Stealing rice bowlsExcitement is growing within the Grand National Party in the wake of the party floor leader Ahn Sang-soo’s call for people appointed by previous governments to posts and positions in state-owned companies and institutions to resign. The expectation is that, if it works out, there might be a lot of spots left open for people who applied to be GNP candidates in April’s National Assembly election and were turned down, as well as for others in the ruling camp. Which would be why a lot of people are joining in. “Ahn explained it well and logically,” said a Blue House official, adding that President Lee Myung-bak feels the same way. Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Yu In-chon says that the “heads of (government-sponsored) arts and culture organizations with the political colorings of the previous regime” should resign, while Knowledge Economy Minister Lee Youn Ho called for the resignation of “those people of different coding who were appointed during the past government.” Similar calls will now follow. This is coming from the highest echelons of the new government, so soon there will be people stepping down for being unable to endure it any longer.

At this point, you can no longer look at what is going on as merely an ideological debate that invokes the word jwapa, that loaded Korean word for “leftist.” The assumption you have to make is that it originates in some of the political needs of the new ruling clique. The first of those would be the need to make an issue of the previous president’s administration to have voters want to “render judgment” on it once again in April’s National Assembly election. The more immediate hidden intention would be the need to get “their” people sitting in the positions in question.

There are, in fact, few people from the previous administration who are in government agencies and state-owned companies who are, as Ahn would have you believe, trying to cause problems for President Lee’s government or smearing potential or current members of the Cabinet. How would non-standing board members at financial institutions, auditors at state-owned companies, and the heads of scholarly and scientific bodies ever have the power to cause headaches for the new administration? They wouldn’t. Neither do most executives at state companies and other public agencies.

The claim that it was wrong for there to have been a lot of people appointed toward the end of President Roh Moo-hyun’s term in office is also out of step with reason. The argument that agencies need to wait for an incoming administration to take over suggests that those agencies are not specialized and unique. It ignores the idea behind laws that provide for established terms for these positions, and it is a self-contradiction to criticize people by saying they are tainted by the political position of the previous administration, because they are politicizing those positions in the process. There are suggestions that it is only a matter of good manners to hand over the right to make appointments to the incoming administration, but while that may be what manners are to martial law enforcement forces or gangsters, it is not the right way to go about things under the law.


Connect the dots and you will see how this is self-interested calculation designed to get people appointed by the previous administration out of the way so as to fill those positions with allies. It is a case of open “rice bowl stealing.” The mindset in play is like that of a monopolizing dictatorship seeking to fill everything from public agencies and state companies to positions in the art and culture world with “their” people. Trying to disguise it in lame logic and justifications is not going to hide anything.

자기 사람 ‘취직’시키려는 것이었나

한나라당 안상수 원내대표의 ‘구 정권 인사 퇴진론’ 발언 뒤 한나라당 안팎에서 기대감이 확산된다고 한다. 그런 주장이 관철되면 공천 탈락자들을 비롯해 여권 인사들이 갈 자리가 많이 만들어지지 않겠느냐는 것이다. 그 때문인지 거드는 사람이 여럿이다. 청와대 관계자는 “안 대표가 논리적으로 잘 설명했다”며 대통령 뜻과 같다고 전했고, 유인촌 문화체육관광부 장관과 이윤호 지식경제부 장관은 “이전 정권의 정치색을 가진 문화예술계 단체장들”이나 “과거 정부에서 임명된, 코드가 다른 사람들”의 퇴진을 공개적으로 요구했다. 비슷한 움직임이 잇따를 것이다. 정권 차원에서 벌어지는 일이니 못견뎌 그만 둘 사람도 나올 게다.

이쯤 되면 이번 파문을 ‘좌파’ 운운의 이념논쟁 차원에서만 볼 일은 아니게 된다. 오히려 여권의 몇가지 정치적 필요에서 이런 발언이 나왔다고 보는 게 온당할 것이다. 그 하나는 총선을 의식해 ‘구 정권 심판론’을 다시 쟁점화하려는 것이겠지만, 그보다 자기 사람들의 자리를 만들려는 속내가 더 두드러진다.

사실 안 원내대표의 주장대로 구 정권 사람들이 곳곳에 남아 이명박 정부의 발목을 잡고 국무위원을 흠집내는 정부산하기관이나 공기업은 별로 없다. 금융관련 기관의 비상임이사나 공기업의 감사, 학술기관의 이사장 등에게 그렇게 발목을 잡고 흠집낼 힘이 있긴 하겠는가. 공기업이나 공공기관 임원 대부분이 그러할 게다.

정권 말에 임명된 기관장들이 많으니 잘못이라는 주장도 이치에 어긋나긴 마찬가지다. 새 정부 취임을 기다려 기관장을 임명해야 한다는 논리는 그 기관의 전문성이나 독자성을 인정하지 않는 것이다. 이들 자리의 임기제를 규정한 법 제도의 취지를 무시한 것이며, 이전 정권의 정치색을 비난하면서 스스로 이런 자리에 정치색을 입히려는 자가당착이기도 하다. 새 정부에 인사권을 넘기는 게 예의 아니냐는 말도 있지만, 그게 점령군이나 조폭의 예의일 순 있어도 법 제도에 따른 올바른 절차는 아니다.

뼈대를 추려 보면, 이전 정권에서 임명됐으니 그만두도록 하고 자기 사람들로 갈아치우겠다는 이해타산만 남는다. 노골적인 ‘밥그릇 뺏기’다. 공공기관이나 공기업은 물론 문화계나 지식사회까지 자기 사람들로 채우겠다는 ‘독식’과 ‘독재’의 심보이기도 하다. 괜한 논리나 명분으로 가리려 한다고 가려지겠는가.

[한겨레사설 3.13]