President Yoon's Inaugural Address Cried "Freedom" and Nothing Else: No Vision on Welfare, Labor, Education and the Climate Crisis

[경향신문]

President Yoon Suk-yeol gives his inaugural address at the inauguration of the twentieth president on the lawn in front of the National Assembly building in Yeouido, Seoul on May 10. Kweon Ho-wook, Senior Reporter

President Yoon Suk-yeol (Yoon Seok-youl) emphasized “the dignified life of a free citizen” in his inaugural address on May 10. However, he did not present any vision in welfare, education, labor, the environment, and gender equality showing how he would lead the state to make that possible. Although he did mention tasks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, polarization, and poverty, he simply ended at listing the problems. He only stressed growth as a solution to these problems, triggering concerns among civic groups that he could end up fueling polarization and inequality. Some argued that the “unrestrained collective conflicts in the country,” and “anti-intellectualism” that the president mentioned had strikes by trade unions in mind.

In his inaugural speech this day, President Yoon cited the crisis caused by the pandemic, changes in trade order and the reorganization of the supply chain, climate change, the food and energy crisis, and a retreat on peaceful solutions to conflict as problems faced by the entire world. He also said, “The community is being threatened and is breaking down because of super slow growth, massive unemployment, deteriorating polarization, and various social conflicts.” But he failed to present a vision or mention policy directions to solve such problems. This was in contrast with President Moon Jae-in, who in his inaugural address five years ago expressed his determination to ease polarization and solve the problem of non-regular labor by saying, “I will seek a way to resolve conflicts between regions, classes and generations and to solve the problem of non-regular workers. I will create a world without discrimination.” Former president Park Geun-hye also stressed welfare and education in her inaugural address, claiming to introduce “a new welfare paradigm tailored to the people.” Meanwhile, President Yoon said he could solve polarization and social conflict with “advances in science, technology and innovation and fast growth.” He seems to suggest that the nation could resolve the root of polarization and conflict with a bigger pie through growth and with better social mobility.

However, promoting growth alone cannot solve the climate crisis, structural discrimination and problems faced by young people, who despair as they try to enter society because of different starting points, the dual labor market that poses challenges on non-regular workers, the wage gap, and the education gap based on income.

Kim Yun-yeong, an activist of the Korean People’s Solidarity Against Poverty said, “Despite that the Korean society has been growing, poverty and inequality have worsened. Yet he (the president) didn’t mention anything that reflected the aspects of distribution and redistribution,” and added, “Even when we look at his state tasks, we can’t find any changes to the social security system.” Han Sang-jin, the spokesperson for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions said, “President Yoon only mentioned growth when claiming to resolve the problem of polarization, but such an awareness could actually accelerate polarization.”

Labor argued that the “anti-intellectualism” and “unrestrained collective conflicts in the country,” which the president mentioned in his inaugural address, seemed to have union strikes in mind and pointed out that it revealed the president’s hostility towards trade unions. Han said, “Labor strikes are guaranteed by the Constitution, yet he (President Yoon) gave a lopsided description of a powerful union from the perspective of management.” He further said, “The anti-intellectualism seems to be another one of those views.” Yi Ji-hyeon, the spokesperson for the Federation of Korean Trade Unions said that since the Yoon Suk-yeol government claimed “to create a society where the value of labor is respected” as a state task, the federation expected the president to promote policies and programs in keeping with the goal. Yi continued and said, “If the president unilaterally tries to change the controversial selective working hours and multiple minimum wages for the worse, he will trigger social conflict and face resistance from labor.”

The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union released a statement and said, “We are concerned that the freedom, which was stressed most frequently in the inaugural speech, may perhaps be the ‘freedom of the market,’” and expressed concern that the emphasis of freedom in education could lead to “the freedom to turn education into a market,” and to “the resurrection of ‘schools for nobility’ (expensive private schools) to ensure the freedom to choose.” The union further said, “If the freedom in education did not mean the marketization of education, then the president should have stressed the responsibility of the state.”

Earth Day Korea held a press conference and said, “The new government’s awareness of environmental issues appears to have retreated from the views held by the previous two governments.” The environmental organization argued, “The environmental problem, which is a challenge this age faces, must be reflected in setting the policy tasks of each ministry in the future.”