Gender minister nominee expresses intent to step down amid criticism
Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Kang Sun-woo expressed her intent to withdraw from consideration as minister Wednesday.
A day earlier, President Lee Jae Myung requested the National Assembly send the confirmation hearing report on Kang Sun-woo to him by Thursday, indicating his willingness to appoint her even if the Assembly failed to adopt the report.
Her volutary withdrawal from candidacy means that justice prevailed in the long run. It also lessened President Lee's political burden.
Kang had come under fire during her parliamentary confirmation hearing for various allegations.
Her former staff accused her of abuse. They alleged that she had instructed them to do her personal errands such as fixing her home toilet and disposing of her food waste. She allegedly bullied some of her staff members by excluding them from group chats intentionally and badmouthed her former aides to prohibit them from getting new jobs. She is suspected of telling lies about the suspicions during her confirmation hearing.
Recently, yet another revelation broke out that she had authoritatively treated the very ministry that she would have taken over.
In 2021 when she sat on the Assembly's Gender Equality and Family Committee, she demanded the ministry open a center for victims of sexual violence in her constituency. After the ministry replied that it was hard to do it due to shortage of obstetricians, she allegedly reduced the budget of an unrelated department of the ministry. The then-Gender Equality Minister revealed that she went to Kang's Assembly office to apologize and that then the budget was restored.
Even the council of all Democratic Party lawmakers' staff opposed her nomination publicly. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, which are labor and civic groups generally supportive of the party, were also among those demanding Lee withdraw his nomination of Kang.
Their opposition was attributable to her unethical behavior, which defied common sense. It was questionable whetehr Kang was qualified to head a ministry that serves minorities and vulnerable people of our society.
The presidential office said that Lee appeared determined to appoint Kang, but public opinion against her was strong. Finally, Kang caved in to popular opposition.
She has become the second minister nonimee to fail the test of public opinion. President Lee revoked his nomination of Lee Jin-sook for education minister as she was accused of plagiarizing theses that her students wrote and violating laws to send her daughter to the US to enroll her in a middle school there.
Considering that people tend to be particularly infuriated at bullying the weak, it was questionable whether Kang could do her duties sincerely even as a lawmaker, not to mention as a minister.
Kang apologized to the people for the pain she has caused and also to the Democratic Party for becoming a "heavy burden" on the party.
The apologies should not end there. The party should also apologize for its sophistry that angered the public.
A senior lawmaker of the party said that lawmakers and their aides are like comrades and family members. He said that they are so close that lawmakers sometimes give personal errands without reserve.
A spokesperson of the party said that it was a relative and subjective concept for a lawmaker to maltreat his or her aides, implying that some of Kang's former staff members might have been a problem. This remark amounted to secondary victimization of those who blew the whistle on her bullying behavior.
Now Kang is out, and the ministerial post is left open again. The first thing for her to do to perform duties properly as a legislator is self-reflection.
President Lee and the party may be left in the lurch over her exit, but they have escaped a tricky situation. If an apparent bully had been appointed as a high-ranking official, more people would have become skeptical of the government's direction. Lee should nominate a new qualified candidate who meets people's expectations.
khnews@heraldcorp.com
