Reasonable solution for regional conflicts

Reasonable solution for regional conflicts

By Kwon Yule-jung

SEOUL: The Philippines is still embroiled in internal disputes
over the legitimacy of the succeeding president, Arroyo, after
her predecessor, Estrada, was stripped of power due to corruption
scandals. Indonesia has a similar problem with the incumbent
president's alleged involvement in multimillion dollar
corruption.

Our country is no exception in corruption cases. In this
article, I want to refer to regional antagonism as one of the
most discriminatory and unfair patterns of corruption.

The worsening regional rivalry issue has the potential to
explode at any time. Unlike labor disputes and conflicts between
conservatives and progressives over the engagement policy with
Communist North Korea, the thorny issue of regionalism has been
bordering on a crisis for a long time.

Regional animosity as encountered in Korea does not have an
appropriate expression to describe it either in English or
Japanese. In that sense, it is very unique to Korea. The
political circles that are primarily responsible for the problem
are not divided into ruling and opposition parties, but two
political parties based on regions representing their partisan
strongholds.

The National Assembly is for most of the year a forum for
petty squabbling, rather than a chamber for productive
discussions. Many of the former dissidents and activists -- who
regard themselves as democratic fighters -- are factionalized by
regions. This vicious trait even dominates religion and
lifestyles as well as political and social ideology. The failure
of many reform policies is attributable to this negative regional
rivalry.

When President Kim Dae-jung was inaugurated three years ago, I
hoped that the extreme regional antagonism could be lessened to a
degree, even if not leading to a complete solution.
Unfortunately, it has remained the same as in the past and at
times seems worse than ever.

I would like to put forward some proposals on resolving this
sensitive issue:

In general, the problem has been exacerbated by the escalating
effect of emotional judgments rather than reasonable or
scientific approach.

There are two major factors on problems of regional
differences.

Firstly, human resources management like personnel positions
and promotions should not be used as compensation for some past
disadvantages. The primary reason why regional conflicts are
aggravated may be ascribed to such distortion of the fair
management of human resources by regional favoritism.

Secondly, the imbalances in development of certain regions in
the past still remains a major stumbling block to further
development. It is also important to consider the stark
differences between metropolitan areas and non-metropolitan
regions as well as regional differences.

Most of the national budget has been poured into the
metropolitan areas, leading to overcrowding of the major cities.
A simple solution would be to allocate a larger portion of the
national budget to rural regions for more balanced development
and natural migration.

To solve these thorny issues, a provisional commission on
nationwide settlement of regional conflicts, composed of either
government officials or joint members of public and civic groups,
should be formed as soon as possible.

The commission should be impartial and transparent in dealing
with every matter concerning regional problems and enjoy the
trust of the community. Members should be selected based on
regions by proportion of population and this neutral organization
should be free from external intervention -- even by the
president.

The scourge of regional conflicts should not be lightly taken
but be dealt with as an urgent matter hindering the steadfast
progress of national development.

Therefore, the committee should present its first
recommendations within half a year, so that the distorted
management of personnel issues can be immediately redressed and
the imbalance of regional development should be corrected by the
national budget revised for the next fiscal year.

Politicians should accept unconditionally the recommendations
offered by the commission and make efforts to carry out the
resolutions.

Regional problems have made all the people, whether they come
from the region of the ruling class or not, think of themselves
as victims not as beneficiaries.

As fatal diseases for patients need precise diagnoses which
lead to speedy treatments, Korea's regional conflicts require
scientific and systematic analyses of problems and fair solutions
which are acceptable to every reasonable citizen.

The writer is director of Iksan Patriots and Veterans Office
in North Cholla Province.

-- The Korea Herald/Asia News Network