During the Roh Moo-hyun administration, only five or six officials promoted to chief public prosecutor or above came from the same high school as the justice minister. But during the Lee Myung-bak administration, which only started on Feb. 25, already nine officials from the minister’s high school have been promoted. It may be stretching it to say that the latest promotions favor officials from a particular region, but it is difficult to avoid criticism that they favored alumni from a particular school.

Justice Minister Kim Kyung-han says the promotions were based on the track records of state prosecutors and that the decision was necessary considering the sheer number of people up for promotion. But it would seem only logical for the state prosecution to revise the lineup of officials up for promotion if it faced criticism of favoring a particular school.

Already, the Lee administration is being criticized for blatantly favoring people from a particular region in the selection of key posts -- including the National Intelligence Service chief, justice minister, prosecutor general, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs and the chief of the National Police Agency. The public is reeling at the latest example, and the charge of favoritism is starting to hurt the Lee administration less than a month after it was inaugurated.

Nothing will make the public lose faith in the Lee administration more quickly than favoritism. Nor is this helping the president gain the respect and trust of the public. The promotions in the state prosecution appear to have ignored the best interests of the president, let alone the public. Government officials, even when they are not party politicians, must be able to gauge the impact their decision will have on public sentiment. If they lack this elementary level of judgment, the only conclusion to be drawn is that they are incapable of leading a key ministry.