Immediately following my observation is a Chosun Daily Editorial, dated June 16, 2008. It explains why broadcasting companies MBC, KBS, and SBS, not to mention numerous small newspapers and Internet portals, are engaged in all-out attack on the current government.

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♣  In the beginning, MBC produced the highly controversial "PC Note" program just to "break the new government", which had sworn to privatize public broadcasting companies that enjoyed unearned privileges and the fruits of corruption. One of the producers of the program, Kim Bo-seul, confessed that she herself didn't really expect the show to result in such an enormous backlash. I recently found out that she was also involved in the Dr. Hwang Woo-seok incident, doing unethical and unimaginable things, especially for a journalist.

Young students, women, and housewives were particularly shocked by the show's claims, and immediately started to call for a stop to the importing of US beef. The first few protests were purely out of the average citizen's concern over the safety of meat imported from the U.S. But then anti-government groups seized the opportunity, and further inflamed the protesters by claiming that President Lee has compromised his own people's lives for economic gain from the US, and for the ROK-US FTA which they claim was not all that important. This was how the initial protest against US beef evolved into anti-government protests.

Then people started to point out that a few hardcore, anti-US activists had been following the people's reaction all along, waiting for the perfect chance to direct their anger towards the US government. Over the course of the current upheaval, several familiar faces of anti-US activists have been captured on camera as proof. One of the most dynamic anti-US activists was said to have visited North Korea recently to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the South-North peace agreement. Part of their strategy has been to claim that 'the US has made Korea a dumping ground for unsafe beef.' Fortunately, their propaganda is not working as well as expected, still, they will grasp at any excuse to blame the US for the whole thing. These are the same people who two years ago held protests against the US after two middle school girls were killed by a US army tank, tearing and burning the US flag in front of angry Korean protesters.

Currently, an increasing number of people are fighting back against these candlelight protesters, and the first positive signs are starting to emerge.

In the meantime, the lying, anti-government, anti-US protest instigators are encouraging protesters to attack three major daily newspapers - Chosun, Dong-ah, and Joong-ang - that have been backing the safety of US beef while asking the protesters to consider the facts in a rational manner. Hundreds and thousands of protesters have already bombarded the targeted newspapers with phone calls, and they are also inundating advertising companies with phone calls demanding they cease advertising in the three newspapers.

Without advertisements, newspapers cannot survive. I hope that the ones that are now under siege will be able to hang on through the storm of controversy. It is ironic that they are struggling, while the other lying, bullying newspapers and Internet portals are screaming with joy over the skyrocketing increase in profits, new subscriptions, and online visitors.

One more thing I want to address today is the concerns of Korean cattlemen. Now, the US and Korean governments appear to have reached an agreement to import beef from cattle that is less than 30 months old, without ANY risky parts, after they have been thoroughly tested and examined.

But Korean cattlemen never had the need to test, examine, and document the age of their cattle, or pull downers from the slaughterhouse. In an attempt to address the safety of US beef, many people also questioned the safety of Korean cattle, casting a shadow of doubt on domestic beef as well. They never had to remove any risky parts, never had to document the age of the cattle, and they never had to discard downers. Many consumers have already stopped buying Korean beef, something that nobody expected or anticipated. There was never any intention to hurt Korean cattlemen.

When US beef starts coming into the Korean market, it will be sold as meat that is cheaper and safer than domestically produced meat. Korean beef already costs about 4 times the price of US beef. When the US beef does go on sale in stores, what is going to happen to Korean cattlemen? I leave it to your imagination. I am seriously concerned, because none of this was meant to hurt them. While American cattlemen are more like businessmen running large corporations, most Korean cattlemen are only small-time farmers who keep a few cows on their land for meat and to sell.

Even the very small cost in discarding just one downer will be a tremendous blow to many of them. 

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Privatization Is a Key Policy

(original Chosun Daily editorial in English:

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200806/200806160026.html)

Yim Tae-hee, the head of the Grand National Party's Policy Planning Committee, said Saturday it is beyond the power of the government at the moment to resolve both the economic difficulties facing the public and pursue public sector reforms. He added it would be difficult to implement other policies unless the living conditions are improved first. In other words, the privatization of state-run companies must be delayed since improving the welfare of the public is more important.

That is a valid argument. But it appears that the government and ruling party have been intimidated by unionized workers at state-run companies who displayed their might by participating en masse in the candlelight vigils.

For a government that has already been pushed to the edge, it must be extremely tough to take on another major policy task. Nevertheless, giving up on efforts to explain to the public the need to privatize state-run companies is like giving up on the very spirit that defines this administration.

One state-run company made a W2.8 billion (US$1=W1,041) profit and ended up handing out W3.7 billion in incentives to its workers, while workers at another state-run company divvied up money it received from the government to boost marketing among themselves. Things you would never imagine happening at privately run businesses have been happening in state-run companies as if they were nothing out of the ordinary. These abuses have been verified on numerous occasions in probes conducted by the Board of Audit and Inspection. Because of such unethical management practices, over W180 trillion in government support -- in other words taxpayers' money -- went into state-run companies during the five-year term of president Roh Moo-hyun.

The average pay per worker at the 302 state-run companies and other public entities, which have to be kept afloat with taxpayers' money, was W53.4 million last year. That was 66 percent higher than the average income of Korean workers. There were 92 state-run companies whose employees earned higher wages than those at Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chip maker. Because of these exorbitant wages, taxpayers end up suffering.

The average return on assets (net profit divided by total assets) at state-run companies was just 2.3 percent last year, a mere one-third of the average level of listed companies. Three out of 10 state-run companies are suffering from chronic deficits. If they were privately run, they would have closed down a long time ago. But they are still operating thanks to the hard-earned money of taxpayers.

The purpose of privatizing state-run companies is to stem such inefficiencies and minimize the financial burden on taxpayers. Raising the competitiveness of the public sector, which accounts for 10 percent of Korea's GDP, will end up making the economy more efficient, boost productivity and stimulate the country's entire economy. This is why both advanced and developing countries are pushing ahead with efforts to private state-run companies.

Of course a strategic decision must be made on the timing and method of privatization. The government must choose and tackle first those areas where it can overcome the resistance of workers at state-run companies by gaining the public support, by allowing them to enjoy substantive gains through privatization. The Japanese government spent four to five years preparing for privatization of the state postal service. But here, without a specific strategy, the Lee Myung-bak administration repeatedly mentioned the

privatization of the state utility, gas, water and sewage treatment and even national health insurance companies; it ended up being attacked with groundless rumors that privatization would raise tap water charges to W140,000 a month. Now the candlelight vigils against U.S. beef imports have turned into protests against privatization. But if the Lee administration is pushed into giving up on its pledge to privatize, it will end up breaking the promise it made to voters. It must live up to its will and privatize at least one state-run company so the public can see the benefits of such a move.