Seoul Mayor Loses Fight Against Welfare Populism

He may step down from his job as he fails in his lone crusade against free meals

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon failed to meet the quorum for making a residents'referendum on the free school meal program valid.
The Seoul City Election Management Committee said a finalized voter turnout rate was recorded at 25.7 percent after the referendum ended, failing to meet the quorum, 33.3 percent of eligible voters. Due to the failure of the quorum, the referendum was nullified without counting votes.
The mayor staged an uphill battle in his crusade against what he calls welfare populism.
Oh has raised the stakes in his political career by proposing a residents'referendum to call for a step-by-step implementation of free school lunches instead of a full-scale one.
Mayor Oh's failure in the referendum is expected to have political implications. Vice Seoul Mayor Kwon Young-gyu is to take office as an acting mayor until a by-election is held if Mayor Oh steps down from his position, as he earlier promised to tender his resignations in the case he fails to win in the referendum.
With a little more than one week to go until the Aug. 24 referendum, Mayor Oh began his one-man picket to woo Seoulites'to cast their votes for his cause at public places such as the Seoul Railroad Station Plaza. His pickets last for 40 minutes starting at 8 a.m. once every two days until the eve of the referendum day.
The Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of Mayor Oh on Aug. 16 by rejecting a lawsuit demanding the stopping of the referendum, clearing the last hurdle for the mayor's struggle against a full-scale free school lunch program.
In his last-minute pitch for his cause and appeal for more voters'participation in the plebiscite, Mayor Oh offered to step down from his job if he fails to meet the quorum or to obtain a majority of the voters for his cause two days before the referendum.
Earlier, he took on Kwak No-hyun, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education in a debate on the implementation of a free school lunch program. Mayor Oh then announced he would not run for the upcoming presidential election, brushing aside allegations over his political ambitions behind the referendum.
The mayor staged an uphill battle for his cause as he pushed ahead with the referendum despite little support from his ruling party, the GNP. The ruling party officially said it would come to the mayor's aid in his bid to hold a referendum against the full-scale free meal program. But many GNP lawmakers, particularly those from the faction of the party's front-running presidential hopeful, Park Keun-hye, took a lukewarm attitude over their support for the referendum. On the other hand, opposition parties and civil organizations staged a unified stand against the referendum.
At a speech he delivered to reporters at a celebration of the fifth anniversary of his taking office as Seoul Mayor on July 13, Oh said, It is regrettable that opposition parties have demanded the same welfare even for the well-to-do, and even ruling party members are tempted and swayed. The mayor devoted most of his news conference to his opposition to the implementation of free meals to all primary students by the opposition-dominated Seoul City Council, a majority of who were elected on such electioneering slogans as free meals.
All people oppose dictatorship because they are well aware that it is a bad thing, but they find it is not easy to stand up against public populism deceiving the general public, and welfare populism has attempted to empty the national coffers and hinder national development, but 800,000 Seoulites, [who have joined a signature-gathering campaign to put the issue to a residents'referendum] have made their judgment wisely, Mayor Oh said. He noted that the Republic of Korea cannot make a forward step toward democracy without ditching the doomed spector of welfare populism.
The mayor said that of late, such countries as Greece, Italy and Japan all have suffered hardships because they cannot readjust the welfare system, which was set in motion when they had enough money to maneuver ― not making hay while the sun was shining. He made it clear that the nation should tighten the screws so as not to splurge on welfare in order to brace for possible hard times ahead.
He said the reality of the current economy is that the global economic crisis has made the poor suffer more hardships due to the worsening of wealth polarization, and whether the nation can make a forward step toward becoming an advanced power or it ends up like the doomed Greece will depend on the upcoming referendum.
The mayor got a boost as the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) decided to back his referendum to oppose free meals at a party officeholders'meeting on July 15.
The GNP had showed a lukewarm attitude toward the issue, saying that it had nothing to do with the party's central headquarters, but that it was up to the party's Seoul branch. nw

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon carries a sign during his one-man picket on a Seoul street recently as part of his efforts to woo Seoulites to cast their votes against a full-scale free school meal program in a residents'referendum held on Aug. 24.

Photo on Courtesy of SMG