finances.” This is no different than saying, “He had a meal and because he felt full, he kept eating.”

According to the statistics of the Canadian government, the government’s debt consisted of 48.8% of Canada’s GDP in 1991 when the government introduced the GST. The succeeding government could not revive the economy, which led to the government debt growing to 64.4% of GDP in 1997. No wonder the new prime minister, feeling pressed for pennies, didn’t abolish the GST.

In fact, Mulroney was innocent of the charges. In 1984, he inherited a government debt consisting of 40% of the GDP from the Liberal Party. The preceding progressive government was a big government which had increased both government spending and the financial deficit twofold by adding seven ministries, 14 ministers and 114 committees. Quite unlike the Roh government, which is pushing for a tax increase after acquiring a government debt bigger that that of the Kim Dae-jung government in its five years by adding 19 ministers and deputy ministers, and 8 presidential commissions.

The government news office, omitting the enlargement of high ranking positions and committees, only said that the number of public service officers, including teachers and policemen, has increased by 22,422.

In 2003, Professor Michael Hart at Carleton University in Canada wrote an article saying that Mulroney undertook Neo-liberal reforms, such as cutting government spending, privatizing public enterprises, and abolishing industry regulations. Professor George Perlin at Queen’s University said the groundwork for economic revival was laid by market-friendly policies and the signing of an FTA with the U.S. It’s a worrisome problem if the government policy news left out these points in order not to disturb the president’s mood. This explains why President Roh keeps referring to Mulroney mistakenly when other times he emphasizes the importance of impartial information.

Kim Sun-deok, Editorial Writer, yuri@donga.com