The decisions of both Nam and Park to withdraw their names were voluntary, but those moves resulted from an emergency meeting Lee and the ruling Grand National Party’s leadership held Wednesday morning. Regardless of whether the two were guilty of tax evasion or other wrongdoing, public sentiment has turned against them, with a survey by the Korea Society Opinion Institute showing that 65.3 percent of Koreans felt minister-designates under suspicion for wrongdoing should be replaced. To stabilize the new government, the Lee administration had no choice but to accept public sentiment.

This course of events -- where a problematic figure was nominated but ended up quitting after suspicions arose -- was common during the Roh Moo-hyun administration. They used to insist that their nominations were based on a system of strict screening and unbiased selection, but often the results were disastrous nominations. The Lee administration is repeating the mistakes of the previous government down to the last detail, with allegations from real estate purchases through false resident registrations to plagiarizing theses and absurd explanations worsening the situation. The Lee administration has not learned from the mistakes of the previous one.

There must be an immediate review of the administration’s system of vetting candidates. When the problems over the assets of the minister designates were first raised, Lee’s spokesman said no problems were spotted in an internal review. In retrospect, this process has been a failure. But the greater problem lies in the phase of the nomination process that occurred even before the candidates were vetted. Before the minister designates were officially notified, the administration was probably aware of basic information, such as the fact that on average, the first Cabinet of the new government owned W3.9 billion (US$1=W941) in assets and that some owned 40 pieces of real estate.

But people around the president had no idea that there was a problem in the process of selecting candidates and the list was sent straight up to the top office and was announced. The same goes for the process of selecting presidential secretaries, which preceded the selection of Cabinet officials. Just a casual glance at the recommended candidates should have sent alarm bells ringing that some types of people appear to have been heavily favored over others. But the appointments were made regardless of such concerns and the public was angered. This is happening because the group that is recommending and advising the president on the appointment of key officials is made up of similar people with similar values coming from similar backgrounds. The president needs a diverse group of people advising him so a broader range of opinions can be voiced about key nominees.

There are new coinages that have become popular, taking jabs at the preferential treatment given by the Lee administration to people from the same background as he. One such word is “Ko So Yeong,” which stands for “Korea University” (which Lee graduated from), "Somang Presbyterian Church" (of which Lee is a member) and his home region of "Yeongnam." If the Lee administration knows how damaging such sentiment can be, it should waste no time in changing its line up of advisors.