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Forced donations raise specter of corruption scandal
A controversy has risen over a National Assembly committee request for businesses to donate funds to help farmers and fishermen suffering difficulties due to free trade agreements with other countries.
On Thursday, the Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee hosted a meeting with executives from 15 large corporations including Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor. Committee members and government ministers asked the businesses to make donations to a cooperation fund for farmers and fishermen.
The public fund was created in March 2017 to cope with the opening of local agriculture and fisheries markets to foreign imports in the wake of FTAs, particularly with China. It has set a target of collecting 100 billion won ($88.3 million) each year from corporations, both state-run and private, because the central government and provincial authorities are not able to allocate enough money to support farmers and fishermen.
The idea of attracting donations from businesses is based on a consensus that businesses benefit from FTAs while farmers and fishermen suffer from the opening of the market. Thus it appears to be a win-win program for winners and losers of free trade.
However, the problem is that lawmakers and bureaucrats are trying to twist the arms of businesses, especially large ones affiliated with family-run chaebol, to meet the donation target. In other words, the Assembly and the government have virtually pressured firms to donate because few are ready to do so voluntarily.
Under the annual target, the fund should have collected 200 billion won over the past two years. But it has attracted only 42.5 billion won. So the committee chief and its members as well as the agriculture minister and the oceans and fisheries minister rolled up their sleeves to meet the donation target.
But their efforts are raising the specter of a massive corruption and influence-peddling scandal involving ousted President Park Geun-hye and her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil. Businesses such as Samsung Electronics and the Lotte Group still cannot forget the scandal because they were forced to donate huge sums to sports and culture foundations controlled by Choi.
The Moon Jae-in administration, which has vowed to break corrupt ties between political power and businesses, should change how the cooperation fund is financed. The administration should no longer try to force corporations to provide money for any type of public fund.
