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The Korean Government Employees¡¯ Union will decide on whether to hold a no-confidence vote on President Lee Myung-bak during its convention on Thursday. Unionized government workers are saying they are not satisfied with the president¡¯s policies, including the resumption of U.S. beef imports, reform of government workers¡¯ pensions and restructuring of state-owned enterprises. It would be the first vote of no confidence in the world by public servants against their country¡¯s leader.
What the KGEU is trying to do is simply preposterous. According to the Constitution, the only way to impeach a president is if more than two-thirds of the National Assembly vote to approve impeachment proceedings and the Constitutional Court rules in favor of an impeachment. Any other attempt is an illegal act aimed merely at creating a political show. Public servants are famous for throwing tirades and harassing people if they disobey even a single regulation. And these very people are now attempting to ignore and disobey the Constitution.
Does this mean that there are two governments in Korea -- one led by the president and another led by the KGEU? Even before it was legally established, the KGEU launched an illegal strike and walked a dog around wearing the nametag of the mayor, while distributing leaflets showing the minister of government administration and home affairs as a wanted man. There is no way that these people, who have no interest in obeying orders and in maintaining discipline, can properly serve the public. They are intent merely on serving their own needs by creating various excuses.
The reason why the KGEU is pushing ahead with the no-confidence vote is because it wants to use the results of the vote to pressure the Lee administration to halt reforms to their cherished pension scheme and stop restructuring state-run enterprises. If left in its present state, government workers¡¯ pensions will need a W10.5 trillion injection of taxpayers¡¯ money in 2020 and another injection of W24.5 trillion in 2030 (US$1=W1,033). The KGEU is willing to go to any limits to suck the marrow out of the backbones of taxpayers.
The mad cow protests have triggered a general strike by the umbrella Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, emergency congregations by religious groups, protests by unionized teachers and now the no-confidence vote proposal by government workers. Just about every group in the country is out on the streets taking jabs at the government. If necessary reforms, sought by a government weakened by mad cow protests, are scrapped one by one due to illegal resistance by various interest groups, then the future of this country is bleak. We can no longer tolerate the KGEU¡¯s attitude that it is above the law as it tries to disobey the Constitution.
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