Why block the Seoul mayor from speaking on housing?

At the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon was denied an opportunity to speak about housing policy.

When Oh asked, “May I say a few words?” Prime Minister Han Seong-sook, who chaired the meeting, replied that his comments could be submitted in writing.

Because the mayor of Seoul is not a Cabinet member, he may attend meetings but can be denied speaking rights at the discretion of the chair. Even so, many viewers watching the meeting live on YouTube were likely puzzled by what they saw. The main agenda concerned ways to gather a broad range of opinions on housing policy.

If the government truly wants multiple perspectives, would it not be reasonable to hear from the five-term mayor of Seoul, who has firsthand experience with the country’s most contentious real estate issues?

The contradiction is all the more striking because the government is in the middle of a series of public forums on housing policy. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport hosted a separate discussion on housing supply, finance and taxation on Tuesday. The Financial Services Commission and the Ministry of Finance and Economy will do the same on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. President Lee Jae Myung is scheduled to preside over a nationwide housing forum on July 23.

This inevitably raises doubts about the government’s sincerity and judgment. One can only hope that the broad outlines of policy have not already been decided and that these discussions are not merely exercises in political justification.

Shortly before Oh requested to speak, Lee invited viewers to participate in a real-time poll on property taxes for luxury homes. He asked questions including whether owners of homes worth 10 billion won ($6.7 million) or more should face the same tax burden as others and where the threshold for “ultraluxury” housing should be set.

The president thus appeared willing to infer public opinion through a method in which objectivity is impossible to verify while declining to hear the views of Seoul’s mayor. Although Lee later gave Oh a chance to speak after the meeting went into a closed session, he interrupted him again when the discussion turned to real estate policy, saying, “Let’s discuss that next time.” He then instructed officials to prepare a report explaining delays in redevelopment and reconstruction projects.

Afterward, Oh expressed his disappointment, saying that Cabinet meetings should be venues for debate. He added that delays in urban renewal projects stem partly from slow cooperation from the Land Ministry and financial regulators and suggested that the president’s understanding of the situation may be inaccurate.

Korea’s destructive housing problems defy easy solutions. They will not be solved through discussions in which answers are predetermined and participants are expected merely to agree.